Lexington, KY - Bringing industrial hemp back to Kentucky agriculture is a “no-brainer,” said James Comer, Kentucky’s Agriculture Commissioner, Joey Pendleton, State Senator, and Jonathan Miller, former Ky State Treasurer – each using that descriptor for the crop’s promise of economic development. They spoke at the Industrial Hemp Seminar, held last Wednesday at the Red Mile historic round barn in Lexington. The attending crowd of about 50 people included farmers, activists and interested citizens of every political stripe. There was also a turn out of other office holders and political candidates now advocating for the crop's reintroduction into Kentucky agriculture.
“If we can ever get a fair hearing in the Senate Agriculture Committee,” said Joey Pendleton, lamenting the resistance in the Senate to having an open and transparent debate on the crop. “We’re not going to get it this year. I think next year is the year.”
Pendleton, who represents the rural farming community of Christian County in Western Kentucky, has led the call for industrial hemp in the Kentucky legislature for years. “When I started, I was alone and couldn’t get a co-sponsor,” he said. “This is not a democrat or republican or independent issue. It’s economic development. Give the farmers another crop. We’ve got an alternative for ethanol.” He also pointed out that Kentucky is the second leading state in the country in automobile production. European carmakers, he noted, are finding increasing use of hemp in their manufacturing.
The economic potential of industrial hemp in Kentucky includes the creation of an estimated 70,000 jobs and the generation of hundreds of millions of dollars in agricultural and industrial business for Kentucky, according to the 1998 academic study, Economic Impact of Industrial Hemp in Kentucky , conducted by economists at the University of Kentucky. In the forward to that study, University of Louisville economist John I. Gilderbloom wrote that Kentucky will have a great economic advantage if it’s the first state to reintroduce industrial hemp.
One senses urgency in Pendleton’s appeal to get the crop back onto Kentucky farms: other states are also studying the issue.
The tide appears to be turning. Pendleton says the Kentucky Farm Bureau is coming on board. He’s been overwhelmed by interview requests from the media across the country. He now has the support of the Commissioner of Agriculture. “We’ve got a Commissioner of Agriculture that’s got the backbone and intestinal fortitude,” he said. “It’s good to have him on board. And Jonathan Miller, too, who has connections with Washington.”
“Industrial hemp is perfect for Kentucky,” said Commissioner Comer. “It’s easy to grow. It requires no fertilization with nitrogen. You don’t have to spray it with pesticides or insecticides. You plant it with a seed drill and harvest it like hay.” He said that many farmers are fully equipped to grow and harvest the crop, and those that don’t have seed drills could borrow them from Kentucky Cooperative Extension offices.
Concerning law enforcement, Comer says he has traveled the state and most sheriffs support industrial hemp returning to Kentucky farms. “I haven’t encountered anyone in law enforcement against it,” he said.
In an article for the forthcoming March 30 edition of Business Lexington, however, Agriculture writer Tim Thornberry notes that in the event the cultivation of industrial hemp is legalized in Kentucky, it would ultimately become the responsibility of local law officials to keep the bad guys out of the hemp patch, at a time when budgets are lean and personnel short in some areas. And Jerry Wagner, executive director of the Kentucky Sheriff’s Association, said “I’m not going to say that it is something we would totally rule out, but for the reasons known to us now, obviously we are not supportive of this law.”
Comer also remarked that industrial hemp could revive the textile industry in four southeastern Kentucky counties where textile jobs disappeared with the passage of NAFTA.
Seminar panelist Jonathan Miller describes himself as a “recovering politician.” A part of that recovery appears to be his strong advocacy of industrial hemp. “I wrote a piece for the Huffington Post and the Herald-Leader that basically said Gatewood (Galbraith) was right,” Miller said. He asked Gatewood’s daughter, Molly Galbraith to stand. She was there carrying on her father’s legacy. The late attorney and politician was an ardent advocate for the legalization of industrial hemp. The crowd gave her a warm round of applause.
Miller's commentary also appeared in the Feb. 3 edition of Business Lexington.
In Kentucky there’s probably no one who knows more about industrial hemp and its trials and tribulations in recent history then Craig Lee. Galbraith and Lee had nearly 30 years of friendship and traveled across the U.S. to speak about hemp and promote their documentary film, Hempsters Plant the Seed. Any Kentucky politician who has an interest in advocating industrial hemp has probably spent time with Lee. In the course of the seminar Lee was called on several times to elaborate on matters.
Lee gave a brief history of efforts over the last two decades to reintroduce industrial hemp in the U.S. – an accounting beyond the scope of this article. The problem is that the Drug Enforcement Agency is enforcing a narcotics list that includes industrial hemp, though it has no narcotic use. The U.S. is the only industrialized nation that prohibits farmers from growing the crop. Some 35 nations have no difficulty allowing farmers to grow industrial hemp while keeping marijuana illegal. Senator Ron Paul has introduced a bill with 33 cosponsors that would remove industrial hemp from the Controlled Substances Act.
Pete Cashel, owner of Terrapin Hill Farm in Harrodsburg, attended the seminar. He says farmers across Kentucky are ready to grow industrial hemp. He’d like to cultivate 50 acres of it on his farm. What interests him more is the business opportunity of owning and running a warehouse in town that would handle farmers’ harvests, much the way tobacco warehouses work.
Holding a stalk of dried industrial hemp from Canada, Lee raised it over his head and said, “What’s going to drive this is energy.” He said he had delivered a batch of such stalks to a local energy company, and its analysis showed hemp could be a valuable asset in energy and fuel production.
“Our focus is on transportation fuel and power generation,” Roger Ford told Business Lexington over the phone. Ford is CEO of Patriot Bio Energy, a renewable energy company headquartered in Lexington. “Craig provided us with samples. We simply wanted to see its Btu value and emissions.” The analysis found that industrial hemp has a Btu value between 8,700 and 9,000, a value that is considerably greater than that of western U.S. coal and a little less than Eastern Kentucky coal. He said it’s very clean burning. “It could be blended in with coal and have minimal reduction of Btu value, and it would bring down emissions. This would benefit coal.” Patriot is also looking at other applications of industrial hemp and how to monetize every part of the plant so nothing goes to waste.
“Industrial hemp also has a high yield per acre,” Ford said. “In terms of profitability, one acre would have a greater return than five acres of tobacco.”
Miller explained to the audience that it’s a matter of public education. A politician in office risks being seen as weak on law enforcement if he or she supports industrial hemp, because of its association with its cousin, marijuana. But that’s changing. Miller introduced a number of office holders and candidates at the seminar who support industrial hemp: Senator Robin Webb of District 18 in Northern Kentucky, Senator Damon Thayer of Georgetown representing the District 17, Tom Massey, County Judge now running for Congress in the 4th district, and Pepper Kelly running for Congress in the 6th district. As concerns the public, Comer said a recent poll shows 77 percent of Kentuckians support industrial hemp – that up from 35 percent support shown in a poll conducted 14 months earlier.
Katie Moyer, a youthful and energetic industrial hemp advocate in Joey Pendleton’s district, organized the Industrial Hemp Seminar. She also started The Kentucky Hemp Coalition . Moyer said that the first seminar happened in Hopkinsville. The success of that one led to this most recent one in Lexington. On Saturday they took the seminar to Benton, Kentucky. She said they are planning one for Green County, and she expects that seminars in several other counties will soon be confirmed.