It's legal to grow hemp in Oregon. Why only a few are doing it

By Wendy Culverwell
Source: bizjournals.com





Doctors and lawyers, entrepreneurs and farmers.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture issued 13 permits authorizing industrial farming for the first time ever this year.


The new program attracted an intriguing array of interest. But for now, industrial hemp may be Oregon’s scarcest resource.

Lack of financing, difficulty procuring seeds and conflict over fears industrial hemp will cross-pollinate with its psychoactive cousin, marijuana, have kept the young program in a protracted state of infancy.

Recreational use of marijuana is legal in Oregon starting on July 1. While the public discusses the pros and cons of legal weed, the reintroduction of industrial hemp to Oregon agriculture has been less noticed.

Oregon is one of a handful of states moving ahead with plans to legalize industrial hemp even though it remains largely illegal under federal law.

Supporters have long fought to legalize industrial hemp, calling it a high-value, easy-to-grow crop that is useful in thousands of products, from food and clothing to medicine and cosmetics.

Oregon lawmakers signed off on industrial hemp in 2009. 2015 is the first year in which growers could apply for and receive licenses.

Would-be growers paid $1,500 for three-year licenses, which are good through the 2017 growing season. Many of the applicants also secured a separate hemp seed production permit, which also cost $1,500.

The roll-out hit a snag: Recreational and medicinal marijuana growers concerned that the low-octane hemp will cross-pollinate with cannabis inspired a bill in Salem that would at least temporarily ban hemp farming in three Southern Oregon counties: Douglas, Josephine and Jackson.

House Bill 2668 is pending in the House Rules Committee.

While Salem and the industry debate how the two industries might co-exist, spring is fast coming to an end and so too is the window to plant a crop that generally needs 110 days to mature.

The Business Journal reached out to the 13 current licensees to find out who successfully planted hemp this year and where the challenges lie.

The results are decidedly mixed.

Several have crops in the ground (or greenhouse) while others are in a holding pattern, waiting to find the right land, the right funding and, critically, seeds.

Oregon’s first industrial hemp license was awarded to Edgar Winters of Eagle Point. He confirmed Monday he won’t plant this year, but declined to elaborate. Winters said after being interviewed dozens of times, he’s weary of seeing news reports focus on cross-pollinating rather than the economic potential.

Winters estimates as many as six of his cohorts planted this year. Those we reached were were happy to talk about their new industry and why they’re in the hemp business. They were less eager to disclose where they got seeds, which may not be legally imported into the U.S. unless they’ve been shelled.

Portland Business Journal subscribers learn more about the goals, challenges and operations of some of the growers — and growers-to-be — in our weekly edition, which comes out Friday.