The state of the Hempire in the Northern Rivers is healthy. In the last two years many changes have come about, both strategically and tactically.
Many of these changes are political; the Legalise Cannabis party has won many seats in many states with the chance of at least one seat in federal parliament a very high probability in the next federal elections.
Here in NSW, Jeremy Buckingham, parliamentary leader of the Legalise Cannabis party is punching well above his weight as our representative senator. Jeremy is actively championing hemp growers in the Northern Rivers and, in cooperation with the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) and Labor minister for agriculture Tara Moriarty, created a hemp task force to support and expand the hemp industry in NSW. The task force has been selected from leaders in the industry.
The Northern Rivers Hemp Growers Co-Op (NRHGC) has been chosen as one of these leaders. At the upcoming MardiGrass this weekend Jeremy will be hosting a panel in the town hall to tell us how the taskforce was formed, its aims and timeframes, and to answer any questions from the community.
These are the strategic changes that have put the wind into NRHGC’s sails and given us an interface with the political wheels of power.
Tactically great changes have occurred as well. NRHGC is philosophically built on the premise of cottage farming, this is our point of difference from all other hemp industry enterprises. At NRHGC we believe that hemp, because of its versatility, is ideally suited to cottage farming and after two years of hard, co-operative endeavour we believe we have proved it. Our dream is to have 1,000 small holdings here in the Northern Rivers producing 5,000 superior products, bringing sustainability to the farming community and resilience to our small towns and villages.
What is being produced?
To date NRHGC and associated businesses and artisans are producing: our own indigenised hemp seed stock for broad acre replanting; hemp seed oil and protein powder; hemp soap from the plant’s flower as well as hemp flower oil as a pet or animal dietary supplement. We make a range of cosmetics from infused hemp flower and several products for the wellness industry.
From the bast, the long, strong fibre, we make hemp carbon fibre products from Martin Ernegg’s marvellous matrix; Hempstone. From the bast we also make paper of the highest quality and supply our local weavers with raw thread for their looms. From the hurd, the pithy core of the plant, we are making chips to be used in hempcrete and other hemp-based building materials and, more importantly, we are using the hurd chips to feed the pyrolysis oven.
What’s the pyrolysis oven? Well I’m glad you asked because the pyrolysis oven is the final piece in the global hemp puzzle.
Pyrolysis is the cooking of carbon-based materials in an oxygen-free oven. Done correctly this process separates carbon from the volatile elements carbon likes to associate with. A good example of this is methane – a gas given off by rotting or burning carbon biomass. The chemical name for methane is CH4 or one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms. Pyrolysis dumps the carbon atom in the oven while releasing the four hydrogen atoms back into the wild. Or, in our case we grab the hydrogen atoms and use them as fuel to heat the oven to extract more carbon. It’s a cycle, a beautiful, clean, carbon-sequestering cycle whose only emission is a smoke-flavoured water; wood vinegar. Pyrolysis hurd makes the best possible soil mix or can be dug directly back into our depleted soils to perfectly sequester carbon from the atmosphere permanently. With this technology, which has come from Robbie Tonks who will also be speaking at MardiGrass, we have achieved the holy grail of farming; a circular industry that may be transplanted into any rural community to create resilience, productivity, and employment back to our farms and villages.
Forty years ago the hippies were blathering on about how pot could save the planet, another hippy pipe dream of course, yet today we stand at the threshold of making the old dream a reality.
This year we will build a processing facility to separate hemp into its component parts as well as sequestering vast amounts of carbon. We will build workshops for the refining and value adding of our plants products to enrich and enliven our communities. The process has begun now and because it’s a grass roots revolution in farming practice it cannot be stopped. NRHGC welcomes all fellow travellers on this path we tread, in the Hempire all people of good heart are welcome. Come see us at MardiGrass, we would love to share our visions of a better world built on HEMP. The possibilities are endless and the journey has just begun.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
