Hemp Farming in the UK

by Paul Benhaim

We are in contact with a farmer in the South of England who has had a licence from the Home Office forover a year now. He has applied for a EEC subsidy which is offered to any Hemp Grower. With sowingtime growing nearer, he still has had no reply, and his plans to grow fifity hectares seems less and lesslikely to come into fruition.

The farmer has agreed to grow whether he receives a subsidy or not. But this will mean a reducedharvest. His plans are to produce Hemp fibre that will be hand-retted and woven into yarn and then intofabric. This will all be done locally and will create employment for the local community.

This is the power of Hemp.

We look forward to a time when farmers all over the country grow Hemp for this kind of use. For now,however, industrial uses of Hemp - namely seed crops for food - are possibly in the greatest demand atpresent.

A company called New Earth who produces Hemp food for sale all over the UK, Europe - and soon theUS and Australia - needs large quantities of seed. But the terms of the government subsidies (when theyfinally come through) restrict Hemp-growing to fibre or pulp use. It is sad to see that a large industrial usefor seed crop is being sacrificed in favour of other European and non-European coutries.

For example, New Earth purchases what it believes to be the best-quality food grade seed fromSwitzerland. The costs of transporting this already-expensive product are not only another unnecessaryexpense, but a waste of energy. Would it not make far more sense to grow seed in the country in which itis being processed?

Why does the EEC and British Home Office state that they are interested in helping our industry in thefuture, when it is now that it is being used, and now that energy is being wasted?

We will keep visitors to the Home of Hemp updated, and when a crop is finally sown, we will postphotographs of each stage of the growing and processing stage. This will demonstrate just how quicklyHemp grows, and how it can produce four times the amount of pulp as trees - in a shorter time and onthe same amount of land. After harvest, we will keep you up-to-date on its transportation, and report onthe general climate of opinion.You must note that the pictures of the Hemp crop will not be allowed to include any surrounding fields to deter any would-be Hemp poachers. This has been requested by the Home Office who are concerned about young people rushing to the location, ripping off the plants, causing trouble for the farmers and giving the media some way to bring down the respectable uses of Hemp.

Hemp is a learning process for us all. We know the theory, we must make it happen now. Before it is too late...

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