Fifty Years' a not growing: America's first hemp harvest

Just in from Colorado: A story about a farmer who is challening the federal law and growing hemp. He wins this round, but it cannot just go on in legal limbo - we need every vote we can get, make your voice heard and please add your name to the White House Petition at www.minawear.com/about-us/ so farmers all over the US can safely grow this and create JOBS for everyone!

Thank you and please check out the story below:

Ryan Loflin.

America's first (known) hemp harvest in more than fifty years began this month in southeastern Colorado. This past spring, following last year's passage of Amendment 64, which legalized small amounts of marijuana for adults and paved the way for industrial hemp production, farmer Ryan Loflin planted 55 acres of marijuana's sober sister. Last week, hemp advocates from across the country came to watch as Loflin and others harvested the first plants by hand.
"It felt very historic," says advocate Lynda Parker.
See also: Free joint giveaway on Boulder's Pearl Street Mall
"We think that, obviously, this is a symbolic first hemp harvest," says Eric Steenstra, the executive director of the Hemp Industries Association.
With the U.S. Department of Justice recently indicating that it won't sue to stop states' marijuana policies, Steenstra predicts farmers in other states will soon follow Loflin's lead. Steenstra is among those who believe the DOJ's pot policy extends to hemp; although hemp contains little to none of the THC found in marijuana, the federal government doesn't distinguish between the two and considers both to be illegal.
"Our eventual hope is to see the full commercialization of hemp," he says.

Hemp Industries Association

Loflin harvests his hemp plants.

Loflin has only been able to harvest about a quarter-acre of his plot so far. He was planning to use a combine to harvest the bulk of it, but when he tested that method, he found that the combine destroyed part of the plant in the process. So now he plans to hand-harvest the entire field. That way, he says, he'll even be able to save the roots.
"We're going to try and save the entire plant and do as much as we can," Loflin says.
Since hemp was illegal for so long, there's very little seed available, making the seeds produced by Loflin's plants quite valuable. "We'll save a lot of the seed and replant it next year," says Loflin, who also plans to make a small amount of hemp seed oil.
Loflin says he isn't worried about law enforcement, especially in the wake of the Department of Justice's announcement. "It's time for this to happen," he says.
The Colorado Department of Agriculture is currently working on rules for registering hemp farmers with the aim of having them in place by early 2014. Back in May, the department issued a statement clarifying that it's not okay to plant hemp in Colorado until that registration process in in place -- a distinction that didn't stop Loflin.
The night before the September 23 ceremonial harvest, Loflin hosted a dinner at his farm, complete with hemp food. It was attended by Colorado hemp advocates, as well as national advocates from Vote Hemp, Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps and the Hemp Industries Association. See photos below from the dinner and of advocates in Loflin's field.

Hemp Industries Association

Advocates enjoy a hempy dinner before the harvest.

Hemp Industries Association

Ryan Fletcher, communications director for HIA; Eric Lineback, board member of Vote Hemp; Patrick Goggin, board member of Vote Hemp; Eric Steenstra, executive director of HIA; Christina Volgyesi, marketing director for Dr. Bronner's; David

Amendment 64 in Colorado

Amendment 64 opens doors, legal questions for industrial hemp crop

Workshop scheduled in Loveland Thursday

By Pamela Dickmanreporterherald.com

LOVELAND -- Amendment 64 didn't just change the landscape for officers, lawmakers and marijuana users, it also opened new frontiers for farmers.

The Colorado Constitutional Amendment, known for legalizing recreational use of the drug, also changed state laws to allow farmers to grow industrial hemp, a crop used for many products ranging from cloth to cooking oil.

But, like marijuana, exploration of industrial hemp production is plagued with questions and uncertainties about the difference between state and federal rules.

The issues, challenges and benefits of growing a different, dry land crop in Colorado will be explored at a workshop in Loveland on Thursday. The Hemp Industries Association is hosting the event, which is supported by the Rocky Mountain Farmer's Union.

If You Go What: Colorado Industrial Hemp Farming Symposium, where experts in growing, marketing and legislating the industry will speak. When: 6-9:30 p.m. Thursday. Where: First National Bank Exhibition Hall, The Ranch, 5280 Arena Circle, Loveland. Cost: $15. Info: http://thehia.org/Colorado

“This happens to be a good place to grow it,” said Mick McAllister, spokesman for the Farmer's Union. “With the water problems we're having in Colorado, another dry land crop could be a boon.”

The possibilities are brimming for selling hemp to produce shoes, clothing, bags and even cooking oil, McAllister said.

Not to mention potential benefits to the soil by rotating other crops with industrial hemp, which research indicates could clean pollutants from the soil.

However, there are still risks of violating federal law.

Hemp has been on the federal controlled substance list with marijuana since the 1930s, making it a federal crime to grow. But, one would have to smoke 100 hemp cigarettes in a row to consume the same amount of THC as is found in one marijuana joint, according to McAllister.

The risk of violating federal law, even with a new state law backing production, could prevent farmers from trying the crop because of worries about affecting U.S. Department of Agriculture insurance and other programs, according to information from McAllister.

That is where the Rocky Mountain Farmer's Union is stepping in, hoping to open new doors for agriculture and believing hemp belongs on a list of crops, not drugs.

Members are lobbying Congress to remove hemp from the controlled substance list; a bill to remove hemp from the list is pending as it has been without success every year since 2004, according to McAllister.

