On this Earth Day, ECS Brands continues to invest in hemp and all that it delivers to soil, farmers, the atmosphere and the human experience
Plants preoccupy us at ECS Brands. This keen focus on the plant kingdom serves not only human health, which truly thrives only when people incorporate a diversity of plants into their diet. It also serves the Earth, which this month more than a billion people around the world honor with Earth Day celebrations.
This year’s official Earth Day theme is Invest In Our Planet, a sentiment that resonates with ECS Brands.
How can a dietary supplements company’s products contribute toward environmental healing?
Consider protein.
For generations, companies manufacturing protein products turned to industrial meat and dairy industries for their key ingredients, everything from beef protein isolates to whey.
However, according to the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation, the meat and dairy industries account for roughly 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, the worldwide sprawl of meat and dairy operations befouls waterways with animal waste, and compels farmers in places like Brazil to eradicate forests for the sake of soybean agriculture — most of which goes to feed animals. Through cow burping, the cattle industry releases vast volumes of methane into the atmosphere; methane traps heat on Earth with significantly more power than carbon dioxide.
We could go on, but we prefer to champion solutions.
Thanks to intense R&D on our part — aligning with this year’s Earth Day theme, investments — our Hemp Fuel Hemp Protein powder represents the first organic hemp protein that is both water soluble and delicious. This matters. As a result of poor absorption rates and dreadful taste, hemp protein has never triumphed in the protein powder market. Consumers instead mostly turn to proteins made from soybeans, peas, whey and animal protein isolates for their protein needs.
But with our hemp protein, consumers now have a fresh option, one that is especially environmentally friendly. For one thing, our hemp is USDA Certified Organic, meaning among other things that no pesticides or herbicides were used in its cultivation.
But it’s not just organic certification that speaks to hemp’s environmental advantages.
For every ton of hemp produced, for example, 1.63 tons of carbon is removed from the atmosphere, which surpasses the amount of carbon sequestration for trees.
In addition, hemp grows remarkably fast — just four months — making it an excellent rotation crop for farmers. Hemp roots can plunge nine feet into the ground, offering natural aeration and adding nutrient diversity and richness into the soil. Hemp plants thrive in a wide variety of climates and soils. They enjoy natural resistance to most pests, mitigating pressures to add pesticides. And the plants grow in close proximity to one another, which prevents the development of weeds.
With the introduction of water-soluble, great-tasting organic hemp, we expect demand for hemp protein to grow. As the hemp industry expands and matures in the wake of the federal government legalizing it in 2018, farmers across the country will turn to this amazing plant for their soil, for swiftly expanding markets, and for their bottom lines.
ECS Brands’ plant focus resonates far beyond hemp. We are a plant-forward company, devoting time, efforts and capital toward developing wellness products for people around the world. In addition to hemp, we explore and leverage a broad tapestry of complementary botanicals: roots, seeds, leaves, flowers, fruits, plant-based amino acids, extracts of plant compounds and much more.
We don’t work with artificial ingredients, with additives that only exist due to laboratory work. Everything in our suite of products comes directly from nature, whether it is Thai black ginger, mushrooms, amino acids or compounds like caffeine found in plants. Much of the pharmaceutical and consumer products industry, on the other hand, relies upon things hatched in test tubes and grown in petri dishes.
Fifty-two years ago this month, environmental and peace activists in the United States held the first Earth Day celebration. That kick-off of Earth Day remains the largest single-day protest in human history — 20 million people marked it with marches and events across the country.
We trumpet the month-long recognition of Earth health, and participate in the messaging and celebrations. But for us, honoring Earth occupies more than a patch of 30 days every spring. It dwells at the heart of all that we do.
About ECS Brands
ECS Brands® is a supplier of premium hemp ingredients grown and extracted in America and creator of innovative complete spectrum whole-hemp brands including Hemp Fuel®, Care by Derma®, ENLIGHTENhemp® and Scooba Snacks. ECS Brands is known for its dedication to transparency, and rigorous safety, quality and potency testing conducted in its certified cGMP, USDA Organic, verified non-GMO project, and FDA registered manufacturing facility. In addition to ECS Brands, the company’s other business segments include ECS Health, a clinical research partner and full-service product development platform, and ECS Wholesale. Follow ECS Brands on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram.