Growing Hemp At Oakley Farm

What's happening this month?

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The days are getting much longer, and the weather is fickle. The forecrop plots planted October 7, 2021, are growing in fitsand-starts just like the weather. Cosaque Oats, a black oat known for allelopathy, was planted a few weeks too early. It is covering the ground, but not as robust as the other three crops. The untreated plots are fairly well covered with weeds, including henbit, Poa trivialis (“Poa Triv” or rough bluegrass) and dandelions.

In the middle of the month, our research farm team terminated the forecrops and untreated plots during the few days of 70 °F plus temperatures. Depending on temperature, the plants

should die in 10 to 14 days. Then the field will be rototilled and weed seeds allowed a week or more to germinate. The field will be rototilled lightly two more times after surface weed seeds

germinate. Our target hemp planting date is the second week of May, depending on weather and field conditions. After the third tillage pass, hemp will be planted on the same day.

Forecrops were terminated at about 12 inches tall in Mid-April. Temperatures were above 55°F for several days.

Hemp seed for the variety trial is beginning to arrive from breeders. New varieties will be compared to our current portfolio when grown after the forecrops. A second field will be planted with one variety following winter annual trials. An August Hemp Field Day is being planned. Stay tuned!

Accounting For Carbon in Hemp Production Systems

A GHG Auditors Perspective

Industrial hemp exists at the nexus of environmental and economic decarbonization. Historically, we have eroded our agricultural production system’s ability to naturally self-regulate in pursuit of higher yields and wider margins. As a result, our ability to adapt to increasingly dramatic fluctuations in our climates temperature and moisture levels is handicapped at a time we need it most. Without the proper accounting and crediting methods, the environmental value proposition for cultivating industrial hemp remains a shallow narrative.

Like a financial auditor, the Greenhouse gas (GHG) auditors’ role is to inventory and account for the fluctuation of different emissions produced in a particular project’s operational scope. Scientific methods of systematic sampling, inventorying, and modeling are used to determine accuracy and performance. This data is compiled and reported in a Greenhouse gas statement which is denominated in “Tons of Carbon Dioxide Equivalencies”. More commonly referred to as ‘tC02e’, it is analogous to the reserve currency a business operates in and expects to see on any fiscal reporting. While many production systems produce a positive (+, as in “more”) amount of GHGs, some natural production systems containing carbon-based lifeforms, like forests or soils, can absorb GHGs over time. When audited properly, this amounts to a negative (-, as in less than zero) number. Many times, and especially in agriculture, other Greenhouse gasses such CH4 and N20 exist during the production cycle. As every greenhouse has as a distinct ‘global warming potential’, these gasses are converted into the base unit of measurement, tC02e. This is where the term “equivalency” comes from. These systems and mechanisms serve to de-risk and increase transparency.

As it pretrains to agriculture, and more specifically the cultivation of industrial hemp, GHG auditing must be viewed from a wider, more holistic lens. Managing GHG reductions depends largely on the permanence of storage. Success is determined by how well and how long a GHGs can be fixed in biological matter. This is expressed in two ways, “Ton-Year” accounting and “Ton-Ton” accounting methods. In the case of hemp, some GHG storage will occur in soils as roots and other microorganisms propagate. A Ton-year approach is best in soil enrichment. However, most GHGs will be stored in the bast fibers and leaves. This is best quantified using a “Ton-Ton” approach. Too often, a hard and fast number is attributed to hemps ability to sequester GHG, when in fact performance is a function of efficiency and growth rate. It is important to understand how an inventory is to be conducted in this context. While some sophisticated satellite imaging and modeling technology can be used to make accurate inferences at lower cost, direct sampling of soils and biomass volumes remains the most reliable method.

As we navigate towards a more sustainable future, the ESG “race to the top” mentality continues to solidify. Wise business leaders who think strategically will understand that success is determined not just by risk and reward, but ever increasingly impact as well. A case study in low embodied emissions products in the industrial hemp supply chain, IND Hemp and Hempitecture recently announced a cooperative partnership presumably to produce, process and manufacture domestic hemp fiber insulation. Science and logic concur that a product consisting of natural materials has a lower carbon profile (or footprint) than that of a synthetic material. These valuable products don’t just increase a buildings energy efficiency, saving costs over the long term, but also reduce the embodied emissions profile of a building overall. Traditional mineral wool insulation on the other hand requires massive amounts of fossil fuel energy to manufacture and increases the emissions profile of a building. While hemp is not the answer to climate change, it is an important component of the solution. The more we support similar operations’ capacity to cultivate, quantify and utilize hemp intelligently, the better our ability to mitigate the risks of global warming and track success. If you are a cultivator of industrial hemp, interested in cultivating industrial hemp, own a company that processes industrial hemp, please consider contacting a GHG auditor to learn more about GHG inventorying and decarbonization techniques in agricultural production systems. Without the recognized levels of assurance provided by a certified GHG auditor, leveraging your GHG impact is an exercise in greenwashing at your own risk.

