Board to debate future with hemp

Mack McIntosh
Mack McIntosh
Red tape and negative connotations about industrial hemp has prompted a key partner in a Catlins hemp project to reconsider its long-term involvement.

The Clutha Agricultural Development Board was a strong supporter of plans by Tawanui man and long-time hemp campaigner Mack McIntosh to develop an industrial hemp crop at his Catlins base. It saw potential for hemp crops to become a lucrative and different way for farmers to use fallow land.

But the board is expected to debate its future involvement in the coming weeks and see whether it has the resolve to carry on lobbying for the use and growth of hemp in the South.

Mr McIntosh could not be reached for comment.

The subject was briefly raised at a board meeting this week but no final decision has yet been made on whether the board keeps backing the project.

The issue was highlighted in the board's six-monthly report where board projects manager Malcolm Deverson said the board had a decision to make on how much the hemp project could take.

"It is potentially a huge opportunity for farmers, but the board will have to ask itself if it has the resources to gather the partners and also fight the innumerable battles that this crop appears to put in the way."

The board had failed to get money from the Government's sustainable farming fund to grow trial plots of industrial hemp in the Catlins, which was also a setback.

In an interview yesterday, Mr Deverson said the legal wrangle and debate about hemp was proving to be a major hurdle.

"It is just all the connotations that go along with hemp that are holding up its development."

He said the board may want to consider lobbying politicians and others to see if some of its legal "issues" can be resolved.

If the project was ditched, he was unsure if it could survive or not.

Mr Deverson said a smaller "hemp group" made up of Mr McIntosh and local farmers keen to grow the crop was due to meet soon and he would take its feedback to the next full board meeting, where the issue will again be debated.

The latest move is a turnaround from this time last year, when Mr McIntosh was celebrating clearance from the director-general of health, who approved his Aotearoa 1 cultivar to be used for growing hemp for industrial purposes.

The Tawanui area's latitude (46.5deg south) makes it the southernmost hemp-growing area in the world and offers some of the best growing conditions possible.

- glenn.conway@odt.co.nz

 

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