Hemp, Inc. shared its excitement today via a press release as North
Carolina residents await Governor McCory’s signature to cement the legalization
of industrial hemp in North Carolina. Last week, Industrial Hemp Senate Bill
313 was passed by both the House and Senate and stated the industrial hemp
industry can “expand employment, promote economic activity, and provide
opportunities to small farmers for an environmentally sustainable and
profitable use of crop lands that might otherwise be lost to agricultural
production.” In fact, Hemp, Inc. has already injected over a million dollars in
North Carolina’s economy with the purchase of the Temafa decortication
machinery, related items and the workforce needed to build the infrastructure
of the only commercial hemp processing facility in the United States.
The company’s subsidiary, Industrial Hemp Manufacturing, LLC, has also
begun receiving applications from residents for future employment. “While we
can not, at this time, quantify the amount of jobs our plant will create, we
suspect hundreds of jobs will be created either directly and indirectly within
our industry. Our presence in Spring Hope, North Carolina is already
stimulating the local economy,” says David Schmitt, COO of Hemp, Inc.’s subsidiary,
IHM. “From seed to sale, from farmers to the manufacturers, to the retail
stores… this ripple effect could potentially create hundreds of jobs.”
According to the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer
Services, “North Carolina’s agricultural industry contributes $78 billion to
the state’s economy, accounts for more than 17 percent of the state’s income,
and employs 16 percent of the work force. The state’s 52,200 farmers grow over
80 different commodities, utilizing 8.4 million of the state’s 31 million acres
to furnish consumers a dependable and affordable supply of food and fiber. The
state ranks seventh nationally in farm profits with a net farm income of over
$3.3 billion. Net income per farm in the state is over $63,000.”
Hemp, Inc.’s processing facility is certainly the catalyst for an
economic boom in not just Nash County, but the state of North Carolina, say
executives. “We have kenaf growing in three different counties… we support the
small family farm,” said Bruce Perlowin, CEO of Hemp, Inc.
Now, the state is abuzz with an imminent reality of growing, not
importing, industrial hemp. Kat McReynolds of Mountain Xpress NC reports…
NC’S HEMP BILL AWAITS GOVERNOR’S SIGNATURE
Posted on October 5, 2015 by Kat McReynolds
North Carolina farmers may soon be the newest competitors in the
worldwide hemp market, pending a signature from Gov. Pat McCrory. Growing
industrial hemp, as opposed to simply importing and processing it for use in
derivative products, would be legal in North Carolina under Senate Bill 313 —
which originally pertained to license plates and registers of deeds until a
subsequent addition by sponsor Rep. Jeff Collins, R-Nash County. McCrory’s
approval is the last step after speedy affirmative votes in both the N.C. House
(101 votes to 7) and Senate (42 votes to 2).
“From all indications, the governor is going to sign it,” says Blake
Butler, hemp advocate and organizer of Asheville’s recent HempX festival. “He’s
in support of it.”
If the bill is enacted, an industrial hemp commission will be tasked with
managing a statewide pilot program to monitor the inaugural cohort of
commercial growers and researchers of the versatile crop, which is used to make
thousands of products.
Carolina cannabis
Hemp is a variety of the cannabis plant, but smoking it doesn’t produce a
high. By definition, industrial hemp must contain less than 0.3 percent of THC
— the substance responsible for weed’s psychoactive effects — while marijuana’s
average THC content has climbed from about 10 percent THC by weight to 30
percent over the past 30 years, according to a study by Colorado-based research
lab Charas Scientific.
Despite containing only trace amounts of THC, the federal government
lumps hemp in with marijuana as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled
Substances Act, meaning the plant’s production and use fall under the watchful
eye of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
The DEA’s main concern surrounding hemp is that “commercial cultivation
could increase the likelihood of covert production of high-THC marijuana,
significantly complicating DEA’s surveillance and enforcement activities and
sending the wrong message to the American public concerning the government’s
position on drugs,” according to a 2015 Congressional Research Service report
prepared for Congress, titled “Hemp as an Agricultural Commodity.” Hemp
advocates, however, claim that cross-pollination between hemp and marijuana
would actually lower the THC content of the latter, devaluing the harvest.
Still, the 2014 U.S. Farm Bill (P.L. 113-79) allows states to enact their
own regulatory systems surrounding industrial hemp cultivation. Until now,
North Carolina law remained silent on the subject, even as other Southern state
governments accommodated the controversial plant. Currently, 20 states have
adopted Farm Bill-compliant laws to accommodate cultivation under varying
circumstances.
If signed into law, North Carolina’s new bill will call for the formation
of an industrial hemp commission to manage the state’s pilot program. The
commission will issue paid permits (their number and geographic distribution
are still to be determined), establish a reporting system for growers and
ensure compliance with federal law. Also included in the industrial hemp bill
is a plan to establish research partnerships with N.C. State University and
North Carolina A&T University, as well as to conduct studies on economic
potential and best agricultural practices.
Growing business
To be clear, it is already legal, with the correct paperwork, to process
hemp in North Carolina into any of its thousands of derivative products, such
as food products, hygiene items, textiles, building materials and biofuel. But
for decades, North Carolinians have been forbidden to grow hemp. Instead,
companies have relied upon neighboring states and other countries, including
leading exporter China and dozens of other nations, for their hemp needs. To
capitalize on the new legislation, then, will require action from North
Carolina’s farming community.
“Between thousands of acres of unused farmland and vacant textile mills
in every county, this is a true, unrecognized economic opportunity for our
region,” Butler says, but “it’s not even on [farmers’] radar.”
