Hemp project grows slowly

Published: December 21, 2011 8:00 AM
100 Mile House Industrial Hemp Producer's Group chair Dave Zirnhelt recently provided a project update.
The Zirnhelt Timber Frames construction company, founded and owned by his sons,  recently finished eight, four- by eight-foot industrial hemp panels.
The local project shares information with the University of Manitoba, and professor Kris Dick recently came out to observe the construction and install sensors to monitor the drying process, Zirnhelt explains.
That performance data is now electronically linked to transmit to the university, he adds.
An ongoing challenge that remains and prevents moving forward significantly from here, Zirnhelt says, is tying down somebody in the market who will agree to put up funds for product development.
"Now, it's back to mostly the private sector to make the business opportunities work. I think one of the weaknesses is we thought it was something anybody and everybody could do."
These previously-unknown obstacles include irrigation, likely required for drier years; good soils, or otherwise high input costs; and finding places or equipment that can process the tough hemp fibre. All of these problems are hindered by the market weakness, Zirnhelt explains.
"I've put most of my efforts into getting the [Agri-Culture Enterprise Development Centre] up and running because it's projects like this that need to be housed somewhere, and they need to have a little bit of push all the time."
Zirnhelt says he also plans to run the work performed in the industrial hemp value chain through the connections and experts linking up with the fledgling Agriculture Web Based Enterprise Tool (AWBET), expected to be fully operational by next spring.
While the local industrial hemp steering committee has no project funding left, Mayor Mitch Campsall says he is still actively promoting the project, and some interest has been seen from one business in Victoria, and another in northern British Columbia.

Alaska: Fairbanks Passes Resolution Encouraging Industrial Hemp Production

Submitted by restore on Mon, 11/21/2011 - 17:18 

• Industrial Hemp

Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks

The Fairbanks City Council passed a resolution encouraging the legalization of industrial hemp production. Growing hemp is illegal under federal law because the plant is a relative of marijuana. City Council member Lloyd Hilling sponsored the resolution to support hemp as a viable agricultural crop for Alaska. Hilling told the council hemp has lot of valuable uses.

"It's fibers for a myriad of cloth-type products and rope and canvas, and of course the seeds for oils that are used in a bunch of different food and even potentially for fuel. And then the hurds, the center of the stalk which is an extraordinarily good fuel. It competes with wood," Hilling said.

Hilling says hemp is grown at similar latitudes in Canada, and the United States is the world’s largest hemp importer. During public testimony, Lance Roberts questioned the council’s consideration of the hemp cultivation resolution, considering no farming is likely to happen in the city.

"I don’t really think this is city business, I don't think this is anything that the city should be involved in. This has nothing to do with the city," Roberts said.

Roberts said legalization of hemp growing is an attempt to get a foot in the door by people who really want to grow marijuana. Hilling countered that the crops are very different, and said that development of hemp agriculture in the broader region would lead to jobs and wealth that would benefit the city of Fairbanks. Hilling’s resolution urging the state to petition the federal government to legalize industrial hemp production passed the council on a 4 to 1 vote. Council member Bernard Gatewood, who directs Fairbanks Youth Detention Facility, was the only no vote, saying he couldn't take the political risk because hemp is associated with marijuana.


Source: http://www.alaskapublic.org/2011/11/17/alaska-news-nightly-november-17-2...