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Part 1: Industrial
hemp’s benefits as fiber, oilseed and as food vs. barriers
in U.S. production
Anyone who has been to one of the many hippie festivals that
color the North American cultural landscape has seen literature
on and heard speakers recount the litany of benefits and claims-to-fame
of industrial hemp -- the non-drug, non-marijuana variety
of Cannabis sativa. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson
both grew it on their farms. Thomas Jefferson drafted the
Declaration of Independence on hemp paper.
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"Hemp can yield
3-8 dry tons of this superior fiber per acre -- four times
that of an average forest, whose wood fibers average a
measly
3/4 of an inch long." |
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Due to its low lignin content, hemp fiber can be pulped using
far less energy and chemicals than wood pulp; and because
of its natural whiteness, it can be whitened with environmentally
benign hydrogen peroxide, instead of dioxin-generating chlorine
bleach. Because it is unbleached, hemp paper is acid-free
and therefore lasts 10-20 times longer than wood-based paper
– hundreds of years.
The litany goes on to textiles and construction products.
Because of its long fibers (commonly seven feet), hemp makes
superior construction products like fiberboard. Hemp can yield
3-8 dry tons of this superior fiber per acre -- four times
that of an average forest, whose wood fibers average a measly
3/4 of an inch long.
Hemp fiber makes fabrics of superior quality, equal to or
better than linen. Hemp's fibers are longer, stronger, and
more absorbent than cotton, the crop responsible for some
50% of pesticides applied to crops around the world.
Hempseed oil has the highest proportion (81%) and best balance
of total essential fatty acids, like Omega-3s and Omega-6s,
of any crop plant. Hempseed has a protein content of 25%,
contains all of the essential amino acids, and has the best
protein balance of any seed. The building blocks for globulins,
the basis of our immune system, are present in hempseed in
a higher ratio than in any other plant.
The litany also usually recounts the conspiracy of chemical,
wood pulp, cotton-based textile companies to surreptitiously
include industrial hemp in the 1937 Marijuana Tax Law, a law
that effectively eliminated industrial hemp from competing with
their products. This was done despite the fact that industrial
hemp varieties have only the tiniest traces (around 0.1%) of
the marijuana drug, tetrahydracannabinol (THC).
Canada has not bought into America's irrational, and rather
hysterical, zero-tolerance anti-drug policy that maintains
the ban on growing industrial hemp, and in 1997 passed the
Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, which allowed licensed
growing of industrial hemp. However, farmers still need to
jump through some significant hoops to grow it.
Most of the hemp grown in Canada is for hempseed for processing
to oils and meal. The bulk of the world’s fiber hemp
is produced in India, China, Russia, Korea and Romania. Manitoba
has become the main Canadian hemp province, with about half
of Canada's hemp acreage -- the bulk of it for hempseed.
The hempseed food and cosmetics industry is worth $20 billion
– approximately equal to the entire organic foods industry
around the world. Half of Canada’s 2.5 million pounds
of hempseed (2001) is exported to the U.S. Raw hempseed is
pressed to extract oil which is used as a food oil, and for
cosmetics. The leftover meal from the oil extraction is increasingly
in demand for animal feed, especially pet foods. Hempseed
is also dehulled and sold as “hempnuts,” usually
vacuum packed because of the high oil and protein content.
Hempnuts’ consistency and color is very similar to pine
nuts, but the kernel is much smaller, and the taste is pleasant
and nutty.
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"In August a U.S. court stalled
the DEA’s zero-tolerance policy with regard to imported
industrial hemp products, ruling in favor of a coalition of
hemp product importers challenging the policy.." |
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Hemp acreage peaked in 1999 then fell precipitously because
of market problems. Part of the problem has been the U.S.
zero tolerance policy with regard to the traces of THC that
can be found in hempseed products – amounts too small
to have any drug effect. In 2002 the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Agency placed a zero-tolerance ban on products that contain
even minute traces of THC. In August a U.S. court stalled
the DEA’s zero-tolerance policy with regard to imported
industrial hemp products, ruling in favor of a coalition of
hemp product importers challenging the policy.
