The botanical name for industrial hemp is Cannabis sativa L.

The cannabis plant has been used by humans for food, fibre, medicine and animal fodder for thousands of years.

Different varieties of cannabis contain variable amounts of chemical compounds. One of these compounds is called tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) which can have psychoactive effects and make a consumer feel ‘high’. This is not true of industrial hemp.

Industrial hemp is defined as a plant that has been specifically bred to have LOW THC levels in the leaves and flowering heads so it has no drug value or effect and can be safely consumed as food. In Australia, industrial hemp is cannabis with less than 1% THC. In other regions like Europe and the USA, the limit is 0.3%.

Industrial hemp is fast growing and extremely versatile. It was spun into fibre over 10,000 years ago and is grown for numerous different industrial and commercial uses. Products manufactured from industrial hemp include fabrics, clothing, ropes, shoes, food, paper, bioplastics, insulation, oils, cosmetics, food products, animal bedding, garden mulch, etc.

The United Nations conference (December 2022) on trade and development reports that hemp

• uses a fraction of the water needed to grow cotton,

• absorbs more carbon dioxide per hectare than other crops and most trees,

• can grow in a wide variety of climates in most parts of the world,

• can be planted on land not suitable for other crops,

• helps to replenish the soil by removing heavy metals and other contaminants,

• is beneficial when included in crop rotation: eg hemp cultivation leads to a 10% to 20% increase in wheat yields,

• reduces waste as all parts of the plant – roots, flowers, fruit, stems and leaves – can be used. Other crops produce discarded parts which can have a huge ecological footprint. For example, in Africa, 80% or more of the cotton plant’s total mass is burned or discarded, contributing to heavy pollution. Similarly in India, burning harvest leftovers contribute to about half of Delhi’s deadly pollution, and

• has financial potential: the global market could hit $18.6 billion by 2027 – almost four times the amount in 2020.

Other sources note anti-microbial properties, resistance to UV, mould, mildew and rot. It can also be beneficial in terms of biodiversity as bees love it.

The plant consists of flower, seed, stalk, leaves and a tap root.

The flowers, seed and roots can be used for food, flour, oils, and extracts.

The stem of the hemp plant is made up of two components:

• the outer bark, or ‘bast’, which contains the long fibres used for textiles, rope, packaging, paper and food fibre, and

• the inner ‘hurd’, (the woody core of the plant with much shorter fibres) used in building products, insulation, biofuels and mulch.

About 40 countries produced some 275,000 tonnes of raw or semi-processed industrial hemp in 2019, according to the latest available statistics. But just four countries account for more than half of global output. China grows the most, followed by France, Canada and the United States.

China intends to plant 3.2 million hectares of hemp fiber by 2030. The aim is to replace cotton with a more sustainable alternative for textiles.

In the first five years of production, Tasmania produced close to 80% of all hemp grown in Australia. Our state experienced year-on-year growth in planting area to a peak in 2021 where there was 1,400ha under cultivation. At the time, this accounted for more than half of the 2,500ha grown that season across Australia.

In the following two seasons, a combination of factors has seen a dramatic decline in the area planted for food in Tasmania. These include excess supply from the bumper crops in 2021; the rise in issued licences in other Australian states at the same time water became more available; an influx of cheap imports from Canada and China; the decision by major supermarkets to take Aussie grown products off the shelf and replace them with these imports; a relatively small market share with hemp still considered a novelty health food, and the rise in other commodity prices meaning local farmers have other more lucrative choices with land use, for example, raising livestock or cultivating other grain and vegetable crops.

Similar patterns are being experienced in other regions around the world - for example, the USA and EU - and are typical for emerging markets in the agricultural sector.