110
Canada Report 1998
Roddy Heading
New regulations to
allow a thoroughly modern, fully accountable industrial hemp industry passed
into Canadian law in March of 1998. The Health Ministers' Office immediately
began issuing permits and licenses to Canadian farmers, processors and seed
breeders across the country who had applied for the privilege of participation
in the first legal commercial production of Cannabis in North America
since the 1950s.
Support for the Canadian hemp
initiative has been eagerly embraced by both the Canadian government and the
public, who now view hemp as a demonstrably safe and valuable new crop returning
to the agricultural system. The reimplimentation of industrial Cannabis
to the Canadian farm menu is a great relief for hemp industry lobbyists who have
been working, in some cases, for decades, to achieve a consensus to lawfully
restore commercial access to the opportunities that hemp culture has to offer.
As the hemp agenda was, of necessity,
somewhat rushed into place for Spring planting, Federal hemp regulatory
priorities were arranged to ensure that first-time commercial applications were
processed immediately. Most first-time applicants received their permits in
June. Some farmers decided not to risk the short growing season remaining, but
others did and still managed to harvest good crops of fiber and seed in many
different parts of the country. Late sowing reduced overall yield of fiber by 20
- 50 percent across Canada.
Complete official figures for the
maiden voyage of Canadian commercial hemp were not available at press time, but
approximately 5,000 hectares of licensed Cannabis were under cultivation
during 1998. The signal fire has been lit and saluted by commercial players to
begin growing, breeding, processing and trading Canadian hemp as if it was just
another crop. They are taking the lead in a nascent continental hemp market that
will consume all the hemp fiber, seed and oil that they can deliver to
commercial clients at home and abroad.
The record low Canadian dollar favors
hemp in Canadian commodity export strategies supplying North American, European
and Asian markets. As soon as Canadian producers can show commitment to large
scale production on a sustainable basis, key line industry sectors such as pulp
and paper, automotive and clothing may be induced to purchase Canadian hemp en
perpetua, as long as acceptable price and quality shape the supply side of hemp.
The gains Canada makes and keeps
during the next few years will be "proving grounds" for the health of
the entire modern hemp industry in the Western world. Canada is in a precarious
position to "lead or bleed" in what will soon likely become, indeed, a
billion dollar crop.
Hemp was grown under license in eight
provinces across Canada in 1998, primarily in SW Ontario and Manitoba. Kenex and
Hempline, the leading Ontario commercial hemp players, have arranged financing
to purchase or develop new processing machinery, erect spacious new factories,
and oversee hemp contracts to farmers near their respective centers of hemp
production. Both companies are experienced hemp producers. Canada's third
regional hemp processing plant will likely be built next year in the
Peterborough region of east central Ontario.
Kenex, keen to deliver fiber to
nearby US automotive clients in Detroit for use in Cadillacs by 2002, in the
meantime has made progress developing a commercial line of culinary grade
de-hulled seed meal, and has started pressing oil for the expanding North
American hemp edibles market. Kenex engineers are working with established
Ontario cordage mills, and Parisian bast thread and yarn operations, to obtain
what may turn out to be the first offering of homegrown North American hemp
cloth, just in time for the new century ahead.
Hempline, the pioneer of modern
Canadian industrial hemp, has developed advanced machinery that converts the raw
stalk into loom-ready fiber that seems to satisfy US carpet manufacturers
seeking to enter into the production of hemp rugs and floor coverings that can
be recycled. Hempline will provide fiber to US upholstery manufacturers as well
as carpet makers.
While Kenex hopes to enter into
almost every phase of hemp product development, from farming to secondary
processing, Hempline will likely narrow its research horizons, perfecting
operations to supply finished hemp "to-order" for US mills.
The continentally central province of
Manitoba offered a striking hemp profile in 1998, as CGP orchestrated more than
50 local farmers to grow hemp on contract. They are pursuing plans to build a
major league processing factory at Portage la Prairie, (a regional hemp center
in the 1930's). The prospect of developing a new prairie oil seed industry has
attracted oil seed entrepreneurs to the region, eager to set up secondary
facilities in the heart of what may someday soon become hempseed central for the
North American continent.
The opportunity to research and
develop new hemp varieties is now available in Canada. Qualified agronomist/
seed breeders in Saskatchewan will soon be introducing a greatly improved oleo
strain - ‘Canefa’ - that will endure the prairie conditions admirably while
developing up to 10% GLA, more than three times the levels of this important
nutriceutical than is usually found in Old World varieties of oleo hemp. ‘Canefa’,
in the process of registration, is hoped to be included on the approved list of
hemp varieties, and when "green lighted" will be the first new
Canadian variety offered to Canadian farmers before the year 2000. Advanced
breeding is sure to unlock even more secrets of Cannabis germplasm, as
the plant can now be explored without unwarranted interference.