The zero-tolerance policy of the U.S. DEA frustrates Canadian
growers and everyone else in the hemp industry, as poppy seed
sold in all grocery stores across the U.S. contains traces
of opium. Canada’s policy is more rational, allowing
10 parts per million THC in products.
Part 2: Conventional
and organic hempseed growers make a go of it in Manitoba,
Canada
Paul Bobbee, hempseed grower and entrepreneur,
is a fourth generation farmer near the prairie town of Arborg,
Manitoba, about 90 minutes north of Winnipeg, between the
massive Lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba. Paul descends from Ukrainian
immigrants who settled in the area 100 years ago. Ukrainians
first moved to the forested areas of Manitoba to the northwest
of Arborg, but after a decade or so, found the soils too rocky
and poor. They resettled in the Arborg area, drained the swamps,
and planted wheat and barley.
In addition to being a farmer, Paul is founder and co-owner
of Triple B Seeds Inc., which specializes in processing hempseed
and flax into oil, meal, and by-products. He grows hemp on
his family land as well as contracting out to neighboring
farmers to cultivate it.
Paul started growing hemp in 1999 after its legalization
in 1997. Obtaining a license from Canada’s Ministry
of Health to grow industrial hemp is not easy. Paul showed
me the reams of paperwork needed for licensing. A background
check is done on the licensee, and anyone with a criminal
record is disqualified. A local police check is done as well.
Global positioning system (GPS) coordinates of the corners
of every hemp field must be given.
Paul and many other Manitoba farmers got their start in 1999
when a multinational company, Consolidated Growers and Processors
Inc., invested heavily in contracting farmers to plant hemp
for hempseed. Thirty-two thousand acres were planted. The
anticipated U.S. market for the harvest was never to come
through, however, and the company closed down its Manitoba
operations and cut loose its 230 contracted Manitoba farmers,
owing them millions of dollars.
The following year the Manitoba hemp acreage was a tenth
of the 1999 size. Thousands of tons of hempseed sat in storage
from the 1999 crop. Hempseed does not store well due to its
high oil and protein content. “Just this year we finally
sold the rest of our 1999 crop for birdseed,” says Paul.
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"The hemp plant stems are usually
baled for sale to various industrial users. However, lack
of a market has caused bales to back up on Paul’s
land. He and other hempseed farmers are awaiting the construction
of a fiber processing plant.." |
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Agronomically, hemp is a robust crop, as this dry year is
illustrating -- the hemp crop is thriving while some of the
other crops, such as flax, are flagging. However, hemp doesn’t
like wet feet, and the 2001 crop was down 50-70% because of
higher than normal spring and early summer rains.
Most hempseed varieties are imported from Europe -- Ukraine,
Poland, France, Finland, Romania, and Hungary. Paul grows
a short Finnish variety for oil in one field, and in several
others has taller Ukrainian varieties for both meal and oil.
Canadian hempseed breeders have been developing their own
varieties – targeting essential fatty acid profiles,
seed yield, short stature, and low THC levels.
Hemp needs a good dose of fertilizer, according to Paul –
70 lbs per acre of elemental N and 40 of P. No herbicides
are registered for pre-emergence use on hemp. Hemp is well
known for its weed suppressing abilities. Several herbicides
are registered for spot spraying, and this is the main reason
why Paul grows conventionally. Weeds that get out of control
are just too difficult to deal with without herbicides. Clean
fields are important.
However, strong demand for organics has driven the hempseed
industry to produce about one third of its crop as certified
organic, certainly the highest proportion of any food crop,
and close to the herb industry percentage.
Peder Jensen is growing 240 acres of organic hempseed
for Triple B Seeds. Peder, who emigrated from Denmark
in 1983, has nearly 1000 acres of crops down the road from
Triple B Seeds, about half organic and half conventional.
