Flax and hemp producers could soon benefit from a major increase in value per acre.
Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz announced in Saskatoon Wednesday morning that the Harper government will invest $500, 000 into Advanced Foods and Materials Canada. The investment is funded under the federal government’s Agriculture Innovation Program, a $50 million initiative aimed at helping Canadian producers benefit from cutting-edge science and technology.
This project aims to turn by-products of flax and hemp that would otherwise be considered waste into high quality fibers.
Bernard Laarveld is a professor at the University of Saskatchewan. He says the material is usually wasted. “Flax straw is typically burnt. You’ve seen the smoke in the fall right, so we are trying to prevent that. So we take that flax straw, which basically has no value, and then for every ton of flax seed we can create roughly $2000 worth of product from it.”
