Cumberland County farmers plant first hemp seeds in Tennessee

By Hailey Holloway
Source: wate.com

CROSSVILLE (WATE) – A few farmers across the state are finally getting the chance to grow a new crop. Tennessee began accepting applications earlier this year for anyone interested in growing industrial hemp for research.

Hemp, while often mistakenly associated with marijuana, is in the cannabis family, but has a significantly lower content of THC. Instead, it’s mostly used for things like fabrics or textiles. Licenses have been granted to people in at least six East Tennessee counties, and the seeds are just now starting to come in from Canada.

The Davis family is one of the first to get the seeds and they started planting them Wednesday.

“Really it’s just like planting any other garden,” said Bryant Davis.

The Davis family is one of the first to get the seeds and they started planting them Wednesday.

The Davises have been farming their whole lives, but hemp is a first.

“We’re learning as we’re going,” said Sandy Davis.

The Tennessee Department of Agriculture said it got the first shipment of hemp seeds in last week, but there are several shipments still to come, so the Davis family is one of the very first to start planting.

“We’ve planted corn and potatoes and beans and things like that before so we thought we could carry the same approach into this and hopefully we would have a good yield and a good outcome just based on previous success,” Bryant Davis said.

They took a different approach to the process. Instead of spreading the seeds in a field, they planted them in rows like a garden.

The Davises said it will take 90 to 100 days for the plants to grow.

Once the plants are ready to be harvested, each producer gets to decide what to do with the hemp. Part of the deal to get a license was to report what’s done with it to the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, and keep record of their production and marketing information.

Local farmer leading the way in growing industrial hemp

By Sheldon Compton
Source: floydcountytimes.com

HIPPO – Hippo resident Todd Howard had never been employed in his adult life when he was laid off as an engineer for the coal industry in 2010. He had also never farmed a day in his life. All that was about to change.

After Howard lost his job as an engineer, the Hippo resident said a key aspect of his personality was revealed in the best way possible.

“They had to make the decision to lay folks off, and I’ve just never been one to sit around and do nothing,” he said.

Howard lost his job in December and by Feb. 10 he had constructed a green house. Construction on that green house led to a crop of 10,000 tomato plants the first year. By the third year, Howard was overseeing the Floyd County Farmer’s Market and closing in on $50,000 in gross sales. But the time required with the market became difficult to manage.

“The farmer’s market was taking up a lot of my time and last year we decided to to try a sixteen-week program with Community Supported Agriculture,” Howard said.

This move launched Howard’s work as a full-time farmer, and now he is at the forefront of the movement to grow hemp in Kentucky in an effort to see Eastern Kentucky’s economy improved through ready resources not always popular throughout the state and nation.

Shortly after his efforts with the farmer’s market got underway, Howard soon became a board member for a statewide community farm alliance, testifying before senate and house agriculture committees, supporting the hemp bill introduced roughly three years ago.

“After getting to know some of the folks who helped get this legislation passed, I made a few acquaintances in that regard,” he said. “Mike Lewis and I got close.”

Lewis, who is a Kentucky farmer and COO with the organization Freedom Seed and Feed, a company with offices in Lexington, reached out to Howard, along with University of Pikeville’s Eric Mathis, visiting lecturer of applied sustainability at UPike.

The organization is a subsidiary of Mountain High Acquisitions Corporation, a Colorado-based company who advocate the legalization of marijuana and industrial hemp.

“He (Mathis) got in touch with me and asked if I’d be interested in growing some hemp, saying Mike had recommended me,” Howard said. “I’m a person notorious for diving in head-first without realizing sometimes I’m diving into the kiddie pool, but in we got a site located, got seed in the ground. So we have crop in the ground. It’s sprouted, it’s coming up, and it’s growing.”

The site is located along what was once strip mine land at the Pikville-Pike County Regional Airport, a section of land difficult to farm, to say the least, according to Howard.

“Growing on these mine sites is like a crap shoot,” he added. “You don’t know what you’re going to get. To date, no one I know has had any success growing at these places. The land is compacted soil and has huge rocks. It’s nothing like a standard agricultural piece of land you’d normally work with.”

Howard said the general goal is to create smaller cooperative models for growing industrial hemp on a larger scale.

“Obviously Eastern Kentucky has a brand right now and has some potential for this,” Howard said. “It’s sort of the elephant in the room to a player on a larger scale with all of this acreage. Let’s find a use for it.”

Lawmaker Brings Cannabis Products Onto U.S. Senate Floor

BY TOM ANGELL 
Source: marijuana.com


Sen. Ron Wyden (D) Oregon

A senior federal lawmaker was spotted in possession of cannabis products on the floor of the U.S. Senate last week, and not a single one of his colleagues objected. But don’t get too excited: They weren’t the kind of goods you can get high on.

Sen. Ron Wyden was trying to bring attention to the senselessness of the federal ban on industrial cannabis cultivation during a speech on Thursday and, to illustrate his point, brought out a basket of hemp products made in his home state.

