The big Apples first legal hemp farm in over 10 years has taken root beneath a pilot program that’s part of a national resurgence of a plant that’s valued for making food, clothing, and shelter although being banned for quite some time as well as its smokable relative.
“The versatility of this crop is amazing,” stated JD Farms co-owner Mark Justh, who left an international finance profession to cultivate organic hay and pastured beef cattle and pigs on farmland 170 miles northwest of New York City. He added organic hemp to the mix this summer under a research partnership with Morrisville State College.
Because its resembles cannabis almost identically, the hemp field at JD Farms had a noticeable “No Trespassing” sign that advises “No THC.” Even if cannabis was being cultivated among the hemp, cross-pollination would leave the pot impotent. Justh only considered growing hemp simply as a cover crop – a crop grown for soil enhancement – when he met Dan Dolgin, who was searching for a partner who was a farmer to grow it for its broad market potential.
“We hope the results of what we’re doing here will convince other farmers that this is a great opportunity.” The trade group Vote Hemp calculates the value of hemp products in the U.S. at $600 million.
That’s going off of imports because U.S. farmers were not permitted to grow it until now Since the “Reefer madness” war on marijuana in the mid-20th century, the U.S. has been the only industrialized nation where cultivating hemp was illegal. Almost 30 states have passed hemp legislation and nine have organized pilot programs licensing production, in reference to information released by the trade group Vote Hemp.
The 30-acre hemp plot at 1,200-acre JD Farms, the state’s one and only hemp farm at the current time, is in connection with nearby Morrisville State College, which is conducting hemp research. He hopes to plant some hemp next year if the state begins to license farmers directly.
“Seems like every 10 years some new thing comes along that’s the latest and greatest,” Justh stated farms harvesting corn or soybeans currently have the machines needed for hemp, which could bring at close to double the amount of income per acre.
“Hemp can come across as a panacea among its fervent proponents – everything from curing cancer to solving deforestation,” Dolgin stated.
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