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The survey’s results will play a crucial role in identifying areas that require support and guidance. These aspects include questions related to cultivation areas, wholesale intentions, and understanding of the law, the association said in an emailed press release.

Industrial hemp comprises cannabis sativa cultivars cultivated primarily for industrial or medicinal purposes. Hemp can be used in various industries, including textile manufacturing, cosmetics, foods, and as a medicine for its therapeutic properties.

In July, the Albanian parliament passed a law regulating the cultivation, production and distribution of cannabis and its by-products for medical and industrial purposes. The law introduces cannabis cultivation, processing and trading licenses for companies with experience in the industry outside Albania.

Source: seenews.com

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Hemp has been grown across Scotland for 6000 years, with evidence of its use found in archaeology and ancient pollen analysis.

Place names such as “Hempriggs”, near Wick, and “Hempland” in the Lowther Hills of Dumfries and Galloway show the plant was widespread and valued. Hemp was such an important crop that Henry VIII ordered all of England’s farmers to put a portion of their land into growing the plants.

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Bringing the application deadline for industrial hemp licenses forward by just a few weeks could encourage more farmers to grow this so-called ‘super crop’ in Scotland, say industry experts.

Hemp has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 140 per cent and 540 per cent compared to oilseed rape and sugar beet respectively when grown for biofuel. It smothers weeds, doesn’t suffer many diseases, and its oil might even have the potential to fight cancer.

A new podcast by Scotland’s Rural College’s Rural Policy Centre, looks at why so few farmers are currently growing hemp in Scotland.

In ‘Hemp: the super crop’, three experts highlight the environmental benefits and practicalities of growing hemp, the legislative hurdles growers need to overcome, and the potential pitfalls involved – everything from a lack of infrastructure to hesitant consumers and a complex legislative process which isn’t quite fit-for-purpose.

Mark Bowsher-Gibbs, Principal Consultant at SAC Consulting – part of SRUC, says: “There is a Home Office licensing requirement to enable farmers to grow industrial hemp in the UK.

“It comes under the control drugs licensing requirements and the timescales in place slightly conflict with farmers’ requirements to plant in late spring, early summer.

“Applications have to be made by February for approval to go forward to an application stage for a licence, and those are usually considered throughout March and April. There have been some instances where the licence hasn’t been issued in time for the crop to be planted.

“It would be good to bring that forward prior to Christmas so we can get these licensing certificates in place.”

The podcast also features SRUC alumna Anna Mitchell, of Castleton Farm, who grows hemp and sells hemp oil products from her farm shop in Laurencekirk, Aberdeenshire, and Professor Vijay Kumar Thakur, who heads up SRUC’s Biorefining and Advanced Materials Research Centre.

Anna says: “The legislation is complicated, so that’s obviously a barrier to people starting to grow the crop. At the moment, there’s definitely a bit of a niche market for the products we’re able to produce from it. We need to get the products more mainstream so people can see there is going to be a market for their crops.

“There is a huge potential for this crop in Scotland. It has got great health and environmental benefits and we’re just at the start of a very long journey to get a market established for these products.”

Professor Thakur is building a network of hemp growers and other stakeholders in Scotland in order to maximise the benefits of hemp.

He says: “People have been growing hemp for thousands of years, mainly using the hemp fibre for rope, textile and paper but the seeds are also very important, and if it is to be commercially viable then we need to explore each and every component of hemp.

“The oil, which is extracted from the seeds, can have huge medicinal value. It can be used for biomedical applications and it has some promising biotic molecules that even have potential application in the cancer field. So, hemp truly is a super crop and has huge potential in a number of fields of research.

“With the current challenges we are facing in terms of material resources, pollution and growing of crops, there is an urgent need for more realistic bio-based alternatives.”

Source: grampianonline

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Industrial hemp could be used to expand the economy of rural Oklahoma and as a core ingredient in products such as biofuels, plastics, batteries and cloth, a legislative panel was told this week.

Speaking at a state Senate hearing Monday, former state Rep. Bruce Niemi, the president of the Oklahoma Industrial Hemp Foundation, told lawmakers it was time to expand the market for industrial hemp in Oklahoma.

“The goal is to create an industry here,” he said.

Niemi urged lawmakers to create an oversight group, the Oklahoma Industrial Hemp Commission, during the next legislative session. “We see today that hemp is a viable product,” he said. “It fits in well with the USDA’s efforts to create products from sustainable materials.”

‘A great deal of misunderstanding’ about marijuana, hemp plants

Kenny Naylor, director of Consumer Protection Services for the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, said industrial hemp could be used in many ways but added there was “a great deal of misunderstanding” about marijuana and hemp plants.

“They’re basically the same plant,” he said. “It depends on the THC concentration.”

While medical marijuana is regulated by the state’s Medical Marijuana Authority, hemp is regulated by the Department of Agriculture and has a much lower THC content. Naylor said the state has struggled to manage the medical marijuana industry.

This summer, during an appearance at the Oklahoma Press Association’s annual convention, Attorney General Gentner Drummond said he was concerned by growth of organized crime in the medical marijuana industry.

Drummond said several national organized crime groups have set up operations in Oklahoma to take advantage of medical marijuana production laws. He said Chinese nationals have purchased more than 200,000 acres of Oklahoma farmland.

Why industrial hemp could be an economic boom for Oklahoma

Still, while medical marijuana continues to present challenges for lawmakers, many believe industrial hemp could, over time, bring economic rewards.

Industrial hemp doesn’t have the same problems because the number of growers is smaller and hemp is regulated by the state, tribal governments and the USDA. Naylor said the number of grow operations for industrial hemp had declined because of a saturation of the market, the pandemic and the small number of processors.

