Seed It and reap

In 2017, HuffPost Australia enthusiastically declared hemp food legal for consumption. The article, adorned with colourful pictures of beautiful foods, was also furnished with a beginner’s guide on how to prepare them.

The legal clarification surrounding hemp and its use today is perhaps more confusing than it ever has been, despite numerous local, regional and state authorities the world over re-evaluating and often legalising its cultivation to varying degrees.

Hemp’s potential benefits are well known. As a food ingredient, it is a source of essential fatty acids, including omegas 3, 6 and 9, and is low in carbohydrates, while clinical trials claim to have proved its value in helping to treat conditions such as eczema and psoriasis.

Hemp, or cannabis sativa, has been grown and used for its fibre and edible seeds for thousands of years, after first being discovered in Asia. However, there have been differing views as to its first known cultivation and use.

It has been used in a huge variety of products, including rope and even album sleeves for records. Industrial hemp, today farmed in as many as 30 countries around the world, can be found in paper, top-of-the-range cars, animal feed, textiles and even construction products. Hempseed oil is used in paints, varnishes, and lubricants and even as fuel. According to figures from the US National Conference of State Legislatures hemp is used in as many as 25,000 products.

Guilty by association

Some parts of the plant provide what Amsterdam’s Hash Marihuana & Hemp Museum describes as “some of the strongest plant fibres in existence today”. It’s because of this, and the already-mentioned health and beauty benefits, that the growth and harvesting of industrial hemp has been going on for so long; and there seems no end in sight, given the recent trend towards healthy eating and the acceptance by some governments that hemp is a regulatory viable prospect today.

Regulation of the industry, and more notably farming of the crop, has been complicated somewhat by the plant family’s association with recreational drug use.

Although the 2017 HuffPost Australia article celebrated the legalisation of hemp as a food ingredient, and other countries have taken significant steps to popularise the cultivation and harvest of the plant, much still needs to be done, according to the European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA). At last year’s 14th International Conference of the EIHA, delegates were told the global hemp food and food supplement sector faced significant challenges if it were to continue to enjoy the “double-digit growth” it has shown in recent years.

The trade body said hemp was showing “impressive worldwide growth” with the European Union (EU), China and Canada leading the way. It said “demand from the health and super food market, as well as the demand for active-plant ingredients as food supplements” was feeding that growth. It also welcomed the legalisation of industrial hemp cultivation that was to begin in the US a short while after the event in June 2017.

However, during the two-day conference – attended by more than 330 specialists from 44 countries – a large group of delegates signed ‘The Cologne Declaration on Industrial Hemp’, calling for action. The document read, “The signatories urge policy makers to develop a reasonable and harmonised legislation on non-psychotropic cannabinoids such as CBD and hemp extracts as food supplement ingredients, as well as pharmaceuticals, in Europe and in all member states, to make sure that consumers are protected, to sustain the industry’s current double-digit growth rate, to attract new investors, create jobs and to boost development of safe products.”

Legitimate concern

The body pointed out that regulations around the world were still very different, in many cases putting the European sector at significant disadvantage, including the requirements for certification in the EU which mean only varieties of hemp with a [psychoactive component] tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content of less than 0.2% are permitted for cultivation. This figure is less than the current guidance on THC levels in the US and China.

“The signatories urge policy makers to create European legislation allowing for industrial hemp to possess a THC content below 0.3% in harmonisation with the rest of the world to create a level playing field, especially with Canada and the US,” a statement said. It went on to call on EU regulators to increase that level to 0.3% in order to slow the penetration of other hemp into the European market.

Finally, the group called on the UN to take steps to help promote hemp cultivation and not curtail it for legitimate use. It said the UN should end the ban of the cultivation of industrial hemp in the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which “so far makes no differentiation between marihuana, medical hemp and industrial hemp without any misuse potential”. The statement said Article 22 of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs enabled national governments to ban the cultivation of industrial and medicinal hemp.

“The worldwide hemp food and food supplement industry is developing from a niche market to mainstream markets,” EIHA warned. “Many regulations and legislation must be updated based on the latest scientific evidence… to enhance the development of consumersafe products. A big chance Europe should not miss.”

The call sheds light onto what is a very difficult and often challenged legal position for governments and regional lawmakers the world over. While a hugely more favourable picture was painted of regulations around the world compared to those within the EU, the case isn’t as clear-cut according to some.

Speaking to Global News last year, Keith Jones, general manager at Rowland Farms – one of the world’s largest hemp farms said, “Unfortunately, Health Canada’s regulation only allows us to harvest the seed and the stalk.”

This means the cannabidiol (CBD) part of the plant is discarded, wasting millions of dollars and proving a missed opportunity, according to many in the farming sector. Their case has been supported by clinical studies into the potential for therapeutic use of the flowering part of the plant that contains CBD. Numerous trials have been conducted and have shown that CBD can help reduce inflammation and ease mental health conditions among other things.

Aside from the health and skincare benefits afforded by the use of hemp in our diets and daily personal care routines, and the uses of the plant’s fibres for materials, another huge benefit to allowing the cultivation of hemp, argue supporters, is what prohibiting the growth of the hemp plant can do for the environment.

By the end of 2017, 38 US States and Puerto Rico had considered altering their regulations surrounding the cultivation of hemp for research and/or commercial use. To date, 27 states have introduced pilot schemes to allow for research to be carried out on the farming of hemp.

Other actions have included determining an agreed definition of hemp, registering, licensing or permitting growers, and certificating seeds to ensure they comply with state and federal laws.

Seeds of change

One such state is Pennsylvania (PA), where the Rodale Institute Industrial Hemp Research Project is now in its second year. As part of the PA Department of Agriculture Industrial Hemp Pilot Project, Rodale Institute and 16 other bodies were granted permits allowing them to plant the seed. The four-year project, entitled ‘Utilizing Industrial Hemp as a Cash or Cover Crop to Address Weed Pest Issues and Enhance Soil Health in Organic Agriculture’, got under way in 2017. It aims to assess and evaluate industrial hemp varieties that are best suited to soil and climatic conditions in the state, determine the potential of selected hemp varieties to suppress and manage weeds in an organic reduced tillage management system, and monitor soil health.

“Our research aims to identify which varieties of hemp will be effective for future use by organic farmers,” says the institute. “Organic farmers are interested in growing hemp, but require researchbased information that will help them make informed decisions about integrating hemp into their rotations.”

Although one of the biggest challenges the institute and its project faced was sourcing quality seed from international sellers, its findings so far and goals for the coming three years will be of huge interest to farmer in the US and those with climatic conditions similar to Pennsylvania, and for brandowners looking at their supply chains in coming years.

For farmers looking to grow hemp it could mean less soil degradation and cuts the use of pesticides and herbicides as the plant has fewer natural adversaries and grows faster and stronger than many other species. This means they require fewer chemicals than the likes of corn, soy and wheat.

For food manufactures, hemp’s freedom from allergens, gluten, lactose, soy, and phytoestrogen, as well as being free from GM, are great selling points. The lure of the ‘superfood’ will also appeal to food brand-owners’ consumers as that trend shows no sign of slowing. And for the manufacturers’ customers, the use of hemp means a greater variety in healthier foods.

While indecision surrounding – and in some cases opposition to – legalising the harvesting of all or part of hemp plants looks set to rumble on for some time yet, it’s clear those already able to work with farmers and introduce hemp into their list of ingredients will steal a march on their competitors.