Yolo County doesn't want to be site of hemp farms

By Cathy Locke
Source: sacbee.com

A bill that would allow industrial hemp farming in targeted areas of California for the first time since World War II could be on Gov. Jerry Brown's desk by September.

But Yolo County officials don't care to be among its beneficiaries.

Under Senate Bill 676, Yolo would be one of five counties authorized as areas for commercial farming of industrial hemp under an eight-year pilot program. Industrial hemp is a source of fiber and oilseed used in textiles, food and cosmetics.

The Yolo County Board of Supervisors, however, has asked the bill's sponsor, Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, to remove Yolo from the proposed legislation, said Chris Lee, a spokesman for the county's intergovernmental affairs office.

Lee said the county's sheriff and district attorney were concerned that law enforcement officers would have difficulty distinguishing hemp, a non-psychoactive form of cannabis, from illegal marijuana growing operations.

Leno said he will honor the county's request and plans to amend the bill when it goes to the Assembly Appropriations Committee next month.

But, he said, "I'm disappointed that Yolo is not more open-minded."

The board supported a 2007 bill, vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, that would have allowed industrial hemp farming statewide. Lee said the supervisors had not taken a position on the current bill, introduced in February, until they were notified in April that it had been narrowed to focus on five counties – Imperial, Kern, Kings, San Joaquin and Yolo.

The county board membership has changed since 2007, Lee said, and the Sheriff's Department's resources are strained with the loss of 10 deputy positions this year due to budget cuts.

Leno said he selected Yolo for the pilot program because of its geographic location and weather, and because county supervisors had supported the 2007 bill.

Hemp farms are easily distinguished from illegal marijuana grows, he said.

"Hemp is planted in rows 6 inches apart; marijuana is planted 4 feet apart," Leno said. "Hemp grows to be 20 feet tall, and marijuana is about half that."

The bill has been endorsed by the Imperial County Farm Bureau, and Leno said he has received letters of support from the Kings and Kern county sheriffs.

Leno said he was sorry that Yolo's small family farmers would miss an opportunity to benefit from a new crop.

Rachael Long, a farm adviser with UC Cooperative Extension in Yolo County, said there is a developing market for hemp seed, particularly in the health food industry, which currently imports hemp seed and oil from Canada. In California, this might be prove profitable for small farming operations of up to 20 acres, she said.

The Hemp Industries Association estimates that retail sales of hemp food and body care products in the United States totaled $40.5 million in 2010.

But Long said raising hemp for fiber is unlikely to be economically viable in California.

"It takes a huge amount of water, and it's a low-value crop," she said. "It's so much cheaper to produce in the Midwest, where rainfall is plentiful."

Until hemp farming is legalized by the federal government, Long said, farmers probably will be reluctant to grow the crop, even if authorized by the state.

As a farm adviser, Long said, she obtained a few hemp seeds several years ago for a test project only to suddenly find herself the target of federal drug enforcement agents.

"It was so scary, it really was," she said.

Federal legislation – HR 1831, the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2011 – has been introduced in Congress by Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas. It would amend the federal Controlled Substances Act to exclude industrial hemp from the definition of marijuana. The bill's co-sponsors include California Reps. Tom McClintock, R-Elk Grove, and George Miller, D-Martinez.