Sunday, June 18, 2006

ETHICAL AWARDS AND THE UK HEMP BUSINESS
In today's Observer, the magazine section is devoted to the ethical awards. Lucy Siegle gives us glimpses into the greening of a number of celebs. Krishnan Guru-Murthy, seen nightly on Channel 4 News, talks about going green with THTC hemp shirts, whereas Jasmine Guinness, a model says that the Yaoh Hemp Milk Shaker is a "hurdle too far". Her partner explains they don't think they have the time. More positively, actor Julian Rhind-Tutt does take time for Yaoh hemp products, using their shampoo to keep bad hair days away. TV presenter Sarah Cawood also takes time to use hemp, sporting hemp shoes and a hemp dress made by Enamore. Cawood tells us: "...because this fashion is so desirable it becomes quite a subversive thing to do as nobody would really expect me to be wearing hemp."
Paul Abbot, creator of Shameless, also wears hemp from THTC, although he claims the range to be too "anti-American". Shame on you. Their range is beautifully politically aware...just today I was working with Dru, one of the founders of THTC, at the West London Greenfest, and he had a hemp shirt with the logo: GEORGE BUSH & SON, BUTCHERS. Come on Mr. Shameless, did you really believe this THTC shirt had something to do with the guy who reads Pet Goat Stories and plays guitar during national emergencies? No, not at all; let's set the record straight: this shirt sports the logo of a very English firm, establised in 1898.
Fashion designer Bushra Sarker, who works at THTC and Eco-T, sports in a photo trousers available at The Hemp Shop, the oldest ongoing UK hemp enterprise, founded by UK hemp pioneer Bobby Pugh. Turqouis and wide-bottomed, they are hot in a subtle, professional way, and I cheekily ask: is she single?
Woody Harrelson, one of the judges on the Ethical Awards panel, is mentioned on p. 64, where Siegle writes on Ford's FFV, in which he was her passenger recently. Ford, it may well be noted, was the company that wanted to use hemp to build and power cars in the 1930s. About time we discuss bio-ethanol! Maybe before the polar caps melt away we could start using some? Hopefully, as Sir Richard Branson has now gotten in on the ethanol scene, thanks to Al Gore. Siegle gives us a ray of light on this subject when she talks about new bio-ethanol refuelling points in Somerset, where Wessex Grain has permission for a production plant with the capacity to convert wheat into 131m litres of ethanol.
For the sake of the UK reader, below is a short list of hemp shops where you might run into Woody, Sarah or Bushra.
Braintree, Unit 9/10 East Yard, CAmden Market, London, NW1 8AF
The Hemp Shop, 19 Gardner St., North Laine, Brighton, BN1 1UP
The Hemp Trading Company, Acton Business Centre, School Road, London, NW10
The House of Hemp, Beeston Farm, Marhamchurch, Cornwall, EX23 OET
Tony's Hemp Corner, 10 Caledonian Road, London, N1 9DU
Quintessential, 14 Kenwyn St., Truro, Cornwall, TR1 3DJ
Yorkshire Hemp, PO Box 120, Driffield, Yorkshire, YO25 9YS

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