Janet Price grew up on a mixed-farming property with sheep, cattle and wheat, but after purchasing the property from her family she introduced spelt and extended the mud home using hemp.
Industrial Hemp has been cultivated in the Northern Hemisphere for thousands of years and Janet believes it could be the crop of the future for Australian farmers due to carbon uptake and reduced water and chemical use. Some present Australian made products are hempcrete, seed and oil but the industry is currently restricted by a lack of machinery development, hemp’s novelty status and the lack of value-added industries.
In developing a Business Plan, Janet hopes to encourage and demonstrate to local farmers the advantages of introducing hemp as a rotational crop, as well as attracting investors both public and private to work with farmers to value-add by establishing appropriate manufacturing facilities in their community.