A huge step forward for Tasmania’s hemp industry was marked this week after the Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) reaching an agreement to change the classification of hemp as a food product.
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The agreement was reached between the peak body and all state and territory health ministers last week.
It means that low-THC hemp seed will now be able to be produced for use in food products.
This has been a milestone achievement, particularly for Tasmania, with the government campaigning on this issue for several years.
The Health Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation met today at the Council of Australian Governments meeting in Adelaide on April 28.
It’s been 19 years since hemp was trialled as an agricultural product in Tasmania.
Hemp production in Tasmania has doubled in the past year from 150 to 300 hectares. The industry could expand to 1000 hectares in the near future, according to president of the Tasmanian Farmers and Growers Association Wayne Johnston.
Mr Johnston supports industrial hemp certification provided it’s developed using a whole-of-industry approach.
Ecofibre with The Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture is undertaking research to develop high-yielding, low-THC industrial hemp varieties suited to Tasmanian growing conditions.
Mr Warner said projects like this could help Tasmania catch up with more mature hemp markets abroad.
The opportunity for hemp growers in Tasmania has now opened up considerably as they will be able to market their product for use in food products, where before they only had a small textile window.
Hemp has long been a misunderstood plant, because of its association with its high-THC variety cousins.
However, it is a plant that has been used in ancient civilisations, in use as food, textiles, clothing and paper.
The tide may be turning on this humble plant as we learn more about its uses and as we seek to find renewable sources of fibre in a world affected by climate change.
Changing the certification of hemp seeds to be classified as a food source does change the game for Tassie’s hemp farmers but there is another way a similar plant could be recognised. If the door has been opened on hemp as a food product, could more be done with another variety – low-THC medicinal cannabis.
While some movement on this front has happened in the past couple of years, an ideal world would see the hemp industry opened to farmers completely, where they could grow for food, textile or medicine.
Tasmania already has a successfully managed poppy crop, a medicinal cannabis one could work in harmony and side-by-side with that medicinal crop.
Hemp and cannabis are two different plants that are grown in different ways but allowing a fully fledged hemp and cannabis industry would allow hemp farmers to diversify – much in the same way they do already with different types of vegetables or crops.
Farmers in Tasmania are pretty savvy these days and hemp and cannabis could provide rotational crops for those who wish to follow that path.
The future is bright for both industries, and it will be exciting to see the future changes that will open the door for farmers in the state and the country. The doors have been opened and it will be a positive future for both industries.