Hemp trade high on potential
There’s a heady air around New Zealand’s hemp industry, with farmers enthused about the possibilities in health and business. Gerard Hutching reports.
This year’s inaugural hemp conference wasn’t your usual agribusiness gathering. Federated Farmers representatives were few and far between, even if farmers may have much to gain if the hempgrowing industry takes off.
And in between the respectful applause for speakers, the conference in Wellington occasionally had the air of a revivalist meeting, with telling points punctuated by whoops and cheers.
But as delegates were at pains to point out, they weren’t getting high on marijuana because hemp is not a drug – rather, it was over the economic, environmental, and medical possibilities that hemp growing might offer.
‘‘I don’t know what people were expecting – to see a bunch of hippies perhaps,’’ conference chairman and the chief executive of Hempstatic Richard Barge says.
There is reputational risk around the word cannabis, he says. ‘‘It’s quite polarising and there’s not much we can do about the fact industrial hemp is a form of cannabis. Our cousin the marijuana drug form has a negative connotation.’’
The big opportunities were in relation to health and sustainability. Not only was there a need to grow hemp, but also processes needed to be invented to create products.
‘‘We have talented people that can create solutions and improvements for growing and processing our annual crop into a wide range of exportable products and technology in food, fibre and medicine,’’ Barge says.
Before any of the opportunities can be realised, the laws relating to hemp need to be changed.
At present, growing for hemp oil is the only legal commercial activity, with a thriving niche arable industry of 200-300 hectares centred mainly on the mid-Canterbury region.
Food safety authorities are looking to follow Australia to allow hemp seed to be used in food by changing regulations under the Food Act, the Misuse of Drugs Act and the Medicines Act.
These law changes, expected later this year, will allow hemp seed to be sold as a food in New Zealand, in addition to the current legislation allowing the local sale of hemp seed oil. Hemp seed meal is a byproduct of the oil business.
‘‘We would like to see the Government interpret the regulations to enable the industry,’’ Barge says.
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has warned that Labour’s coalition partner NZ First is wary and does not want to see any encourage- ment of drug abuse, but Health Minister David Clark is open to transferring responsibility for hemp to the Ministry for Primary Industries.
‘‘We don’t want to encourage that [drug abuse] but we have to front to the reality there is confusion across all the lines of use,’’ O’Connor says.
‘‘As a Government we endorse the use of medical marijuana, but we need to ensure people are using it in a way that doesn’t put them at risk, or the reputation of medical marijuana at risk.’’
He also cautions enthusiasts that New Zealand already grows a lot of fibre, such as wood and wool, so the challenge is to use hemp to make high-value products.
Barge says delegates were pleasantly surprised by the presentation of Dr Stewart Jessamine, from the Ministry of Health, who appeared to have made a 180-degree turn in becoming supportive of enabling the industry.
Among the claims made for hemp are:
❚ Hulled hemp seeds are filled with healthy essential fatty acids such as alpha-linolenic acid (ALA, Omega 3 and Omega 6) and gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) and are high in fibre, iron, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, zinc, vitamin E and magnesium.
❚ The leaves can be used as a vegetable.
❚ Its fibre can be employed in myriad uses, from clothing to furnishings.
❚ Dairy farmers can grow it as a ‘‘mop crop’’ to soak up excess nutrients and then feed it out to their livestock.
❚ Even concrete can be made from the fibre.
Delegates’ presentations and views ranged from the matter-offact to the inspired.
Andrew Davidson, from Midland Seeds in Ashburton, took a commonsense approach. He has been contracting growers to raise hemp seeds for the last 17 years and said they viewed the plant as just another crop in their rotation.
At $4000 per hectare, returns are above milling wheat ($3600/ha), and on a par with feed wheat or barley. It has several key advantages over cereal crops, however – hemp is a short-duration crop of only 90 days, while autumn-sown cereals can be in the ground for 10 months. It can also be spring sown.
Legally, hemp crops must not be seen from the road so as to avoid unwanted attention. Fears have been raised that growers might plant cannabis for drug use within the seed crop, but it would be counterproductive to try to hide high-THC dope plants in a hemp crop as this would result in a