Pubdate: Wed, 28 May 2014
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2014 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/IuiAC7IZ
Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: Matthew Boyle, Bloomberg News
Page: 2
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hemp.htm (Hemp)

WEED'S LESS-SEEDY COUSIN LOSING ITS STONER STIGMA

George Washington Grew It. Early U.S. Flags Were Made From It. Now, 
Businesses Are Trying to Weave It into the Daily Fabric for Its 
Nutritional Benefits.

Mike Fata figures that hemp could be the perfect food - if only 
people would stop snickering.

Fata, 37, co-founder of Manitoba Harvest, has worked for the past 
decade on transforming the sober cousin of marijuana from the butt of 
jokes into a supermarket staple.

The effort is paying off. Costco Wholesale, Safeway and Whole Foods 
Market sell his products, and hemp is on the cusp of a breakthrough 
because of looser cultivation bans and the food industry's hunger for 
nutritious plants. Even the stoner stigma is slowly abating as hemp 
gets recognized for its ability to deliver protein, rather than for 
psychoactives.

"Our customers are bright enough to know that it does not have dope 
in it if Costco's selling it," said Jim Taylor, a founding partner of 
Avrio Capital, a Calgary, Alberta-based venture capital company and 
one of Manitoba Harvest's backers. "It's more than a fad. We believe 
we can build a brand here."

Hemp is not a drug. It's a variety of the cannabis plant with less 
than 0.5 percent of the mind-bending compound tetrahydrocannabinol, 
or THC. This year, the U.S. government finally recognized hemp as 
distinct from its seedier cousin, though a federal ban on commercial 
cultivation remains in place.

The ban hasn't stopped imports flowing in from Canadian companies 
like Manitoba Harvest, which plans to hand out 2 million samples of 
its hemp hearts - they are the soft, nutty-flavored inner kernels of 
hemp seeds - this year.

Hemp is woven into American history. George Washington grew it, and 
the nation's first flags were made from it. It's easily digestible 
and packs more protein than chia or flax.

It's also a versatile food: Hemp hearts can be sprinkled on cereal, 
yogurt or salads, or processed into powders, flour or oil to make 
everything from bread to beer. Hemp is pricier than, say, chickpeas, 
but it provides a more complete protein, with all nine amino acids 
that the human body cannot produce.

"We have our eye on it," said Colleen Zammer of Bay State Milling, 
who has worked with food and beverage companies like Kellogg and 
PepsiCo to develop and promote healthy ingredients for the past 25 years.

Hemp's resurgence comes amid a broader shift in climate, crops and 
consumer preferences. Other protein-rich plants - think peas and 
quinoa - enjoy booming sales and are in short supply, global warming 
is scrambling the cultivation map from Argentina to Canada and 
environmental concerns kindle demand for local produce.

Amid this landscape, opposition to hemp is softening. Fourteen U.S. 
states have removed barriers to its cultivation, and the farm bill 
Congress passed in February will allow hemp-growing for research 
purposes in those states. Restrictions have eased as even marijuana 
gains acceptance, and Democrats and Republicans support the economic 
lift hemp could provide industries ranging from textiles to homebuilding.

"Without realizing it, many Americans already use hemp in their 
soaps, automobile parts, or even in their food," said Rep. Jared 
Polis, a Democrat from Colorado (where private consumption of 
marijuana is legal) and one of the legislators behind the farm bill's 
hemp amendment. "The potential for a billion-dollar-plus domestic 
industry is very realistic."

Hemp-growing has been legal since 1998 in Canada. As a teenager in 
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Fata weighed more than 300 pounds and tried 
countless fad diets until a friend turned him on to hemp. The mix of 
protein and fiber curbed his appetite for junk food.

Fata and two friends started Manitoba Harvest soon after 
legalization, yet the lingering association with pot made it hard to 
gain traction early on. Others in Canada's nascent hemp sector say 
they faced the same stigma.

"Some people looked at me and turned right around like they had seen 
the devil," recalls Shaun Crew, CEO of Hemp Oil Canada.

Fata persisted, handing out samples of his hemp hearts at trade 
shows, in yoga studios and on the street. A few natural-food stores 
took the product, then in 2001 Fata's big break came when Loblaw, 
Canada's biggest food retailer, with 2,300 stores, signed on.

"A lot of consumers would not give us the time of day because of all 
the misinformation out there," Fata said. "As we stepped up from 
natural-food stores to mainstream stores, the stigma started to go away."

Sales have tripled, to more than $50 million, in the past two years. 
Prices range from $1.50 for a 0.9ounce sachet to $75 for a 5-pound 
pouch of certified organic hearts. At a recent industry gathering in 
California, Fata introduced his latest creation: hemp-heart Snaxs 
made with brown rice syrup and organic cane sugar. He figures that 
sales could hit $500 million over the next decade.

John Elstrott, chairman of Whole Foods, said Fata, through sampling 
and education, has helped debunk the myths surrounding hemp. The two 
companies sponsor the annual Hemp History Week, which this year 
begins Monday and features more than 175 events coast to coast.

Still, the stigma is hard to shed. Last year, the Air Force told its 
pilots to steer clear of a variety of Chobani Greek yogurt that came 
with a side packet of hemp seeds to be tipped into the pot. The Air 
Force said the product could have enough THC to be detectable under 
its drug-testing program. Chobani has since replaced the hemp with 
other seeds, according to a spokesman.

It doesn't help that some hemp companies revel in stoner stereotypes: 
There's even a hemp gin and vodka brand called Mary Jane's.

On the northwest side of Winnipeg on a frigid March morning, Fata 
checks in on the $6 million expansion that he said will triple his 
annual production. He mentions that representatives from Safeway 
approached him about making hemp-flour bread for its in-store 
bakeries. Safeway declined to comment.

"Five years ago, that would not have happened," he said. "Hemp is hot."

In the factory, seeds from 10 grain silos get blown into hulling 
machines, which loudly crack them open to release the heart. Nearby, 
white sacks of hearts and hemp powder weighing nearly a ton sit on 
pallets, ready for packaging.

Fata stops to admire a new $500,000 machine that can pack up to 60 
bags of hemp hearts a minute (something that was previously done by 
hand at onethird the speed). In a separate room, 80 oil presses sit 
in wooden crates, having just arrived from Germany.

The expansion should be done this month, Fata said, and then he'll 
start looking for places in Manitoba to build a 100,000-square-foot 
facility. Crew, of Hemp Oil Canada, is spending $13 million on a new 
35,000square-foot factory he said will be ready by the end of the year.

That's good news for the food manufacturers waiting to add hemp to 
their products. Take Post Holdings, maker of Grape-Nuts and 
Alpha-Bits cereals. The company's Erewhon brand, acquired in 2012, 
offers a hemp and buckwheat cereal that is one of its top sellers. 
Jim Holbrook, executive vice president of marketing, said the St. 
Louis-based company is also "actively pursuing" hemp as an ingredient 
in an upcoming cereal from its Great Grains imprint.

Other companies aren't keen to discuss their plans. PepsiCo and 
Kellogg declined to comment. ConAgra Foods and Northfield-based Kraft 
Foods said they have no plans for hemp, leaving the market open for 
smaller outfits like Nutiva and Nature's Path Foods.

If hemp is to become a billion-dollar market, as its backers claim, 
more big companies need to get on board. The lingering stigma, Fata 
said, shouldn't keep mainstream manufacturers from seeing its promise.

"They missed the Greek yogurt boom," he said. "They don't want to 
miss out on this."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom