{"id":6345,"date":"2016-07-14T08:57:19","date_gmt":"2016-07-14T08:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/?p=4881"},"modified":"2016-07-14T08:57:19","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T08:57:19","slug":"west-virginia-farmers-work-toward-hemp-revival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/west-virginia-farmers-work-toward-hemp-revival\/","title":{"rendered":"West Virginia Farmers Work Toward Hemp Revival"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/west-virginia-farmers-work-toward-hemp-revival\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>Parkersburg &#8211; The half-acre plot of fledgling plants along a hillside at Cedar Lane Farm puts into perspective the return of hemp to West Virginia soil &#8211; a resistance-riddled movement struggling to rise out of infancy.<\/p>\n<p>Owner Dave Hawkins arrives with a few signs to post around the plot warning trespassers that the area is under surveillance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIndustrial Hemp Research Project; No THC Content &#8211; Stay Out!\u201d they read.<\/p>\n<p>After a busy year full of uncertainties, including a rules bill passed during this year\u2019s legislative session that nearly killed hemp research before the seeds were even planted, Hawkins is among a handful of growers around West Virginia who are pioneering the return of hemp.<\/p>\n<p>But jumping through the hoops required by the state Department of Agriculture to attain permits was the easy part.<\/p>\n<p>With the research plots under way, growers are collecting data to be studied by Susanna Wheeler, a master\u2019s agronomy student at West Virginia University.<\/p>\n<p>The data will be crucial to help state lawmakers understand hemp\u2019s potential as a viable crop with myriad uses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt validates the purpose of what we\u2019re doing,\u201d said Hawkins, who also owns Mother Earth Foods, the oldest natural food store in the state. \u201cYou can say you did research, but if you\u2019re haphazard with it, it doesn\u2019t have much merit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While hemp and marijuana come from the same species of plant, Cannabis sativa, hemp is a separate variety with its own chemical makeup, and it has different cultivation practices than marijuana.<\/p>\n<p>Roots in the ground<br \/>\nOn a sticky July afternoon, Hawkins\u2019 eyes lit up when he explained the layout of his three hemp plots.<\/p>\n<p>He purchased five different seed varieties &#8211; three suited for fiber production and two for seed production &#8211; that were planted on the plots.<\/p>\n<p>One plot wasn\u2019t treated with any fertilizer; the second was treated with manure, and the third with nitrogen-rich blood meal.<\/p>\n<p>After tilling the plots, Hawkins directly seeded them by hand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey were starting to come up within three days,\u201d he said of the little plants, most no taller than about half a foot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe amended ones will probably perform a little better because of the nutrients in the soil.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Standing beside him are Morgan Leach, executive director of the West Virginia Hemp Growers Cooperative, and Robbie Kerr, another cooperative member.<\/p>\n<p>The group has been at the forefront of the push to revive hemp production in the state, communicating regularly with Department of Agriculture officials and providing assistance to farmers trying to attain growing permits.<\/p>\n<p>For Leach, a law student at West Virginia University, developing a hemp industry in the state has become a full-time job.<\/p>\n<p>Since January, he\u2019s traveled to a dozen conferences on hemp and cannabis around the country to better understand the industry and network with other advocates.<\/p>\n<p>Leach is helping manage another plot in nearby Vienna on a former Texaco petroleum tank farm along the Ohio River owned by his father, Jim.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019ve maintained a vegetable garden since the elder Leach purchased the land in 2008; but this year, half of the garden is home to rows of hemp plants.<\/p>\n<p>Their seeds were purchased from a supplier in Italy because they want to use them again next year &#8211; something many other suppliers prohibit.<\/p>\n<p>But Leach is also thinking realistically about how the private sector can invest in hemp without risking too much capital.<\/p>\n<p>He pointed to Kentucky as an example, where former tobacco farmers are repurposing their equipment to process and handle hemp, given the slowing of the tobacco industry in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo one\u2019s gonna go out and buy a new tractor specifically for hemp production,\u201d Leach said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to repurpose the tractors they have to meet whatever demand they have for them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With about 20 members, the cooperative has grown over the past several months.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s holding a members-only meeting on Aug. 12 in Parkersburg at the Blennerhassett Hotel. Those interested in becoming members can email <a href=\"mailto:wvhfc.inc@gmail.com\">wvhfc.inc@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Past and present<\/p>\n<p>During World War II, hemp was viewed as a vital resource. Production in the U.S. reached more than 150 million pounds in 1943, according to a 2015 Congressional Research Service Report titled \u201cHemp as an Agricultural Commodity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why Hawkins doesn\u2019t think government agencies need to reinvent the wheel to learn more about its methods of production.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s asked officials with the state Department of Agriculture for U.S. Department of Agriculture documents on hemp from the 1930s and 1940s.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a subsidized crop in the U.S., so you know USDA has some records somewhere about growing [it],\u201d Hawkins said. \u201cThe historical significance is, maybe we could learn something from the past.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hemp farmer and former state delegate Mike Manypenny agrees.<\/p>\n<p>Running for U.S. Congress in West Virginia\u2019s first district, Manypenny is a longtime proponent of hemp.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s conducting four different projects from the plants growing on his quarter-acre plot.<\/p>\n<p>One of those projects is receiving aid from the WVU engineering department and will study hemp\u2019s potential as a high-quality activated carbon, which is used to filter water impurities and flue gas in coal burning power plants, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a huge demand for activated carbon in West Virginia and globally,\u201d Manypenny said.<\/p>\n<p>Another one of his projects will be studied by Agri Carb Electric Corporation, a newly formed company that hopes to provide technology solutions through advanced hemp-based carbon applications.<\/p>\n<p>Industrial hemp can be carbonized into graphene.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[We can] use that graphene to develop high-capacity, compact batteries without the need for other metals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Manypenny has also been in talks with the Polymer Alliance Zone to discuss another use for hemp as a bioplastic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe intent is to basically create downstream industries in West Virginia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But hemp\u2019s uses expand far beyond manufacturing and power production.<\/p>\n<p>Manypenny is also using the grains from some of his plant varieties to create malt, used in brewing beer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a few microbreweries out there using hemp in their beer as an ingredient,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re gonna determine which varieties have the highest sugar content for making beer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All the permit holders have their own visions for hemp in the Mountain State &#8211; what they share in common is the belief that it can be a job creator and economic driver in a state slowly migrating away from energy extraction as its primary industry.<\/p>\n<p>From expelling the non-psychoactive cannabidiol from plants for medicinal uses to processing the stalks and hurds for textiles and manufacturing, support for industrial hemp is growing.<\/p>\n<p>Watching a coal-filled barge float slowly down the Ohio River, Leach envisions a future in which the black masses will someday be replaced with green.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/west-virginia-farmers-work-toward-hemp-revival.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>News Moderator: Katelyn Baker <a href=\"http:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">420 MAGAZINE \u00ae<\/a><br \/>\nFull Article: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wvgazettemail.com\/news\/20160710\/wv-farmers-work-toward-hemp-revival\" target=\"_blank\">WV Farmers Work Toward Hemp Revival<\/a><br \/>\nAuthor: Elaina Sauber<br \/>\nContact: 304-348-4800<br \/>\nPhoto Credit: None Found<br \/>\nWebsite: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wvgazettemail.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Charleston Gazette-Mail<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Parkersburg &#8211; The half-acre plot of fledgling plants along a hillside at Cedar Lane Farm puts into perspective the return&#8230; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/2016\/07\/west-virginia-farmers-work-toward-hemp-revival\/\" class=\"read-more\">[Read More]<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1607,9,1,3],"tags":[4175],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6345"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6345\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}