Source: westerncourier.com
Western Illinois University, along with any other Illinois universities that have four-year degree agricultural programs, will become eligible to grow industrial hemp for research purposes.
Illinois’ previous governor, Patt Quinn, signed HB 5085 on Aug. 26, 2014, which is the bill that allows this to go into effect.
Andrew Baker, director and professor of agriculture education at Western, said now that there’s a new governor in office, it’s hard to say what will happen in Illinois regarding hemp research.
“We have so much uncertainty in Illinois about which way we’re going to go because Quinn started it and didn’t finish it, so we’ve got a lot of things yet to transpire,” Baker said.
Despite this, Baker said industrial hemp could have potential, but he is unsure whether it is feasible to grow and research the plant at Western at this given point in time.
“Hemp is a very unusual plant; it does take a lot out of the soil and just the requirements of the plant itself is going to probably take a lot more than what we’re willing to do as far as input for that plant,” Baker said.
Win Phippen, professor of plant breeding and genetics at Western, said hemp does make a good fiber and is commonly used in the construction of certain car parts, which in turn makes those cars more biodegradable.
“What we know from hemp right at the moment is that there’s going to be a lot of rules, regulations and restrictions,” Phippen said. “So the only reason I’m leery and showing this hesitation, is those rules haven’t been established yet.
“The other big thing is funding, so rules are not written; we don’t know where it’s going, and there’s limited funding at the moment,” Phippen added. “There’s going to be no state funding that I am aware of no federal funding, it would have to come from a private industry.”
Another issue that potential industrial hemp growers may face is that many people tend to associate industrial hemp closely with marijuana; they both come from the plant — cannabis sativa.
Although they both are derived from the same plant, industrial hemp and marijuana have significant differences, one being their tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) levels; THC is the chemical responsible for a majority of marijuana’s psychological effects according to livescience.com.
“There’s a defined level of THC that has to be in a plant to be called industrial hemp,” Phippen said.
According to the Northern American Industrial Hemp Council’s (NAIHC) website, industrial hemp has THC levels from 0.05 percent to one percent, marijuana has THC levels between three percent and 20 percent.
Phippen said that THC has to be essentially bred out of the plant.
Jeff Hillyer, greenhouse manager for the department of biological sciences botany greenhouse said industrial hemp is grown mainly for its fibers.
“It’s like a lot of things, people just need to get better informed about it, read up and understand what it actually is,” Hillyer said.
Phippen said the downside to growing industrial hemp is that THC is a “highly heritable trait” and gave an example of what could possibly happen while someone is growing industrial hemp.
“So if I happen to be a good Samaritan and I’ve got my industrial hemp growing but then in the ditch across the way is ditch weed and its got high THC in it, it can readily cross with my lines and all of the sudden — boom,” Phippen said. “I’m thinking I’m a good guy, I’ve collected my seed I’ve planted my seed, and now I’ve got high THC.”
Although Phippen said he had no issue with the growing and research of industrial hemp, he said he wasn’t sure whether there was a high enough demand to pursue this further at the moment.
“We have been approached by private industry to get involved in it and I said well we’d love to, show us the money,” Phippen said, laughing. “Give us a reason to get involved, and right now, they haven’t established that reason quite yet, there isn’t a demand high enough to warrant faculty time or research dollars towards hemp production.”
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