Agribusiness in the Southeast: Great potential but hurdles to be overcome
TONYA LAMBERT F
orty per cent of the hemp grown in North America is produced in the area between Medicine Hat and Lethbridge. Of the
thousands of tonnes of seed harvested in the region each year, 99.9 per cent is shipped to Manitoba for processing, and along with the seed go the many jobs and other economic benefits that value-added agribusiness creates.
Danny Fieldberg, a farmer in Cypress County, is working hard to bring as much of that processing as possible to Alberta, preferably to the southern part of the province where so much hemp is grown. “There is the potential in this region for a very large acreage in hemp seed. We just need to make sure that we grow the industry properly in Alberta so that we have market development to go along with production.”
“There’s a lot of private sector funding and government funding that’s going into the hemp industry in Alberta, right now,” explains Fieldberg. “There are a lot of industry players from outside Alberta who are coming in and looking to invest here. There’s a lot of money coming in here on the private side. We’re trying to organize everyone so that we’re all working together, and that’s complicated. The processors, the producers and the government have a very good working relationship. We’re all doing our part to try to build this industry in Alberta.”
Harvesting Hemp
Hemp first arrived in what-is-now Canada with French settlers in the 17th century. It was considered a staple crop, a multi- purpose crop. The seeds were used for food and to produce oil. The fibre in the long stalks was used in the production of textiles such as clothing, sails and rope. Hemp helped the early settlers to survive.
In 1938, the cultivation, production and processing of hemp was banned throughout North America. This was done in an attempt to eradicate its close cousin, marijuana. Sixty years later, in 1998, the Canadian government legalized
the growing of hemp once again, limiting production to plants with less than 0.3 per cent of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). (Marijuana contains a minimum of 10 per cent THC.)
In 1998, 94 acres of hemp was grown in Alberta. In 2015, 25,557 acres received permits to grow hemp in Alberta. Between 2010 and 2014, the number of hectares under hemp cultivation in the province quintupled. Then, in 2016, hemp production decreased; the country’s two largest processing facilities in Manitoba – Manitoba Harvest and Hemp Oil Edibles - ran out of processing capacity.
“Predictions for the 2017 season are that hemp acres will double over last year,” says Jan Slaski, Senior Researcher, InnoTech Alberta, “and last year, in Canada, we had over 30,000 hectares of the crop and out of that 12,000 hectares were grown in Alberta and a vast majority of that was grown in the Lethbridge-Medicine Hat corridor.”
“Hemp for grain grown on irrigated land in southeastern Alberta yields the highest possible yields in Canada,” explains Slaski. “This is because hemp grain yields are really responsive to irrigation. Southeastern Alberta is perfectly suited for the effective production of hemp for grain. One more reason that this area is very good for growing hemp for grain is that the daylight hours are shorter than in the north meaning that the plants remain shorter.”
Harvesting hemp can prove somewhat challenging given its highly fibrous stalks and variable rate of maturity. Nevertheless, more and more farmers in the area are starting to grow hemp.
“The main reason people are growing hemp is for the money,” says Will Van Roessel, a farmer near Bow Island who has grown hemp for the last eight years. “The economic return is generally pretty good. It’s good enough to compensate
for all the challenges. There are a number of growers in this area who have done well with it over the years.”
Processing the Product: Baby Steps
Historically, hemp was primarily a textile fibre crop. Today, it is grown for the grain. This is in large part due to the rise of synthetic materials over the last century.
Hemp seeds have a high nutritional value, containing linoleic acid, alpha- linoleic acid, zinc, magnesium and a 3:1 ratio of omega-6 and omega-3. Hemp seeds are used to make a wide variety of food products, including bread, pasta, nutrition bars, granola, protein powders, salad dressings, beer and cold-pressed oil supplements. Liquid Chicks at Grande Prairie makes hemp vodka. The seeds are also used in pet foods. Arjazon Seed Trading Ltd. at Fort Macleod cleans and
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