The Raw Material of the Future
In 20 to 30 years, your refrigerator will hold smart food. No, it won't talk to you. It will give you something more important: health, beauty, and entirely new flavors. It will contain every nutritional component the body needs, calibrated to its requirements. What this food will be, what raw material will form its basis, and why smart food will replace ordinary food is what we'll explore here.
The Raw Material That Will Change the Food Industry Forever
People need more. Feeding the population and finding renewable, affordable, and healthy sources of food raw materials is a global challenge for the entire world. Scientists, manufacturers, and investors in many countries are working to solve it.
Producers are trying to meet rising demand by scaling up production. But the rate of consumption is outpacing the rate at which raw materials can be renewed. And the population that needs to be fed only keeps growing: from 1.8 to 7.5 billion people over the past hundred years.
Why not agriculture? Farming, which is meant to address the food question, plays an ambiguous role. According to UN estimates, it uses about 70% of the world's fresh water. Across all countries, 50% of grain goes to feed livestock. Meat production accounts for 50% of all antibiotics produced, which adversely affects consumers' immune systems. Farming contributes to global warming: livestock pollutes the air more than cars do. Such is the real price of the meat, milk, and bread on our tables.
The Best Alternative Is Plant-Based
The shortage of clean protein, one of the key building blocks the human body requires, is felt ever more acutely. Scientists are searching for alternative sources of it. And we are moving toward a food revolution in which new solutions will replace traditional agriculture. One of them is a focus on plant-based raw materials.
Food Made from the Raw Material of the Future
So what will the food of the future be like? Its basis will be plant-based raw material. It will be possible to produce it with specified properties for a particular product. Modern products can be more affordable than the familiar foods of animal origin. Demand is growing for functional products with an improved composition: more nutritious, tastier, more convenient, and more varied.
The livestock industry will be replaced by a "Food as Software" model. Scientists will develop products, and a new kind of specialist, the food designer, will work with databases of such products. The food production system will become distributed, localized, and stable.
Progress is already moving us toward a future in which the base raw material in the food industry will be products of plant rather than animal origin. Humanity has long been acquainted with the finest crop of the plant world. And that raw material is industrial hemp.
Green Gold: Why Hemp Is the Future of the Food Industry
Green oil, a universal raw material, a food crop of the future: we have yet to rediscover hemp, which has been by humanity's side since the 8th millennium BCE. And we will rediscover it, because humanity needs to. Here are the main advantages of industrial hemp:
- A replacement for animal protein. Hemp protein is a complete substitute for animal protein in the human diet and is in no way inferior to it in nutritional properties. Hemp seeds contain all the non-essential and essential amino acids, omega-3, omega-6, and omega-9 fatty acids, and plant fiber. They are suitable for vegetarians and people with allergies, as they have virtually no contraindications for consumption.
- Benefits for animals. Products made from hemp raw material are also suitable for inclusion in animal feed. Such feed in pets' diets helps support their health thanks to the beneficial properties of hemp.
- Raw material for pharmaceuticals. Hemp-derived raw material is widely used in the pharmaceutical sector of many countries around the world.
- Harmless to nature. Industrial hemp is undemanding and 100% waste-free. The plant enriches the soil and yields a good harvest without the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides. It absorbs carbon dioxide and converts it into oxygen more efficiently than trees and many other plants.
- An alternative to timber. Large-scale hemp cultivation will spare the planet from critical deforestation. There is no need to fell trees for paper production, polluting water, soil, and air with chemicals: hemp raw material contains up to 85% cellulose, compared with roughly 30% in wood.
- An alternative to plastic. Using hemp fiber to produce biocomposite materials and carbon-fiber composites will, over time, make it possible to replace plastic across many industries.
Why Was This Promising Industry Halted?
If industrial hemp is the finest raw material of the plant world, then how did it come to pass that this promising sector was all but destroyed in the recent past?
Industrial hemp came under fire during the war on drugs, which began with the international convention of 1912. The USSR was one of the countries that committed to strictly controlling the cultivation and use of hemp, including its industrial varieties. Until 1960, Soviet plantings covered the needs of the country's own industry and made it the world's largest exporter of hemp tow (the coarse bast fiber obtained from hemp stalks). But by the 1980s, a series of poor decisions had left the industry in a dire state.
A Second Birth
In Russia, the crop has traveled a long road: from prohibition to revival. Since 2007, a government decree has permitted the cultivation of 20 non-narcotic hemp varieties. Economists attach strategic importance to the revival of hemp farming, and for good reason.
Today, products made from hemp raw material include oils, hearts, hemp flour, protein powders, and even milk. Products labeled as containing hemp are available worldwide, and consuming them is becoming a new way of life. Industrial hemp raw material is used in the cosmetics, textile, construction, and polymer industries. And this is only the beginning.
The properties of hemp give it a number of significant advantages over other crops. Time will tell: industrial hemp has the potential to become the planet's savior. It will provide an answer to many of the challenges humanity has yet to face.
A Green Light for Investors
Invest in plant-based. Producers are actively joining the trend toward plant-based raw materials. A present-day example is Oatly and its oat milk: this Swedish company went public, and its market capitalization reached 12 billion dollars. There is also Beyond Meat, a maker of plant-based ground meat and patties, a company with a market value of 8.3 billion dollars; its investors include Bill Gates and Leonardo DiCaprio. In 2020, 3.1 billion dollars was invested in the alternative protein sector.
The sector that produces raw material from the finest crop of the plant world, hemp, is also regaining ground. And this is drawing investor interest. For example, Levi Strauss, maker of the most popular blue jeans, was among the first to invest a billion dollars in hemp.
Need more? We'll sow it. In Russia, growing interest in hemp farming has led to an increase in planted area. By the end of 2019, the area under cultivation had grown by 34% compared with 2018. Demand for hemp products is also rising: the fiber market reached 2.2 thousand tonnes in 2019, almost three times the 2017 level. Seed consumption grew fourfold.
The Outlook in Russia and Worldwide
In 2021, Hemp Industry Daily reported on trends for industrial hemp in the United States: production and sales volumes of hemp were projected to grow by 75% by 2024 and reach 700 million dollars. The outlook in Russia is noted by the Krasnodar Agricultural Research Institute: revenue per hectare of hemp can today reach 250,000 to 380,000 rubles. By comparison, revenue per hectare of wheat is 50,000 to 70,000 rubles. Since 2020, the government has introduced subsidies for hemp producers. By 2025, Russia's planted area is expected to reach 20,000 hectares.
At present, Russian companies in this sector can be counted on one hand, but their number is gradually growing. Those who incorporate hemp raw material into production are already gaining a market advantage: hemp raw material broadens the composition and consumer properties of the finished products.
Surging demand for hemp, its raw materials, and hemp products is a reality drawing closer to us. Producers can incorporate hemp raw material into a wide range of products. Investments in hemp, over a horizon of 10 to 20 years, will enrich not only the soil but also their investors.
This is what we make
Our own full-cycle plant in the Uzlovaya SEZ. Wholesale, EAEU documents, 0% THC.
Hulled hemp hearts (separated)
Protein over 30% · omega-3/6
Cold-pressed green hemp seed oil
Omega-6 : omega-3 = 3.5 : 1
Hemp protein flour
Protein 40–45 g/100 g
We’ll match a product to your production need and send samples with documents.