Federal hemp legalization opens up new avenues of promotion and protection for growers and sellers - Entrepreneur Generations

The federal legalization of hemp in last year's Farm Bill has opened up a slew of new avenues for growers of the crop and purveyors of products made with it to promote, insure, and otherwise boost their operations in the Ohio Valley and nationwide, Liam Niemeyer reports for Ohio Valley Resource.

When the 2014 Farm Bill allowed states to grow strictly regulated industrial hemp pilot programs, hemp products such as CBD oil and everything from hemp lotion to hemp pasta began to hit markets in those states. But hemp existed in a legal limbo: the Drug Enforcement Agency still considered it a controlled substance like LSD and cocaine, though hemp has no THC, the psychoactive substance that gives marijuana its kick, Niemeyer reports. THC is the only defining difference between marijuana and hemp.

Because hemp was illegal on the federal level, growers couldn't get crop insurance through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, qualify for research grants, or ship hemp seeds across state lines for faster and cheaper processing. Sellers of CBD oil and other hemp products couldn't produce televised ads, Niemeyer reports. And most banks wouldn't allow either growers or sellers to open bank accounts, which forced them to deal mostly in cash.

But hemp was redefined as a legal crop in the 2018 Farm Bill. That has opened up new vistas for the booming hemp market, which the USDA estimated was worth $820 million in 2017, Niemeyer reports.

In the Ohio Valley, once a tobacco mecca, the crop has been welcomed by farmers. But the crop has remained profitable because there's an existing labor pool of former tobacco workers ready to help, and because profit margins are so high for CBD oil, said Brian Parr, assistant dean of Murray State University's Hutson School of Agriculture. The crop must be harvested, dried, and extracted quickly to remain profitable, which he says can be iffy. "Parr said he thinks investing in hemp right now is risky because promised safety nets under the new Farm Bill, such as crop insurance, are probably still a year away. But that hasn’t stopped Ohio Valley farmers and some state government officials from charging ahead."

Some growers are trying to replace declining coal jobs with hemp. "Pine Mountain Remedies manager Nathan Hall isn’t growing hundreds of acres of hemp like some farms in central Kentucky. Instead, he’s growing hemp on a two-acre plot of land in Letcher County, leased from local community members so that they can be a part of the business, too," Niemeyer reports.

Hall said he hopes hemp can bring income to the area and strengthen the community. "Hemp is definitely a part of it, but it’s almost like a vehicle for how to create opportunities for people in the region who have access to these small, but productive acreages,” Hall told Niemeyer. "To me, that’s a big social impact opportunity to have them work with us."

from The Rural Blog http://bit.ly/2Sruwaj Federal hemp legalization opens up new avenues of promotion and protection for growers and sellers - Entrepreneur Generations

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