Hemp Bliss Hempmilk

If you don’t know about Manitoba Harvest, they’re a Canadian based hemp-food manufacturer that sells everything from hemp seeds and hemp milk, to hemp butter and hemp protein powder. Well, they’ve just announced a new recipe for their organic hemp milk. As the press release explains:

Winnipeg, Manitoba (March 31, 2010) – Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods & Oils™ is proud to launch the new & improved Hemp Bliss Organic Hempmilk. The only organic hempmilk on the market, Hemp Bliss has a new milder and creamier taste, 25% calcium, and more culinary versatility. Still free from common allergens, Hemp Bliss Organic Hempmilk is packed with nutrients like Omega-3 and Omega-6.

“The new Hemp Bliss is designed to appeal to a broader palate and to be a healthy alternative to dairy milk,” says President and co-founder Mike Fata. “We added more calcium (25% of the daily recommended intake) and created a creamy, smooth, allergen-free alternative that has a mouth-feel similar to dairy milk,” notes Fata. “We also added organic hemp oil which provides Hemp Bliss with even more healthy Omega-3 and a creamier texture.”
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Hempmilk contains more Omega 3, 6 and 9 EFAs than any other dairy or non-dairy milk alternative, and those EFAs are present in hemp in an ideal ratio. Hemp foods also have a strong digestible protein profile, fiber and an abundance of vitamins and minerals.
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What has not changed is Manitoba Harvest’s commitment to organic and natural ingredients. “We are proud to be the only organic hempmilk on the market, and we use only organic hemp seed, hemp oil, acacia & guar gum, organic vanilla flavoring and fair trade cocoa powder. All of the ingredients in the new Hemp Bliss are natural and sourced under the company’s mission to support sustainable farming and environmentally friendly practices.

I like hemp seeds and hemp protein, but I gotta tell, any improvement to the flavor of hemp milk is a welcome one. Hemp is one of the few foods that offers a perfect balance of Omega 3, 6, and 9 fatty acids, but hemp milk is generally no way to get them. The stuff tasks like a sawdust milkshake. Hemp seeds, on the other hand, have a really nice nutty flavor that goes great on salads, cereals, or even in smoothies.

You can order Hemp Bliss Organic Hempmilk form the Manitoba Harvest site, but I’ve never had a problem finding it in any major urban area. That being said, I’ll have to give hemp milk another shot now that Manitoba Harvest has tweaked its recipe. Maybe I won’t have to cut it with a bunch of fruit and throw it in a blender just to make it bearable.

As a renewable resources that requires little water and no pesticides, hemp is an opportune raw material for manufacturing sustainable textiles. Well, it seems that it eligibility as a material is spilling over from the world of rope and bags, and into the realm of household decor. As the North Shore News reports:

Hemp shower curtains are [...] gaining widespread popularity. Made from 100 per cent hemp canvas this tightly woven fabric ensure water will not leak through and does not require a vinyl liner. They are non-toxic and made in Canada. A standard size is about $90.

Hemp table linens come in a variety of colours and are very affordable at about $7 for a dinner napkin.

It’s little surprise that Canada is a source of hemp products: although selling and purchasing hemp-based products is perfectly legal in the US, it remains criminal to cultivate it.

If only US legislators would come around, not only would their farmers have access to a crop with rising export demand, but the market price of hemp-based products would also come down. And then not only would both the planet and consumers come out on top, but more of us could afford some of those shower curtains.

It seems that there’s yet another hemp-food merchant in the marketplace. Health food manufacturer, Bob’s Red Mill, has announced a new line of hemp-based products. They will be selling hulled hemp seed and hemp protein powder. The website PortlandFoodandDrink.com has the press release:

Portland, Ore. – December 9, 2008 – Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods announces the launch of Hemp Protein Powder and Hulled Hemp Seed, both derived from one of the world’s most nutritionally complete food sources.

“The hemp seed may be one of nature’s most perfect foods,” said Bob Moore, Founder of Bob’s Red Mill. “And like all of our hundreds of products we wanted to provide our customers with something that is fully nutritious and delightful to eat.”

The press release goes on to cover all the health benefits and nutrition to be gained from incorporating hemp seeds into your diet.

More importantly, however, I think that a mainstream company such as Bob’s Red Mill moving into the hemp food market is indicative of future growth. Not only must Bob’s Red Mill see a market demand, but having a brand name such as this marketing hemp products will undoubtedly raise awareness which, in turn, will stimulate additional demand.

Ah, there nothing like hemp for the holidays. Well, there’s more the holiday hemp than just wrapping paper and gift cards, and Yoga Journal has the scoop. In a recent article about how stitched and knitted fabrics are connected to yoga, author Victoria Everman offers up a heads up on some hemp-based ones:

Stock up on all-natural supplies. Lanaknits Designs Hemp for Knitting has 100 percent hemp and hemp-blend yarns in assorted colors, lanaknits.com; [...] South West Trading Company offers the widest variety of sustainable yarns: organic cotton, milk fiber, soy silk, bamboo, corn, and hemp, soysilk.com.

