“The new hemp economy”. This is how Coldiretti calls it in the study presented at Seeds&chips 2018 in Milan, at Gate 3 of Mico (Milano Congressi, where the former US president Barack Obama also participated in the 2017 edition): it is the rediscovery of the ancient cultivation of hemp as the protagonist of an entirely Made in Italy revolution, and that is the one from which many foods are obtained and also the so-called legal marijuana, the sale and consumption of which are now permitted in Italy since, unlike "traditional" marijuana, the one extracted from hemp is devoid of the active psychotropic substance (Thc).
The cultivation of hemp is experiencing a real boom in Italy: according to Coldiretti, in the space of five years he has seen a tenfold increase in cultivated land, from 400 hectares in 2013 to almost 4000 estimated for 2018 in the countryside where innovative experiences are multiplying, with products ranging from ricotta to insulating eco-bricks, from anti-inflammatory oil to bioplastics, up to seeds, flowers for herbal teas, pasta , biscuits and cosmetics. This is what emerges from the Coldiretti study presented at Seeds&chips, where a exhibition on the thousand uses of the most versatile plant in Italian agriculture which, thanks to new technologies, enters the daily life of families in many different ways. According to Coldiretti estimates, there are hundreds of new farms that started growing hemp in 2018, from Puglia to Piedmont, from Veneto to Basilicata, but also in Lombardy, Friuli VG Sicily and Sardinia with the multiplication of innovative experiences.
At Seeds&Chips – explains Coldiretti – the young entrepreneurs of Coldiretti showed off the many food variations, from biscuits and taralli to hemp bread, from hemp flour to oil, whose beneficial properties have been recognized by the Ministry of Health, the WHO and numerous researches. But there are also those who use hemp to produce ricotta, tofu and a tasty vegan drink, as well as beer.
