| Children of the eighties have recovered their parents' | | | | biodegradable and easily recyclable. Medical history |
| fascination with hemp, but they have put it to practical | | | | contains no record of allergic reaction to hemp |
| use instead of relegating it to the world of poor jokes | | | | fibers-not one reported case in more than 10,000 |
| and sniggering allusions. By the time the children of | | | | years of regular household use. |
| eighties children have their own children, hemp probably | | | | Despite hemp's conspicuous advantages and |
| will be the fabric-of-choice, the norm for cloth diapers | | | | tremendous profit-making potential, it has not become |
| worldwide. | | | | a cash crop. Although it ought to cost considerably |
| Fast Facts and Considerable Advantages | | | | less than cotton or synthetic fibers, hemp's relative |
| Yes, hemp belongs to the same family as marijuana, | | | | scarcity has driven-up its price as demand for hemp |
| and you might easily mistake one for the other in the | | | | diapers and other hemp clothing steadily has increased. |
| wild, because their leaves have very similar shapes. | | | | This scarcity remains the single obstacle to hemp's |
| Hemp, however, contains absolutely no THC, the | | | | emergence as the world's leading diaper material. In |
| psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. Children of the | | | | 2009, only one Chinese manufacturer produced the |
| eighties already have outgrown the jokes and allusions. | | | | hemp/organic cotton blend used in diapers. |
| In fact, hemp's genus and species name, translated | | | | Hemp typically is processed and woven into one of |
| from Latin, specifies it as "useful cannabis"-a huge | | | | five fabrics: |
| distinction from its intoxicating relative. | | | | (1)muslin, common in women's blouses and dresses; |
| Three times stronger than cotton, considerably more | | | | (2)knit jersey, comparable with everyday t-shirt fabrics; |
| absorbent, and far more durable, hemp grows | | | | (3) stretch-knit terry, a blend of hemp and Lycra prized |
| abundantly with very little care or cultivation, and it | | | | for its exceptional absorbency; |
| requires no pesticides because it has no insect | | | | (4) French terry, a hemp cotton blend woven to the |
| enemies. In other words, hemp is an infinitely | | | | texture of good bath towels; and |
| sustainable high-yield crop. And hemp fibers are by far | | | | (5)fleece, comparable with sweatshirt material and |
| the strongest known to humankind. | | | | most commonly used for diapers. |
| Hemp naturally resists fungi and bacteria, and it is both | | | | |