Pushing the case for hemp
More and more New Zealand farmers are planting a crop they were banned from growing for eight decades or so. They are setting aside land to raise hemp, for use in cereals, oils and textiles, as Jamie Gray reports.
IT is still very much in its infancy, but for some, hemp is seen as a useful crop to offer diversity on the farm.
As big money flows into medicinal cannabis, and with the upcoming referendum on recreational cannabis use, hemp’s profile is rising — even though it is far removed from the narcotic strain that gets all the attention.
Proponents wax lyrical about hemp’s many uses — everything from hemp oil for joint health through to ‘‘hempcrete’’ for construction.
To its backers, hemp really is the miracle plant.
They say the plant can also offer benefits to the landowner, through its ability to lock up carbon.
Research into growing hemp in New Zealand started in 2006, and the regulations covering the crop were amended at the end of 2018.
In that time an industry has built up, particularly around hempseed and oil.
While it is very much a fringe land use, it is growing in popularity among farmers.
Dave Jordan, who heads the biggest player Hemp NZ and its subsidiary Hemp Farm, says barely a day goes by without an inquiry from a farmer looking to plant.
‘‘With all this concern about the environment and the Paris Accord on climate change, and the focus on plastics and so forth, the world is changing and it’s coming to meet us,’’ Mr Jordan says.
‘‘It’s not really fringe in terms of it being something new. It’s just something that has been rediscovered.
‘‘We are restoring it to its rightful place in the economy.
‘‘Because it has been criminalised or outlawed for so many years, the current generation don’t know about it, so it’s a matter of rediscovering and reeducating,’’ he says.
‘‘It offers fibre, health, wellbeing and solutions to environmental challenges that we are all facing.
‘‘We have got a changing world. With people getting into vegetarianism, plantbased food products and wanting a better environment, hemp offers solutions to all those things.
Typically, farmers are looking at setting aside 20 to 50 hectares for hemp growing, Mr Jordan says.
Hemp Farm started harvesting hemp on 53ha in 2014. The following year, the area nearly tripled to 150ha.
By 2018 the harvest came from 470ha and last year that figure almost tripled again to 1300ha.
Mr Jordan now works with 70 growers, most of them in Canterbury, Waikato and Wairapapa.
‘‘The thing about this crop is that it has been in jail for so long that bringing it back out and putting it back on the table means that there will be a lot more research and development going on with all of us,’’ Mr Jordan says.
For years, hemp has been lumped in with the psychoactive, highTHC strain of cannabis.
Now it is used in cereals for some wellknown brands, in baking products and health foods.
As a land use, it is seen as a good rotation crop.
‘‘There is a lot of interest in the crop,’’ Mr Jordan says.
‘‘I do see a big growth curve coming, especially since the world is more and more getting into health and wellbeing, especially after Covid.’’
Hemp Farm processes hemp at Tauriko, near Tauranga.
There, the company extracts hemp oil from the seeds and makes bulk product to supply other companies with ingredients used in some wellknown brands of cereals and baking products.
As Hemp Farm’s general manager Leigh Kite sees it, the industry has been battling misconceptions for years.
‘‘The word ‘cannabis’ is very emotionally charged,’’ she says.
‘‘People’s minds go instantly to recreational use of marijuana, or weed, or whatever you want to call it.
‘‘There is more to the plant than that.’’
While hemp seeds yield oil, the stalk of the product is where the fibre comes from.
In the past, that fibre was an essential material for making sails and rope for ships.
These days the main use is for hemp oil — extracted from the seeds and packaged in capsule form — for use treating joint ailments.
The dehulled seeds are used in snack bars and cereals.
‘‘The current generation doesn’t know about it, so it’s a matter of rediscovering and reeducating,’’ Ms Kite says.
Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a variety of the Cannabis sativa plant species that is grown specifically for the industrial uses of its derived products.
It is one of the fastest growing plants and was one of the first plants to be spun into usable fibre.
Hemp can be refined into a variety of commercial items, including paper, textiles, clothing, biodegradable plastics, paint, insulation, biofuel and food — for people and animals.
Today, the legality of industrial hemp varies widely between countries.
Some governments, New
Zealand included, regulate the concentration of THC — the chemical responsible for many of marijuana’s psychological effects — and permit only hemp that is bred with an especially low THC content.
Hemp Farm will soon branch out into the hemp fibre business, having just imported a machine called a decorticator to process it.
The company has formed a joint venture with New Zealand Yarn — in which it has a holding — and the two plan to make a hemp yarn which will initially be spun with wool to make a blended woolhemp carpet.
The process involves the production of hemp ‘‘hurd’’ — the woody refuse left over after the fibres are extracted. In turn, that hurd is used to make hempcrete, a substitute for concrete.
‘‘Obviously, hemp fibre has a lot of other uses in textiles, insulation products and matting to help deal with soil erosion,’’ Ms Kite says.
‘‘There is a massive opportunity there.
‘‘In fact it probably has more potential than the food side.’’
Cookie Time founder and serial entrepreneur Michael Mayell talks big when it comes to hemp.
He points out industrial hemp is the fastest growing crop in US agriculture.
The US, like New Zealand, defines industrial hemp as Cannabis sativa plants containing 0.3% or less THC. If levels go over that, the plants are considered marijuana.
Before 2015, hemp in the US was virtually nonexistent as a commercial crop because it was lumped in with marijuana.
The law changed in 2014 and the following year 607ha of hemp were planted in the US.
Today, nearly 100 times that area is planted in hemp, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
Mr Mayell, who these days likes to invest in environmental projects, says hemp could become useful as a gateway to regenerative agriculture, which aims to build up the soil quality.
‘‘There are many who believe that we will not move to regenerative agriculture without hemp,’’ he says.
‘‘And . . . consider that an acre of hemp breathes in four times the carbon dioxide and breathes out four times as much oxygen per acre of trees.’’
A ‘‘yes’’ in the recreational cannabis referendum may see the outdated rules around hemp rewritten.
‘‘It will unleash the biggest economic opportunity that New Zealand has ever seen,’’ Mr Mayell says.
‘‘This is literally a massive opportunity that this country can take advantage of, at the very time that we need it.’’
He sees hemp’s potential as an alternative land use as the most exciting prospect.
‘‘It is naturally pestresistant, so if you want to move to regenerative agriculture, it’s about dialling down stock numbers and dialling up the plant numbers.
‘‘This could be the solution to many problems,’’ Mr Mayell says.
‘‘We just have to get over the stigma.’’ — The New Zealand Herald