Growing for Biomass
Dave Jordan of 'The Hemp Farm'
6 Big Tips
How we make Money from Hemp:
We make revenue by selling hemp seed oils, a skin care range
and capsules to the New Zealand market. It is this revenue which
has enabled the company to grow and invest into cropping and
education of hemp to New Zealand.
The law change in Nov 2018 made hemp seeds legal for human
consumption, will effect the industry.
There's massive potential for both human and animal
consumption, but there's also a lot of potential for industrial
uses of hemp seed as well. Food is actually one side of it, but
now that food law has changed, it will actually help a lot of other
industries and there will be a follow-on effect from that.
We're focused on whole plants for food and fibre. The fibre
industry has huge potential to fill gaps around bio-mass
requirements. Future generations are going to have the benefit
of this more than we are. Hemp produces over four times the
amount of fibre as pine tree forests, over the same length of
time, so the opportunity is immense.
Hemp as a Fibre also has many uses:
H
emp Farm NZ and Dave Jordan have been enabling
the industry for 10 years and have articulated
a strategic plan to bring whole hemp plants to
the New Zealand market, through numerous end-use
products and ultimately take NZ organic hemp to the
world.
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Dave explains, "We have educated the market since 2008 and
taken products to the market since 2011. We have grown
predominantly tall dual crops every year since 2008 while
developing harvesting and processing methods and facilities
which form the much-needed infrastructure for this emerging
industry. We are vertically integrating our business through a
strategy we believe will fit within a New Zealand context, once
hemp farming is recognised as a major industry here.
Hemp is humanity's companion plant. It is in our DNA.
The motivation to start this began from the realisation of these
facts and how utilising the plant will change environmental,
social and economic challenges we are facing today. Hemp is
the new 'industrial revolution' from days of the old.
The building you're in, car you drive, fuel, clothes that you
wear, carpet you stand on... everything around you... those can
all be made of hemp and by making those things out of hemp
it creates economic opportunities, by locking up carbon from
the atmosphere into product. A safer product that doesn't use
chemicals.
Fibre is bigger than the food potential, but food is what is going
to wake up a lot of people. Hemp is a high-profile food, top of
the food chain. It is the most nutritional seed on the planet. The
rest of the plant can be used for a lot of things, and even the leaf
material, which is still taboo. The leaf has the CBD [cannabidiol]
and governments are still concerned CBD will contaminate food
chains.
Hemp is becoming Mainstream:
Dave goes on, "We're already working with a lot of food
manufacturers and distributors around the country. We have
about 500 hectares of hemp this year, next year we're looking
at, at least 2000 for food and fibre crops. What will happen
is, as it grows it will start to find its own way. We find a lot of
university students are already doing work around the plant-
based economy and are excited about that.
"The bodies of cars are made from hemp, interiors and door
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