The overall gist of the article is finding products and merchants that reflect the values of yoga enthusiasts, but it provides quite a few good leads for hemp enthusiasts as well. Check out Stitched Together @ Yoga Journal to find out where you can find places to purchase sustainable products, including those made form hemp.

We often touch upon how much potential hemp has to help with the environment:

• it’s preferable to cotton because it’s much easier on the soil and requires much less water;
• it has a great potential as biofuel;
• it can actually remove heavy metals form the soil;
• it can be used to treat sewage;
• and the list goes on and on and on…

But none of this really helps the average Joe and Jane help the environment by using hemp. Well, The LA Examiner has a piece on how you can use hemp to do just that by incorporating it into your holiday routine:

During the holidays, about 2.6 billion cards are sent annually. In fact, the paper industry is the third largest generator of greenhouse gases. Practically speaking, an Evite is the most sustainable invitation practice, inviting guests online and forgoing a hard copy invitation altogether. However I do agree that there’s something so old school elegant about sending and receiving lovely invitations and RSVP’s, so lets take the next best step and look for companies that can help us create “green invitations.”  Green invitations will be made from recycled paper, organic cotton paper, kenaf or hemp paper. Kenaf and hemp papers are good because they are both sustainable and easy to grow without pesticides. For recycled and tree-free papers online, check out www.vickeroy.com or www.crane.com.

One of the biggest challenges facing mainstream hemp use is the lack of volume. Hemp is just not yet processed in large enough of quantities to make hemp-based consumer products price-competitive with their more conventional counterparts. Consequently, it can be challenging to find ways to support hemp and its industries.

By considering what hemp products are already in use and adapting them to everyday uses, however, you can do just that. Since hemp paper products are relatively available on the market, these are a great place to start. And when used in a holiday setting, it can give your gift that extra, special touch.

While companies like General Motors, Nortel, and Sun Microsystems cut staff in hopes of weathering this recession, hemp food maker Manitoba Harvest seems relatively certain that they’ll not just be fine, but enjoy continued growth. In the process of moving their operations into a larger, more technologically advanced facility, the company has just hired a new plant manager to, well, manage it. As the NPI Center reports:

The market demand for hemp products in North America is expanding rapidly and industry leader Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods & Oils is staying ahead of the curve by expanding their operations and hiring experts to bolster their team. The company has announced that they have hired Tom Greaves as their new Plant Manager. The new hiring comes at a critical time for Manitoba Harvest (www.manitobaharvest.com), as the hemp foods pioneer is in the process of moving to their new state-of-the-art organic facility in Winnipeg. The 20,000 sq. ft. food processing facility on Eagle Drive will increase their production capacity by more than 500%.

Over the last few years, the company has seen considerable growth. In fact, between 2002-2007, they grew 453%. Nevertheless, there is still cause to be wonder because hemp foods are still largely luxury items. The fact of the matter is that they are not produced (either grown or manufactured) on a level that is sufficient to competitively price them against more mainstream whole foods.

Of course, Manitoba Harvest would have pursued this new facility before the economy imploded, and they would obviously need a new plant manager to run it. So they can’t be accused of financial or managerial negligence by any stretch. So let’s hope that this new facility allows them to bring down processing costs enough that Manitoba Harvest can pass those savings on to consumers. That way, they can thereby stimulate enough of a market demand for hemp products that they’ll continue to reach growth projections despite the current economic climate.

The local LA ABC channel, KABC, recently compared some mil alternatives, and one of those featured alternative was Hemp Bliss hemp milk. Being a televised segment, it was hosted by Lori Corbin, “The Food Coach.” You can also watch the video coverage here. Of interest, however, are a couple notes from the show notes:

Finally, those looking for a new non-dairy beverage might get a kick out of hemp milk. Hemp is similar to flax in that it contains omega-3 and other unsaturated fats. It has a slightly nutty taste, but does not have any psychotropic compounds. So, the only “high” you might experience is the taste itself.
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Manitoba Harvest Hemp Bliss
Calories: 110
Fat: 7 g
Sugar: 6 g
Iron: 10 percent

For those of you interested in benefiting from the high amount of essential fatty acids in hemp milk and other products, you can buy hemp foods from Manitoba Harvest. Based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Manitoba Harvest™ owns and operates a 20,000 Sq Ft. state of the art, kosher certified and organic certified facility. They’ve been in business since 1998, so they’re no bunch fly-by-night snake-oil salesmen trying to get in on a hemp health craze.

