Hemp: Income, Market Questions Remain
By Joan Sanstadt Field Editor
Factors that will help determine the costeffectiveness of growing hemp as a traditional or an alternative crop will be the same for farmers in the U.S. and Canada. The big differences probably center around the cost of transportation to a processing center and whether or not the government provides a subsidy.
Reichert says hemp input costs for Canadian farmers include seed at approximately $2,700 a ton and fertilizer costs at "little more than what they are for spring wheat." Canada already has a seed crushing facility and is looking into the cost of putting in oil producing equipment," he said.
Speaker Geof Kime, a farmer and mechanical engineer, represented Hempline, Inc., Tillsonburg, Ontario, at the forum. "Half of the cost for seed in Canada is the transportation costs bringing it in from Europe," Kime pointed out.
Kime estimated fertilizer costs at $35 to $40 per acre, with no pesticides or herbicides generally required. "One of the variables will be the cost of licensing," which Kime figures will be a government requirement for anyone associated with growing hemp.
Harvesting hemp can be done with existing baling equipment, Kime believes, but warned that "hemp is very tough on equipment because it will wrap around the cylinder very easily. The equipment we have isn't ideal."
And he has another warning: "If you're allergic to pollen, you don't want to be in- volved in harvesting hemp," he said. Because the plant produces a lot of dust, most harvesters will want to wear some kind of mask."
Because the hemp plant is so bulky, transportation of the product can be difficult, he added. "It would help if we could bring processing plants into the rural areas where it is being grown. But there is a shortage of processing equipment," Kime noted, "so it becomes a matter of which comes first - the chicken or the egg."
Hemp growing isn't free of risk. Besides shortages of processing equipment and the need for more adequate harvesting equipment, Kime believes it isn't yet possible to ensure uniformity of the product. "We need to be able to guarantee a high quality product, and we aren't there yet," he said. "Ultimately someone will have to take an investment risk, and I think it will be an industry like textiles or a paper company," he said.
"Dedicated" is probably the best word to describe Ian Low, who arrived in Minneapolis with two bales of hemp brought with him by plane from the United Kingdom. Representing HemCore, LTD., Low admits it "is more work and difficult than any other new crops. But that's because it is also a new industry."
Untangling legal issues associated with growing hemp in the U.K., hasn't been difficult for earlier trials and was not a problem with research licenses. But according to that country's 1971 "misuse of drug" act, "some plots with more THC than the act allows have had to be chopped down and burned."
"Licensing issues have finally settled down and is working out rather well," Low said. "We've learned authorities want an individual's name on a license, not that of a company. They want to be able to identify an individual who will be a responsible party."
"Officials prefer hemp to be grown in a field where there is little or no access to a main road. They want a lane leading to the field, complete with a gate," he added. Growers of hemp have to be prepared for frequent inspections during the growing season and are required to make reports of any tampering, Kime said.
Growers in the U.K. are using only European Union-registered varieties, and all of those are owned by a French cooperative.
A successful growing season requires a good, early start, Low said. "The crop needs to be grown on noncompacted ground with good drainage." He recommended fall plowing, with minimal fertilizer application in the spring, and only light cultivation. "We've had no problems with weed control, and if grown properly, hemp will suppress weeds," he added.
But Low found that "harvesting is when the problems stART." Estimates of harvesting and processing costs had only about one-fourth of the actual cost when figures came in. "Hemp wraps around everything; after all it is rope."
Baled, it can be left in the field for quite some time. Its use, whether for paper or fabric, determines how long it can be left in the field, Low added.
In England, the question for the processing industry is whether "we should recreate the past or look at new technology. Right now processing is very labor-intensive," Low said.
A lot of the hemp currently being produced in the U.K. is being used for horse bedding. Typically, the hemp grower will also be growing beans, linseed, potatoes, or sugar beets. "All crops are subsidized in the European Union, Low said, "and break crops such as hemp bring greater subsidies. In the near future, I don't think there is any likelihood those subsidies will disappear. So far HemCore has received a government grant. We're the good boys," he admits, "because we supply rural employment."
In the U.S., environmentalists may be the 'real pushers' for hemp. Andy Kerr, executive director of the Oregon National Resources Council, says, ',Chemical pulping and chain saws allowed us to 'mine' forests because they were considered vast storehouses of fiber. Now we're finding, money grows faster than trees and the farm is becoming a more economical place to grow fiber."
Kerr, who was introduced by DATCP's Bud Sholts as being "best known for having brought us the spotted owl," said what has really raised lumber prices wasn't the spotted owl but "overcutting and the policy debate over how much we should cut from public forests. Overseas markets will pay more for timber."
"Beware of alternate fiber sources that are dependent upon a subsidy because a lot of farm subsidies are on the table right now," Kerr warned. "One of my central principals is that hemp ought to go for it on its own, in other words, without subsidies. Canada has virtually removed subsidies from most of its ag products, including wheat."
Besides fiber, oil from hemp seed is already being used in Russia as a lubricant for heavy equipment.
What lies ahead?
Before hemp can be economically produced in the U.S., there is the legal problem to
be overcome. If that happened tomorrow, there would still be plenty of issues to be
dealt with including seed availability, and the adaption of existing technology or
adding new technology to harvest and process the plant. And farmers would'have to
become accustomed to the plant's growing requirements.
But the worldwide need for more fiber to meet textile and paper orders could well provide the impetus to overcome these obstacles. This very real need, coupled with support from environmentalists could go a long way in smoothing the way for industrial hemp to be grown in Wisconsin, Sholts maintains.
Sholts, director of the DATCP's Ag Development and Diversification Program, points to hemp's many uses. Now a director on the board of the New Uses Council, Sholts says farmers and others interested in promoting new uses for agricultural crops should not turn away from the possibility of growing industrial hemp.
Materials prepared by the Colorado Hemp Initiative Project mention hemp's 'superior strength and resistance to mildew and rot, which have made it a valued source of rope. Valued at $500 an acre, hemp also has the potential be an important value-added crop in the U.S.
Even the USDA, in 1916, looked at one acre of hemp as capable of producing as much paper as four acres of trees. Colorado promoters say hemp paper can be bleached without producing dioxins and it can be recycled many more times than tree paper.
Other uses include paint made from hemp seed oil. That oil has a quick-drying quality, and plastics made from hemp cellulose are used for biodegradable plastics such as cellophane.
As food, hemp seed is known as being very nutritious because the seed contains 25% protein and is a rich source of essential fatty acids. In California, it is already being used as a component of a cheese product.
Textiles made from hemp fibers can be woven into soft and durable fabrics. For building materials, hemp can be used to make a tree-free fiber board that is stronger than wood fiber beard, is fire resistant and won't warp. As a fuel, its high yields and quick growth make it an ideal biomass energy crop, supporters say.
With both NAFTA and GATT trade agreements recognizing hemp as a valid agricultural crop, and with more than 300 U.S. businesses selling imported hemp products in the U.S., supporters wonder why profits from hemp products should only be available to overseas companies.