Manitoba Harvest:
Pioneering the “Hemp for Food” Movement


By Kat Schuett

Eating hemp won’t get you “high,” but it will make you healthier. In fact, you’d get about the same drug euphoria from the THC in a hemp brownie as you would get from the opium in your standard lemon poppyseed muffin— except with the brownie you’re also getting a good source of omega essential fats, hypoallergenic protein with all 11 amino acids, and several other key nutrients.

While the fact that hemp is not the same thing as pot is no news to some of you (especially those who have tried to smoke your hemp socks), it hasn’t always been (and still isn’t) common knowledge for all. Up until 11 years ago, hemp was banned from being grown for food or fiber throughout North America because some bureaucrats thought that hemp was the same thing as its cannabis cousin, marijuana.

This all changed when a group of “hemprenuers” from Canada saw the potential for this healthy, super sustainable crop and stepped in to push for the legalization of industrial hemp. After years of bushwhacking through political red tape and public misunderstanding, the first farmer-owned, vertically integrated hemp food manufacturer in North America, Manitoba Harvest Seed & Oil, was formed.

Due in large part to efforts from Manitoba Harvest, hemp has become one of the fastest growing functional health foods. According to data from SPINs, sales of hemp have grown by over 50 percent in each of the past two years. Research from Nielsen confirms this trend, naming hemp as a key “good for you” food category that is getting consistent year-over-year sales gains. Vote Hemp, an advocacy group that promotes reestablishment of hemp agriculture in the U.S., estimates that consumers in America alone will purchase $300 million in hemp products this year.

Manitoba Harvest manufactures several products from this superfood crop including hemp seed, hemp oil, hemp butter, hemp protein powder and the first organic hemp milk. In addition, dozens of other manufacturers use its hemp as a functional ingredient. In the last few years, it has shown up in everything from cereal and bars to chips and brownies, but of course. During the past five years, Manitoba Harvest’s sales have grown more than 1,000 percent. However, while hemp is gaining wider acceptance, there are still many hurdles. Besides educating consumers, one of the major challenges that remains is that it’s still not legal to grow hemp for food or fiber in the United States.

From Criminalized Crop to Hot Health Trend
In the early ‘90s, Martin Moravcik, one of the founders of Manitoba Harvest, owned a little store that sold imported handmade products, among them several made of hemp. The more he learned about the crop, the more fascinated he became. For one, he learned that hemp is one of the most environmentally sustainable crops in the world. Hemp is naturally pest-resistant, and because hemp plants grow rapidly and close together, they crowd out weeds and don’t need herbicides. Hemp also has strong roots that anchor the soil to prevent erosion. Plus, because the by-products of hemp seed cultivation can be used in variety of ways-—rope, fiber, paper and more—hemp generates virtually no waste. Digging through historical documents, Moravcik also discovered that in the ‘20s, before the crop was banned, the Canadian Minister of Agriculture had actually encouraged the growth of hemp because of its market potential and ability to grow well in Canada.

So why was this eco-friendly crop outlawed? Hemp was banned as part of Canada’s Controlled Substances Act of 1978—mistakingly lumped in with marijuana as an illicit drug. However, while these plants may look similar and come from the same family, THC, the active drug in marijuana, is less than 10 parts per million in industrialized hemp, and some, such as Manitoba Harvest’s hemp seeds, are tested to ensure that they are THC-free.

Digging further into history, Moravcik found that the root of the misunderstanding dates back to the ‘30s. At the time, hemp was being used to make much of the world’s rope and paper, so several companies that made competing products out of other materials got together to start a propaganda campaign, “Reefer Madness.” This campaign convinced parents and the government that hemp was the same thing as marijuana, ultimately leading to the demise and illegalization of industrial hemp.

After learning about the history and benefits of the crop, Moravcik was fired up. “It felt like there was a wrong that needed to be righted,” said Moravcik. “It took on a life of its own and the more people I told about it, the more people wanted to get involved.”

He started an awareness committee at the University of Manitoba, Canada’s largest agricultural school, passing out flyers that described the difference between hemp and pot, and the benefits of growing hemp for food and fiber. Support started to grow and soon the provincial government of Manitoba got behind the effort and provided a grant to study the crop. The hard work paid off. In 1998, after years of studies, education efforts and lobbying, the Controlled Substances Act came up for review and hemp was taken off the list. In addition, a bill was passed to set up legal framework for a licensing program to control hemp production, ensuring that only approved hemp seeds were being grown. Through this, the government had traceability and control and consumers had access to this healthy and sustainable crop.

Along Came Mike. Not too long before hemp was legalized, Moravcik met Mike Fata. Fata was facing a different type of challenge. After weighing in at 300 pounds when he was just 18 years old, Fata went on an ultra low-fat diet—and lost over 120 pounds. But he was still unhealthy. “I found myself at about 160 pounds which for a 6’1’’ guy is very, very skinny. I was having health issues, but now it was from starving the body of fat,” said Fata.
Then a friend explained to him the difference between good and bad fats and introduced him to flax seed oil. From there he started researching other omega-rich foods and discovered the health benefits of hemp. Soon he was buying hemp seed and pressing hemp seed oil himself.

Moravcik and Fata saw the potential for hemp and together with their friend, Alex Chwaiewsky, capitalized on a glut of hemp grain on the market. They teamed up with 20 local farmers, bought a cold press from Sweden and started Manitoba Harvest.

Educating Consumers on the Benefits of Hemp
While word had spread fast, education was (and still is) the company’s biggest challenge.

“Ten years ago, we would be at a trade show and people would literally just walk by and laugh,” Fata said. “They were probably just thinking, ‘Oh, those dope heads.’ We’d tell them, ‘hemp is a health food,’ and they’d say, ‘yeah, right—hemp is marijuana.”

“The benefit was that at least everyone had heard of hemp,” said Fata. “They might have been confused, but it allowed people to open up and ask about it.” So they set out to spread the word—doing over 50 shows a year, sampling products and educating consumers on the health benefits of hemp. The momentum was building.

The Setback and Comeback. Things were going well until in 2001, when the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) tried to ban hemp products in the United States, once again confusing the public by “rehashing” the mistruth about hemp being illegal because of its connection to marijuana. The Hemp Industry Association (HIA) spent two and half years and over $250,000 fighting and finally the judges decided in favor of HIA. All the publicity around the issue caused doubt and Manitoba Harvest lost major retailers they had worked so hard to gain.

However, there was a positive side to the controversy, according to Tom Murphy, national outreach coordinator for Vote Hemp. “Every time something happened, we had our media team putting out press releases and doing interviews to set the record straight, which led to giant increases in sales of hemp products. So even though the legal fees seemed expensive, if you looked at it from a marketing point of view, it was actually a really cheap way to get mass exposure,” he said. “That’s why they always say, ‘There is no such thing as bad press.’”

With the word out, Manitoba Harvest rebuilt its retail partnerships and soon started growing rapidly at 50 percent a year, earning the company a spot on Canada’s “Profit 100” list three years in a row. Today, Manitoba Harvest processes over 2.5 million pounds of hemp seed a year, a huge growth spurt from the 555,000 pounds it was processing just two years ago. More mainstream conventional grocery stores such as Kroger are now carrying the product as well.

“They’re not seeing hemp as that risky product,” Fata noted. “They’re seeing it as an opportunity.”

Making It Legal in the U.S.
Although they won the fight to sell hemp products in the good ol’ red, white and blue, the hemp industry is still working to get the ban removed on growing industrial hemp in the United States.

As in Canada, hemp was lumped in with marijuana in U.S. anti-drug legislation. Although a federal bill to legalize industrial hemp has been introduced three times since 2005, there still has not even been a hearing. This past April, Rep. Ron Paul introduced H.R. 1866, the “Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009,” and is asking proponents of hemp to make their voices heard. According to Murphy from Vote Hemp, hemp supporters can help by writing and calling their state legislators and asking them to support H.R. 1866.

While hemp has not made it far on the federal level, several states have passed pro-hemp legislation. North Dakota, which borders Manitoba, is leading this effort. The state agricultural department has already developed background check forms, licensing forms, and even issued licenses to farm hemp under state regulations. Manitoba Harvest has been working very closely with farmers in North Dakota and has several ready to start growing as soon as they get a green light from the federal level.

“As we expand, having partners in the United States will be important. Also, the mass awareness from pro-hemp legislation will be very good for business,” Fata said.

Although Manitoba Harvest has played a key role in the early U.S. legislative efforts, the company’s founders are now focusing on encouraging political change through creating robust consumer demand. Murphy from Vote Hemp supports this approach.

“One of the best ways to get the government to listen is to buy hemp food products, hemp cosmetics and clothing,” he said. “Increasing the marketplace makes it easier to sell to legislators as something we should be doing here instead of importing.”

With that said, there is no better excuse to go out and buy a hemp brownie to show your support for the issue. It’s legal—and while it won’t get you high, with all its health benefits it will give you a feel-good effect that will last not just a few hours, but for years to come.

Kat Schuett is the editorial director of Organic Processing Magazine. She can be reached at kat@organicprocessing.com.