Hemp debated with hype and humour

Robert W. Hurter

Unfortunately, as is the case with many promoters of industrial hemp,
Robbie Anderman's letter, ("For jobs and national unity: Vote hemp" May
30), contains more fiction than facts as well as a liberal doses of U.S.
bashing.

As a pulp and paper consultant with two decades' experience and an
international reputation in the use of nonwood plant fibres (cereal straws,
sugarcane, bagasse, reeds and grasses, hemp, flax, jute, sisal etc.) for
pulp and paper and other applications, I find that this type of hype has a
negative impact on the introduction of fibre crops rather than being
helpful to the cause.

A small dose of reality is needed to establish the merits of industrial
hemp production. Further, solid science and engineering as well as economic
analysis of the merits of industrial hemp are necessary if it is ever to be
seriously considered by major industrial concerns.

A few points to consider:

1. Hemp fibre and oilseeds can and are being used to produce a variety of
products worldwide. However, the economics of its use will vary widely from
region to region and to simply state that it can make this wide range of
products without doing the economic analysis is misleading to the
agricultural community.

2. Mr. Anderman notes that hemp could be a replacement for the "less
popular tobacco as a cash crop in those affected areas of Ontario and
Quebec." I wish him good luck in selling this to tobacco farmers. It is
well known that there is no replacement crop known today which would
provide the same revenue (or even come close to the revenue) of tobacco.
The Southern Ontario test plots of industrial hemp were not even close to
competing with tobacco from which farmers could earn four to five times the
revenue. As long as there are markets for tobacco, there will be tobacco
farmers.

3. Growing hemp for oilseed and growing it for fibre create two very
different situations for farmers. To maximize oilseed production, the
plants are spaced further apart which reduces the fibre yield per acre. To
maximize the fibre production, the fields are planted more densely which
reduces oilseed production. Farmers need to know which market they are
targeting before making the planting decision.

5. Currently, due to limited supply, the price of hemp oilseed is
relatively high. However, economic analysis of oilseed production at
current prices would be very misleading to farmers. If and when industrial
hemp cultivation is legalized, farmers must consider what the price of the
seed will be when thousands or hundreds of thousands of acres are planted.
Farmers planning hemp and oilseed production should look at the pricing of
canola, linola and other oilseed prices for currently massproduced oilseed
for an indication of the price that can be expected for hemp oilseed over
the long term and if these low prices merit hemp farming for oilseed.

6. Mr. Anderman states, "Hemp can produce as much pulp and paper per acre
as 4.1 acres of trees and is an annual crop." He also states that the
fibres are twice as strong as wood. What he does not mention is that hemp
contains two types of fibre a strong bast (bark) fibre and a short woody
core fibre. The strong bast fibre (about 2830 per cent of the plant) is
stronger than softwood but the short core fibre (7072 per cent of the
plant) is weaker than hardwood. It is this 2830 per cent of bast fibre
which would be prized as a papermaking material which reduces significantly
the hemp yield and changes the economics.

Also, hemp is a bulky raw material, it will require more trucks to
transport it to the paper mill, trucks which will burn fossil fuels.
Another point is what would the mill do for fibre raw material if there is
a hemp crop failure one year. Pulp and paper companies cannot afford to
leave a multimilliondollar pulp mill sitting idle because the hemp crop
failed.

7. Mr. Anderman states that hemp can be grown without petrochemical
herbicides and pesticides. In some areas this may be true, but in other
areas it has been found to be untrue. Already, Agriculture and AgriFood
Canada has identified an insect on the Prairies which will eat hemp and
which will have to be controlled by pesticide use.

I could go on and on trying to dispel some of the myths surrounding
industrial hemp but, unfortunately, this will not sell more of your
newspapers as it is not headline news.

The issue surrounding the cultivation and use of industrial hemp include
both political and economic issues. I believe that the hype being
distributed by industrial hemp promoters and fostered by newspapers such as
the Citizen as seen by the recent string of articles on the subject does
not help.

Rather than being based on myth and hype, the introduction of industrial
hemp to the Canadian economy should be based on sound science and
engineering, and on economic reality because, if it is introduced, over
time, hemp would become just another crop.

I believe that industrial hemp and other annual crop residues (straws) and
fibre crops (kenaf in the U.S. and switchgrass) will find their place in
the global fibre basket which will reduce our dependence on wood, but only
if based on sound science and economics. In closing, I want to ask the
Citizen and industrial hemp promoter to cut the hype and come down to earth.

Robert W. Hurter
President, HurterConsult Inc