But that decline could be reversing.

Bijoy Thomas, a scientist with Omega Thermal Systems of Independence, Kansas, told the panel his company designs factories that convert hemp byproducts, trash or other household waste into carbon fiber materials.

“We originally worked to take waste wood and convert it for use for bio-generation,” he said. But there is a big potential with industrial hemp. You take the water out, dehydrate it and then chemically transform (the) material to change it into a high carbon structure.”

The product, he said, is resistant to decomposition and can be molded and used for many other projects. “That’s where we think that hemp can be used,” he said.

The two state senators conducting the hearing said they hoped to see the state’s industrial hemp market grow — in the right way.

“There are currently only 21 licensed growers in the state, and I hope that we will see that number grow in the coming years to benefit our state’s industries and local economies,” state Sen. Roland Pederson, R-Burlington, said.

Pederson’s co-chair, Sen. Jo Anna Dossett, D-Tulsa, said she wanted to see hemp used as a sustainable way to make other products and, at the same time, see the state’s hemp industry develop properly.

“I feel like on the medical marijuana side we’ve struggled to grow that industry the right way,” she said. “With industrial hemp, we’re trying to move to a more renewable product. That’s the one thing that hemp brings to the picture. But we want to see the industry develop in the right way.”

Source: eu.oklahoman.com 

Image: Unsplashed

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While hemp production for textiles is at a “watershed moment,” hemp won’t bring promised sustainability without attention to how crops are grown, a new paper argues.

“This is a material with a lot of sustainability potential, and the industry has an opportunity to shape its production system from the soil up,” according to “Growing Hemp for the Future,” a paper from Textile Exchange, a global non-profit focused on climate change across the textile and apparel industry.

However, “if we conduct business as usual, the same negative impacts on communities and the environment could well occur from the practices that are common in conventional agriculture today,” the paper warns.

Back to the ’60s

Global fiber hemp production by volume is currently running at the same level it reached in 1961 but those fields take up far less land with far greater efficiency, resulting in higher yields, according to statistics from the UN’s Food & Agriculture Organization.

And with restrictions on long-stigmatized industrial hemp being lifted around the world and increased awareness of hemp fiber products, production capacity is growing, according to Textile Exchange.

“It is estimated that in 2023, 20 decorticators will be in production in the U.S. – six with a focus on bast fiber that are operating at three tons per hour or more. Having more decorticators not only increases production capacity but opens opportunities for second-level processors and manufacturers,” the paper observes.

‘Work in harmony’

While hemp’s sustainability attributes are well known among the public, if hemp follows the typical farming profile, posing risks to air and water, environmentally conscious consumers “could simply move on, looking for the next innovation to scale,” the authors suggest.

Growing, sourcing, or wearing hemp do not offer solutions themselves, according to the paper, which addresses the entire production chain including the roles of farmers, producers, NGOs and consumers.

Because there are few conventional pesticides currently authorized for hemp production, the hemp fiber sector has the potential to develop production practices that work in harmony with nature and result in measurable benefits. Sustainable practices for hemp can therefore be created “from scratch,” according to the paper.

Biological pesticides are, to date, the primary pesticides governments permit for use on fiber hemp, however, “availability and use of synthetic pesticides on fiber hemp is likely to expand without the industry taking precautions to anticipate, prevent, or minimize the potential impacts of agricultural inputs and mitigate adverse effects,” the authors warn.

Hemp and carbon

The paper also points out that further guidance is needed regarding how to account for soil carbon sequestration in the hemp textiles value chain. “The extent to which carbon sequestered in soils in this system can be accounted for is not well defined,” the paper observes.

“This means it is not possible to include carbon sequestration across natural fibers, including hemp fibers, when calculating GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions for natural fiber products. Nor (is it) acceptable to make such claims in promotional media which could lead to greenwashing concerns,” the authors say.

Guidance expected to be finalized before the end of this year should help by providing methods for accounting for land sector carbon removals from hemp cultivation, according to Textile Exchange. The Greenhouse Gas Protocol Land Sector Removals Guidance is the initiative of a multi-stakeholder partnership of businesses, non-governmental organizations and governments working to develop international GHG accounting and reporting standards and tools.

According to LCA accounting rules – developed to help ensure consistency in the footprinting of products and processes – it is not possible to account for carbon sequestration if the carbon is sequestered for less than 100 years, the paper also points out.

Findings & recommendations

Among other findings and recommendations in the paper:

• Governments should support research into the use of natural, organic, and regenerative farming practices for hemp production which prioritize soil regeneration, avoid the use of hazardous pesticides and fertilizers, and address improved water use and quality.
• Public data that supports sustainability claims and identifies fiber hemp production regions and quantities need to be made more widely available.
• The global production of fiber hemp by country, volume, unit of land measurement, method of production and price should be documented and reported annually.
• Robust regulations and standards to protect the rights of labor, indigenous and local communities should be established, including provisions to protect against environmental contamination.
• Brands should demonstrate commitment to responsible fiber sourcing by having a clear supply chain and sourcing policy that prioritizes organic, preferred, or regenerative farming practices.
• Long-term business relationships between farmers and producers should be based on a reliable system to verify sustainability claims and ensure traceability in the sourcing of hemp and other raw materials through to finished products.
• NGOs should work with government, academia, farmers/farm organizations, trade associations, and researchers to develop Best Management Practices for agriculture.
• Industry organizations should promote the benefits of responsible hemp production by facilitating research and education into production practices and hemp’s benefits and sustainability.

Source: hemptoday

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