In addition to hemp, he grows faba beans, soy, and millet
organically, and wheat, canola, yellow peas, and barley conventionally.
The faba beans go mostly to Egypt, the soy is for natto miso,
and the yellow peas are the dry kind, like split peas. Peder
is transitioning to organic and is still learning the ropes.
As soon as the soil is dry enough in the spring - this year
is was late April - Peder does weekly deep cultivations through
May, in order to deplete the weed seed bank. At hemp planting,
around June 1, he does a final cultivation, which can be done
with the air seeder, seeding the hemp at two inches. When the
hemp crop is at least 1½ inches high he uses a tine weeder
a couple of times before the hemp is tall enough to shade out
weeds. In fields where the previous crop didn’t leave
enough nitrogen, hemp has trouble out competing weeds. In the
future, Peder plans to precede hemp with faba beans where possible,
which leaves more soil nitrogen.
Damage to the hemp crop roots by soil-borne cutworms (one
of several Lepidopteran species that are common in Manitoba)
was particularly bad this year. Large patches of weedy ground
were evident where cutworms did their early season damage
in Peder’s hemp field. Mustards, lambsquarter, Canada
thistle, quackgrass, sow thistle, and wild oat are the worst.
The moth stage of the cutworm feeds on late blooming crops
like alfalfa, and lays its eggs in the soil of surrounding
fields. Alfalfa is grown here for seed, providing an ideal
feeding source for the moths. The soil-borne larvae emerge
in the spring and feed on crop roots.
Peder’s current strategy where cutworm damage is too
severe to keep the crop, is to disk in the crop and plant
white millet in mid- to late-June. Peder talked about non-chemical
strategies for cutworm. As is so often the case, there is
a need for an early warning system via agricultural extension.
The conditions for cutworm infestation differ every year depending
on temperature, moisture, host crop dynamics, etc. An early
warning system would allow organic farmers to take precautions,
like applying Bt.
By the beginning of September the hemp crop, a tall Ukrainian
variety, is seven feet tall. The long and enormously strong
fiber of the hemp plant necessitates the use of the old, conventional
kind of combine for harvesting the hempseed. Hemp stems have
wrecked harvest machinery, especially the newer types of combine.
Paul modifies his combine by taking the feeder chain off and
using a continuous belt. It is also necessary to protect the
combine machinery with sheet metal plating. Peder contracts
back to Paul to harvest his hempseed in order to avoid damage
to his combine.
The hemp plant stems are usually baled for sale to various
industrial users. However, lack of a market has caused bales
to back up on Paul’s land. He and other hempseed farmers
are awaiting the construction of a fiber processing plant.
Until then, Paul is not baling the stems, as it costs $10
a bale. This year Peder will roll down the five-foot long
stems and in the spring will burn them. “Not the best
solution, but lacking a market for the stems, it’s all
we can do,” says Peder.
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Hempseed yields in a good year are 1,500 lbs/acre for conventional
and half of that from organic fields. Paul considers the 50%
lower yields of organic hempseed to be attributable to inability
to get enough nutrition to the crop, especially nitrogen.
However, it should be remembered that experience with a number
of other crops has shown that organic yields catch up to within
10% of conventional after a few years of agronomic fine-tuning.
Organic farmers don’t have the extension backup that
conventional farmers have had over the last 50 years, so it
often takes a few years for the cutting edge farmers to tweak
the organic agronomy of a crop.
The price premium for organic hempseed exactly reflects the
yield difference: 40 cents per pound for conventional and
80 cents for organic seed.
Perhaps someday Americans will realize what they are missing
out on by allowing a few anti-drug zealots in the government
(along with the lobbying of threatened companies) to continue
to ban this remarkable crop, with its enormous potential to
produce high quality products at a low environmental cost.
Meanwhile, Canadian farmers are going to cash in on this potential.
Don Lotter has a Ph.D. in agroecology and has worked
in sustainable agricultural development in North America,
Latin America, and Africa over the past 25 years. He can be
contacted via his website www.donlotter.com
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