Hemp Fact o' the day:
Conventional petroleum-based plastic is not biodegradable. Using it means our landfills and ocean dead-zones will grow and grow. Bio-based plastics and composites are already being used by the automotive, packaging and building industries. Estimates give a figure of about 500,000 tons a year and a two-digit growth in the European Union. Hemp plastics can be five times stiffer and 2.5 times stronger than polypropylene. It's mold-resistant, and unlike glass fibres, poses no safety and health risks, making it ideal for producing durable products (condensed from hempplastic.com; see article below about a cool hemp car).
Online Deal of the month:
Get $10 off any purchase of $90 or more with the code: "growhemphere" Visit www.vitalhemp.com.
Upcoming Events:
March 1st: Greendrinks at the vital hemp store, 2305 Main St. SM, CA 90405. 7 pm - 10 pm. --Come meet other green-minded folks & sample hemp ale, provided by nectar ales.
March 9th-11th: Expo West in Anaheim, CA. A good place to check out the Spring/Summer vital hemp line.
expowest.com/ew12/public/enter.aspx
April 21st and 22nd: Topanga Earth Day. Get off the asphalt and onto the Earth Day. One of our favorite festivals of the year!
--And now, to our regularly scheduled newsletter…
Vital ones,
Yesterday in the store, I helped out a family on vacation from Connecticut. We sat, talking. One of the topics we discussed was "Who buys vital hemp clothing?" It's a good question. The father who bought a button-down suggested we market to teenagers, since they're the up-and-coming generation. The mother who bought a headband and a tote said that, sadly, teens don't care much about the environment, but more about what's fashionable. I suggested that what's in has as much to do with what's offered as with some innate sense of style. Their daughter, who found a hoodie on the sales rack, listened silently.
As with so many questions, the answer isn't generational, but attitudinal. My customers care about their lifestyle choices enough to wear clothes that are made from a sustainable plant, fair to the people who make them here in the USA, and easy on the earth. We choose hemp because it's comfortable, affordable and of course, cool.
Elisa Brown, who discovered my hemp stand on the boardwalk when she was fifteen, first learned about hemp when she was thirteen and fell in love. Now, she's a sustainability consultant, organizing zero-waste events and networking for change. Clearly, the changes we seek will come from hempjucation.
If you're still reading, you are a vital part of the hemp movement, so here are a few ways to address the issue to people of all ages:
1) Hemp creates better products.Better than cotton and stinky petrol-based "performance" fabrics? You bet.
· Hemp lets your skin breath more efficiently.
· Rather than absorbing moisture, hemp fabric wicks it away from your body, so your clothing stays dry and fresh. It's also anti-microbial, eliminating odors.
· Hemp is stronger and more durable, so you don't have to replace clothes every two years, but can wear them for a decade or more.
Just last night, a guy came in telling me of a banded-collar shirt he still wears that he bought from me maybe eight or nine years ago, when I was peddling hemp on the Venice Boardwalk.
one from the early days…
2) Re-legalize the cultivation of industrial hemp.
· We can dramatically improve our nation's environmental and economic health by cultivating industrial hemp.
· Rather than importing finished goods (e.g. hemp seed and hemp oil) from Canada for our increasingly popular hemp protein and hemp milk, we can grow it here.
· Rather than shipping tons of finished hemp goods from Canada or China, we can grow the crop ourselves and make the yarn, paper products, and hempcrete here, significantly reducing costs, while giving farmers and manufacturers much-needed jobs.
3) Replace petroleum-based plastics with stronger, lighter, more durable, heat-resistant plastics made from hemp.
· Major car companies such as Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Ford and Chrysler now use hemp fiber in the door and interior body panels of their higher-end vehicles.
o Check out this article on a new hemp Lotus to see an example of what's already being made. www.compositesworld.com/articles/eco-elise-concept-lean-speedy-and-green
4) Growing hemp cools the globe.
· In this age of global warming, we can only survive and thrive by adopting the best practices available.
· Why cut down trees for paper, when we can make more durable, flexible paper from faster growing, higher yield crops, such as industrial hemp?
· Remember: the Gutenberg bible, the works of Mark Twain and even our Declaration of Independence were written on hemp paper.
As Henry Ford said, "Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields?"
OK, I'm stepping down from the hemp soapbox to let you know we have some really nice Canadian hemp soap, shampoo and body butter in the store. The Canadians were never so shortsighted as to criminalize such a useful plant. We're working hard to right the course of our misguided U.S. policies, helping our country return to a more common-sense view by putting hemp in the hands of people every day. It's kind of hard to be afraid of something you wear on your body. So let's get our Congresspeople in hemp tees, hemp undies, and hemp socks!
Help us continue sharing great hemp products with citizens across the land. Let us know if there's a store near you that may want to carry vital hemp.
I wish you a miraculous March and look forward to seeing you soon.
Stay vital,
