![\"Hemp](\"http:\/\/ministryofhemp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Hemp-oil-canada.jpg\")
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While industrial hemp returned to the United States on limited terms in 2014, all Canadians have been allowed to grow hemp since 1998, though the plant remains more restricted than other crops. Today, about 100,000 acres of hemp are grown annually in Canada according to experts we interviewed, and hemp is a well-established industry with government support.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, only about 23,000 acres<\/a><\/u>\u00a0of hemp were grown in the U.S. in 2017, according to a report by Vote Hemp, and the industry struggles with unclear regulations and occasional threats from government agencies<\/a><\/u>\u00a0and law enforcement<\/a><\/u>.<\/p>\n Both Canada and the U.S. are at a crossroads when it comes to the cannabis plant. Currently, Congress is considering the \u201cIndustrial Hemp Farming Act<\/a><\/u>,\u201d which would allow almost anyone to grow agricultural hemp in the U.S.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Canada will legalize recreational use of psychoactive cannabis next year, a momentous occasion for those who\u2019d like to see full legalization<\/a><\/u>\u00a0across North America or even beyond. With hemp legalization on the horizon in the U.S., and even recreational cannabis spreading from state to state, we wondered what our country could learn from Canada, and asked experts from both countries<\/a><\/u>\u00a0for their thoughts.<\/p>\n Crew is cautious about growing hemp in a new market, because he saw the struggles that the industry underwent during its early days. Crew founded Hemp Oil Canada in 1998, very soon after hemp was legalized but, almost two decades later, few other companies remain from that time. Many farmers, entrepreneurs, and innovators had high hopes for hemp back then, and most of those efforts failed due to a lack of infrastructure and the lack of anywhere to market their wares.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I got involved with this we had zero market, zero products and zero processes to make those products,\u201d Crew recalled. \u201cWe had to basically invent everything right from the get go.\u201d<\/p>\n Geoff Whaling, chairman of the U.S.-based National Hemp Association, agreed with Crew\u2019s assessment. \u201cThey had a lot of literal growing pains in the first years.\u201d<\/p>\n As a dual citizen of both the U.S. and Canada, Whaling is in a unique position to guide hemp growth in the U.S. based on the lessons learned to our north. \u201cWe are hoping to avoid those challenges as we move forward here in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n Excited by a new crop and its potential to revive Canadian agriculture, many farmers rushed into hemp growing without a buyer lined up in advance, only to end up with a warehouse full of hemp seeds.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I got involved with this we had zero market, zero products and zero processes to make those products. We had to basically invent everything right from the get go.\u201d – Shaun Crew <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cA lot of those guys end up sitting on that seed for one or two years and then at that point it really doesn\u2019t have a lot of value,\u201d Crew explained.<\/p>\n Whaling told us, \u201cAfter year 3, the industry absolutely collapsed in Canada because nobody knew what hemp was.\u201d<\/p>\n Not only was the infrastructure lacking, but hemp still faced a lingering stigma<\/a><\/u>\u00a0thanks to its association with psychoactive cannabis and the war on drugs. Adding to the stigma, hemp growing is overseen by Health Canada, the government agency in charge of controlled substances, unlike other crops which fall under the jurisdiction of Agrifood Canada. In other words, hemp was and is still treated like a drug rather than a normal plant.<\/p>\n Over time, however, Health Canada eased its initially onerous restrictions and became increasingly supportive of adapting its policies to the needs of hemp growers. Law enforcement and government officials alike saw that hemp growing didn\u2019t lead to any increase in crime or other issues for the communities where it was grown, processed and consumed. And, as the hemp industry slowly stabilized, anyone could see how it was a benefit to the economy.<\/p>\n Today, Canada is one of the top exporters of hemp foods to the U.S., especially hemp seed <\/a><\/u>products. Hemp Oil Canada remains one of the major players in the market and, in late 2015, the company merged with Manitoba Harvest, the other major powerhouse, though the two companies maintain separate corporate structures. Crew estimates hemp foods generate at least $150 million in annual profits in Canada.<\/p>\n One of the biggest keys to success is vertical integration. Companies like Hemp Oil Canada control every stage of the growing process, from forming contracts with the growers right up until the hemp foods reach the market. Under this system, farmers know that they have a built in market for their crops, and hemp food manufacturers ensure they get exactly what they need from the farms.<\/p>\n To a much lesser extent, Canadian hemp is also used for textiles or building materials. One market that remains largely untapped is CBD oil<\/a><\/u>, the nutritional supplement that\u2019s grown extremely popular in the U.S. for its healing potential<\/a><\/u>. Although CBD is available through Canada\u2019s medical marijuana program, hemp growers and vendors are banned by law and Health Canada regulations from using the flower or leaves of the plant, or from refining hemp into CBD.<\/p>\n Most hemp grown for seed, and therefore the bulk of the hemp grown in Canada, is grown in Western provinces but, in the east, Quebec is making up for it by becoming a leader of hemp research. \u201cInnovation is very important here and the government is supportive of the hemp industry.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s according to Darko Popovic, one of the founders of Chanvre Quebec<\/u>\u00a0(\u201cHemp Quebec\u201d). Popovic and his friends, fellow hemp enthusiasts, created Chanvre Quebec to promote French-language information about the crop and promote hemp entrepreneurs from their province.