Small-time hemp farmers forming cooperatives - Entrepreneur Generations

Tony Silvernail and Shawn Lucas (L-R) with their drying hemp. (OVR photo by Liam Niemeyer)

Hundreds of Ohio Valley farmers have begun growing hemp after the 2018 Farm Bill made it legal on a nationwide scale; some of them are banding together to help each other figure out the business.

Long-time organic farmer Tony Silvernail in Frankfort, Kentucky, and business partner Shawn Lucas, a Kentucky State University professor, founded a cooperative for organic hemp farmers with smaller operations. "The cooperative purchases hemp seed and other supplies in bulk to get a better deal," Liam Niemeyer reports for Ohio Valley ReSource. "It sells the members’ collective hemp harvest to processors, using the strength in numbers to bargain for better prices. And the cooperative helps farmers figure out how to even grow the crop in the first place."

The co-op has only 15 farmers in it so far, with about 30 acres between them. They've run into difficulties with purchasing the right kinds of seeds, and have been dealing with thieves (who likely thought the hemp was marijuana) stealing their plants from the fields. "But Silvernail said it’s all part of the learning process," Niemeyer reports.

The small-time farmer coop is also an effort to stay standing in an industry where larger corporations have already been trying to corner the hemp and CBD market by lobbying for bills that would have favored them. "Regional agriculture leaders are championing hemp’s potential for farms of all sizes. But these hemp farmers worry that the sort of corporate consolidation they’ve seen in other agriculture sectors will soon come to the new hemp industry," Niemeyer reports.

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/32mlA6W Small-time hemp farmers forming cooperatives - Entrepreneur Generations

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