“In the basket I brought, I have food, soap, clothes, and even deck sealant, all made in Oregon, bought and sold in American stores and used by Americans,” Wyden said. “Industrial hemp supports a $620 million industry in America, and our companies have found innovative ways of incorporating it into everyday products.”

Although the U.S. is the world’s largest consumer of hemp products, “we are the only major industrialized nation to ban hemp farming,” Wyden said.

“This means 100 percent of the hemp used in these products is imported from other nations. The Federal ban on hemp amounts, in my view, to a restriction on free enterprise, and it doesn’t accomplish anything but stifles job creation and economic growth.”

Wyden’s speech was timed to coincide with Hemp History Week, and he concisely delivered a master class in the cannabis plant’s many uses over centuries.

“American farmers were growing this product as early as the 1600s, before our Nation was even founded,” he said. “The Declaration of Independence, colleagues, was written on paper made from hemp. In the 1800s and early 1900s, it was used to make rope, heating oil, and textiles. During World War II we used it as part of the Hemp for Victory Program to support our soldiers.

“But everything got changed when hemp got wrapped up with marijuana in Federal regulations, and it has been banned ever since.”

Wyden, a Democrat, is the lead sponsor of a bill to exclude industrial hemp containing less than 0.3 percent THC content from the federal definition of marijuana. The bipartisan legislation currently has eight cosponsors, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

“Our bill is all about stopping the unfair punishment of entrepreneurs and farmers who want to be part of a growing ag industry here in America,” Wyden said. “Companies in our Nation that are importing hemp to use in food, cosmetics, soap, clothing, and auto parts, they ought to be buying that hemp from American farmers and contributing to our agricultural sector.”

Check out the video of Wyden talking up the benefits of hemp — and possessing some products made from the plant — here.

Locust Grove plants first hemp crop in 200 years

By Lawrence Smith

Source: wdrb.com

Locust Grove is helping give new life to the age-old hemp industry.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- One of Louisville's most historic sites has gone back to the future. Locust Grove is helping give new life to an old industry.

At one time, Locust Grove was a working farm. More than likely, hemp was one of the crops grown there. Now, for the first time in perhaps 200 years, hemp is back.

Built in 1790 by the brother-in-law of George Rogers Clark, Locust Grove is a popular tourist attraction -- but what visitors may not know is that tucked away on a small plot of land nearby is newly planted industrial hemp.

It's a crop the founders of the estate were likely familiar with.

"People grew hemp for fiber and flax as well, linen. So it's probable that given the nature of the farming they did, they grew some hemp," said Locust Grove Executive Director Carol Ely.

The seeds came from Italy, imported by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture as part of its effort to re-grow the hemp industry in the state. This is the first crop planted in Louisville, and is seen as an extension of Locust Grove's mission to educate.

"We try to tell that story of the first and second generation people who came to this land when it was new, and had to decide how you could make a living here," said Ely.

In fact, the crop will be harvested using century-old tools and techniques. So far, the results are promising.

"As you can see, we're watering them now, they need to be nice and moist. But that's a week's growth, and they're already up about that high. They love the Kentucky climate," said estate gardener Sarah Sutherland.

Locust Grove will also host a hemp festival in August to display hemp products, and to dispel popular myths, including the biggest misconception.

"That you can get high off of it. You will die from smoke inhalation before you would get any sort of buzz off this plant. It's absolutely impossible," said Locust Grove Program Coordinator Brian Cushing.

But what is possible is that one of Louisville's oldest landmarks could be on the cutting edge of Kentucky's newest industry.

"I hope that other people will learn from this, and that it does become a crop that becomes important to Kentucky's future as well," said Ely.

In late September, Locust Grove will harvest its first hemp crop in two centuries.

New West Genetics raising $800K to ramp up industrial hemp marketing, R&D

By Joshua Lindenstein
Sourvce: bizwest.com

FORT COLLINS — New West Genetics LLC has raised half of an $800,000 funding round that the company plans to use to ramp up sales and marketing, as well as continue research and development of different varieties of industrial hemp.

Founded early last year, the Fort Collins-based company will sell the flower from its first crop this summer to local companies that will extract the cannabinoids out of it to make drinks, oils and edibles. But the company is also developing intellectual property around the genetics of industrial cannabis for uses in the pharmaceutical and agricultural markets. The goal is that the company will have multiple seed varieties available for sale by 2017 that will have guaranteed germination rates and yields.

Industrial cannabis, or hemp, is a variety of the cannabis sativa plant that contains less than 0.3 percent tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive component of marijuana or pot that is used for recreational purposes. Different parts of the industrial cannabis plant have various uses, ranging from food and supplements to medicinal uses to building-material and textile applications.

New West disclosed in a recent regulatory filing that it had raised $200,000 in new funding. But cofounder and chief executive Wendy Mosher said Tuesday the sum is actually $400,000 now.

This summer’s harvest will produce the company’s first revenue.

“But we’ve got customers lined up for the sale of our harvest this summer,” Mosher said. “We’re feeling confident about that at least.”

