Hemp Textiles - Facts & Statistics

Why we cannot count on cotton alone:

The most popular textile fibre in the world is cotton, which accounts for 33% of global textile production.
(Source WWF International, (1999) The impact of cotton on Freshwater resources and eco-systems, Switzerland.)

Fossil oil based synthetics, as a non-renewable product, are not seen as environmentally friendly. However, a life cycle assessment by clothing company Patagonia found that cotton causes the greatest environmental damage of all textiles.
(Source: Erin Gill “Not just Patagucci man” Green Futures, UK. July/August 2000)

The trouble arises because although cotton is a very desirable textile fibre, it is a difficult crop to grow. Cultivated on just 2.4% of the world’s agricultural land, it accounts for 14% of the world’s pesticides use and 7.5% of the world’s use of artificial fertilisers.
(Source: Barbara Dinham, Pesticides Trust (personal communication)

Cotton will only grow in warm, humid climates or in warm climates with considerable irrigation – 73% of cotton is produced in irrigated fields and when calculated per kilogramme of product, cotton is the world’s most water-intensive crop.
(Source WWF International, (1999) The impact of cotton on Freshwater resources and eco-systems, Switzerland.)

For example, in Ethiopia, 60% of the fertile Aswan river valley has been devoted to cotton production. Local people have been forced on to fragile uplands contributing to the deforestation that has been partly responsible for Ethiopia’s ecological crisis.
(Source:The Ecologist vol22 no4 Jul/Aug 1992)

A newspaper feature article re-traced the production of a pair of Lee Cooper cotton jeans on sale for £19.95 in a UK store . Journalists found that the materials used had made a journey of 40,000 miles clocking up CO2 emissions and allowing almost no accountability. The cotton was grown in West Africa and Pakistan, dyed in Italy and sewn in Tunisia. Brass metal for the buttons and rivets was made in Germany from zinc and copper from Australia and Namibia. The zip teeth and thread were from Japan.
(Source: Abrams, F., Astill, J. (2001) “Story of the Blues” The Guardian, London UK. 29 May 2001)

Another newspaper report from 2001 tells how Mr. Bapabiozo, a desperately poor farmer in Benin, sold his four sons, aged from eight to twelve years old, into slavery for just £10 each .
(Source: Johnston, J. “Sold for £10, heartbreaking story behind Africa’s child slave trade” The Mirror, London. April 21 2001)
The boys were destined for cotton plantations in Ghana, but were saved by charity workers from UNICEF. According to UNICEF, every year 200,000 children from West Africa are sold to work 12-hour days on the cotton or cocoa plantations. This is enough to put anyone off cotton clothes and chocolate bars which are not fair traded.

Hemp fibre:

The environmental benefits of textile, paper and oil production from hemp have been tested in academic research. A study carried out by the University of Melbourne found that hemp production for textiles, oilseed and paper as an alternative to cotton textiles, oil and forestry would increase economic efficiency whilst reducing the ecological footprint of production of these goods by up to 50%.

Hemp is Cannabis sativa, the leaves and flowers of which are a well-known drug. Consequently hemp cultivation is illegal in many countries and had almost ceased in the western world. But plant breeders have developed low narcotic cannabis varieties. During the 1990s an increasing number of countries have permitted low narcotic hemp production. In the UK around 2000 hectares have been grown every year since 1993 to produce animal bedding, cigarette paper pulp and fibre or recyclable car interiors.

Fabrics made from hemp are very comfortable to wear, they “breathe” and so keep the wearer cool in hot weather. They are also soft and yet hardwearing - BioRegional's Director, Sue Riddlestone, has owned a pair of hemp jeans for 10 years. They have not worn out, merely faded, and so have had to be re-dyed three times. The durability of hemp led Levi Strauss to make his first jeans from hemp cloth imported from Nimes in France, hence the name “denim” from “Serge de Nimes”.

Last updated 14th January 2008