Klara Marosszeky has a vision for the future that involves revamping of the local farming industry to produce industrial hemp crops. Working with farmers, she has just harvested her first commercial crop of industrial hemp and is looking for innovators who want to utilise the product.

Industrial hemp has a low-THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) content and produces the longest, strongest plant fibres in the world. It is used in many countries in the manufacture of plastics, fiberglass, fabrics, food and building materials.

“In the UK, a major car manufacturer, Lotus, is making whole cars out of hemp,” Klara said. “Everything but the engine is hemp. Henry Ford would be grinning in his grave.”

Klara currently teaches sustainability courses at TAFE and envisions hemp as the solution to many of the sustainability issues that are affecting Australia today. Not only is she trying to create a hemp industry in NSW and open the way to using hemp seed as a food product, but she is out to make housing materials affordable. After looking around for alternative products to replace our current dependence on timber, Klara spent years experimenting with hemp masonry as a building material, with very successful results. Two years ago, she was a finalist for the Northern Rivers Regional Development Board’s innovation award for her hemp masonry.

Hemp building projects, farming fibre and the carbon market.
A lot seems to have happened in the Australian hemp industry in the past year, with more states starting to offer better support to farmers wanting to grow industrial hemp for fibre at least. DPI in NSW has worked out how to administer the farming regulations and the industry is ready for expansion.
NSW has three Industrial Hemp Associations, one based in Sydney, one out at Ashford and one in the Northern Rivers. It’s not clear yet how many of these members are farmers or manufacturers and how many are retailers or importing products. There’s talk of forming a national body, so we’ll get an understanding of the actual farming figures which will be a crucial measure of how much real progress has been made in creating an Australian hemp industry.
We’re edging closer to hemp housing materials being easily available as well. To me it feels like slow motion, as the lack of a steady supply of hemp is still holding up hemp homes being built. There’s been work done on processing and on bulking up seed in several parts of the state this year and hopefully that and the newly launched Carbon Farming Initiative will create more interest from farmers.

BCA Compliance for hemp homes
In terms of consolidating the building materials research that I undertook at UNSW, Certification under the Building Code of Australia has now been finalised both for the building method and the material. With the availability of a slow trickle of fibre, two homes have been built in this area, another is underway at Bateman’s Bay and one has just been approved by Eurobodalla Council. The certification for the Building Code will make it much easier for people to get hemp housing approved.
Lismore Council approved the Billen Cliffs home based on the research from UNSW and supplementary documentation, but not all councils have been so amenable. There is still a real shortage of knowledge out there about hemp buildings and their benefits.

How the Carbon Farming Initiative will relate to hemp
The Carbon Farming Initiative is independent of the Carbon Price or Carbon Tax which right-wing politicians are threatening to dismantle, has the support of both of the major parties and there are three markets for carbon trading. Of these the non-Kyoto and voluntary markets are where hemp will be able to claim credits. As hemp isn’t a permanent crop it’s not eligible for carbon credits in the same way that trees are. However it’s biomass has a net positive effect on soil organic carbon. The process of working out methodology for measurement is currently being looked at with the Office of Carbon Policy.
Early markets for voluntary carbon credits are in Japan and China. Neither country has enough arable land mass to revegetate and produce food to balance their current carbon debt. We’re fortunate enough that we do and carbon farming has the potential to provide substantial revenue and employment for Australians.