Has there ever been a slower entry to the Australian food market than those products derived from hemp? I doubt it.
People have been consuming food derived from hemp since the caveman, but not in Australia. If you look at Hemp Foods Australia’s website (www.hempfood.com.au) you will see a map of the world with countries coloured in green that allow low-THC hemp food to be consumed and countries in red that do not. There are just two in red: Australia and New Zealand.
The campaign to overturn this Australasian ban goes back to 2002 when the first government investigation declared hemp food to be both safe and beneficial but, according to Hemp Foods Australia, the Howard Government would not countenance its approval.
Ten years on, Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) found nothing but good could come of this “new” food source for Australians. It found that foods derived from hemp seeds could provide a useful dietary source of many nutrients and polyunsaturated fatty acids, particularly omega-3 fatty acids; they had no psychoactive properties.
But still nothing happens. Why? Australian and New Zealand health ministers decided the FSANZ decision should be reviewed. Last week they met but again failed to give the thumbs-up to an industry that has enormous potential for Tasmanian farmers, a lucrative alternative crop, one that we are well qualified to exploit through our diligent and controlled growing of poppies.
They explained the latest delay by saying that while most of the work under way to address “information gaps” in relation to low-THC hemp food was on track, completion of clinical human consumption trials had been delayed from March 2016 to later in the year.
In the meantime, ministers agreed to ask FSANZ to “commence work on a proposal to allow consideration of low-THC hemp policy at the next Ministerial meeting, in March 2016, in parallel with finalising the trials”.
What does that mean—“commence work on a proposal to allow consideration…”?
According to Tasmanian ministers Jeremy Rockliff and Michael Ferguson this will progress matters “sooner than otherwise would have been the case”. Really?
There should be no doubt that the Tasmanian Government wants this industry opened up for our farmers and has done as much as it can to license growers for commercial hemp production, but it strikes me that there is little prospect of a green light for low-THC hemp food while “clinical human consumption trials” continue into the never-never, while proposals are “commenced to allow consideration”, all the time providing Australian and New Zealand ministers with an excuse to delay, delay, delay.
THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE TAS COUNTRY ON 26 NOVEMBER 2015.
TFGA president Wayne Johnston
