 | NORML News: Riverside Hemp |
 Norml News Winter 2007
Innovative community hemp farmers were
busy over the summer growing industrial hemp
at Riverside Community, near Motueka. TARA
FORDE spoke to some of those involved.
The hemp collective was drawn from
the wider Motueka community with
a large and diverse net of knowledge and
experience, although not necessarily in
growing hemp. The relatively small scale
and inexperience with the crop made things
difficult to do with commercial ‘efficiency’,
and yet innovations were made, the people
came together, and the hemp was harvested!
Riverside community recently removed
some of their conventional (non-organic)
apple orchard. The community gardeners
were hoping to purify the soil and increase
the organic matter in the soil. Hemp
came recommended. The community are
interested in he future commercial potential
of the plant, particularly for projects such as
hemp-mud bricks, rope, and paper.
Over a hectare of cannabis p. kompolti
pacifica was planted with 40kg of seed
in early December. This variety was
developed for Southern latitudes as a high
fibre producer. Boksashi (microorganisms)
was applied to the ground before planting,
as well as four foliar applications to the
growing seedlings.
Verena Gruner, community resident
gardener, said a highlight was seeing how
fast and well the seeds grew. Corn was
planted as a border crop, but quickly
became dwarfed by the hemp.
The 0.5m strip of corn, a good
companion crop to hemp, did very
well. From a growing perspective,
Verena said hemp was a delight
to grow as no weeding needed to
be done as the hemp outgrew all
other plants. Much of the crop was
over 2m tall. The crop could have
been even bigger had the hemp
been planted earlier and had it been
a wetter summer. The hemp crop
did not get irrigated, and still grew
“amazingly” well.
The crop was harvested in mid March
and had lots of help along the way, with the
local Motueka community, apple pickers,
WWOOFers, hemp growers from France,
and many others pitching in. Nick Alterio
and Tomaash Cernik got involved to further
the homegrown and community grassroots
involvement. A key motivator for many
was local diversity and breaking out of
monocultural farming practices.
The farm machinery used was a 1915
wheat harvester, originally designed for
being horse drawn. Several machines were
specially modified for the hemp harvest,
and for removing the seeds. This involved
working out how to cut the hemp, how to
collect the seeds, and getting the hemp dry.
Many innovations were made along the
way. Dealing with the machines and bigger
infrastructure highlighted the uncertain
viability of planting a ‘trial’ crop, with no
guarantees, long term plans, or national
vision.
Hemp has been allowed in trials for
several years. Licenses to grow cost
$500 to lodge an application. In order
to sell the seed, the buyer also needs to
have a license, which costs another $500.
These costs make it difficult to explore the
commercial viability of hemp, particularly
hemp foods, which are sought after overseas
as highly nutritional super-foods. Hemp
is the highest of any plant in essential fatty
acids, in the optimum ratio for human
consumption, and is a perfect protein. Yet
foods containing hempseeds are currently
illegal, although hempseed oil is allowed.
There are also environmental benefits
to growing hemp. “These days, we have
an advanced situation of sudden climate
change,” says Motueka hemp grower Steve
Burnett. “The photosynthesizing capacity
of hemp allows an upward growth rate of
8cm per day. This represents a phenomenal
carbon sink which, unlike trees, can be
adopted annually.”
The government is holding back
this potentially beneficial industry.
In other parts of the world, such as
the European Union, governments
have recognised the potential of
hemp, and financially support
growers. New Zealand should
better support this crop.
For more information about the Riverside
hemp project and photos of the crop please see http://tomaash.net/hemp
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