Green Valley Società Agricola

The Hemp Manifesto for a Green recovery

Federcanapa, in collaboration with EIHA, presents a manifesto in order to relaunch new economic models for the post-Covid era.

The health emergency related to COVID19 has overturned people’s habits and the world of work, producing an economic and social crisis of which the actual extent is not fully known.

The future of humanity is requiring the reformulation of the existing healthcare, social and economic models, which will determine the lifestyles of the coming years.

On our Blog we’ve already talked, in our articles about how Hemp could be an additional ally with which to face the challenges of today and tomorrow, with a specific focus on Italy. 

In this sense, Federcanapa officially intervened by presenting The Hemp Manifesto, created in collaboration with the European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA), representative of the European sector of Hemp workers.

The objective of Federcanapa is that of proposing a new approach, with the aim to valorise the potential of the hemp plant regarding its entire range of compounds, and to move towards a sustainable bio-based economy with “zero emissions”.

The document, articulated in 10 key-points and accompanied by the hashtag #hemprevolution, supplies proposals to be transformed in concrete actions.

1. The public policies should promote the use of Hemp in food, feed and manufactured products and finance the development of sustainable value chains.
2. The contribution to the environment of the hemp plant should be recognised and the use of hemp for carbon farming encouraged. 
3. Member States should not apply the drug control legislations to hemp and its derived products, provided that the limits established for THC content are respected. 
4. The maximum THC level allowed should be raised from 0.2 to 0.3%. 
5. Operators should be allowed to produce all parts of the plant – included the flowers and leaves – and to market any kind of product, whilst maintaining compliance with the limits in THC content. 
6. Hemp preparations containing naturally occurring cannabinoids should not be considered as novel food.
7. Less restrictive guiding values should be established for THC in food and feed.
8. All hemp derived raw materials should be permitted as ingredients for cosmetics.
9. The EU should value and promote the use of hemp fibres for the production of short and long fibre for textile products and foster the creation of sustainable value chains.  
10. The use of hemp-based construction materials should be incentivised both in the public and the private sectors, with clear objectives for the total or partial replacement of other less-sustainable alternatives. 

With this manifesto Federcanapa intends to underline, should that still prove necessary considering the numerous studies and research programmes witnessing the effectiveness of this culture, the enormous potential of the European Hemp sector in speeding up the transition towards a sustainable, zero-emission economy ’, in line with the principles of the European Green Deal, presented before the Covid emergency, at the European headquarters.

Hemp could bring a sustainable and long-lasting growth, creating skilled jobs.

It appears increasingly clear that, in times of Covid, Hemp can have an essential role in creating a new, greener and more sustainable society, proposing a practical solution to guarantee food and non-food products, while respectful of the environment, and with the capability to contribute to the purification of soil and air.

Sustaining the Hemp sector in a decisive way  represents, according to FederCanapa , EIHA and others as well, a crucial challenge in order to reformulate the post-pandemic future.