Hempseed Nutrition

Cannabis hempseeds contain all the essential amino acids and essential fatty acids necessary to maintain healthy human life. No other single plant source provides complete protein in such an easily digestible form, nor has the oils essential to life in as perfect a ratio for human health and vitality.

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Hempseed is the highest of any plant in essential fatty acids

Hempseed oil is among the lowest in saturated fats at 8% of total oil volume. The oil pressed from hempseed contains 55% linoleic acid (LA) and 25% linolenic acid (LNA). Only flax oil has more linolenic acid at 58%, but hempseed oil is the highest in total essential fatty acids at 80% of total oil volume.

"These essential fatty acids are responsible for our immune response. In the old country the peasants ate hemp butter. They were more resistant to disease than the nobility" The higher classes wouldn't eat hemp becuase the poor ate it. - R. Hamilton, ED.D., Ph.D. Medical Researcher-Biochemist U.C.L.A. Emeritus.

LA and LNA are involved in producing life energy from food and the movement of that energy throughout the body.

Essential fatty acids govern growth, vitality and state of mind. LA and LNA are involved in transferring oxygen from the air in the lungs to every cell in the body. They play a part in holding oxygen in the cell membrane where it acts as a barrier to invading viruses and bacteria, neither of which thrive in the presence of oxygen.

The bent shape of the essential fatty acids keeps them from dissolving into each other. They are slippery and will not clog arteries like the sticky straight-shaped saturated fats and the trans-fatty acids in cooking oils and shortening that are made by subjecting polyunsaturated oils like LA and LNA to high temperatures during the refining process.

LA and LNA possess a slightly negative charge and have a tendency to form very thin surface layers. This property is called surface activity, and it provides the power to carry substances like toxins to the surface of the skin, intestinal tract, kidneys, and lungs where they can be removed. Their very sensitvity causes them to break down rapidly into toxic compounds when refined with high heat or improper storage exposes them to light or air.

Nature provides seeds with an outer shell that safely protects the vital oils and vitamins within from spoilage.

It's a perfect as well as perfectly edible container. Hempseed can be ground into a paste similar to peanut butter only more delicate in flavor. Udo Erasmus, Ph.D. nutritionist says: "Hemp butter puts our peanut butter to shame for nutritional value." The ground seeds can be baked into breads, cakes and casseroles. Hempseed makes a hearty addition to granola bars.

Pioneers in the fields of biochemistry and human nutrition now believe cardiovascular disease (CVD) and most cancers are really diseases of fatty digeneration, caused by the continued over-consumption of saturated fats and refined vegetable oils that turn essential fatty acids into carcinogenic killers. One out of two Americans will die from the effects of CVD. One out of four Americans will die from cancer. Researchers believe cancers erupt when immune system response is weakened. And more Americans are succumbing to immune deficiency diseases than ever before. Promising studies are now under way using the essential oils to support the immune systems of HIV virus patients.

The complete protein in hempseed gives the body all the essential amino acids required to maintain health, and provides the necessary kinds and amounts of amino acids the body needs to make human serum albumin and serum globulins like the immune enhancing gamma globulin antibodies.

The body's ability to resist and recover from illness depends upon how rapidly it can produce massive amounts of antibodies to fend off the inital attack. If the globulin protein starting material is in short supply, the army of antibodies may be too small to prevent the symprtoms of sickness from setting in.

The best way to insure the body has enough amino acid material to make the globulins is to eat foods high in globulin proteins. Hempseed protein is 65% globulin edestin plus quantities of albumin (present in all seeds) so its easily digestible protein is readily available in a form quite similar to that found in blood plasma.

Hempseed was used to treat nutritional deficiencies brought on by tuberculosis, a severe nutrition blocking disease that causes the body to waste away. (Czechoslovakia Tubercular Nutritional Study, 1955.)

The energy of life is in the whole seed. Hempseed foods taste great!

They will insure we get enough essential amino acids and essential fatty acids, to build strong bodies and immune systems, and to maintain health and vitality.

Excepted from Hempseed Nutrition by Lynn Osburn (1993). Produced by Access Unlimited, PO Box 1900, Frazier Park, CA 93225