Speaking at the 2025 Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance conference, Plantae’s Trevor Kloeck said exaggerated claims have eroded credibility and now the sector needs a reset. Photo: Don Norman

Time to be honest about hemp, experts say

Sector aims to move past early “hemp evangelism,” told the crop’s future lies in honest agronomy, not exaggerated claims

Years of hype have given way to a more realistic view of hemp. Farmers and processors say the crop's future depends on solid agronomy, honesty.

A hemp plant grows on a research crop plot at the Westman Agricultural Diversification Organization near Melita. Photo: Alexis Stockford

Canadian hemp stable, but stuck on growth

Canada’s hemp industry hopes better hybrid varieties and yields, clearer regulations and new markets might help their crop break past its current ceiling and into stronger growth

Canada’s hemp industry hopes hybrid varieties, better yields, clearer regulations and new markets can help the crop break past its ceiling and get Canadian farmers planting more hemp acres.



National agency to provide a new voice for hemp

National agency to provide a new voice for hemp

New hemp promotion and research agency will collect checkoff from hemp producers for research, promotion and market development

New hemp promotion and research agency will collect checkoff from hemp producers for research, promotion and market development.


Mapping the genetic progress of hemp

Mapping the genetic progress of hemp

Hemp has potential for many markets, from grain to construction materials like hempcrete, but the varieties need fine tuning

Hemp production in Western Canada has many potential markets, from grain to construction materials like hempcrete, but the varieties need fine tuning.



Editorial: Carbon hype is not market reality

Editorial: Carbon hype is not market reality

It’s easy to understand why farmers want carbon credits to work. They want to be paid for the ecological goods and services they provide. On a more emotional level, it’s nice to be treated like heroes in times when farmers are sometimes painted as environmental villains. The public is increasingly focused on climate change and

Hemp expert Anndrea Hermann on her farm near Kleefeld, Man., with the fruit of her translation efforts, a hemp-based children’s book.

‘Trallala’ takes hemp expert on magical journey 

Anndrea Hermann’s fascination with hemp led her from Missouri to Manitoba, where she jumped into a fledgling industry

[UPDATE: July 12, 2023] A little hempseed named Trallala is sitting on her plant when an elderly cat named Max passes beneath and tells her about a mysterious field of singing flowers. She pleads with the black and white feline to take her there. Adventure follows as Trallala travels across “Hempworld” farm, meeting friends and learning everything


Jeff Kostuik of Verve Seed Solutions shows how to separate the hurd from the hemp plant while James Frey holds onto the microphone.  
photo: GORD LEATHERS

New uses drive hemp fibre market

U.S. builders are using hempcrete more frequently due to its insulating properties and moisture tolerance

The market for hemp fibre may be on its way up again and Jeff Kostuik of Verve Seed Solutions says it’s based on a part of the plant that used to be considered waste. At a crop demonstration for the Parklands Crop Diversity Foundation in Roblin, he pulled apart a hemp stem and showed the

A hemp plant in Alberta. (Jennifer Blair photo)

Regulations, versatility pull hemp in different directions in West

Crop 'still struggling with reaching its full potential'

MarketsFarm — Accounting for 60 per cent of Canada’s 1,100 cultivation licenses as of 2020, according to Health Canada, Western Canada is the country’s most important region when it comes to hemp production. But while there are more products on store shelves, more cultivars than ever before and high prices for the crop, demand for