Earlier this month, the USDA moved up its timeline for issuing hemp regulations, saying it would post the rules necessary to implement the 2018 Farm Bill’s hemp provision in August. South Dakota Farmers Union is happy about that:
South Dakota Farmers Union President Doug Sombke… says Farmers Union is working with a Minnesota research group to find ways hemp can be processed and the best path forward.
Sombke says rather than trying to produce oil from hemp, his group wants to make use of the hemp fiber [“SD Farmers Union Pleased USDA Will Release Hemp Rules Soon,” WNAX Radio, 2019.07.30].
The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee dedicated a full hearing to hemp production last Thursday. Kentucky hemp grower Brian Furnish warned that getting into hemp takes hard work… and tall harvesters:
Furnish talked about the challenges a farmer faces. He spoke about how hemp CBD production is uniquely similar to tobacco production, while fiber hemp can grow over 22 feet tall. Hemp can be very labor intensive, and not as simple as a get-rich-quick scheme. He said it is always important to exercise caution, to be wary of ‘hemp expert’ only in it a few years.
“We have learned a lot over the past 5 years but the hemp industry has a long way to go before it is mainstream production agriculture,” he said. “Having a certified seed program for hemp would be a huge benefit to the hemp farmers. Now that hemp is legal we need to take a close look and remove, one by one, the barriers to success so hemp can be on the same production playing field as all the other crops” [Ben Droz, “Senate Hearing Provides Update on Federal Progress for Hemp Regulations,” Hemp Today Media, 2019.07.26].
22 feet tall? Maybe we should start planting hemp for shade and privacy fences in town….
Kentucky was the nation’s third-biggest hemp producer in 2018, behind Oregon and Montana.
Tribal Chairman Darrell G. Seki of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians in Minnesota told Senate Ag that his people are ready to invest in hemp:
The Tribal regulation and production of industrial hemp holds great promise to build strong, sustainable agricultural economic development through Indian Country, creating jobs and building strong Tribal economies in some of our nation’s most rural and remote areas where local economies have stagnated, and unemployment remains high. Tribes and Tribal producers are ready to enter this new market as soon as possible. Many Tribes, like the Red Lake Nation, have access to the land and water necessary to be leaders not only in the cultivation of industrial hemp, but to engage in lucrative value-added agriculture for hemp products as well.
The 2017 Census of Agriculture data indicates that 58.7 million acres of land throughout Indian Country are already supporting some type of food or agriculture production, at a total value of $3.5 billion. Today’s robust Tribal agriculture sector reflects only the beginning of what is the bourgeoning potential of Indian Country to feed itself and provide food, fiber, and jobs throughout America. Expanding Tribal agriculture production to include industrial hemp cultivation will certainly help grow Tribal economies and create Tribal jobs, but only if the 2018 Farm Bill hemp provisions are implemented in a way that truly allows for Tribal self- governance. Tribal producers must be free to pursue these new market opportunities without unnecessary administrative burdens from USDA, or our producers will continue to struggle to access a market that the 2018 Farm Bill made clear was open to them. Tribes insist on a fair opportunity, on par with states in ways that make up for the many years Tribes have lost due to legal disadvantage and neglect [Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians Tribal Chairman Carrell G. Seki, testimony to Senate Agriculture, 2019.07.25].
Farmers and Indians agree: whatever the challenges, they’re ready to diversify their crops and add hemp to the rotation.
The good news is that hemp may be good at collecting heavy metals, so it could find use in environmental remediation as a bioaccumulator.
The bad news is that any related products may need to be assayed for heavy metal content because of its capacity as a bioaccumulator.
This is true of both hemp and its plant relatives that may yield products which are inhaled or ingested by consumers.
GNoem and her republican legislators hate farmers, farmers need to just get over that to understand that freedom to farm is just a slogan that was dreampt up by white wing nuts to get their votes. It has worked brilliantly too. Farmers, direct your angst on the legislators who know how to vote count and be like good little boys and girls for their queen bee. Tell them to send a bill to her that is veto proof and to quit stalling.
It’s still the economy stupid. The ship that was put together after the last bust of the economy is now taking on more water than it can handle. Rates cut today, tariffs and trade wars with no end in sight (unless we impeach chubby), we sputter forward. But hey, if you wanna buy a car or one of those 1 ton grocery getters, no problem. Banks are lending good credit, bad credit or no credit, come on down and get you one of these gas guzzlers and if you want smoke, put on of those high dollar generators and you can use that diesel to smoke up the place. Ah, South Dakota, we want everyone to be happy but the farmers. Farmers can go pound sand…until election time and then the Russian lies will be in full swing.
It sounds like current combines may not work for harvesting hemp. John Deere will pounce on that with an overly complicated, highly computerized, unrepairable, $1 million machine. JD techs will make the repairs for $thousands.
Monsanto will be patenting seeds and an accompanying Roundup brand of pesticide/herbicide for a lot more $$$.
Big business is well on their way to figuring out how to maximize their profits at the expense of farmers and consumers and we’re all stuck with it.
– OR –
We can vote for Democrats and have a chance.
Watch how farmers can make more on 500 feet of hemp than 100 acres of corn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv468ctrEY4
Farmers need to go after the legislators, forget the queen bee. Go after her lackeys.
Robert, could we plant hemp buffer strips purely for bioaccumulation purposes, then just not harvest that hemp for human consumption or other uses that would re-release the heavy metals into the environment?
I would be fine with that. Could be an intermediary step before anything commercial or anything dealing with consumers is considered.
It would be interesting to see how well it works on areas for things like past industrial development or mining.
Rancid Racist continues to bury the average farmer under his greedy fat butt. This is from Bloomberg, via Significant Digits by Walt Hickey:
“10 percent of recipients
“The Trump administration’s trade-war aid for farmers is not being distributed evenly. Ten percent of the recipients have received more than half the money, according to an analysis by the Environmental Working Group. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley and the president of the National Farmers Union, among others, criticized that imbalance, suggesting that they’ll help large farms get larger and not assist the smaller farms that need the aid. [Bloomberg]”
Can we recover any of those heavy metals from the bioaccumulators and recycle them?
That would be the hope. The issue is separating the heavy metals from the plant material. The rare earths would be in there too, but I tend to think more about mercury, arsenic, and cadmium in this regard.
The concentrations tend to be on the order of 1-100 milligrams per kilogram. Burning the plant material will concentrate various metals in the ash that results, but that will not be enough for commercial extraction (i.e. to make this pay for itself).
Typically you will need heat and chemistry for further separation, which is expensive and why we need better methods. Similar techniques are of interest to recycle the same kinds of elements from renewable wastes too.
It is more likely in the near term that we find a secondary use for the plant material (i.e. downcycle instead of recycle). For example, burn it up to get the energy and do something with the ashes.