Jim Finnel
Fallen Cannabis Warrior & Ex News Moderator
It certainly looks like a huge field of cannabis, and when the crop is harvested a pungent, heady aroma can be sniffed from five miles away. Little wonder that someone rang Crimestoppers and the police came knocking when Henry Braham and Glynis Murray started growing hemp on their north Devon farm.
The officers quickly found that the couple were not part of a drugs cartel but were cultivating the hemp for its seeds - which yield a nutty oil being touted as Britain's answer to olive oil.
Six thousand bottles of hemp oil are now being produced by Collabear Farm, at Tawstock, Barnstaple, every week. Sales have risen by 100% in the past couple of years, and farmers from East Anglia to Dorset are planting crops of hemp to meet the demand.
The oil is proving popular with, among others, athletes, including some of Britain's top cyclists, who are convinced that the polyunsaturated fatty acids in it help them pedal faster. Film stars are trying it out to see if it makes their complexions glow with even greater health, and consumers are claiming that a sprinkle of hemp oil on a salad eases painful joint conditions (no pun intended) such as arthritis.
But the crop definitely does not get the user high. "Unfortunately you'd probably die of asphyxiation before you smoked enough to feel anything," said Braham.
The production of hemp in Britain has a long and glorious history. Until the industrial revolution it was widely grown to make cloth, rope, paper and lamp oil. Cotton and synthetic materials caused it to fall out of fashion but it has a habit of coming back when times are hard: in the second world war farmers in the US were told to grow hemp to ease shortages of textiles and rope. But cotton, synthetic fabrics and the association with cannabis prompted many farmers to stop growing the crop and its production was prohibited in the US.
A recent report commissioned by Defra flags up the crop's "less useful side" - as a source of marijuana. The report says: "This narcotic legacy has, over the last century, been an obstacle to its more widespread production."
But the report emphasises the environmental benefits: hemp grows quickly and easily, so it does not need to be heavily sprayed with pesticides, and it provides habitats for wildlife. The tough fibre is used in a variety of products, from car door panels, concrete, insulation blocks and resin to teabags and banknotes. The report suggests hemp is an "attractive crop from an environmental viewpoint" and adds that there is "some justification" for encouraging its wider production.
A great advantage is that there is little waste - the residue left after hemp seeds are pressed at Collabear Farm is a valuable foodstuff for farm animals; even the dust created can be used for worm farms. Some environmentalists are looking at using the oil as a green fuel for farm vehicles or cars. And the drugs squad need not worry - the seed grown at Collabear Farm contains less than 0.02% of the narcotic agent tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.
The National Farmers' Union has suggested growers wanting to diversify take a look at hemp production.
Braham and Murray originally planted hemp at their farm for its fibre alone but later began to wonder if they could produce oil from the plant's seeds. Health experts have long been aware of the presence of vital fatty acids, particularly Omega 3 and 6, in hemp. But hemp oil tended to be confined to the chemist's shelf, much as olive oil was 25 years ago.
For 10 years the Collabear enterprise experimented with varieties of hemp, made mistakes, and was regularly visited by Home Office drugs inspectors and the local constabulary, checking to make sure the plants were not the ones rich in THC.
Finally, the pair found a taste they were satisfied with. Now the hemp grown in the fields around Barnstaple and further afield is harvested, pressed in the oil mill and bottled under the label Good Oil. Celebrity chefs such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver have cooked with it. Oliver has tried drizzling it on ice cream, while Fearnley-Whittingstall likes it sprinkled on a slice of toast.
Supermarkets have seized on the oil and sales were up by 100% in 2007 compared with the year before. French growers are showing an interest, with one farmers' cooperative considering growing hemp to send over to Devon for processing at the farm.
European manufacturers of olive oil, sales of which topped the £100m mark two years ago, are unlikely to be worried just yet about the rising popularity of hemp oil. Collabear is still the only farm in Britain producing hemp oil destined for the kitchen. "I don't think the olive oil producers will be looking over their shoulders at us," said Braham. "But at least I think we're helping improve hemp's dope, rope and hairshirts image."
News Hawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: The Guardian
Author: Steven Morris
Copyright: 2008 The Guardian
Contact: https://www.guardian.co.uk/contactus/337950623
Website: UK's answer to olive oil? Crop catches eye of Jamie Oliver - and the police | Environment | The Guardian
The officers quickly found that the couple were not part of a drugs cartel but were cultivating the hemp for its seeds - which yield a nutty oil being touted as Britain's answer to olive oil.
Six thousand bottles of hemp oil are now being produced by Collabear Farm, at Tawstock, Barnstaple, every week. Sales have risen by 100% in the past couple of years, and farmers from East Anglia to Dorset are planting crops of hemp to meet the demand.
The oil is proving popular with, among others, athletes, including some of Britain's top cyclists, who are convinced that the polyunsaturated fatty acids in it help them pedal faster. Film stars are trying it out to see if it makes their complexions glow with even greater health, and consumers are claiming that a sprinkle of hemp oil on a salad eases painful joint conditions (no pun intended) such as arthritis.
But the crop definitely does not get the user high. "Unfortunately you'd probably die of asphyxiation before you smoked enough to feel anything," said Braham.
The production of hemp in Britain has a long and glorious history. Until the industrial revolution it was widely grown to make cloth, rope, paper and lamp oil. Cotton and synthetic materials caused it to fall out of fashion but it has a habit of coming back when times are hard: in the second world war farmers in the US were told to grow hemp to ease shortages of textiles and rope. But cotton, synthetic fabrics and the association with cannabis prompted many farmers to stop growing the crop and its production was prohibited in the US.
A recent report commissioned by Defra flags up the crop's "less useful side" - as a source of marijuana. The report says: "This narcotic legacy has, over the last century, been an obstacle to its more widespread production."
But the report emphasises the environmental benefits: hemp grows quickly and easily, so it does not need to be heavily sprayed with pesticides, and it provides habitats for wildlife. The tough fibre is used in a variety of products, from car door panels, concrete, insulation blocks and resin to teabags and banknotes. The report suggests hemp is an "attractive crop from an environmental viewpoint" and adds that there is "some justification" for encouraging its wider production.
A great advantage is that there is little waste - the residue left after hemp seeds are pressed at Collabear Farm is a valuable foodstuff for farm animals; even the dust created can be used for worm farms. Some environmentalists are looking at using the oil as a green fuel for farm vehicles or cars. And the drugs squad need not worry - the seed grown at Collabear Farm contains less than 0.02% of the narcotic agent tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.
The National Farmers' Union has suggested growers wanting to diversify take a look at hemp production.
Braham and Murray originally planted hemp at their farm for its fibre alone but later began to wonder if they could produce oil from the plant's seeds. Health experts have long been aware of the presence of vital fatty acids, particularly Omega 3 and 6, in hemp. But hemp oil tended to be confined to the chemist's shelf, much as olive oil was 25 years ago.
For 10 years the Collabear enterprise experimented with varieties of hemp, made mistakes, and was regularly visited by Home Office drugs inspectors and the local constabulary, checking to make sure the plants were not the ones rich in THC.
Finally, the pair found a taste they were satisfied with. Now the hemp grown in the fields around Barnstaple and further afield is harvested, pressed in the oil mill and bottled under the label Good Oil. Celebrity chefs such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver have cooked with it. Oliver has tried drizzling it on ice cream, while Fearnley-Whittingstall likes it sprinkled on a slice of toast.
Supermarkets have seized on the oil and sales were up by 100% in 2007 compared with the year before. French growers are showing an interest, with one farmers' cooperative considering growing hemp to send over to Devon for processing at the farm.
European manufacturers of olive oil, sales of which topped the £100m mark two years ago, are unlikely to be worried just yet about the rising popularity of hemp oil. Collabear is still the only farm in Britain producing hemp oil destined for the kitchen. "I don't think the olive oil producers will be looking over their shoulders at us," said Braham. "But at least I think we're helping improve hemp's dope, rope and hairshirts image."
News Hawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: The Guardian
Author: Steven Morris
Copyright: 2008 The Guardian
Contact: https://www.guardian.co.uk/contactus/337950623
Website: UK's answer to olive oil? Crop catches eye of Jamie Oliver - and the police | Environment | The Guardian