HEMP MILLS ALREADY FOCUS IN COWICHAN VALLEY

Hemp co-ops, mills and product-marketing strategies have also been the
focus of projects by the Victoria-based Trans Global Hemp Products Corporation.

Corporate founder and president Brian Johnson is presently putting finances
together for a nine-phase project, the first of which is a $2 million seed
press mill on a five-acre parcel in Lake Cowichan.

"(Hemp) makes perfect sense now with lumber going down and fishing going
down," said Johnson. "We're living on borrowed time and we're running out
of resources."

Johnson was at the forefront of hemp farming legalization when he helped
develop federal hemp growing regulations in Ottawa. Now he is trying to
establish thriving hemp farming and processing community on Vancouver
Island. A few years ago he formed the Pacific Island Hemp Farmers Coop so
they could work together with the corporation and supply the mills with hemp.

So far Johnson has $800,000 raised toward the first mill and is working on
developing the other mills in North Cowichan and the Alberni Valley to
produce animal feed, construction products and ethanol fuel.

He said once the hemp is processed there is a market in the U.S. and all
over the world. Although it is illegal to grow and import raw hemp into the
U.S., hemp products are legal. Therefore all the value-added processes can
be done in Canada and the raw materials won't leave the country.

A hemp shirt takes seven processing steps which means a lot of jobs, said
Johnson. But until the mills are built hemp farmers have to send their crop
to Alberta to be processed, adding to the expense and dampening local
farming interests.

For more information about hemp and the proposed mills visit
http://www.vancouverislandhemp.com.