The Independent Member for Denison, Andrew Wilkie, has urged Australian and New Zealand health ministers to stop stalling and allow the production of industrial hemp for human consumption in Australia.
The Australian and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation (the Forum) meets in Hobart tomorrow to consider lifting the ban on industrial hemp, the non-drug low THC version of cannabis, as food.
Mr Wilkie said it was time to allow the production of industrial hemp for human consumption in Australia.
“It is a political decision not to have approved it by now,’’ Mr Wilkie said. “There’s not a single good reason for holding off approving it for human consumption. It’s a healthy oil, it’s a safe plant to grow and it will be very, very lucrative for farmers, particularly here in Tasmania.
“The only thing missing at the moment is the political will to explain to the community that it is safe and lucrative and healthy.’’
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) recommended the approval of industrial hemp for human consumption in 2012 but Australia and New Zealand are the only two countries in the western world still restricting the market.
At its last meeting in January, the Forum failed to adopt this recommendation and continued to delay using the excuses of law enforcement, roadside drug testing and marketing concerns.
Industrial hemp – the non-drug, low-THC version of cannabis – is an economically viable and environmentally responsible product that is also highly nutritious, yet is not able to be sold for human consumption in Australia.
This has frustrated farmers who are keen to enter the growing market now worth many millions of dollars in countries including Britain, Canada and the US.
Last year Mr Wilkie introduced a Motion in Federal Parliament calling on the Federal Government to change the Food Standards Code to open up the lucrative market.
Independent Member for Denison Andrew Wilkie