Pamela Dickman can be reached at 669-5050, ext. 526, or pdickman@reporter-herald.com. Follow her on Twitter: @pamelalittlebee.

Jim Hightower on hemp

The hemp issue is in the news more and more - now Jim Hightower is talking about it. The article below makes note of yet another petition, this one asking the president to mention industrial hemp in his 12 Feb State of the Nation speech. The first petition is one asking him to make hemp legal - this is at www.minawear.com/about-us/ - sign both! Then write your congressman. Let's make this happen!



Four years ago, first lady Michelle Obama picked up a shovel and made a powerful symbolic statement about America’s food and farm future: She turned a patch of White House lawn into a working organic garden.
That was a great move, earning kudos from just about everyone this side of Monsanto and the pesticide lobby. But now, as she begins another four years in the people’s mansion, the first lady is probably asking herself: “How can I top that? What can I do this time around to plant a crop of common sense in our country’s political soil that will link America’s farmers, consumers, environment and grassroots economy into one big harvest of common good?”
Thanks for asking, Ms. Obama, and please allow me to intrude into your thoughts with a one-word suggestion: hemp. Plant a good, healthy stand of industrial hemp next to your organic garden!
This would, of course, drive the anti-drug zealots up the wall (a good place for them, I think). “Holy J. Edgar Hoover,” they’d scream, “hemp is a distant cousin of marijuana!”

 

Well, yes, but the industrial variety of cannabis lacks the psychoactive aspects of pot, so their hysteria is misplaced. Industrial hemp won’t make anyone high, but it certainly can make us happy, because it would deliver a new economic and environmental high for America.
Plus, hemp production is firmly rooted in American history. Question: Besides being founders of our republic, what did Thomas Jefferson and George Washington have in common? Answer: Both farmed hemp. Most of America’s founders were strong promoters of this extraordinarily useful agricultural crop, with Jefferson declaring it to be “of first necessity ... to the wealth and protection of the country.”
The first draft of our Constitution was written on hemp paper. “Old Ironsides” was powered by sails of hemp cloth. As late as World War II, the government urgently pushed farmers to grow the crop as part of a “Hemp for Victory” program.
So why are American farmers today prohibited from producing this patriotic, profitable, pesticide-free plant? Political nuttiness. Most recently, in a frenzy of reefer madness, U.S. drug police decided that President Dick Nixon’s Controlled Substance Act of 1970 not only outlawed marijuana, but also its non-narcotic cousin, industrial hemp. If ignorance is bliss, they must’ve been ecstatic, yet their nuttiness remains the law of our land today.
While our nation is the world’s biggest consumer of hemp products (from rope to shampoo, building materials to food), the mad masters of our insane “drug war” have lumped hemp and marijuana together as “Schedule 1 controlled substances” — making our Land of the Free the world’s only industrialized country that bans farmers from growing this benign, profitable, job-creating and environmentally beneficial plant.
Thus, the U.S.A. is consuming millions of dollars’ worth of products made from hemp, that hemp comes from producers in other countries, because our farmers aren’t allowed to grow it in the U.S.A. and reap the economic benefits here at home.
The good news, though, is that a wave of sanity is now wafting across America. In Colorado, for example, farmer Michael Bowman and Denver hemp advocate Lynda Parker helped pass Amendment 64 in last fall’s election. While it legalizes personal pot use, which got all the media attention, it also directs the legislature to set up a program for “the cultivation, processing and sale of industrial hemp.”
Bowman now hopes to be the first American farmer in generations to plant a legal crop of it. Appropriately enough, he hopes to do so on April 30 — the 80th birthday of family-farmer hero and hemp champion Willie Nelson.
Even red states like Kentucky are on the move. Its Republican ag commissioner, backed by its Chamber of Commerce, is campaigning to legalize hemp farming there, and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is co-sponsoring a national bill with Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden to take hemp off the controlled substance list.
As Bowman puts it: “Can we just stop being stupid?” To help move us in that direction, he’s seeking 100,000 signatures on a online petition requesting that President Barack Obama include the words “industrial hemp” in his Feb. 12 State of the Union speech. I’m sure the president would appreciate my advice on this, so I suggest he say: “First thing tomorrow morning, Michelle and I are going to give a symbolic jumpstart to the development of a thriving hemp industry in America by planting a stand of it on the White House lawn.”
To sign Bowman’s petition, click here to go to the White House website.
— Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker and author of Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow. Click here to contact him, follow him on Twitter: @JimHightower, or click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.

Article on hemp from Daily Press, Montrose County, Colorado

An article (below map) in the Daily Press by Will Hearst mentions a hemp bill in Montrose County, Colorado which is now under debate. The state has made hemp legal, and some farmers, including Michael Bowman, are thinking of planting in the spring - which may open a pandora's box of legal issues. Montrose Co. is on the west side of the state, as can be seen on the map:


                               

While Montrose County voters opposed Amendment 64 — a recently adopted measure that legalizes the possession, use and retail sale of small amounts of marijuana by adults — state lawmakers now may be opening the door for a potential cash crop for area farmers that is closely related to pot. Hemp, which is against the law to grow, is regarded in some circles as marijuana’s more useful cousin. And if you were to ask state Rep. Don Coram, R-Montrose, or Jason Lauve of the Industrial Hemp Remediation Pilot Program about he plant, both would cite some reasons local growers soon may consider planting hemp over corn or beans.Lauve was a guest speaker during Don Coram’s Town Hall meeting Saturday at the US Tractor building, and he kept the attention of audience with a variety of facts about the little-known plant.