Sumy is the birthplace of industrial hemp cultivation. Hemp is grown there on more than 450 hectares of land. In order to get acquainted with the process of growing and manufacturing this superfood, we went to a hemp farm and talked with the workers.
Not so long ago, we told you that we replaced the potato protein in our product with a more useful and high-quality hemp protein, which made Eat Me At tastier.
Ukrainians were the first in the world to create drug-free hemp varieties. And they became the first Ukrainian ingredient in Eat Me At plant-based meat.
So now let's share the details: in this video, we talk to Vitaly Kabants, head of the selection and seed production department of the Northeastern Institute of Agriculture of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine. He answered the most common questions and confirmed or disproved the most common myths surrounding cannabis.
Not all cannabis is equally addictive
There are three types of hemp: Cannabis sativa L. or seed hemp, Cannabis indica L., Indian or narcotic hemp, and Cannabis ruderalis L., a wild hemp that occupies an intermediate position between seed and narcotic.
Currently, hemp is known to contain about a hundred different cannabinoids, but only tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) has a psychotropic effect. The content of this substance determines whether cannabis is narcotic or not.
Hemp seeds usually have no or very low levels of narcotic compounds. For example, in Ukraine, for industrial sowing, the permissible content of tetrahydrocannabinol in plants is less than 0.08%.
What is made of hemp?
Many foods: flour, protein, sweets, oil high in omega-3 and omega-6, veggie patties or simply remove the shell from the grain and use the kernel as a superfood. Biofuel and high-quality paints are made from hemp oil. The by-product after it is pressed — cake — is added to compound feed for feeding livestock and birds or is used as bait for fish.
The hemp stem has a fibrous layer on the outside, a wooden part on the inside and an empty core. The fibrous part is used to make fabrics and clothes, ropes, ropes and sails, because it is the only natural fiber that does not deteriorate in sea water. Various composite materials are also made from it, including for the automotive industry.
Who does this?
The Institute of Agriculture of the North-East of the National Academy of Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences is more than 110 years old. Fifty employees work here, and scientific work is carried out on 287 hectares of land. Not only hemp is involved. The institute produces seeds of grain, oil, grain crops and grows herbs.
Since 2017, the Hemp Fest hemp festival has been held every summer in the village of Sad near Sumy. It is organized by the Northeastern Institute of Agriculture of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences to popularize hemp as a crop that is used in various industries. The director of the institute, Viktor Kabanets, emphasizes that such measures encourage people to consume such a useful plant.
It's cool to understand what we eat. That is why we are talking about the updated Eat me at - a real double Ukrainian superfood.