Swap cows for hemp — Mayell
Social entrepreneur Michael Mayell is speaking out about the beneficial properties of hemp to help inform and inspire New Zealanders to embrace new business opportunities around what he calls a “formidable vegetable”.
“Hemp is food, fibre and medicine. Hemp is cannabis without any of the psychoactive properties of its cousin marijuana, and is fuelling an emerging market which is an exciting opportunity for entrepreneurs and investors,” the Christchurch man, who began his food journey as founder of Cookie Time in 1983 and went on to found Nutrient Rescue in 2016 and the Drinkable Rivers in our Lifetime campaign, said last week.
“I think we’re growing the wrong grass in New Zealand, or as Richard Branson said, we should swap cows for cannabis. New Zealand needs to move from the Lamb Age to the Cow Age to the Hemp Age. I’d like to see the whole country get behind this incredible and so very misunderstood plant.”
Mr Mayell was sponsoring and presenting at last week’s inaugural iHemp Summit in Wellington, in support of efforts to explore the opportunities around hemp for food, fibre and medicine for businesses, farmers, scientists, communities, investors and entrepreneurs.
New Zealand food safety authorities are currently looking to follow Australia to allow hemp seed in food by changing regulations under the Food Act, the Misuse of Drugs Act and the Medicines Act. Law changes are expected later this year to allow hemp seed to be sold as a food in New Zealand, in addition to the current legislation, which has allowed the sale of hemp seed oil since 2003.
“Many other countries have already legalised this formidable vegetable,” he said.
“We need to be ready to capitalise on the opportunities around hemp seed, one of the most nutritionally complete foods on Earth. With up to 40 per cent protein and 40 per cent good oil, hemp offers an incredible alternative to meat or dairy protein for the exponentially growing plant-based, flexitarian and vegan markets.”
Hulled hemp seeds were filled with healthy essential fatty acids such as Alphalinolenic acid (ALA, Omega 3 and Omega 6) and Gammalinolenic acid (GLA), were high in fibre, iron, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, zinc, vitamin E and magnesium, he said.
It was also the new king of leafy greens.
“There are 100 cannabinoids and other nutrients in hemp leaves,” he added.
“It’s an incredible superfood. People could be eating and juicing the leaf for its micronutrients and antioxidant properties, as they do with spinach and kale.”
There had been a resurgence of interest in hemp in recent years due to its multi-purpose applications, and the pharmaceutical and construction sectors had shown interest in it, as well as the food sector.
It was rich in phytochemicals, including terpenes and phenolic compounds, with analgesic, antianxiety and anti-inflammatory properties, as well as cannabinoids. It was a rich source of both cellulosic and woody fibres, with uses ranging from the creation of concretelike building materials to a substitute for glass fibres in the automotive sector. With between 25,000 and 50,000 uses often reported, it had been named the world’s most versatile plant.
Major environmental benefits made the argument for investing in hemp even more compelling, Mr Mayell said.
“It is exponentially better for the environment than grassgrazing cows, which pollute the land, air and waterways,” he said. “Hemp is also an incredible phyto remediation plant, and can extract heavy metals and other contaminates from fertilisers in the soil, which in turn stops them getting into foods and waterways.”
Research showed the plant could take up as much as four times the CO2 of trees, suggesting to Mr Mayell that if 10,000 dairy farmers grew hemp on one-quarter of their land, the nett environmental impact would be a game-changer.
“Planting hemp isn’t just a win for the environment. It produces an annual profit that will increase over time as markets are found for more and more of the plant’s constituents.
“During the Lamb Age we became rich thanks to 70 million sheep and their wool, and from frozen lamb carcass exports. Now, in the Cow Age, we have 6.5 million dairy cows and 3.5 million cattle, each excreting the equivalent of 14 human beings, making our land toxic, making many of our rivers unswimmable and producing highly destructive methane that pollutes the air.
“Fortunately it’s a problem with a solution — to move from the current unsustainable animal farming paradigm to a new regenerative business model to support the bio-economy, and there is no better plant on the planet to do this job than hemp.”