Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer told a gathering in Lexington that industrial hemp is poised for exponential growth, with thousands of jobs from field work to possessing to sales expected to follow.
“We’re going to be making things that range from parts in the automotive industry to parts in the construction industry to pharmaceuticals,” Comer said Monday in a speech at the sold out three-day conference sponsored by the Hemp Industries Association. “[Kentucky] is going to be the epicenter of industrial hemp production in America.”
Indeed backers are quick to point out that Kentucky and Lexington played a central role in industrial hemp during the 19th century, with the commonwealth’s production peaking in 1850 at 40,000 tons before losing ground to other fiber and regulatory controls meant to battle hemp’s intoxicating sister plant, cannabis.
Kentucky’s industrial hemp ambitions reignited a couple years ago through work by Comer and other lawmakers to carve out a legal space for pilot programs. Since then, the Kentucky Department of Agriculture has administered the projects, with 2015’s growing to include 121 projects cover 1,700 acres. The projects are varied, with individual farmers, seven universities and 24 processors. KDA officials said the application for the 2016 program will be available in October.
Comer said state officials had more work to do in opening markets and reducing federal regulations but predicted the state’s industrial hemp sector will grow exponentially.
“I think we’re going to go from 1,700 acres to 10,000 acres to 20,000 acres to 40,000 acres,” he said. “This is going to be a big crop in the state of Kentucky. We’re going to go from 24 processors to hopefully 100 processors.”