Rhea Yates, communications coordinator for Agri-Food Research and Development Initiatives (ARDI), said 30,000 acres of industrial hemp are expected to be grown in Manitoba this year.

Last year there were 12,000 acres in Manitoba, with Canada reporting a total of 20,000 acres. Manitoba was dubbed the hemp capital of Canada.

Keith Watson, diversification specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, said the 30,000 acres to be seeded in Manitoba would be mostly contracted acres. With two Manitoba processors and a new one from Alberta buying hemp, there is plenty of business to spread around.

"The Canadian total will be up quite a bit," Watson added, but declined to guess as to what the Canadian total would be. "The major expansion will be in Alberta and Saskatchewan," he said. He sees acres doubling every year for the next few years. "It's kind of gone through that stage of getting established and in feeling its way, and now it's got some solid processors," he said. "The markets are growing as much as they can handle."

Hemp has a better profit outlook than any other crop in 2006.

According to information from the Parkland Industrial Hemp Growers Co-op, the breakeven point for hemp to cover total costs is 388 pounds per acre. Average or "budget" yields in Manitoba, meanwhile, are about 500 to 600 pounds per acre. The clean grain price for hemp this year ranges from $0.45 to $0.58 (average $0.55) [Canadian, or $0.40 to $0.52 US] per pound.

[Editor's note: This article discusses conventional seed prices, but it doesn't mention that the price for organic seed ranges from $0.85 to $1.00 per pound Canadian ($0.76 to $0.89 US).]

Hemp for raw materials and oil as base material for food and construction is the only solution out of the unsustainable mess we have created.

Hemp was made illegal in 1937 through a conspiracy of prominent industrials and because of the perjury, lies, racism and blasphemy of a man named Harry J. Anslinger.