Worcestershire farm 'raising eyebrows' with hemp fields
A Worcestershire farm is growing hemp, a legal cannabis variety, to improve soil carbon and climate resilience. The farm manager emphasizes that the crop is strictly for industrial use and contains no psychoactive properties.
Why it matters
This highlights the growing interest in industrial hemp as a sustainable agricultural alternative in the UK.
Image caption, Jake Freestone is among 130 licensees who can grow hemp legally
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.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in