Hemp seeds offer a number of health benefits, and healthy people often make for better looking people. It’s no surprise, then, that hemp seeds are also used in skin lotions. As the Lotion Source Blog recently explained, the hemp seed’s unique balance of essential fatty acids makes it an excellent thing to use both within and without your body:

Hemp is quite simply, nature’s beauty secret – and the secret is in the seed. Hemp seed oil and extract offer many benefits useful in personal care products. The reason hemp is so effective is largely because of the essential fatty acids (EFAs) it contains. More than 75% of the EFAs in hemp seed oil are poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), known for their excellent emollient and lubricating properties.

Hemp seed oil contains what is considered to be an ideal ratio of Omega 6 and Omega 3 fatty acids- 3:1, perfectly matching the needs of the human body. In addition to the EFAs hemp seed provides, it is also one of The Earth’s richest sources of amino acids. Along with the EFAs, these two components are responsible for keratin formation, the primary protein that gives your hair structural integrity.

Although the main purpose of the blog post seems to be to direct you to the Lotion Source hemp product page, it’s not exactly a puff piece of ad copy. After the above two paragraphs, the article goes on for about another 10 paragraphs on the health benefits of hemp seeds (and how they relate to personal beauty, of course), an then even provides an overview of the how hemp has been used throughout history. Of many of the historical facts it provides, here’s one that even I haven’t heard before:

In 1563 A.D., as part of the economic and military buildup of the time (80 years war), Queen Elizabeth I orders all land owners with 60 acres or more to grow Cannibus or face a £5 fine.

Overall, it’s nice to see a reseller of vanity products taking the time educate their potential customers on the benefits of their products’ ingredients beyond how those ingredients enhance the product that they’re selling. Granted, it obviously fits into Lotion Source’s marketing strategy to educate the consumer and elicit their trust, but it is nonetheless an effort that helps spread awareness about the versatility of this plant. The more that that happens, the more of a market demand is stimulated for hemp products, the more capital investment that hemp production attracts, the sooner the world can start reaping the benefits of replacing many products with much more eco-friendly hemp options.

It’s been a pretty slow day in the world of hemp news, but I never thoughts it’d be a dog’s day. In my surfing around the world wide interwebs, the only <i>hemps-up</i> I’ve been able to find was one mention of a hemp-based dog bed, and another of hemp-based dog toys. First, one North Shore News reporter had this tale to tell of her adventure out shopping for a dog bed:

One particular bed caught my eye, it was a basic fleece bed, but the fleece covering was made from recycled plastic water bottles. The sales gal tried to explain how this was possible but I must have looked like a deer caught in the head lights as she stopped mid sentence and said… “Maybe we should look at the hemp beds instead.”

Yes there are beds made of hemp fibre that are durable and eco-friendly, as well as a completely organic cotton bed that is filled with some sort of cotton fibre from an ancient tree in Botswana. A portion of the proceeds of the sale of these beds apparently goes back to the villagers who pick this cotton-like substance. (Where have I been for so many years? . . . Oh right, shopping in Costco!)

So it seems that (wo)man’s bestfriend is also able to reap the benefits of one of the most sustainable natural resources in existence. But it doesn’t stop here. There are also these hemp dog toys from Uncommongoods.com:

Just because your dog doesn’t care what he puts in his mouth doesn’t mean you shouldn’t! Let your pup sink his teeth into these eco-friendly squeaky chew toys made with naturally durable hemp plant fiber and natural dyes from plants and minerals. Made with a low-eco impact, the owl and elephant are certified non-toxic, chemical-free, saliva resistant and have a reduced allergy level.

So it looks like you don’t have to be a bi-ped to benefit from the, er, benefits of industrial hemp. In fact, this is just the kind diverse consumer portfolio that hemp needs to help push it into both mainstream production and cultivation. If more people were made aware of its many uses, then there’d be sufficient incentive (i.e. investment) to get it out of the periphery of commercialization and into the mainstream where it can do the planet and the economy the good that it has the potential do to.

The environment is such a hot topic right now that marketers everywhere seem to be trying to find a way to cash in on this new, higher level of consumer awareness. Provided they don’t cheat on their claims to be “green” or “eco,” this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all, if the greed of consumerism is what’s driven the planet to such a desperate state, they we should probably be considering ways to swing that powerful force in the environment’s favor. Besides, if there’s one thing that capitalism is good at, it’s driving innovation by appealing to people’s self-inerest.

Well, as far as so-called “green” products go, it seems that Payless Shoes has jumped on the bandwagon by launching an eco-friendly line, and one of the materials they’re using is hemp. As the Environmental Leader reports:

The eco-friendly collection of women’s shoes and handbags will be made from materials such as organic cotton, linen, hemp and recycled rubber. The company says the shoes will be produced on special machines that use biodegradable glues and will be shipped in boxes made of recycled materials.

It’s great to see a company looking not only at alternative materials, but also manufacturing processes and packaging. Of course, one of the largest environmental problems with footwear is how disposable they are. That is, we just throw them away instead of repairing them, and the cornerstone of Payless’ business model is to perpetuate that disposable culture.