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Could Hemp Sustain The Cariboo?
Pubdate: Wed, 07 Sep 2005
Source: 100 Mile House Free Press (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 100 Mile House Free Press
Contact: http://www.100milefreepress.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2143
Author: Lachlan Labere
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?330 (Hemp - Outside U.S.)
COULD HEMP SUSTAIN THE CARIBOO
Jack Witty's dream is to see the South Cariboo bloom from a plant that's
rich with potential yet rife with misunderstanding.
For the past five years the 108 Mile resident has been researching the
feasibility of growing and processing industrial hemp in and around 100
Mile. Over that time the 72-year-old retired economic development
specialist has amassed a four-inch thick folder. Its contents include
features from established Canadian magazines, European scientific studies,
socio-political backgrounders and comprehensive analyses undertaken by the
governments of Canada and B.C., all of which focus on the much-maligned plant.
"The environment is perfect for it. In our climate you would grow about one
crop a year," Witty said.
There are over 25,000 products that can be made from the oils and fibre
derived from industrial hemp. Attained from hemp seeds, the oils can be
used in a wide-range of medicines and food products. In Manitoba the plant
is even being explored as a source of ethanol.
Prior to hemp being outlawed in North America in 1930, the fibres were
commonly used in textiles, rope and paper. Today the resilient fibre is
being experimented for construction materials. Washington State University
found that fibreboard produced with hemp to be twice as strong as its
wood-based equivalent. Hemp fibre is being used by car manufacturers in
Europe and the U.S. for such things as car panels.
And in Europe and Australia hemp has been used to create lighter yet
stronger bricks used for housing and other construction applications "What
we do need, and need to find somewhere, is an entrepreneur who would be
prepared to look at it from a manufacturing point of view," he said. "Give
us a manufacturer, and the growing will happen.
That said, Witty recognized that technologies are not where they need to be
in North America for hemp to become a viable business of scale,
particularly when it comes to cultivating the fibre.
"The problem is the fibre is so tough-it was very hard on traditional
equipment," Witty explained. "The problem in North America is we have done
nothing up to date. We haven't manufactured in North America since 1945.
Witty noted that while European countries, particularly the UK., Holland
and Germany, have made great strides in advancing commercial hemp
cultivation and manufacturing technologies, similar technologies in North
America can typically be found in museums.
Hemp was grown in the United States and Canada until the 1930s when the
development of synthetic fibres along with improvements in technologies for
making paper from trees led to a slump in the hemp market. Witty's theory
is that corporate pressures lead to political pressures, which a "lead to
Canada's Opium and Narcotics Control Act in 1938 and the outlawing of
industrial hemp.
"The way I read the history, it was made illegal primarily because the
product was cheaper, and interfered with some of the major industrial
conglomerates in the U.S. and they did not want the competition from the
plant because it's totally renewable," Witty commented.
The Canadian government did require farmers to grow industrial hemp for use
during the Second World War, but they had to use the same technology
developed in the 1920s.
While other countries continued to advance hemp production after the war,
it remained illegal in the U.S. and Canada. In 1996, the Food Production
and Inspection Branch of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada issued a
statement suggesting that industrial hemp shouldn't carry the stigma of its
cousin, marijuana.
"Health Canada now recognizes the difference between these two types of
hemp but regulates who can produce a crop for fibre.
In 1996 Health Canada began issuing licences to grow industrial hemp in
controlled test plots (the first in B.C. was issued in 1997). And in 1998
Health Canada legalized the commercial production of industrial hemp. Witty
noted that in the U.S. it remains illegal to grow hemp, but legal to import
hemp products.
Eye on 100 Mile
Hemptown, a Canadian hemp clothing company may be close to tapping that
opportunity. Seeking to become a key player in hemp manufacturing, Hemptown
is creating an enzyme that will soften hemp stalks, allowing for the a
"cultivation of their fibres in a time that Hemptown CEO Jerry Kroll said
could revolutionize hemp manufacturing world over, and put Hemptown and
Canada on the map for what Kroll refers to as "Canadian cotton.
"What currently happens is it takes 60 days to process those strings out of
the plant because the plant has to decompose in a field and go through a
mechanical process," Kroll explained. "The enzyme that we're working on in
collaboration with Canada's National Research Council, we would be able to
process those fibres and pull them out of the plant... in five hours.
That's a staggering reduction in time and costs.
Hemptown has already partnered with the small agricultural community of
Craik, Sask. Currently engaged in a community-wide sustainable living
project, the community has embraced organically grown hemp as a way of the
future. Hemptown plans on contributing to that future by building a $5
million, 40,000 sq.-ft. hemp manufacturing mill, where the new enzyme,
expected to be patented soon, would be put to its first large scale
commercial use.
Kroll suggested that Craik's future could very well be 100 Mile's.
"I can't confirm that we'd be doing anything in 100 Mile House at this
point in time, but I can confirm that it has been discussed already," Kroll
said. "100 Mile House is an ideal area for us to see it in there. Lots of
agricultural opportunity, cool climate, lots of rail access. It is an area
where we can very easily see a Craik-type of situation developing, and
having all the spin-offs, not just for the growing of the seed stock, but
also jobs at the plant. And the key thing is the secondary industries
coming out of that like potentially locating a spinning mill, that sort of
thing in 100 Mile House - and the usual retail, housing, those sort of
booms that accompany a new industry.
Liberal
B.C.'s new Agriculture and Lands Minister Pat Bell sees great potential in
the area for hemp production, particularly as a means of mitigating the
impact of the mountain pine beetle.
"We have all these mountain pine beetle lands that are going to be
defoliated over the next few years here, and it makes a lot of sense to me
to look at how we can convert some of those lands to agriculture," Bell
said. "And I am not suggesting that you would take 10 or 15 or 20 per cent
of the provincial forest. But to put some perspective on it, if you took
100,00 hectares, which is a significant amount of land, and converted that
to agriculture, that would represent about 0.2 per cent of the provincial
annual allowable cut, so it's a relatively small portion.
Bell said his ministry is working with six B.C. First Nations groups on
developing pilot projects around the production of industrial hemp oils. He
also said the ministry is working with 100 Mile Mayor Donna Barnett on
"putting a package together and moving forward.
"I did discuss that with the minister," Barnett said. "And the minister
actually was going to get us some information on some projects elsewhere.
Bell said Witty's dream is realistic. Kroll thinks so too, sharing a
similar dream for all of Canada.
"I see a $25 billion dollar a year industry coming to Canada," said Kroll.
"I see vast tracks of industrial hemp being grown, and I see dozens of
these-processing facilities receiving the industrial hemp feed stock from
the farmers coast to coast, churning out 480 lb. bales of fluffy, white
'Canadian cotton'.
Witty's first and foremost concern, however, has always revolved around the
future of the community he calls home.
"I got involved because I really believe that a healthy community requires
jobs," Witty commented. "I've lived in communities that had their income
totally taken away from them for reasons beyond their control. So when I
came here, I thought it would be interesting to see what kinds of things
could be done that improve or increase rural income. And one of the things
I came across was industrial hemp. It seemed like a no-brainer that
something could be done with this. All the technology is available. All the
information is available. But unless there's a market, nobody's going to
get involved in growing. The only way to get a market is if somebody
somewhere builds a manufacturing facility. Well, my dream would be that
manufacturing facility should be here."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom