Gerard, thanks for your comments. The real point is that you cannot compare corn-based fuel production to hemp. Australian ingenuity has turned a complex European problem into a simple one, with the invention of a portable decorticator, in Victoria. This now means that hemp can be grown for fibre, fuel and food in the same crop. Attached to a header, the crop can be cut, the bast fibres separated from the hurd and the grain taken at the same time. This usually occurs on the second rotation of hemp in the season, as that is a shorter stemmed growth, but it can be done.

Hemp is originally a desert plant and grows happily in poor or sandy soils. Apart from a burst of moisture at the beginning of the growth cycle, like wheat, hemp prefers dryer conditions and that means the central, arid parts of Australia not currently used for agriculture can be adapted to hemp production. The plant’s ability to improve soil carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous with every crop, means it is an excellent way of storing atmospheric carbon, while creating better soils for food production. For that reason, I have been suggesting that, in Tasmania where I live, hemp should be used as a rotational crop to cut back on fertilizer use.

The plant’s rapid growth rate overshadows all weeds and its natural immunity to pests takes away the need for both herbicides and pesticides. These products usually come from the hydrocarbon industry and are emissions intensive.

Hemp seeds, as a food source, contain around 36% protein. Unlike soy, where the protein is of no value to us because of the lack of amino acids present, hemp has the 8 essential amino acids usually only found in meat. This means that hemp is a better protein source than meat. It is also a healthier way of eating, due to the balance of essential omega 3, 6 and 9 fatty acids, in a perfect harmonious balance with our body cell membranes. One of the reasons we suffer chronic diseases is because we rebuild our body cell membranes using manufactured fats and oils that have little negative charge and are of low frequency response. Hemp seeds also contain most of the essential anti-oxidants required for premium health. This would take the pressure off our carbon intensive, cash gobbling health industry.

As I said before, hemp could be used to make car bodies (as it is in Canada and the EU), making lighter and stronger materials that take less energy to move. What I did not say before is that hempcrete, a material made from hemp hurds, lime, sand and a little water is a great concrete replacement. The fossil energy used to crush limestone and collect sand is more than compensated for by the plant’s ability to store atmospheric carbon in the soil, during it’s growth cycle and the building material’s ability to continue storing carbon during it’s lifetime use. The process of knitting together the lime and sand requires carbon and that is extracted from atmospheric CO2, releasing the oxygen back into the air.

The material has excellent thermal insulation properties, something not lost on UK and European architects. A building made from hemp masonry requires only a tiny fraction of either heating or cooling compared to other materials (less than an hour per 24 hours) cutting energy and emissions.

There are many ways hemp can assist in mitigating climate change and these will become evident as soon as Australia stops regarding it as a banned substance. Commercial hemp has virtually no THC and therefore no possible uses as a recreational drug. Cross-pollination on the wind and via insects will render any illegal crop impotent, within kilometres.

Combine hemp and other materials with a change in attitudes towards employee location/distribution (IE use the NBN and decentralise manufacturing into rural regions).

I take the point about competing with larger scale production. Trade agreements don’t appear to be working in our favour, especially with countries such as the US. I work in media and since the free trade agreement, I have seen vast amounts of US productions dumped on Australia and little goes the other way. This is mainly because they have an industry that is self-funded and based on the fact that 80% will fail but need to be funded to realise the 20% that will be box office hits. The size of the US media market allows any US production to be screened many times over, making enough profit to dump it on countries like ours. (Having said that, I have a film that is currently in distribution in the US and Canada, so it is possible for smaller players to compete.)

I believe the trick is to produce quality products that last and charge more for them. Asia is built on the old US model of built-in-obsolescence and that is what drives emissions. If we were to create a pride in what we do, re-engage in the buy Australian and get our finance sectors to relax interest on loans to buy quality Australian products as opposed to imported goods (see Japanese and European car manufacturers) our economy and our ecology would benefit.

I should also have said in the first paragraph that the oil is pressed from the seeds to make bio-Diesel and the seed meal used as food.

David Leigh: "Hemp, used to manufacture stronger and lighter vehicles and hemp bio-diesel used to power them, ...". Interesting thought. I once bought a shopping bag that was made from hemp fibre. You'd think it would be as rough as sackcloth, but it had the feel of fine linen. It lasted for decades of heavy use. Unfortunately, the cannabis aspect tends to drive a certain authoritarian minority into a frenzy, which terrifies the politicians.

"Gerard Dean": "I don't agree that we can grow a large component of the fuel we need, because of the huge volume of liquid fuels, 50 billion litres, we burn in Australia every year." A ludicrously amateurish perspective.

Markets adapt. We have the markets we have today because they adapted to cheap liquid fuels. Those days are passing, both because we've already burned the petroleum that's easiest and cheapest to extract and because we've realised that we can't safely burn all that's left.

As the cost of liquid fuels rises, we'll adapt. We'll live closer to where we work and consume goods & services produced closer to where we live. Depending on our needs, we'll use public transport, walk, cycle or drive vehicles powered by means other than liquid fuels. For many purposes, liquid fuels are still the most cost-effective way to carry around the necessary energy, but that doesn't mean we need to find anything near the amount we use today.

"Gerard Dean": "Based on growing corn for ethanol as in the USA, ...". In heaven's name, why would you do anything of the sort? You're trolling, aren't you?

Gerard Dean runs a business. Would any businessman be as bog-ignorant of markets as your comments evince? Is the one who posts under the name "Gerard Dean" really Gerard Dean?

David Boxhall, the interesting part about cannabis is that commercial hemp, grown on a large scale, will decimate illegal crops within kilometres, by cross pollination, a fact the police are very keen to point out. Those fear campaigns were put about Courtold and Dupont years ago, to force the continued the use of hydrocarbon waste for fibre. Interestingly, I wrote an article recently in "Tasmanian Country", about converting to a plantation-based, solid wood product, timber industry, instead of wood-chipping trees for fibre and growing hemp as a rotational crop for farmers, to increase jobs in downline manufacturing for both industries. The response was almost overwhelming, from logging contractors, farmers and saw millers. I was asked to write more about the subject and approached the editor. I was told enough had been written on the subject and it was time to move on (one article). Could it be the fact that Dupont appeared in some of the advertising? I'm not sure but I still receive calls and emails about it.

The fact that hemp will grow happily in arid country means that Australia could easily grow enough hemp for fibre, fuel and food, by sowing in Australia's vast desert regions. This would also likely bring about the bio-precipitation cycle and induce more rainfall to those area anyway and the hemp would enrich the sandy soils and allow other crops to follow. It would seem a better use than mining and could produce sustainable energy and manufacturing jobs for Australians. It may even turn the tide on climate change mitigation.