WEIDMAN, Mich. — Farmers are urged to slow down, work together, and build an industrial hemp industry that assures a larger percent of the production dollar ends up in pockets of farmers -not agribusiness. According to USDA ERS, farmers receive only about 14 percent of the consumer food dollar. Growing industrial hemp is a new crop where there is little or no current infrastructure in the US. By working on solutions together, farmers can build the supply chain from growing and processing to marketing and bypass the “more, more, cheaper” treadmill. Participating in this process from the ground up keeps more of the dollar in our own pockets.
The Michigan Farmers Union (MFU), an organization of family farmers, is partnering with sister organizations in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Missouri to research and develop a regional hemp cooperative dedicated to marketing industrial hemp fiber. Closer to home, MFU is working to create a statewide cooperative dedicated to not only marketing, but providing access to seed and specialized equipment needed to grow, care for, and harvest industrial hemp fiber. These cooperatives will be formed and controlled by family farmers.
The 2018 Farm Bill officially reclassified hemp for commercial uses. After decades of statutes and legal enforcement combining hemp and marijuana, the Farm Bill distinguishes between the two by removing industrial hemp from the Controlled Substances Act. While the two are closely related, industrial hemp lacks the high concentration of THC that is responsible for the high from smoking marijuana. This would effectively move regulation and enforcement of the crop from the Drug Enforcement Agency to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This brings a new opportunity for farmers across the nation to add an additional crop into their rotations.
Hemp is a farmer’s friend. Compared with cotton, corn, and soybeans, it requires little water, and it isn’t picky when it comes to poor soil. It grows in a wide variety of soils and temperatures, and grows fast—reaching as much as 20 feet in 100 days. It grows tightly spaced, thus crowding out weeds requiring little pesticides. Hemp can also be grown to harvest on about half the water needs of a corn crop.
Hemp has hundreds of uses, many of which are yet to be discovered or fully realized thanks to the lack of available research funds. From textiles and plastics to livestock feed and home cooking, hemp’s current applications can reduce our dependence both on other countries and on fossil fuels. Hemp grown for CBD oils can return profits several times higher than traditional row crops. Driven by explosive growth in hemp-based consumer products, the global hemp market is expected to jump to $10.6 billion by 2025.
Anyone interested in more information about this, or other MFU programs, is encouraged to contact me at MIFarmersUnion@gmail.com
— Bob Thompson, President, Michigan Farmers Union
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