Hemp has had a significant increase in Kentucky. In 2014, just 33 acres were planted; in 2015, 922 acres were planted.
“Welcome to Kentucky, the leading industrial hemp-producing state in the country. It feels good to say that,” James Comer , Agriculture Commissioner, said to a crowd Monday at the Hemp Industries Association Conference in Lexington.
This was the first time in over two decades that the conference of hemp entrepreneurs has been held in a state that actually produced hemp according to executive director of the Hemp Industries Association, Eric Steenstra. Over two hundred people accumulated from as far away as Australia. Some of the members were even people were also well known from fighting to differentiate industrial hemp from recreational marijuana.
Of those notable members was Hawaiian Representative Cynthia Thielen, who “fought to establish one of the first DEA-regulated test plots years ago.” David Bronner was also there; his soap company has given Kentucky farmers over $10,000 in grants so that they may begin growing organic hemp. Comer, the keynote speaker of the conference, was given a standing ovation for his part in making industrial hemp legal in Kentucky after having been banned by the federal government for decades.
“We wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for his efforts,” said CEO of Atalo Holdings, Andy Graves.
Kentucky has over 121 farmers working with 7 universities in Kentucky on researching the process of “growing, processing and marketing hemp into everything from oil, food and fiber to energy, manufacturing, textiles, automotive composites, construction materials and paper,” Comer said. Kentucky has also had over twenty processors who will be important in the process of making hemp profitable. Comer has predicted that Kentucky will grow to thousands of acres and to hundreds of processors.
“We’re going to be the epicenter of industrial hemp in this country,” Comer notes, making an incredibly bold, yet possible, projection.
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