IT's a cottage industry keen to throw off its counter-culture image and embrace mainstream agriculture.
Welcome to the world of industrial hemp, which holds the promise of not only food and fibre, but also high powered medicines.
The downside of industrial hemp is that it is the same plant as marijuana, albiet varieties developed with negligible amounts of the psychoactive chemical delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, usually called THC.
It's that factor which appears to be holding the nascent industry back. That and a desperate lack of investment to propel the versatile crop forward.
Hemp foods have been legal for human consumption in Australia since 2017. The industry proponents point to the 20-30 per cent protein and the beneficial mega 3 and 6 fatty acids contained in the seed, oil, flour and protein.
Speaking at the Hemp Expo in Brisbane, Australian Industrial Hemp Alliance president James Vosper said like any agriculture endeavour the set up costs were high.
However, the greatest challenge facing the nascent industry was government regulations, which were strangling development.
"China is already producing 150,000 hectares, the US more than 120,000ha while Australia is only growing 2500ha, and most of that is in Tasmania," Mr Vosper said.
"We have the potential to do so much better. Hemp fibre is a fast growing, direct competitor to cotton, creates a wonderful building material, high protein foods and its medicines are widely used for pain relief.
"And Australia has the farming systems to be the world leader."
Charles Kovess said the breakthrough for the industrial hemp fibre industry was machinery capable of decortication without retting. It simple terms that means separating the valuable hemp fibre from the core of the stalk.
The traditional method of retting (the Dutch word for rotting) results in up to 90pc of the fibre being lost. The machinery developed by the Melbourne based company Textile and Composite Industries limits the loss to about 10pc.
"This is a plant that can generate returns of $2000-$7000/ha in three or four months and sequest 10-30 tonnes/ha of CO2," Mr Kovess said. "It's an industry we have to have."