Aspiring grower Claudia Townsend says she has applied to attend the
Organic Growers School’s new year-long Farm Beginnings course with hopes of
launching a hemp farm, despite the school’s current lack of hemp-specific
expertise. Until now, local landowners have been hesitant to discuss leasing
her a space for the venture, but Townsend is hopeful that legalization will
legitimize her proposals.
Butler says he hadn’t heard any interest from WNC farmers in growing hemp
until his inaugural HempX festival last month, but “farmers are starting to
engage,” he says, noting an uptick in hemp-related inquiries since news of the
legislative progress.
Molly Nicholie, Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project’s local food
campaign program director, reports a similar silence in ASAP’s network, adding:
“I think that a lot of [farmers] don’t want to put time into thinking about it
until it’s legal [and they] will sit back and watch other folks do it until
they see if it’s worth their time.”
Meanwhile, Western North Carolina companies that are particularly hip to
hemp have been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to tighten the geographic
spread of their supply chains.
Smiling Hara Tempeh co-owner Chad Oliphant, for example, sourced hemp
from Canada for the company’s pilot batches of Hempeh before partnering with
farmer Mike Lewis‘ Growing Warriors Project in Kentucky. Oliphant says Smiling
Hara will be looking to purchase from North Carolina growers as soon as it’s
feasible, but he expects that to take a few years.
“I have been involved with hemp farmers in Kentucky, and we are still
figuring out logistics such as processing, transport and pricing,” he says. “It
will be interesting to see how quickly the industry will be able to develop in
North Carolina.”
Similarly, Plant chef Jason Sellers says buying regional hemp would
“inspire me to use more of it in the kitchen.”
Asheville’s Alembic Studio LLC designs and implements hempcrete buildings
across North America and in New Zealand using hemp from the latter, but “we
have long anticipated the opportunity to be able to source this product from
our own state,” says Timothy Callahan, Alembic technical design analyst and
master builder.
Sara Day Evans, founding director of Accelerating Appalachia, says
aspiring hemp entrepreneurs are inquiring about participating in her organization’s
next nature-based business accelerator program. “We have applicants from
Kentucky, West Virginia and North Carolina — all doing hemp. Most of them are
actually small processors, which is good,” she says.
Notably, publicly traded organization Hemp Inc. recently purchased one of
the nation’s only decortication machines — a specialized piece of equipment
used to break hemp into fiber and hurd for further processing. The company then
relocated the asset to a subsidiary in Spring Hope (located in Nash County,
which the industrial hemp bill’s sponsor Collins represents).
In light of the disparity in interest to date between WNC farmers and
local commercial users, Butler says his team may soon hold information sessions
on potential hemp opportunities.
BREAK IT DOWN: A decortication machine at Industrial Hemp Manufacturing,
LLC in Spring Hope — the largest such piece of equipment in the states,
according to the company — breaks raw hemp into its component parts for further
processing. The plant is located in Nash County, the district Industrial Hemp
Bill sponsor Rep. Jeff Collins represents.
To plant or not to plant
Even if they are interested in pursuing hemp as an auxiliary or main
crop, farmers will find it difficult to unearth conclusive figures on hemp’s
demand and profitability, due to piecemeal studies. Further, differing strains
of hemp are better for different end uses, meaning aggregate hemp figures may
not be meaningful for each submarket.
Allowing for limited data, the previously mentioned CRS study “Hemp as an
Agricultural Commodity” estimates nearly $36.9 million in U.S. imported seeds
and fibers (predominantly used as manufacturing inputs), which represents a
sixfold increase since 2005. Annual sales for U.S. hemp-based products made
with those seeds and fibers, along with other hemp-related imports, exceed $580
million.
After Kentucky took advantage of the 2014 Farm Bill’s deferral to state
laws, Lewis became the first person in the country to legally grow hemp. He
says his crops are “well-adjusted and perform just fine without any
fertilizer,” although fertilizer was used as part of trials.
Strains for both food and fiber performed well on his land, but he says
other farmers growing strains with high levels of CBD (a nonpsychoactive
cannabinoid being researched for potential medicinal applications) had trouble
with spider mites.
With proper planning, growers can get multiple harvests in a single year,
but Lewis notes that his back-to-back plantings drew twice the nutrients from
the soil. “The economic feasibility still needs to be determined,” he says.
The National Hemp Association’s website, meanwhile, credits the plant for
requiring few pesticides and returning nutrients to the dirt, reading: “Hemp
has been grown on the same soil for 20 years in a row without any noticeable
depletion of the soil.”
Despite hemp’s attributes and his belief in the potential for profits,
Lewis says he’s still traversing the learning curve.
“I don’t anticipate making any real farm gate income from my crops for
another two years,” he says. “The problem we currently have is a bottleneck of
[general agriculture product] processors. The only processors are very large in
scale, many requiring 50,000 acres of product a year.”
“That type of production level ultimately keeps family farms as
price-takers,” he continues. “If we are really going to see the real economic
potential of this crop realized, it will need to be grown, processed and sold
as locally as possible. Otherwise we are playing into the commodity markets,
and that doesn’t usually equal profits for a small-scale producer like me.”
For more information on hemp and hemp legislation, visit
nationalhempassociation.org or ncindhemp.org.
About QualityStocks
QualityStocks
is committed to connecting subscribers with companies that have huge potential
to succeed in the short and long-term future. We offer several ways for
investors to find, evaluate, and learn more about investing in these companies.
The Quality Stocks Daily Blog http://blog.qualitystocks.net
The Quality Stocks Daily Videos http://videocharts.qualitystocks.net
The Quality Stocks “Ones to Watch” http://gotstocks.qualitystocks.net
Please see disclaimer on the QualityStocks website: http://disclaimer.qualitystocks.net
No comments:
Post a Comment