Hemp For Food - Red Tape
Tuesday 6 March 2012, 11:48AM
By New Hemisphere Hemp Seed Oil
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A decision on whether industrial Hemp will ever become a mainstream broad acre crop hangs in the balance. New Zealand remains one of only two countries in the world, alongside Australia, that will not allow food products other than oil to be manufactured from Hemp for food. Much of the red tape stems from Hemps association with its distant cousin Marijuana.
Hemp Food Products are produced from the Hemp Seed (Cannabis sativa), a cousin of marijuana - the only similarity is that they are from the same botanical family (Cannabis sativa), but are distinctly different.
The cultivation of Cannabis Sativa, or Hemp, which produces the longest and strongest fibre known to man, has a very long history. In China, it has been grown for more than 6000 years. In the 18th Century the British Navy depended on it, to outfit a vessel required 80 tons per ship. Hemp Seed was distributed in the Australian and New Zealand colonies.
However, in 1927 its sale was banned under the Dangerous Drugs and Poisons Regulations and in 1961, the Misuse of Drugs Act made it illegal to possess or cultivate cannabis. While industrial Hemp is the same species as Marijuana, that is where the relationship ends. There are over 1000 strains of hemp bred for various industrial uses.
The limit of 0.35 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is between one tenth and one twentieth of the level needed to gain any psychoactive effect, Industrial Hemp has a different growth form from high THC cannabis. So Hemp Seed Food products contain no THC, no one can get high from using hemp oil or eating Hemp Seed products.
The major challenge faced in Hemp growing is the lack of consent to sell Hemp Seed foods in NZ & Australia. This hurdle would have to be overcome if the industry was to develop Hemp’s commercial advantage in crop production and justify the investment required to develop a fibre processing plant.
Hemp producers want the NZ Government to overturn food standards that are preventing them from establishing a food product industry. Industrial hemp can be grown in New Zealand for oil seed extraction, but regulations prohibit the rest of the low THC plant from being developed into food products such as Gluten Free Hemp Flour & Protein Powder.
NZ & Australian Governments believe consenting Hemp seed foods will send a mixed message to the public about hemp versus marijuana.....Canada, the United States and Western Europe are successfully selling Hemp for foods!