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Product Spotlight: ORGANIC HEMP

The Cultivation of Hemp in Romania
The Many Benefits of Hemp Agriculture
Since 2001, our Hemp Suppliers Ecolution and Pan World Traders have been cultivating hemp organically in the Banat region of western Romania. These fertile plains are ideally suited for growing hemp and cereal crops. Hemp is the most environmentally positive crop, actually improving the condition of the ground. It requires no herbicides and is naturally resistant to insects, fungus, and other pests. It grows rapidly during its vegetative period, becoming tall and thick, shading and mulching the ground and suppressing weeds, while its deep taproots break up and aerate the soil. These attributes promote healthy microbial soil life and leave the ground in a condition where it is easily worked and able to retain moisture during the next season. Hemp provides an ecological alternative to environmentally destructive cotton production and non-renewable, non-biodegradable synthetics.

Requirements of Hemp Agriculture
Organic vs. Conventional Cultivation Future
Hemp is so gentle on the land that it can be grown year after year in the same location, but this is not the most ecological option and is not permitted in organic cultivation, according to the stringent European Union organic certification regulations that we follow. It is best for fiber hemp to be cultivated in rotation with cereal crops and legumes. In fact, cereal crops will yield an extra 15-25% when cultivated after fiber hemp, because hemp eliminates competing weeds and improves the health of the soil.

Crop rotation with hemp works well, since the ground is usually available for other crops by the middle of August. Legumes such as soybeans are the best preceding crop, since they add to the soil a lot of nitrogen, the basic building block of plant growth. Nitrogen is a crucial nutrient for hemp production, since hemp reaches a height of 10 to 12 feet during its short growing season of less than five months. Supplying sufficient nitrogen is one of the biggest challenges, since hemp consumes so much of it, and the use of artificial chemical fertilizers is prohibited in organic agriculture.

Our Hemp suppliers, Pan World Traders and Ecolution, have always been devoted to finding the most environmentally conscious solutions in all of their activities. For example, they already produce all of their hemp fiber with strictly ecological methods of natural mechanical processing in marked contrast to the harsh chemicals used for processing hemp fiber in China. As pioneers in developing organically grown fiber hemp, they have taken many steps to effectively establish organic hemp cultivation. First they hired an "eco-agronomist" to research and develop the best methods of organic hemp agriculture and to monitor this cultivation to ensure its authenticity. They cultivated a relationship with a farmers' cooperative, convinced them to work with organic agriculture, and then invested in this farming experiment directly by paying significantly more for the organically grown hemp. Finally they engaged an organic certifier and integrated this program with the rest of their activities.

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