Cywarch Cymru - Hemp Wales
Members of Transition Town Llandeilo started a Hemp Group in 2007 and this aroused considerable interest. However, the climate of the Tywi valley is not absolutely ideal for hemp production, and considering the considerable bureaucratic obstacles to producing hemp, a wider focus drawing in farmers around Wales seems more appropriate than a local group and such an initiative is now getting started.
Hemp has been grown around the world for several thousand years. The Elizabethan fleets used hemp ropes, hemp sails, and the sailors all wore hemp shoes with hemp soles and their clothing was made from hemp. Most ancient literature was written on hemp paper.
So why did the US and many other countries ban the crop? Simply because the cotton growers, and more especially the synthetic fibre and paper manufacturers, wanted it out of the way and managed to get it banned by associating it with marijuana even though 'industrial hemp' has a THC content of less than 0.2%.
There is currently a strong revival of industrial hemp growing in many countries including Australia, Canada and the UK as well as in China and France where it was never banned.
Industrial hemp has so many uses one would need to write a whole book to do justice to the product. However it is currently used in UK for construction, animal bedding and seed oil and significant quantities are exported to Mercedes and BMW for manufacture of plastic door panels.
The seed oil is high in essential fatty acids (Omegas 3, 6 and 9), is high in protein, calcium, iron, phosphorus, magnesium, zinc, copper and manganese and has significant medical properties.
In addition to many books and articles about hemp, Wikipedia and many other websites can give you a picture of its numerous applications.
As well as being highly productive (it usually grows to ten feet tall) hemp is an excellent rotational crop. Since it is deep rooting it brings up natural soil nutrients. Since it grows so fast it seldom need herbicides. Since it has a natural insect repellent it needs no insecticides and since fungus is never a problem it needs no fungicides. So it is a good organic crop and not at all popular with the agro-chemical industry. Add this to the exceptional insulation properties of hemp and it can be seen that it is a highly environmentally beneficial product.
After a number of trial crops grown in West Wales in the last few years, this new regional initiative is now getting off the ground.
An article in the Soil Association’s 'Organic Farming' magazine 2010 Summer Edition brought in nineteen enquiries from all over the UK including Scotland and Northern Ireland and four of these were from South Wales. So in early October we held a Hemp Conference in Carmarthen primarily for Welsh farmers.
The Hemp Wales objective is "The re-establishment of Industrial Hemp as a mainstream agricultural crop" including local processing.
The short term objectives are for larger crops to be shipped to Suffolk for processing with some local processing of smaller crops especially for the high value seed oil. Long term objectives will initially focus on local processing of the core (called 'shiv' or 'hurd') for construction and animal bedding.
A significant impediment to farmers growing the crop is that currently it has to be licensed by the Home Office under the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act. Since this is both expensive and bureaucratic moves are afoot to simplify the process for farmers.
The reply by the Secretary of State for DEFRA to a recent Parliamentary Question by our local MP included the following:- "I do wish to see hemp cultivation expand in the UK, capturing the environmental and sustainability benefits the crop can provide and keeping the UK at the forefront of the development of new, high-value end uses for the crop."
This is not an easy project and there is a long way to go in achieving our objectives. However with its numerous uses and environmental benefits hemp may become a significant and profitable crop for Welsh farmers.
Please contact Anson Allen to register an interest or for more information: anson@ansonallen.co.uk.