<\/p>\n Popovic credits institutions of learning as key advocates for hemp legalization; research into hemp in Canada began years before full legalization. \u201cIt was actually the universities that made it happen, in fact, and still today we\u2019re doing a lot of research.\u201d<\/p>\n Another company to benefit from relatively early support for hemp in Canada early is Valleybio<\/a><\/u>, a \u201cRegistered Seed Establishment\u201d providing legal hemp seeds to growers throughout Ontario.<\/p>\n Founder Reuben Stone grew his first hemp crop in 2009, then later his company became a major supplier of hemp seed in the province after Stone stepped up to replace the failing Ontario Hemp Alliance. Valleybio also partners with another seed cleaning company, and a Quebec hemp breeder in a hemp genetics research and marketing partnership called \u201cUniseeds.\u201d<\/p>\n Since 2014, \u201cwe\u2019ve been doing all the hemp seed processing in Eastern Canada,\u201d explained Keanan Stone, Valleybio\u2019s General Manager.<\/p>\n In Canada, hemp farmers are not allowed to save seeds from their crop, but are required to purchase \u201cclean\u201d seed from a registered seed establishment like Valleybio each year. While this may seem restrictive, Stone told us that it can actually protect farmers from government interference in their crops.<\/p>\n In the U.S., hemp crops are tested for their THC levels after harvest. THC is the chemical in cannabis which can make people \u201cfeel high,\u201d and legally levels in industrial hemp must be 0.3 percent or less. Even though THC levels are still far too low to cause any noticeable effect on consumers, U.S. hemp crops must be burned if they test even 0.1 percent over the legal limits.<\/p>\n Health Canada used to enforce similar policies, but decades of reliable seeds provided by seed cleaners changed their tune. \u201cNo THC testing has to be done anymore on commercial production so as long as you have purchased certified seed,\u201d Stone said.<\/p>\n Stone said while she feels like Canadian hemp growers have been \u201cfortunate\u201d in these gradual changes, she still hopes hemp is fully reclassified in the future:<\/p>\n \u201cWe have basically 20 years of really good history of growing industrial hemp as a field crop, so to have Health Canada and the Federal Government move industrial hemp out of the jurisdiction of Health Canada and the Controlled Substances Act and move it over into agriculture and Agrifood Canada, so it can be treated as a regular food crop, a grain crop, would be the ideal situation.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Medical marijuana has been available under a very successful federal program in Canada since 2001, but starting in summer 2018, psychoactive cannabis<\/a><\/u>\u00a0will also be available nationwide for recreational use. Crew told us he\u2019s proud that Canada is leading the way to cannabis legalization, but concerned about its uncertain effect on the hemp industry. Right now, it\u2019s still unclear how the law will be implemented both on a national and a province-by-province level.<\/p>\n \u201cCome next July we\u2019ll find what that regulation is going to look like, and it\u2019ll replace the industrial hemp regulation which we\u2019ve operated under for the last 19 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n While stakeholders like Crew have reached out to government officials for reassurance, he is frustrated that they still aren\u2019t sure how legalization will affect their industry. Still, he remains positive about the law, foreseeing many potential benefits for Canada, including a boost to scientific research into cannabis. He added:<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had a medical marijuana program in this country for a couple decades now and it\u2019s just growing all the time and it\u2019s not creating other problems for either law enforcement or politicians. So it\u2019s a great move and I\u2019m happy to see that Canada\u2019s going to hopefully take the lead in this.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Citing Canada as an example, Whaling told us the slow pace of hemp legalization in the U.S. has had some benefits by forcing the industry to grow at a measured pace. He believes more research is needed into the efficient use of hemp<\/a><\/u>, and better tools developed for commercial harvesting, before it can become a truly revolutionary crop for American farms.<\/p>\n \u201cJust using it for seed and oil pressed from the seed doesn\u2019t create an industry,\u201d he said. While Canada is growing an impressive 100,000 acres of hemp, he noted by way of comparison that the country grows over 7 million acres of soybeans<\/a><\/u>\u00a0each year.<\/p>\n Crew, of course, agrees. \u201cDon\u2019t be throwing millions of dollars at it at once. Unless you have a market to sell those products into, you\u2019ve got to be careful.\u201d<\/p>\n He added, \u201cWill it save the family farm? I doubt it, but everything helps a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n While Canada is leading the way into cannabis legalization, that process is also slowly underway in the U.S., with about 29 states<\/a><\/u>\u00a0offering legal marijuana in some form. But as that process continues, we\u2019ll need to be careful not to harm the growing industrial hemp industry either.<\/p>\n As Popovic joked at the end of our interview, \u201cYou can learn from our mistakes instead of making your own mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\nCANADIAN HEMP INDUSTRY FACED MANY OBSTACLES AFTER LEGALIZATION<\/h2>\n
![\"hemp](\"http:\/\/ministryofhemp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Canada-hemp.jpg\")
<\/p>\nVERTICAL INTEGRATION HELPS MAKE HEMP A SUCCESS IN CANADA<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nUSING ONLY REGISTERED SEED PROTECTS CANADIAN HEMP FARMERS<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nINDUSTRIAL HEMP IN CANADA FACES UNCERTAIN FUTURE UNDER UPCOMING CANNABIS LEGALIZATION<\/h2>\n
LEARNING FROM CANADA: RESEARCH AND CAREFUL GROWTH COULD LEAD TO A SUCCESSFUL HEMP INDUSTRY<\/h2>\n
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