Construction BUSINESS

HEMP can help solve Ireland’s energy crisis once the system stops treating farmers as if they’re growing cannabis, it has been claimed.

Growers desperate to move away from a reliance on dairy and beef are being denied insurance and having bank accounts closed because of a mistaken confusion for drug production.

The multi-purpose crop, which can replace timber and steel in building or be used for food and health products and to make anything from shoes to rope and paint and bird feed, is being hailed as a carbon neutral solution to Ireland’s climate woes.

But as the State embarks on a multibillion euro retrofitting programme, there are no grants for anyone who uses hemp to insulate their homes leaving them to bear the full €100,000 cost.

Grower Marcus McCabe told the Irish Sun: “It’s being discredited and demonised when it could be used to build (and retrofit) houses.

“It’s all about carbon, carbon, carbon these days and yet they are stopping the guys trying to do something about it.”

ENERGY CRISIS

Ireland is in the grip of an energy crisis as it tries to get from 40 per cent renewable now to 70 per cent by 2030 while grappling with carbon emissions targets it’s unlikely to meet.

One third of Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, with the bulk of methane emitted by the herds.

Farmers are increasingly looking to get away from dairy and beef, but feel the government is failing to support them.

McCabe, who runs Kama Hemp, explained: “There is probably no better material because of its breathable qualities, it’s ideal for renovating and retrofitting. It’s a very good example of where the industry is being held back because we don’t have the certifications and we automatically don’t get the grants.

“You’ll get backing and grants for synthetic material or high energy material no problem.

“With no grants for anyone using it now, you have to really want it. And yet people get it, we keep getting orders because people see how effective it is.”

VERSATILE CROP

The versatile crop can be used for health products, food, and in construction, but growers claim there is a failure in messaging that has seen some hemp retailers raided by gardai in recent times.

Hemp Federation of Ireland boss Chris Allen wrote to Agriculture Minister Charlie McConologue in February of this year to complain that the Irish authorities were failing to meet EU standards.

The EU Court of Justice ruled that CBD derived from the plant is not a narcotic, that all sources of cannabidiol are considered EU food products.

However the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and HPRA then laid out a string of arguments as to why the ruling made no odds, including that part of the plant is considered drugs.

The HFI told the Minister of “an extraordinary incoherence between the guidance [we] receive about the EU regulation of our industry from Irish authorities, and the information coming directly from Brussels.

“In the resulting confusion, Ireland’s hemp industry is unable to function and is being prevented from participating alongside our EU industry colleagues in the rapid development and expansion of the EU sector. I have tried exhaustively to explain the laws, rules, and regulations to Irish authorities but my best efforts have been to no avail.

“It certainly does not help that Irish authorities have never consulted with the national stakeholder body in relation to any of the very many regulatory changes introduced to our industry since 2018.”

STRICT CONTROL

Hemp was commonly grown in Ireland for centuries before dying out, but following a resurgence can be legally grown here under licence from the Department of Health for a range of uses.

Hemp is strictly controlled so the psychoactive element of cannabis — THC — is less than 0.2 per cent of the plant.

CBD oil is psychoactive, so any with THC above 0.2 per cent is considered a controlled drug. Hemp farmers under current laws must destroy the hemp flower, but there are many grey areas internationally where laws are constantly in flux.

In Ireland, some retailers are removing CBD products that do not alter anyone’s mental state from their shelves following advice by the Food Safety Authority and in some cases garda raids.

Edward Hanbridge has been growing hemp since 2015 on his Co Wicklow farm for use in food production and CBD oil, and he can’t even get a company to facilitate payments on his website, another problem regularly faced by anyone involved in hemp.

TAKE CHARGE

The owner of the Keadeen brand wants to see one government department take charge of the industry to prevent all the ducking and weaving.

He said: “There are ways around this too. If you tell the gardai and the HPRA what you’re doing, you will get around it.

“The way we’re getting around it is destroying the flower on-site. It’s about your interpretation of the law. I’ve interpreted it one way.

“We are finding ways around it, which is the typical Irish thing to do.

“The issue with the shops getting raided is it’s the flower getting taken off the shelf. Technically the 0.2% limit is there for the cultivation of hemp and not the sale. That’s the HFI’s argument, you can grow it to this level and you can’t sell it. By rights it shouldn’t be like this but there are so many departments involved that creates a clusterf*** of miscommunication.

“A hemp farmer is dealing with (medicine regulator) HPRA, Departments of Health and Agriculture, gardai, food safety authority, and the HSE.

“Selling grain you won’t be dealing with HPRA or Health but you are dealing with the rest of them. Really and truly what needs to happen is the Department of Agriculture needs to take over. We’re not growing medical cannabis, we’re growing hemp, it’s not a HPRA issue.”

LOTS OF POTENTIAL

McCabe has been growing hemp on and off at his farm on the Monaghan/Fermanagh border since 2006 after realising he had to diversify to stay ahead.

He produces the only hemp juice in the world but also supplies it for building materials used in the likes of the Cloughjordan eco village in Co Tipperary and in restoring old country cottages.

Marcus said: “We saw hemp as an ideal, multi-purpose crop. There’s the building material, and then there’s the whole potential of seed oil and CBD oil. You can combine the hemp with plastic material to make anything really. Any solid material, look at the price of timber and steel at the moment, biocomposites are a natural replacement for those and again are carbon negative.

“Ultimately, it’s a replacement for plastic too but to do that we need investment. What we have is the opposite, it’s almost like a toxic industry for business.

“There is no support from banks or government, which is big, big problem. If you have another business and you start to stock hemp, if you sell 150 items and one skew is hemp suddenly you get your bank account closed.

“This has happened. Why this happens is a really good question, it seems a hysterical reaction to me for something that is so useful. You get that a lot, and you hope at the end sanity prevails.”

AT ODDS WITH EUROPE

He added: “We’re bewildered by that in the hemp industry as we would have thought this is something great. Ireland is at odds with Europe.

“Nothing could be more obvious in our view. We’re waiting for people to catch on to their senses and actually have a rational discussion.”

Neighbour Mark Gillanders, an organic tillage farmer, dabbled in hemp for a while in 2018 before he was forced to call a halt, but he is desperate to get back involved.

He told the Irish Sun: “In organics you need a diverse list of crops to grow, it’s a wonderful thing to grow before the likes of wheat.

“We’ve started a wee mill here selling our own flour, it’s great to put into the rotation. Hemp improves the quality of the soil. Everything is organic. We do beef and tillage. But we stopped doing the hemp because of the obstacles in the way. Insurance companies take a dim view of it as they think it involves cannabis.”

Ireland can be a leader in hemp production, the farmers believe, with enormous employment and export opportunities.

But Mark, whose farm is in Ballinagall in Co Monaghan, said: “Banks don’t take a good view of it, there needs to be a systemic change in the way it’s viewed.”

Source: The Sun