Up until recently, our choice of sheets was limited to cotton percale, sateen, or flannel, but today there are a dizzying array of fibers and weaves to choose from. Linen (aka flax), bamboo, and eucalyptus are among the many natural fibers being woven into bedding. Along with these new fibers have come an equally large number of sustainability claims to wade through. So, we sought out the experts to explain the latest sustainable bedding fiber: Hemp.
Among the latest crop of bedding fibers, there’s a reason hemp is a newcomer. The United States started to abandon industrial hemp cultivation starting in 1937 when The Marijuana Tax Act placed a tax on cannabis sales, including hemp. Then, the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 virtually banned the production of industrial hemp, which is really sort of silly because marijuana, whose psychotropic properties our government had intended to prohibit, is a different plant than industrial hemp (aka cannabis sativa). It wasn’t until the 2018 Farm Bill was passed that it was actually legal to grow hemp again, and it’s been an uphill battle to clear this natural fiber’s name. Retailers are quick to point out that their product is far from illicit; for example, the first sentence describing Crate & Barrel’s hemp bedding reads, “Woven out of fiber made from the outer layer of a benign cultivar of Cannabis sativa.”
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