Last week the USDA approved six applications for domestic hemp programs, for the states of Louisiana, New Jersey, and Ohio; the Santa Rosa Band of Cahuilla Indians and the La Jolla Band of Luiseno Indians of California; and the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. Maryland will use the USDA’s hemp program. Four states—Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, and New Mexico—already grow hemp under the 2014 USDA pilot plan. The USDA is reviewing hemp plans from seventeen other states (including Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota) and eleven other tribes (including the Oglala Sioux). Eight states and five tribes (including the Yankton Sioux) are drafting plans.
The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, which suffered unjustly under state oppression after it grew but then destroyed marijuana for its aborted pot resort in 2015, is not afraid to lead the way in agriculture and economic development in South Dakota:
The Tribe submitted its plan to the USDA on November 7, 2019. The plan regulates the production of hemp within the Tribe’s territory, including where hemp may be grown, sampling and testing of hemp plants for THC-level compliance, and destruction for plants with nonacceptable THC levels. The Tribe’s Executive Committee, as an act of its sovereign authority, has taken extensive efforts to grow hemp, and thereby expand its current agricultural activities. The Tribe is confident that this plant is not only an incredible economic opportunity because of its vast product offerings, but is also native to this area, and beneficial to the environment.
The Tribe participated in the USDA consultation on December 11, 2019 regarding the regulations that USDA promulgated, and it looks forward to providing additional comments and insight to the federal government before the final rule is put into place [Seth Pearman, Attorney General, Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, in Michael Geheren, “South Dakota Tribe Among First in Nation Approved to Grow Hemp Under USDA Rules,” KELO-TV, 2019.12.27].
Growing hemp may not be an automatic economic boon—growers in South Carolina are facing multiple challenges, including widely varying yields and prices for a crop that costs a lot to cultivate:
David DeWitt, who heads the hemp educational program at the Clemson Extension Program in Lee County, said he has heard the harvested crop selling to processors for anywhere from $15 to $60 a pound.
Garrison said the average yield is about 750 pounds of hemp per acre, but that number can vary widely depending on how much of a crop makes it to maturity.
But growing it is expensive: DeWitt says a single acre can take between $8,000 and $20,000 to grow.
Hemp seeds must be planted in pesticide- and chemical-free soil and crops must be weeded by hand. Extra security measures are typically required, as well, according to the SCDA website [Zoe Nicholson, “‘It’s Just Doom and Gloom’: Upstate Hemp Farmers Struggle with Low Returns on Big Investment,” Greenville (SC) News, 2019.12.24].
…and a lack of processing capacity for the new industry:
The influx of SC hemp growers has overwhelmed many local processors, causing a backup of product, according to [hemp farmer Tom] Garrison, who said he is still waiting for payment after his processor did not refine his crop last year.
“But there’s not any of my crop leaving my farm this year unless I got money in my hand,” he said.
Garrison added that the processing industry in SC is still in startup mode. He said many of the new businesses popping up across the state have to get infrastructure and machinery in place before any work can begin [Nicholson, 2019.12.24].
But don’t be discouraged: everyone from the ancient Chinese to the American colonists and our Founding Fathers figured out how to grow hemp profitably. If they were able to do it, so can today’s Flandreau Santee Sioux and all the other tribes and states leading the way back to hemponomics.
Thank goodness that the reservations are sovereign nations.
If not the GOP boot would be back
on the necks of the Flandreau nation.
Just like Marty “Jackboot” Jackley
did to them previously.
So, with a sophomoric HA, HA, HA,
in your face Kristi.
There WILL be hemp production in
OUR state after all, and the DOPE
remains in Pierre.
Mark, I came here to post the same thing about Jackwagon Jackley! I love the fact that this will make his head explode and there isn’t a flipping thing he can do about it! From theocratic fascist Attorney General to part-time state’s attorney for the Murdo area, Lol! His obsession with even small amounts of marijuana, let alone anything harder, and his use and abuse of his state legal powers to assuage that obsession, was truly astounding and infuriating to watch.
Especially his legal hounding and harassing of the Flandreau Tribe, and his destroying the careers and business of the contractor the tribe hired to help it implement its marijuana growing enterprise. Even though the case against the contractors was dismissed and the judge chewed Jackley’s office out, the contractors were essentially ruined.
Laurissa, the point of the jackboots is always to destroy those whom they deem different. It may be philosophical or in Jackley’s case, racial. Jackley is exactly what’s wrong with the state and the country. But, to be nice to the man who got beaten by a girl…who am I kidding, Marty has the perfect place for himself now, Murdo, let’s keep him there.