Traditionally, hemp was used not just for clothes, but also for ropes, canvas, sailcloth and paper. Botticelli's Venus, for example, is painted on hemp canvas. The 15th century Gutenburg bible and the American declaration of independence were written on hemp paper. The first jeans, Levis, were made from hemp imported from Nimes in France, hence the name 'denim', which comes from 'serge de Nimes'.
In 1993, a UK agricultural company, Hemcore, was successful in its appeal to the Home Office to grow hemp commercially. They argued that as hemp (the low narcotic varieties) is grown in other EC countries such as France and Spain, banning its growing in Britain amounted to unfair competition. Last year, 1,500 acres of hemp were grown for horse bedding in Britain by Hemcore.
Following Hemcore's lead, many other farmers are growing hemp on a trial basis and Hemcore are now growing almost 2,000 acres.
The Bioregional Development Group in Surrey have been researching the history, cultivation and processing of flax and hemp to assist in the revival of British fibre production for textiles (and paper).
They envisage farmers growing and retting flax and hemp, then sending the crop for processing at a local, centrally situated scutch mill. The finest fibres would be used to make textiles and the shorter 'waste' fibres would go to a local small-scale mill for pulping and paper production. Any materials left over from fibre extraction, such as the woody core or seed, would be utilised for composite board, linoleum, animal feed, etc.
The Bioregional Development Group, Sutton Ecology Centre, Honeywood Walk, Carshalton, Surrey SM55 3NX (tel 0181 773 2322).
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