diff --git a/ckan/lib/helpers.py b/ckan/lib/helpers.py
index 3c4477e7163..bf42584359c 100644
--- a/ckan/lib/helpers.py
+++ b/ckan/lib/helpers.py
@@ -866,7 +866,7 @@ def markdown_extract(text, extract_length=190):
     ''' return the plain text representation of markdown encoded text.  That
     is the texted without any html tags.  If extract_length is 0 then it
     will not be truncated.'''
-    if (text is None) or (text.strip() == ''):
+    if not text:
         return ''
     plain = RE_MD_HTML_TAGS.sub('', markdown(text))
     if not extract_length or len(plain) < extract_length: