Hemp Now!

Hemp. Heard of it? Perhaps accompanied by thoughts of pot-smoking hippies? 

In reality, hemp is an incredible plant. A weed in fact, which means it grows REALLY easily. It's extremely versatile and can be used in the production of numerous products, and most importantly - it's super duper environmentally friendly. The problem with hemp, is that it's associated with marijuana and illegal drug use, even though the cultivar farmed for produce is different to the illegal dope kind. It seems to be very difficult to separate the arguments of allowing legal marijuana use and lifting the ban on hemp farming, and they are two really different issues and ones that can be engaged with separately. 

I recently took part in a photo shoot as part of an awareness campaign for hemp and its uses. As mentioned before, I've been working with Miss Earth South Africa since 2008 and am still quite involved in the organisation, and it was through this connection that I came to be a part of Hemp Now's campaign. The newly crowned current Miss Earth SA, Tamerin Jardine and I shot in Noordhoek at Hemp House (yes, a house built with hemp) in hemp clothes along with a gazillion different types of hemp products, from beauty products to hemp milk to hemp surfboards - you name it, there's a hemp-made one! Whilst the official photos haven't been released yet... I do have a few sneaky behind the scenes ones.

There is now an official South African hemp petition to be signed, and can be found at http://www.hempnow.co.za/ - please go have a squizz at it. Hemp products can be found at The Body Shop and Hemporium.