Hemp set to save the bush

By Sally Cripps
Source: queenslandcountrylife.com.au

MOST of us learnt at school that the colony that became Australia was founded as a dumping ground for convicts after the American war of independence, to be a ready-made workforce cultivating and processing all sorts of raw materials for the Empire.

But how many realise that the desire for hemp, the material that made up canvas sails and fuelled Britain's dominance of trade routes, was another prime motivator for the settlement of our nation.

It's a fascinating fact about a crop that an increasing number of voices in Australia are saying needs to be taken seriously rather than treated as a niche market selling shirts and socks on east coast market stalls.

John Ryan, executive officer of Landcare/community group Macquarie 2100, says the war on drugs has caught industrial hemp prospects in its net, shrinking it from the world's most traded commodity to a cottage industry.

But his group and a number of other people see so much potential for the revival of regional Australia's fortunes through hemp production that they're determined to push through these barriers.

"Industrial hemp would give farmers the potential of such diverse markets they could move from the price-taker mentality of relying on monoculture buyers to having vibrant choice when it comes to deciding who they'd sell their in-demand products to," he said.

"Farmer profitability has been degraded so much in the past few decades that regional Australia has become a shambles, a pessimistic hollow shell which superficially retains enough similarity to the 'good old days' to haunt those who remain.

"Governments have proclaimed many remedies over the years, normally window-dressing, at its best mere tinkering around the edges.

"Hemp is the one crop which promises to deliver profits and hope to the regions, a crop which has almost unlimited market potential as a plastic replacement, a wood and paper replacement, is a biofuel, a nutritious stockfeed, an anti-cancer and anti-depression health food, and a soil carbon builder, just to name a few uses."