Kitty litter, fibril soil enricher and an absorbent flour for cleaning up liquids are among the innovative products Hemp Sense Inc. plans to produce from hemp straw that would normally be burned in the fields.
The new plant in Gilbert Plains is rolling out its product line in stages, starting with hemp seeds.
Photos courtesy of Hemp Sense
cases where farmers don’t have the necessary equipment. And so far, the company has a contract in place to supply kitty litter to 1,400 stores across North America. The litter ticks off a lot of boxes, serving a burgeoning pet supply market, providing diversified farm income and meeting consumer demand for green products. Produced in a zero-waste, zero- water facility, hemp litter has several advantages over clay litter. “Clay tracks on the cat’s feet, gets all over the furniture and people are breathing in that fine dust. Whereas the hemp is 100 per cent green. It absorbs
495 per cent of its weight, so it’s the highest-absorbing product we compared to other cat litters,” Bates says. Lightweight, chemical- and dust-free, it can also be composted. Parkland farmers led the charge to develop a hemp industry, forming the Parkland Industrial Hemp Growers (PIHG) cooperative soon after Canadian production was legalized in 1998. Late PIHG chairman Joe Federowich was also a driving force in promoting fiber production before he died in 2009. “Joe Federowich years ago was determined that the farmers needed to look at different crops, different incomes.
He was determined hemp would work and stuck with it,” Bates says. Hemp Sense was incorporated in 2015, and while it’s rolling out a limited number of products in the initial stages, Bates says it has the capacity to expand the product line at little cost. “Now we’re getting pretty excited because our products are getting ready to hit the shelves,” he says. “It’s a new industry yet. The seed market’s there and now I think there’s a big opportunity — we can take the waste product and give farmers another income, so I think it works hand in hand for the farmers and ourselves.” ■
december 2017
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