National - Ottawa Citizen Online

HEMP DREAMS UP IN SMOKE FOR FARMERS

Would-be growers leave fields bare as federal government fails to
grant licences in time for planting

Industrial hemp may be touted as the new billion dollar crop, but for
hundreds of farmers across the country, trying to cash in on Canada's
first foray into the commercial hemp industry has been a monumental
headache.

Dozens, perhaps hundreds of farmers haven't received their
hemp-growing licences from the federal government even though planting
season has already ended in western Canada and seeding in the eastern
provinces could only continue through this weekend at the latest. The
delay means the true value of what could be a Cinderella crop won't be
known until the end of the 1999 growing season.

"The viability for profitability is going down day by day," said
Douglas Brown, of West Hemp Enterprises Inc., a Vancouver-based firm
which has been set up to help farmers in the West get licences and
obtain hemp seeds.

Although banned since 1938 because of its dubious relative named
marijuana, industrial hemp regulations were specifically put in place
by Health Canada in March so farmers could legally plant the crop this
year. Hemp contains only trace amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol, or
THC, the substance that is found in higher quantities in marijuana and
produces a high when ingested.

Industrial hemp can be used in everything from car parts to textiles
to food additives to pharmaceutical substitutes. The crop is so
versatile that the United States imports $100 million U.S. worth of
the product every year.

Still hemp has been saddled with the drug culture image and
cultivating it commercially is being rigorously regulated by the drug
surveillance unit of Health Canada's therapeutic products program.

"If they meet all the requirements, the licences are issued,"
explained Jean Peart, manager of the unit's hemp program. "If they
don't meet the requirements, we get back to them to tell them what
their deficiencies are and sometimes this takes four or five times.
Then if they qualify, they get a licence."

Ms. Peart could neither estimate how many licences have been granted
nor how many applications have been made to get involved in all facets
of the fledgling industry. Those figures will be released at the end
of this month.

Among other requirements, would-be growers need to submit to a
criminal check and provide Health Canada with the global positioning
coordinates marking the perimetre of their hemp fields. Seed
distributors and processors also have to meet similar stringent test
including studying Canada's seed acts.

"There are some (growers) who are quite frustrated," said David
Sippell, managing director of Canterra Seeds Ltd. in Winnipeg, which
is the largest hemp seed distributor in western Canada.

Canterra has sold hemp seeds to about 125 farmers across the four
western provinces who will harvest an estimated 5,000 hectares of hemp
for fibre and grain this year.

Of all the growers who originally expressed interested in the crop,
Mr. Sippell figures about 25 per cent still have not obtained licences.

"There are some who just gave up. Who just simply said 'What is going
on?' and just said 'I'm not going to play with this anymore' because
they thought they had completed the information. Then they were asked
for more information and then asked again for more information and
then asked a third time for more during a busy time of year when
people are planting. They just say, 'Thanks very much, but no thanks.'
So they just gave up. And there are many others who on June 1 simply
said, well, 'Planting is over. If I plant my crop now it's too late.
It's going to be frosted out in the fall.' So they simply gave up

because of their licence not being granted in time."

Harold Moore, a 71-year-old semi-retired farmer from Peace River,
Alta. who has a degree in agriculture, is one of the growers who gave
up.

He applied for a research licence last November to plant a mere
fraction of a hectare of hemp at his 1,200 hectare farm located about
400 kilometres northwest of Edmonton. He wanted to determine if hemp
planted in his region would produce seeds considering the extremely
short growing season.

"I also wanted to see what kind of yields we've got in our particular
climate and soil to see if it's going to be a paying proposition
before we bought machinery," Mr. Moore said.

He filed the paperwork, obtained letters of reference from scientists
supporting his project and supplied Health Canada with the global
positioning requirements for his tiny plot of land. Mr. Moore said he
exchanged several faxes with Health Canada including one that asked
for police checks of his references, but when the May 15 deadline for
planting in his region passed, he quit.

"I could see and I was told by other people that did obtain a research
permit, that it was delay, linger and wait and keep asking questions
that were trivial and unnecessary," he said. "I could see no matter
how many faxes I sent back, they could find some other excuse for some
dog gone thing that was wrong in."

Similarly, Joe and Dolores Sabourin of Scout Lake, Sask. gave up on
their plan to plant about 50 hectares of the crop on their
3,755-hectare farm once their May 31 seeding deadline came and went.

They spent three years researching the crop, hoping it could be a
lucrative addition to their already diversified farm located about 150
kilometres south of Moose Jaw.

"It's been just more delay and more delay. How long does it take to
recognize we're just ordinary folks wanting to grow a crop so we can
pay our debts?" Mrs. Sabourin asked.

Mrs. Sabourin said some farmers don't have the luxury of time while
Health Canada works the kinks out of the system. "For the guy losing
his farm this year, there isn't a next year is how we look at it.
People here are living that close to the edge," she said.

She thinks hemp should be regulated just like other crops -- by the
federal and provincial agriculture departments.

A collection of farmers have recently formed the Canadian Hemp Growers
Association which will lobby the federal government to take hemp out
of Health Canada's hands.

Despite criticisms, a number of farmers have planted seeds and will be
harvesting hemp grain and fibre this fall.

Seed distributor and hemp processing firm Kenex Ltd., which is located
in Pain Court, Ont. near London, has contracted with about 50 farmers
located across Canada who have already planted about 400 hectares of
hemp.

"It's been a very difficult season in setting up the new procedures.
We have gotten through it fortunately," said general manager Bob L'Ecuyer.

Copyright 1998 The Ottawa Citizen

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