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Hemp Crop A Field Of Dreams For B.C. Clothing Company
Pubdate: Sun, 21 Aug 2005
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
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Copyright: 2005 Calgary Herald
Contact: http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: Angela Hall, CanWest News Service
HEMP CROP A FIELD OF DREAMS FOR B.C. CLOTHING COMPANY
Fields of nearly two-metre tall, emerald-green hemp growing at Craik,
halfway between Regina and Saskatoon, have proven to be a curiosity to
travellers.
But ongoing work between a British Columbia clothing company and federal
researchers indicates that homegrown hemp has big potential.
Hemptown Clothing Inc. of Vancouver and the National Research Council are
entering the second year of a three-year collaboration on a new enzyme
technology for processing hemp fibre.
The small Saskatchewan town of Craik, along with the surrounding rural
municipality, found its way into the hemp processing equation when it
donated 32 hectares of land to Hemptown more than a year ago.
In turn, Hemptown -- which makes corporate apparel such as T-shirts and tote
bags for a range of companies -- hopes to build a hemp mill in Craik by 2007
to process the fibre.
Jason Finnis, president and founder of Hemptown, said the company has about
24 hectares of hemp growing at Craik, a town they were attracted to because
of its plans around sustainability. Hemptown's new subsidiary, Crailer Fiber
Technologies, gets its name from the community.
"The issue that we've had in our business is that right now all the hemp
fibre is coming in from China," said Finnis. "The reason we haven't been
able to get it in Canada is because of a lack of processing equipment.
There's no technology behind that."
Processing time can take up to 60 days, said Finnis, explaining that part of
the process involves letting the crop be exposed to moisture in the field.
"Our goal was to eliminate that step so we could come up with a more
consistent and less expensive alternative."
The aim is also to use the most environmentally friendly methods for
processing.
Hemptown was started 10 years ago with a focus on "sustainable and organic
textiles," and currently sells shirts that are a hemp-cotton blend, with the
goal of eventually getting to 100 per cent hemp, said Finnis. He said the
cotton for one traditional cotton T-shirt requires 150 grams of chemicals
and 6,400 litres of water.
"Hemp grows without those pesticides or fertilizers and it's only getting
rainfall -- a very hardy plant."
The research in Ottawa involves finding the best conditions to use an
existing enzyme, which helps break down the natural "glue" that holds the
hemp fibres together. This process takes the processing time down to a
matter of hours, said Finnis.
"Through 2005 and 2006 we'll be working to come up with the ultimate process
and once we arrive at that . . . then we will be fully aware of what we need
to build and what we need to put in that building (planned for Craik)," said
Finnis in a recent interview.
Scott Ferguson, a business development officer with the National Research
Council Institute for Biological Sciences, is also encouraged about the
potential for processing a quality, white hemp fibre for use in the textile
industry.
"It looks very exciting from the standpoint that we've got an initial
process in place that will produce at least equivalent, and in many cases
better, fibre than what we've seen from the competitors," Ferguson said.
Industrial hemp and marijuana belong to the same species but hemp contains
virtually no THC, which creates the mood-altering effect.
"It's kind of like comparing a poppyseed bagel to opium," said Finnis of
comparisons between hemp and marijuana.
The cultivation of hemp was banned in 1938 in Canada and the U.S. However,
Canadian farmers have been growing industrial hemp commercially since 1998,
and the crop is federally regulated under a licensing system.
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