Hemp seeds have more protein per 100g than chicken —why aren't we eating more of it?

Don’t get hemp mixed up with cannabis. It’s from the same family, but this plant variety is being grown in Ireland for its edible and nutritious seeds

Lena, Joe, Helen and Kieran Bracken grow 10-18 acres of hemp as a rotation crop in Co Offaly. The harvest is dried, cleaned, shelled and milled in-house. Picture: Paul Moore

Hemp isn’t the kind of crop you expect to find growing on a farm in Co Offaly. However, once Helen Bracken, of Fox Covert Farm, explains that it’s a nutritional food and sustainable crop, you’ll want to know more about it.

“We are predominantly tillage farmers,” she says, “and we grow 10-18 acres of hemp every year as a rotation crop.”