We are edging closer to a viable industrial hemp industry in Tasmania with Primary Industries Minister Jeremy Rockliff this week tabling legislation that sets out the parameters within which farmers can grow this crop with more certainty in the future.
Of particular joy to us is that hemp growers will have to deal with only one government department, the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment, rather than Health and Human Services, Justice and a couple of others. It has been a nightmare.
But there is still a bureaucratic fog blotting the horizon for this crop, the horizon we strive for when hemp seed products will be accepted in Australia and New Zealand as a food source as it is in many other parts of the world.
This is an industry raring to go, when hemp can be grown here on a commercial basis for food, oil and fibre. At the moment we are limited to about 11 growers planting about 100 ha a year, with the seed product being pressed for oil in the cosmetics industry.
Mr Rockliff’s Industrial Hemp Bill essentially removes industrial hemp from being officially considered a poison or a drug. That classification has held us back, while at the same time forcing us to deal with up to five government departments to get a licence to produce seed for pressing.
In future hemp will be regarded as an agricultural crop, like any other that we can grow. For poppy growers it becomes both an alternative and a backstop. Because we plant hemp in November and harvest in late February or March, it means that if we lose poppy crops, as we did last year, through too much rain, we will still have time to put in hemp in the same ground but later in the year, the driest part of the year.
As well as taking the industry outside the poisons regime, the legislation and the accompanying regulatory framework extend licensing from one to five years, which means farmers can plan ahead.
Even though the THC levels of Tasmanian hemp are very low in any case, lifting the content threshold from 0.35 to 1.0 brings us into line with NSW, Queensland and the ACT, which will allow for freer trading.
As I said, we still have to overcome the federal prohibition on hemp food products. Any change has to be agreed by the Australian and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation. They have actually agreed but called for more research before the ban can be lifted. The forum meets again in January and perhaps this time we can clear that final hurdle.
New Zealand already approves the human consumption of industrial hemp oil, but not low-THC seed.
We are confident that Tasmania has a strong future in growing hemp for seed, oil and fibre. With production up to economic levels, we can also look forward to local processing and that means the prospect of many more local jobs.
THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED IN THE TAS COUNTRY ON 25TH SEPTEMBER 2015
TFGA president Wayne Johnston
