What do you think about this as an alternative crop?

[kyfanatic]

I'm seriously look into it if the Feds allow it to pass my place is suited for growing it.

http://www.kentucky.com/latest_news/story/973092.html

'Timing is right' for hemp, state senator says
Bill would promote plant's use for fuel and fiber
By Valarie Honeycutt Spears - [email protected] Within the next three weeks, State Sen. Joey Pendleton plans to take a group of Kentucky farmers to study the industrial hemp trade in Canada where the crop has been grown legally for the past 10 years.

Pendleton, D-Hopkinsville, has introduced a bill for 2010, renewing a push to legalize industrial hemp in Kentucky as a cash crop and as a source for alternative fuels.

"The timing is right," Pendleton said. "It would give farmers another crop to raise." Production of hemp is already legal for research purposes in Kentucky but is untried due to federal barriers.



Mark Cornelison | Staff
Margaret McCauley of Versailles holds hemp fiber used to make rope. She favors the renewal of hemp production in Kentucky.
Mark Cornelison | StaffA hemp processing plant from around 1908 still stands on land owned by Margaret McCauley's family in Versailles. She preserves artifacts from the era when hemp was legally raised in Kentucky. 

Pendleton's bill comes at a time when federal legislation decriminalizing hemp for industrial use has been introduced in Congress and proponents are encouraged by stances taken by the Obama Administration.

In Versailles, where the remnants of an old hemp processing plant still stand on property that Margaret McCauley's family owns, McCauley said she hopes Pendleton is successful.

"I think industrial hemp would do a lot for the farming community," said McCauley, who has preserved artifacts from decades ago when hemp was grown legally in Kentucky.

McCauley said she hopes lawmakers won't confuse industrial hemp with its controversial cousin, marijuana.

Although industrial hemp comes from the same plant species as marijuana, industrial hemp does not have enough THC, the psychoactive chemical in marijuana, to produce the "high" marijuana users feel, proponents say. Hemp and marijuana look alike. But hemp is grown for fiber found in the stalk while marijuana is grown for leaves and flower buds.

Industrial hemp is used in alternative automobile fuels and in such products as paper, cloths, cosmetics, and carpet.

Pendleton's bill would require that individuals wanting to grow or process industrial hemp be licensed by the state Department of Agriculture. The legislation would require criminal history checks of growers and would require sheriffs to monitor and randomly test industrial hemp fields.

The bill calls for an assessment fee of $5 per acre for every acre of industrial hemp grown, with a minimum fee of $150, to be divided equally between the state and the appropriate sheriff's department.

Phillip Garnett, a Christian County farmer, said he plans to go to Canada with Pendleton to investigate industrial hemp farming as a potential "new source of income and energy." Pendleton said he'd pay for his portion of the trip.

Garnett who raises tobacco, corn, wheat, and soybeans, said he wants to know more about the economics before he would consider raising industrial hemp. But he said "I'm always looking for alternative crops, and it sounds like it makes sense."

Because of current federal law, all hemp included in products sold in the United States must be imported.

Federal law includes industrial hemp in the definition of marijuana, and prohibits American farmers from growing hemp.

But the Industrial Hemp Farming Act, introduced in Congress in April by Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Ron Paul, R-Texas, would require the federal government to respect state laws allowing hemp production.

Pendleton says he sees new hope that federal barriers will be lessened, pointing to positions taken by the Obama administration.

In February, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the federal government was going to yield medical marijuana jurisdiction to states. As a state lawmaker in Illinois, Barack Obama voted for a resolution urging Congress to allow the production of industrial hemp.

In addition to production of hemp, research on hemp has been affected. A federal permit is required for industrial hemp research, Laura E. Sweeney, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice, said Friday.

The University of Kentucky would probably grow industrial hemp for research if allowed in the future, said Scott Smith, dean of the UK College of Agriculture.

When UK applied for a federal permit to grow a research plot of industrial hemp after Kentucky passed the 2001 law allowing analysis, the federal government denied permission, Smith said.

Kentucky is one of eight states that allows hemp research or production.

The federal government has given North Dakota State University permission to grow industrial hemp for research purposes under strict security measures, but money has been an issue.

In Kentucky, a similar bill filed in the 2009 General Assembly by Pendleton was not given a hearing.

But for 2010, state State Sen. David P. Givens, R-Greensburg, the chair of the Senate Agricultural Committee, said he is interested in seeing new economic studies.

The most prominent studies on the profitability of industrialized hemp in Kentucky are a decade old. They reached conflicting conclusions.

A study released in 1998 included work by researchers at UK's Center for Business and Economic Research. It showed that had hemp production been legalized at that time, Kentucky would have benefitted, with farmers making profits of between $220 and $605 an acre.

The returns would have fallen somewhere between tobacco and other crops that were already grown in Kentucky, the research showed.

However, a study released in 1997 by the UK College of Agriculture did not find much of a market for Kentucky hemp.

Smith, who served on an industrial hemp study commission convened by then Gov. Brereton Jones in the 1990s, remains skeptical of the potential profits from hemp.

Givens said he is also interested in hearing from law enforcement officials, who have expressed misgivings in the past.

[bigrod]

Not gonna happen anytime soon!!

[mhall]

We are stupid for not allowing Hemp to be grown in this state. It has many many different valued uses and could be a real cash Cow for our state revenue.

