'Our hemp crop raised eyebrows, but it is legal'
A Worcestershire farm has begun cultivating hemp to improve soil health and climate resilience. The farm manager notes that while the crop looks like cannabis, it is a legal, non-psychoactive variety grown for industrial fibers.
Why it matters
Hemp is increasingly viewed as a sustainable, carbon-sequestering crop that can help farmers adapt to changing climate conditions.
Jake Freestone is among 130 licensees who can grow hemp legally [BBC] A farm in Worcestershire has been "raising eyebrows" among local villagers after it planted 30 hectares of hemp.
The plant, a variety of the cannabis sativa plant, is something farmers need a licence to grow in the UK.
Jake Freestone, from Overbury Enterprises, on Bredon Hill, is one among 130 licensees who can legally cultivate the crop, which is used for clothes, rope, paper, sound proofing cars, and even for strengthening cement.
"It looks very much like what it shouldn't be, but it's grown for its fibres, so the actual drug element has been bred out of these varieties," the farm manager said. "There's absolutely no special effects here, whatsoever."
And despite its suspicious appearance, Freestone said the crop was giving his farm "resilience going forward" against a changing climate.
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