Hemp Horizons

a beautiful and intelligently written book that is actually printed on hemp paper ("This endpaper is 50-percent hemp/50-percent cotton paper") and with hemp-oil-based inks!!! When you pick the book up, it actually feels more durable than many other books; and the cover is printed on recycled stock. So the book really embodies the message, and the message is resounding: there are innovative and sound methods of growing this economy while working to protect the planet. There are wonderful black and white illustrations throughout. The chapters are well-organized and highly informative. I could have done without the cheesy "hemp model shot" on the back of the book, but it's not enough to avoid giving this marvelous book a five star rating!

This book is an outstanding easy to understand source for learning the history of and the many different uses of hemp.I'm compelled to become a more vocal advocate of the product!

With this book, Roulac has given us THE complete and definitive book of hemp's past, present to future. It traces hem's historical roots, details the hundreds of uses of hemp, explains the historical legal underpinnings of hemp's brush in with the law, examines the global hemp industry, and shows hemp in the modern marketplace. In effect, this book provides readers with the most factual, historically comprehensive, and even-handed presentation of this controversial crop to date. To give an understanding of how useful and potentially revolutionary this crop is, allow me to quote one of my favorite parts of the book:"So imagine that one day within the next ten years, you wake up in a house whose walls, roof, flooring, insulation, and paint are derived of hemp. You feel great after sleeping on your hemp-stuffed mattress, covered with soft linens spun from hemp fiber. Your feet sink into the hemp carpeting as you get out of bed and open the hemp drapes. It's a beautiful morning. "You jump into the shower, where you soap, shampoo, and hair conditioner made from hemp. You step out onto the hemp bath mat, drying yourself with a superabsorbent hemp towel. You clean your ears with H-Tips (better than the old cotton swabs), and apply hemp-oil lotion, moisturizer, and lip balm. You make a mental note to buy some more hemp toilet paper, recalling how it wasn't too long ago that we were still cutting down centuries-old trees just to flush them away."Opening your closet, you dress in hemp jeans, shirt, and jacket; put on hemp socks and shoes; tie the hemp laces; and grab your hemp wallet, which holds checks and currency printed on hemp paper."You're hungry, so you walk into the kitchen with its hemp-based linoleum floor. You make some wheat-and-hemp-flower toast, and pour a glass of fresh, organic hemp milk. After eating, you make a salad with hemp-oil dressing to take to work. Then you wash your dishes, using hemp-oil dish soap and a hemp pot-scrubber, and put the dishes away in a cabinet built of hemp fiberboard. Sitting down on the hemp-framed and upholstered couch, you glance at a newspaper printed with hemp ink on hemp recycled paper, and learn that the hemp industry is now the largest agribusiness and the major job provider in your state. You turn on the stereo, which sits on a hemp fiberboard cabinet, and listen as music vibrates from speakers also made from hemp fiberboard. They contain specialty hemp paper for the speaker cones and are covered with black hempen cloth. "Leaving the house for work, you open the door of your car, built of strong, lightweight composites that include hemp. Relaxing into the driver's seat, luxuriously upholstered with hemp textiles, you rest your feet on floor mats that look like rubber but are made from hemp. As you drive to your job at the new hemp-fiber processing facility, you pass farmers harvesting some of the locally grown hemp that is revitalizing your community's rural economy." A beautiful mo

This book is an eye opener for those who appreciate the potential for every thing old to be new again. It outlines a compelling case for re-examining the value of hemp as an agricultural renewable resource. The book's tone is very "straight" and specifically eschews the mixing advocacy of herb and fiber. Along with a thorough overview history of hemp use, cultivation, and current purposes, the book offers a product directory, strong bibliography, and access to its web site.