Today, two out of every five trees are cut for pulp. It takes a heavy-duty industrial process to turn wood into paper. The process releases large amounts of dangerous pollutants, such as chlorine, dioxin and furans into the air and water. As forests diminish and public opinion to save forests grows, there is increasing interest in alternative fibre crops. Hundreds of annuals and herbaceous perennials can be used for paper stock, either alone or in combination with other feedstocks.
Processing requires less energy and produces far less toxic wastes than wood pulp plants.
In addition, facilities do not have to be so large. If our paper pulp needs could be met with herbaceous perennial and annual crops, we would lower energy consumption, save our forests, reduce toxic waste, decentralize paper production and add more crops for farmers. If sustainable agriculture were applied on a broad scale using permaculture practices, we could increase world food supplies and do it on less land. This would free up large amounts of farmland, some of which could be used for growing paper feedstocks. The hemp 2 plant is one of the prime candidates for paper feedstock.