From Farmers To Dream Makers: UAE-Based Hempy People Aims To Help Craft A Greener Future For Our World One acre of hemp can replace up to four acres of forests, and they are capable of producing more oxygen as well—and knowing this made us wonder why do we not prioritize our health and the health of our planet?

In 2024, every human being on the planet should understand that we face an existential threat. Our world is getting hotter, and this change in climate and temperatures will threaten humanity and the environment. We are pushing out too much carbon into the environment, and there are too few carbon sinks too absorb all the excess carbon in the atmosphere.

One partial solution to climate change that has been often talked about is nature's technology, namely trees. But what if there are even better solutions than trees?

Hemp is a plant that sequesters twice as much carbon than your average tree, and it grows to maturity in 3-4 months. Plus, hemp has a multitude of uses, including fabric, paper, and packaging, plus carbon negative building materials. It is, quite literally, one plant with thousands of uses.

My business partner, Pablo, and I started growing industrial hemp in the Western part of Ukraine, in the vicinity of the Hungarian border among other crops. And as we did so, the truth is that we were super impressed to see that there was no need for pesticides, rainwater was sufficient, and some of the hemp fibers grew up to four metres! It was a beautiful plant—we were in awe.

That said, at that time, we didn't think much of it, and we simply exported the hemp fiber and its seeds to Western Europe. But then we started doing research, attending conferences, and exploring what else is out there. And that was the beginning of a whole new world for us—a real eye-opener.

We started digging deeper in our research. We knew that our grandparents were growing hemp and using hemp textiles and oil, but what we were yet to learn was much more than that. The variety and multiple uses of the plant is just mind-blowing—it has the potential to revolutionize the textile, paper, and construction industries, and we actually have the solution of a better future in our hands.

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A hempy farm. Image courtesy Hempy People.

Let me explain. For starters, not everybody is yet fully aware of how much water, land, child labor, pesticides, and plastics are used to produce the textile for mainstream clothes brands that actually are covering the largest organ in our body, our skin. We are therefore exposing ourselves to much harm without even realizing it. Hemp provides an alternative with the wide variety of hemp textiles that are anti-allergen, which are amazing for sensitive skin, and it also has a high vibration.

Next, let's look at paper—the amount of paper we use on a daily basis is insane. Naturally, we need to continue with deforestation; however, what we do not take into account though is making paper from tree-free fibers—like hemp fibers. One acre of hemp can replace up to four acres of forests, and they are capable of producing more oxygen as well—and knowing this made us wonder why do we not prioritize our health and the health of our planet? We have all the resources we need.

Now, the biggest polluter on the planet is the construction industry, and it is also now looking to reduce their footprint. The amazing hemp fiber allows for 3D printing houses that can have reusable, breathable walls that are carbon negative. In fact, we can replace concrete, and that will allow us to build healthier homes for ourselves and our kids.

Learning about hemp is still an eye opener to us. Daily news comes out with innovative ideas for hemp fiber, and big brands experimenting with it too—for instance, an only hemp plastic-based plane has been built in Canada, while Porsche, BMW, and Peugeot are making use of it too. Meanwhile, families in Australia, US, and UK are choosing to build from hemp, and the plan is to rebuild Ukraine after the war using industrial hemp too.

When we started Hempy People as an enterprise in 2020, we went for a shopping spree, and we purchased from lots of hemp-based products from suppliers from all over the world. With that variety of products, we opened our experiential space in the UAE to educate communities using experiential learning techniques about hemp fiber, and showcase the potential usage (one plant = 2500+ uses) of the plant so we can inspire companies, entrepreneurs, designers, and architects to choose and create with sustainable solutions.

We look at Hempy People as the story of courage—courage to choose something new that is not mainstream yet. Courage to choose wisely, so we can create a healthier, greener future for ourselves and our loved ones. Courage to prioritize our own health and well-being, when it is not the mainstream thinking—at least not yet!

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