You could smoke Industrial Hemp until it came out of your toenails and never become High. It does not contain the THC needed to achieve it like true Marijuana, it is people's ignorance of the plant that keeps us from growing it. Law enforcement could be properly trained and easily adapt to know and indentify the difference, therefore that argument really doesn't wash either.

[Tim_T]

We are stupid for not allowing Hemp to be grown in this state. It has many many different valued uses and could be a real cash Cow for our state revenue.

You could smoke Industrial Hemp until it came out of your toenails and never become High. It does not contain the THC needed to achieve it like true Marijuana, it is people's ignorance of the plant that keeps up from growing it. Law enforcement could be properly trained and easily adapt to no and indentify the difference, therefore that argument really doesn't was either.

Ding, Ding, Ding...we have a winner! You cannot get high from it and it would be a huge cash crop, but instead we have to spend time locking Woody Harrleson up for spreading a few seeds.

[mhall]

Ding, Ding, Ding...we have a winner! You cannot get high from it and it would be a huge cash crop, but instead we have to spend time locking Woody Harrleson up for spreading a few seeds.

Ya know I like ole Woody to, lol.

[Bobby Headrick]

This state used to grow it during WWII,. We the gov, not me, have wasted more money fighting this than it has been worth. These pigheaded Reps and LEgeslators have done nothing but waste time/money etc, defeting everything that can make money for this state all to just protect the BIG THREE, COAL, BURBON AND HORSE RACING, that is all Frankfort cares about, if they didnt then I belive we would not be in the hole like we are. But As long as the same ole same ole runs this state we are not going to progress any thime soon.

[DJD]

Remember these are the same type of decision makers who allow 6 year old's to be suspended for a camping tool and a young man be suspended for locking a 2" blade in his car. When you consider the people making decisons it really makes you wonder???

[Tim_T]

This state used to grow it during WWII,. We the gov, not me, have wasted more money fighting this than it has been worth. These pigheaded Reps and LEgeslators have done nothing but waste time/money etc, defeting everything that can make money for this state all to just protect the BIG THREE, COAL, BURBON AND HORSE RACING, that is all Frankfort cares about, if they didnt then I belive we would not be in the hole like we are. But As long as the same ole same ole runs this state we are not going to progress any thime soon.

Actually Bobby, I would argue that they do not care about horse racing or bourbon. If they cared about bourbon, they would not have added the state sales tax to the mos taxed product in the state and if they cared about horse racing, they would have approved the slots bill. Instead they chose to do the wrong thing because they want to send tax money and jobs out of state.

[RoadToad]

I think hemp could give Kentucky's economy a much-needed shot in the arm, and the sooner we start growing it, the better. And it's not just KY, lots of states could benefit from it, and it would create jobs. I also think that part of the problem it has is that over the past couple of decades most of the people pushing to get it legalized were the same people who were pushing for marijuana to be legalized, like Woody (whom I also like, BTW).

Tim_T, let's be clear on exactly who it was that blocked the slots bill. David Williams, that complete tool who is our Senate President, blocked it from coming to a vote, or it almost certainly would have passed.

[bassin_bug]

Well, how many years have we already been using hemp ropes (they are made from the stalks)? Maybe you could buy some new ones and hang a few stupid politicians.

I used to live near a creek in middle Tennessee where hemp grew wild along the banks. There was supposedly an eradication campaign but it 'failed' in certain places. People fished in that creek so much there wasn't a tadpole to be seen anywhere. They just kept on wading the creek fishing for 10-pound fish in 3 inches of water.

My first cousin, Dr. Carlton Turner (Drug Advisor to President Reagan), was a research scientist at Ole Miss and had the first legal marijuana farm in the US. He did research on marijuana and also on the affects of marijuana use by humans. He reported that "using marijuana on a regular basis makes people both stupid and lazy." I'm not sure if his subjects were politicians. lol

btw, a person can grow hemp (marijuana) illegally and make as much as $1,000 or more per mature plant. If it is grown in water, it contains more THC and the value doubles. A few hundred dollars per acre sounds more than a little bit short for the farmer. There seems to be a major problem that hasn't been considered. How is the farmer going to protect his crop from the thieves who steal it and sell it on the blackmarket? If he signs on to be a hemp farmer, he will also be required to protect his crop, which will be impossible. Carlton, my cousin mentioned above, had an 8-10 ft. chain link, barbed wire topped fence around his farm. Inside he had specially trained Doberman attack dogs patrolling the crop. Potheads threw raw ground beef over the fence on one end; while the dogs were eating the meat, thieves on the other end were stealing the marijuana. He finally resorted to armed guards.

[kyfanatic]

Industrial Hemp was once a big crop here in Kentucky,it can be used for not only rope,but paper,cloth,and an alternative fuel can be produced from it.While it's doesn't have the profit tobacco has it still makes decent money,especially on smaller farms like mine where some crops are not possible.

[mhall]

My wife bought me some Hemp hand lotion at a county craft fair once in Henry County. That to this day was the best hand lotion I had ever used and I can't find anymore of it anywhere. I'm like an ole Alligator and that stuff actually softened my skin on my hands some and if you ever shook hands with me you would know what an accomplishment that was. I'm dryer than a popcorn fart, skin wise anyway.