Mosher co-founded the company with her husband, John McKay, who is a professor of plant genetics at Colorado State University, and Rich Fletcher, who earned his doctorate in McKay’s lab and has worked for several years in the agriculture industry.

The company also has three contract employees. New West is based virtually right now, but Mosher said it could be establishing an office sometime next year. In the meantime, the company has multiple plots in Larimer and Weld counties totaling about 4 acres, where it is growing its cannabis. She said the company would also be leasing warehouse space in the fall to have space to process its harvest.

Record for European hemp

Source: sustainablenonwovens.net

The industrial hemp business is growing every year, with the strong fibres increasingly used for insulation materials and biocomposites, mainly in automotive interiors.

Hemp food products are increasing in market volume and with the extraction of cannabidiol (CBD) for pharmaceutical applications, farmers can maximise profits.  

At the 12th International Conference of the European Industrial Hemp Association held in Wesseling Germany, from May 20-21, it was said that in Europe, 18,300 ha of industrial hemp was cultivated and processed in 2014, much more than in the previous years.  

In 2015 a further increase to more than 22,000 ha has already been reported – a record cultivation area since growing began 30 years ago.

More and more European countries are starting to cultivate hemp and the major part of the increase is due to organic hemp seed production for the food market and the new demand for CBD. In addition, the increasing demand for fibres demonstrates the great versatility of the plant.

A comprehensive carbon footprint study by the German nova-Institute demonstrated that different natural fibres show a similar and very low carbon footprint compared to glass or mineral fibres.

John Hobson, president of the European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) informed participants that European hemp fibres will soon be the first natural fibre worldwide with an established sustainability certification. Hemp shives and seeds will also receive this certificate.

Nevada Governor OKs Industrial Hemp Research As US Eases Cannabis Restrictions

By Kit O'Connell
Source: mintpressnews.com


In this Oct. 5, 2013 photo, Colorado farmer Ryan Loflin harvests hemp on his 
farm in Springfield, Colo. (Photo: Solomon Banda)

CARSON CITY, Nevada — Last week, Nevada became the latest state to pass a bill supporting the cultivation of industrial hemp, a valuable cash crop that became illegal thanks to the American war on drugs.

The bill, sponsored by Democratic state Sen. Tick Segerblom, unanimously passed both chambers of the Nevada Legislature before reaching the governor’s desk.

“The bill will allow colleges, universities, and the state Department of Agriculture to [cultivate] industrial hemp for research purposes under an agricultural pilot program,” Thomas H. Clarke writes in The Daily Chronic, a website dedicated to cannabis law reform.

Federal regulations had banned domestic hemp cultivation until an amendment to the 2014 Farm Bill allowed limited research into the crop. Under the new regulations, large-scale cultivation is still illegal but research by state agricultural boards and universities is now allowed. The move was hailed as a limited victory by advocates for cannabis law reform.

“There are a lot of people anxious to grow hemp, and this won’t really solve that,” Eric Steenstra, president of Vote Hemp, told The Daily Chronic at the time of the bill’s passage. “We will be able to get some crops in the ground and show that hemp is not the boogie man we feared, but commercial farmers still won’t be able to grow it.”

Industrial hemp is a form of the Cannabis sativa plant with very low levels of THC, the main active ingredient that makes pot smokers “high.” The plant can be used to make a wide variety of products, from paper to clothing to fuel. Cultivating hemp is a human tradition dating back 12,000 years or more. The history of hemp in the U.S. is as old as the nation itself — it was grown by several U.S. presidents for industrial use and was crucial to rigging the country’s earliest naval vessels such as the U.S.S. Constitution. During World War II, U.S. farmers were actively encouraged to grow hemp to support the war effort.

“We will be able to get some crops in the ground and show that hemp is not the boogie man we feared, but commercial farmers still won’t be able to grow it.”

More than 30 nations grow industrial hemp, with China secure as the world’s largest exporter of hemp. But U.S. farmers have been left out in the cold for decades, thanks to the U.S. war on drugs, which refused to make any distinctions between recreational use of cannabis and agricultural and industrial use of low-THC hemp. Hemp must be imported, typically from China or Canada, with $11.5 million in hemp products legally imported in 2011

The hemp industry is growing in Colorado, where farmer Scott Perez told the Durango Herald, “Industrial hemp is on the verge of becoming an agricultural revolution.” Kentucky also recently began a hemp pilot program, and Pennsylvania hopes to be next, while Indiana has struggled with federal hurdles preventing the success of its pilot hemp program.

Indeed, support for a total end to the hemp ban is mounting, with Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden calling for reform in Congress last Thursday while displaying a host of hemp-based products made in his state:

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“‘In my view, keeping the ban on growing hemp makes about as much sense as instituting a ban on portobello mushrooms,’ Wyden, who introduced a hemp legalization bill earlier this year, said on the Senate floor. ‘There’s no reason to outlaw a product that’s perfectly safe because of what it’s related to.’”

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Watch “Hemp For Victory,” a 1942 US Department of Agriculture documentary on industrial cannabis: