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"Once I learnt about this plant, I knew I had to try growing it on my farm"
We caught up with Nico Cruz to find out about his hemp journey, what inspired him to start growing hemp on his farm, and what he hopes to see in the future of the industry.
Nico has been growing hemp on his farm for three years. Young and enterprising, he’s the definition of busy: as well as hemp, on his land in the northern hills of Italy, Nico grows a number of other crops, produces animal products and runs Woofing programmes. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, he recently set up his own farm veg box delivery service, and also works with local migrants in the area to help set up allotments and teach them how to grow their own food.
So Nico, what first sparked your interest in hemp?
My focus began with eco-buildings. I worked for a few years as a carpenter and architect in France and I was disgusted by all the chemical products we used that are so bad for the health of the people doing the building, but even more important, the people who then live in the house. We live in cages full of cancerous materials that are bad for our health…
Hemp is really amazing because when you use it to build, it releases oxygen in a way that helps both the house and the people living in it be healthy. And you don’t have humidity problems because hemp stores heat and then releases it slowly as the house cools – so when you need it, in winter. And the incredible thing is that the hemp that’s used to make the bricks or hempcrete continues to absorb CO2 even after the plant’s dead. That’s amazing because you can have a CO2 filter in the city, and it’s your house. The material becomes stronger over time, and when you want to destroy the house, you can just break it up and put it in the soil and create more organic topsoil.
Why did you start growing hemp on your farm?
We began with the idea to harvest the entire plant – not just the flower, and not just one product. Once I learnt about this plant, I knew I had to try growing it on my farm. There are so many things that can be very useful for both business and the environment. We always use hemp to clean and restore our fields and soil before we plant something. And we’ve started to grow hemp close to the highway by our farm to clean the soil and also the air, as it’s a filter and absorbs CO2 from the air and metals from the soil.
Italy was the second biggest producer of hemp in the whole world after China, and the first one of quality, because hemp in Italy grows really well because the PH of the soil is perfect for cultivation.
Have you noticed any changes on your farm since you started growing hemp?
We did an analysis of the ground before and after and we saw that thanks to the hemp the metal in the soil had completely disappeared. And the roots of the plant broke up the earth and gave air and nutrition to the soil so the condition after planting hemp was much better and the land is now more productive.
Would you recommend more farmers start growing hemp on their farms?
Yes, it’s a good business for a farmer. It’s a way to reuse and re-give life to our fields because after 100 years of damaging farming practices, our fields are completely lifeless. There’s nothing in the soil. And hemp could be a good solution. But we need investment and laws that help the farmers to work together. We need big processing plants but it costs a lot of money. The flower is the easiest thing to process and that’s why so many people focus on that: if you want to use the fiber it’s a lot of work to process it, especially in large quantities.
How can data help hemp farmers?
Data is really important to measure how fast your plant is growing and if you have a farm it can be amazing to be able to control everything and check if there’s a deficiency in your soil or anything you need to change.