Governor Kristi Noem is burning up a lot of political capital to stop farmers from expanding their crop rotation and their profit margins. The Governor has pressured the Legislature into delaying the Senate Committee hearing on House Bill 1191 that was supposed to happen today until she has time to cobble together some fiscal analysis that will maybe salvage her argument that growing hemp will overwhelm South Dakota law enforcement and that we need to write lots more big-government regulations to prevent farmers from making bad choices.
Prime sponsor of hemp legalization Representative Oren Lesmeister (D-28A/Parade) is worried Governor Noem will try to shoo his bill into the Appropriations Committee, a tactic used earlier this Session to sandbag Senator Stace Nelson’s (R-19/Fulton) bill to randomly drug-test legislators:
Representative Oren Lesmeister said the legislation that would legalize industrial-hemp production in South Dakota shouldn’t be sent to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“I don’t know why it would. I think it’s an agricultural bill,” the Parade Democrat said late Monday afternoon.
Lesmeister said he wasn’t surprised that Governor Kristi Noem wants a fiscal note prepared on the estimated cost.
He said the Republican governor is trying to delay it [Bob Mercer, “Lesmeister Opposes Sending Industrial-Hemp Bill to Senate Appropriations,” KELO-TV, 2019.02.18].
Rep. Lesmeister also notes that the Governor is spending time with the cameras than with legislators:
Noem has used her past two weekly legislative news conference to speak strongly against it. Last Thursday she said it would be a gateway to marijuana in South Dakota.
Lesmeister said the governor hasn’t talked to legislators lately.
“Going on two weeks now, we’ve had no communications whatsoever. That’s the disappointing part,” Lesmeister said [Mercer, 2019.02.18].
North Dakota has farmers growing industrial hemp. North Dakota doesn’t appear to be collapsing into pot addiction or budget deficits. Plus, the Farm Bill that Kristi Noem voted for in Congress the month before she became our Governor legalized industrial hemp, which means North Dakota’s “Agriculture Commissioner will no longer have to oversee farmers, and they won’t need to acquire a license to grow.”
For all the smoke she’s blowing, I can’t still figure out what she’s inhaling that would make her stand against economic development, a nearly unanimous Legislature, and the farmers with whom she so artfully identifies.
There is more to this story. For the life of me I can’t figure out why she is doing this.
Noem’s husband sells federally subsidized crop insurance. There is no federally subsidized crop insurance on hemp. If farmers switch acreage to hemp, there will be less acreage for Noem’s husband to cover with insurance. Hemp will adversely affect the Noem family’s personal bottom line.
Good gosh. Wingnuts abound in Pierre these days. Starting at the top.
Once federal government socialism covers the Noem family’s business interests and guarantees the Noem family a nice profit selling underpriced insurance to millionaire welfare recipients, Noem will support hemp. No welfare for the wealthy. No Noem support.
U.S. soybean commitments to China are down by as much as 550 million bushels. That’s just too large a hole to overcome, at least this year. New crop soybeans remain at unprofitable levels for the average grower, especially with weak basis added in. – Farm Progress.com
Everyone in the world either knows that cannabis (hemp) provides useful products, or has no reason to care. The governor of South Dakota knows that cannabis provides useful products, that it has a history of production in SoDak, and that the laws prohibiting cannabis’ production or possession have produced negative public safety numbers. We have been given a governor who is 1)stupid, 2)uninformed, 3)malicious, 4)crazy, or 5)all four. There are no other options.
Mr. Rorschach nails it! Nothing in it for NOem’s big ol’ pocket, so it can’t be good for broke farmers. American Indian producers can pick up the slack though and make some much needed money on reservation lands. Put a CBD plant in on sovereign land and finally find an industry that will put the people to a better way of life. There is a tremendous base of customers that would love to buy American Indian grown and locally produced CBD! Crowd fund the project, there is money out there for a worthy project, just ask for it.
She will find enough minions in the Senate to derail this and the farmers will not succeed in any new crop that would benefit them and our economy. Go figure. Makes you wonder just who she’s working for doesn’t it?
I thought she was just stupid, but the insurance argument says it all. It is a very hearty plant that can withstand poor weather and defend itself from other weeds and insects. Hard to ask a farmer to insure such a product. It’s like life insurance people asking this single guy to buy life insurance. They usually only ask once.
Ror, the Farm Bill didn’t bring hemp into the insurable crops? Will that have to wait for the next Farm Bill?
For crap sakes Kristi you signed the Farm Bill.
What did you think was going to happen?
I guess 62-2 isn’t a large enough margin for you to do what you were
elected to do.
The Dope is in Pierre.
Dang, Ror is right:
That gets promoted to a post of its own.
I’ll tell you what she’s inhaling: BIG PHARMA $$$$$.
I think her hubs is probably part of the reason, but I’m betting the Kochs are even more so. They own her and Noem is willing to sell out the entire state to line her pockets and keep Chuckie and Davie happy.
On the eighth day there was this little gem-
https://www.policyholderperspective.com/2018/12/articles/insurance-news-of-note/federal-crop-insurance-grows-hemp-to-be-covered/
You can certainly bet money that the reason No Show is against industrial hemp is because she has not had time to figure out how her family can reap the maximum financial benefit before she lets anyone else have a piece of the pie.
Who on earth would smoke industrial hemp? Doesn’t get you high. Not sure who is dumber here, someone who would smoke it or someone who’s afraid someone else might smoke it. About as enticing as the idea of smoking my mother’s irises.
She is not about SD she’s about CORPORATE INTERESTS.