A farmer in Italy is using hemp to clean his land from the toxins left by a nearby steel mill.
Ten years ago, the government discovered high levels of dioxin in Vincenzo Fornaro's sheep and slaughtered his entire herd - over 600 animals. He is forbidden to raise livestock or grow food, thanks to the high toxicity of the area. So he decided to do what was done at "...Chernobyl, Ukraine. In the mid-1990s, a company named Phytotech worked with researchers and a Ukraine-based seed bank to plant thousands of hemp plants in and around Chernobyl."
image from cbs article (first link)
From the eco news media article (second link): "According to researchers from Colorado State University, hemp is extremely effective in removing the toxic element cadmium from soils.
This is convenient because cadmium contamination is everywhere. It is seen in fossil fuels, old-school pesticides and many other byproducts of human civilization.
Since hemp grows quickly, has deep roots, and doesn’t appear to be stunted by pollution, hemp is one of the best plants to use in phytoremediation.
Another amazing thing about using hemp for this process is that, once it has removed toxic chemicals from the soil, it can still be put to use. Hemp can be converted into oil for lubrication or other industrial purposes, it can be used as insulation, and it can even be used as paper or construction material. The most heavy metals appear to accumulate in the leaves of hemp, so it is best to use the stalks or seeds."
image from cbs article
They even built an apartment building in the Italian town with the steel mill out of hemp!
Here are some links about studies regarding hemp for phytoremediation:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/clen.201500117
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0926669002000055
http://www.agriculture.pa.gov/Plants_Land_Water/industrial_hemp/Pages/default.aspx
image from holisticcannabisnetwork
It's so important society gets over its propaganda fear of anything cannabis and start using this plant for its many benefits - including cleaning up our messes! I wish they would plant this all over the most polluted zip code in America, which, btw, is where the cannabis warehouses that they grow it for smoking are ...you're safe to use some parts of industrial hemp used for phytoremediation for some purposes, but not for consumption. How polluted is your medical cannabis from the dispensary, I wonder. If I used it, I'd want to grow it myself, knowing this. 😬
Thanks for reading! Hemp hemp hooray!
That Red Fish your momma always warned you about
Referral links:
Get free Manna, crypto UBI: https://www.mannabase.com/?ref=6e4b50d35e
Join Simbi, the barter economy website: https://simbi.com/wren-paasch/welcome
