Alberta’s pulping sector is kick-starting a new trend that could see local farmers plant crops for paper production instead of food. Interest in using crops such as flax and hemp as alternatives to wood in papermaking is high as rising global demand for paper clashes with limited forestry resources, said Wade Chute, manager of the pulp and paper division of the Alberta Research Council Inc.

Ask Hempola Inc. president Greg Herriott what he thinks of last week’s huge marijuana bust in Barrie and he rolls his eyes and states, “we now spend half our daily conversations explaining to customers and people we had nothing to do with it! Mind you, most of these people know there is no connection. They’re long term customers… it’s been a real joke topic, but it sure has raised the awareness level for us; almost as much notice as our involvement last year with the American Music Awards.

Hemptown Clothing Inc. has received its largest ever wholesale distribution order, from TSC Apparel, one of America’s largest promotional wear distributors. TSC will offer Hemptown’s line of environmentally friendly hemp fiber T-shirts and sportswear throughout the United States, including Hawaii and Alaska, from its warehouses in California, Ohio, and North Carolina.

Kelly Smith and Greg Herriott built their new home as an homage to hemp. The walls of Smith and Herriott’s 4,500-square-foot house are filled with hemp weed, the floor and ceiling beams are stained with hemp oil, the roof is shingled with hemp composite and they plan to use hemp oil in the furnace.

While textile flax produced in France is exported all over the world for the production of high-quality linen clothes and sheets, these natural fibres are now being re-discovered by French manufacturers and put to unexpected and exciting uses. Increasingly, flax is being used by automotive equipment manufacturers as a source of raw material that is environmentally friendly and less dangerous — in the event of a vehicle crashing — when used for interior panels in cars. Hemp fibres are also employed in industry to provide rigidity for plastics and in buildings as a natural insulator.