Quebec embraced hemp in a big way in
1998, as first-time commercial hemp farmers and the Quebec government held a
hemp field day celebration to welcome the return of this traditional Quebecois
crop in modern times. Plans for a committed hemp program includes the
participation of Quebec fine paper mills and Quebec textile factories to utilize
all the Quebec hemp fiber and oleo products that will be produced in the near
future. However, Quebec lost out badly when NAFTA planning centralized textile
production in the southern USA, wiping out, all at once, the Quebec Denim that
was just starting to assert itself on the North American market and is now eager
to regain a market toehold.
Leading Quebec hemp farmers are
growing ‘FIN-314’, a hemp variety acquired from our northern neighbors in
Finland this year. These plants are very early maturing (as little as 75 days
from seeding) and therefore well suited to the Quebec latitude. Most
importantly, they are only knee-high at maturity, so regular farm harvesting
machinery is all that is required to bring it into the barn. This variety also
offers a tight floral structure, so very little seed is lost at harvest. So far,
the birds have not discovered the seed-charged inflorescences in the field.
Other Quebec oleo producers are eager
to grow these new varieties next year. Much of the 1998 Quebec hemp seed crop
was grown 100% organically, and this feature is expected to earn the farmers
additional cash and place their products on the front row of retail shelves.
Reports of industrial hemp
cultivation on Indian reservations in western Canada -- sans permits --
may go a long way in establishing the supremacy of tribal law over Federal
legislation in "last-tag" policy closures. How this "Indian
Hemp" fares in the future may have great impact on the future autonomy of
Native people throughout the North American continent.
Exponential growth will depend on the
availability of Canadian grown hemp seed for resowing. Many Canadian farmers are
in a position to act as foundation-seed and registered-seed producers and to
serve as hybrid seed multipliers for the future. Licensed hemp grown in British
Columbia poised a special situation in 1998, this first commercial year, as
youths descended upon certain hemp fields to nab midnight trophies of industrial
hemp. The unacceptable quality of industrial hemp as a re-creational drug
undoubtedly does not satisfy anyone or alarm the authorities. However, the
licensed farmer chose to plow his hemp crop under rather than face the forensic
paper-work that the new regulations require all permit holders to abide by.
Medical Cannabis has attracted
wide public support across Canada during 1998. National television and the
popular press continue to portray this curious phenomenon in favorable light.
Opposition is uncommon, and this use of Cannabis now enjoys the sort of
support industrial hemp had gatered at the onset of its reimplimentation and
normalization program some years ago. The Federal health Ministers Office is
preparing a pro-gram to accommodate registered patients who are participating in
a casual, but accountable, medical marijuana club format in many Canadian
cities. These clubs are operating out-side the law on compassionate grounds, and
even though Cannabis and derivatives obtained from Cannabis are
controlled substances in Canada, 1999 may well see the federal government
actually exercising some control over Cannabis, rather than merely
erecting additional barriers of denial. If this comes to pass, Canada may be the
only Western nation that has moved forward in the creation of responsible
research to study the medical potential of Cannabis, or a least the only
country in the New World to make any gesture of accommodation to this end.
The illicit marijuana industry in
Canada, estimated at almost one billion dollars sales in 1998, continues its
undiminished advance in both domestic and US markets. As a result of twenty
years of intensive domestic production, importation of foreign-grown marijuana
to Canada has declined dramatically. The use of sophisticated artificial
environments to grow high-THC varieties of Cannabis is most prevalent in
British Columbia where its use is widely tolerated by adults in private, but
many other parts of the country are providing unlicensed Cannabis flowers
on a regular basis for the North American black market. This fact will no doubt
be addressed by our American neighbors to the south before commercial industrial
hemp trading between Canada and the United States can advance in our shared
market place. Although Canada has adjusted her laws to recognize the difference
between hemp and marijuana varieties of Cannabis sativa L., we are
continental trading partners with a powerful client nation that does not
recognize this distinction.
It is hoped that reasonable adherence
to the new industrial hemp regulations by Canadian producers in the commercial
arena will demonstrate the safety and integrity of industrial hemp originating
from he Dominion of Canada in the years to come, whether or not the US grants
clemency to Cannabis in our lifetime.
We are grateful that industrial hemp
is now a formal reality in Canada in 1998. We in Canada are aware that this
hard-won privilege to grow and trade our hemp stems not only from a delicate
diplomatic genesis, but represents a golden opportunity to make the most of this
wonderful new resource. Canadians intend to proceed boldly into the business of
hemp culture....as if it was just another crop.
Total area grown commercially in Canada 1998 | 2,400 hectares | |
Total number of provinces growing hemp | 9 of 10 | |
Total area grown commercially in Ontario | 1,163 hectares | |
Total area grown commercially in Kenex | ? | |
Number of farmers contracted by Kenex | 52 | |
Total area grown commercially Hempline | 500 hectares | |
Number of farmers contracted by Hempline | 20 | |
Total area grown commercially in Manitoba by CGP | 606 hectares | |
Total area grown for research, non commercial license | 107 hectares | |