Now that Australian the province of New South Whales has legalized hemp farming, the CEO of Australian hemp lobby and research company Hemp Resources, Kim Hough, is wasting no time in pushing the envelope. You see, even though it’s now legal to grow hemp for fiber, it is still illegal for Australians to consume hemp-food products. Mr. Hough, however, is riding the wave of Australian media buzz around the hemp farming law to push to have the ban on hemp-foods lifted. As TheWest.co.au reports:
Hemp Resources chief executive Kim Hough has written to his local MP and Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith calling for an exemption from the Australian food standard which makes hemp foods illegal for human ingestion.
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Mr Hough said it was shortsightedness not to allow a valid industry that could be earning thousands of dollars every year. He said hemp protein foods and oils were highly nutritious because they were rich in proteins and the essential fatty acids omega 3 and omega 6.
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Mr Hough said the ban on the use of hemp in food products could also be contrary to Australia’s obligations as members of the World Trade Organisation. [...]
Unlike marijuana, hemp has no psychoactive properties. Consuming hemp-based foods, then, offers you a number of health benefits, such as an unparalleled balance of omega fatty acids (get some hemp recipes here).
Given the way things have progressed in Australia, it seem that Mr. Hough is probably on the right track. After all, we’re not talking about just some hippy-health-nut, here. Under Mr. Hough’s leadership, Hemp Resources recently conducted two successful hemp trials: one in China, and another in Australia. In other words, Mr. Hough is a competent businessman who is, for the most part, taking up a completely reasonable cause.