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McConnell: Farm Bill To Promote Hemp Revival

FRANKFORT (AP) - Hemp production may be on the verge of a comeback in Kentucky, where the non-potent cousin of marijuana once thrived.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says the final version of the federal Farm Bill will allow limited hemp cultivation in pilot programs in states that permit the production.

Kentucky lawmakers passed a bill last year to allow industrial hemp's reintroduction but only if the federal government lifts its ban.

McConnell says the Farm Bill language he secured will allow state agriculture departments to oversee pilot hemp projects. Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer has promoted the crop, which can be turned into products ranging from paper to cosmetics.

Hemp was banned decades ago when the government classified it as a controlled substance related to marijuana. Hemp has a negligible content of the psychoactive compound that gives marijuana users a high.

http://www.kentucky.com/2014/01/28/3056 ... comer.html



With hemp in Farm Bill and vote pending, Comer calls processors, researchers

By Janet Patton

jpatton1@herald-leader.comJanuary 28, 2014 Updated 17 minutes ago



If Congress passes a federal Farm Bill this week, Kentucky could be growing hemp this year for the first time in decades.


U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Louisville, announced late Tuesday he had inserted language into a compromise bill to allow not just universities but state departments of agriculture to conduct research on industrial hemp, including growing test plots.

McConnell's language appears to be crafted to allow Kentucky's agriculture commissioner, James Comer, to move forward.

"By giving Commissioner Comer the go-ahead to cultivate hemp for pilot programs, we are laying the groundwork for a new commodity market for Kentucky farmers," McConnell said in a statement. "By exploring innovative ways to use hemp to benefit a variety of Kentucky industries, while avoiding negative impact to Kentucky law enforcement's efforts at marijuana interdiction, the pilot programs authorized by this legislation could help boost our state's economy."

The U.S. House of Representatives could take up the Farm Bill on Wednesday.

Comer said Tuesday that he has been working the phones, talking to potential processing companies about coming to Kentucky.

"For months, we have tried to get some assurance at the federal level that Kentucky producers can grow industrial hemp without fear of government harassment or prosecution. This is what we've been waiting for," Comer said. "I appreciate Sen. Mitch McConnell's efforts to get hemp language in the farm bill. Without his protection of the language, there is no way it would have survived the process. I'm also grateful to Sen. Rand Paul and Reps. John Yarmuth and Thomas Massie for supporting our efforts from the beginning. And I again want to thank state Sen. Paul Hornback for having the courage to sponsor Senate Bill 50, which makes industrial hemp production legal under Kentucky law."

Kentucky should qualify with that legal framework, Comer said.

"We're going to have to come up with a pilot program, which would work with some universities and have research components, and work with companies to process the hemp," Comer said. "We would like to have these private companies work with universities to fund the research instead of trying to get grants and use education funding."

Caudill Seed company in Louisville is interested, he said. A call to Caudill Seed was not immediately returned.

Research on planting, seed varieties, and harvesting and marketing all will be needed to revive a crop that has been lost to modern American farming.

Funding for that research would almost certainly have to come from private sources to get anything in the ground this year, a key goal for Comer, who wants to position the state at the forefront of hemp's return.

"The only way this crop is going to be profitable for farmers is to get the processors in the state," Comer said. "We're trying desperately to do that; I'll keep working the phones."

Kentucky Industrial Hemp Commission chairman Brian Furnish also hailed the amendment.

"We still have work to do, and this isn't the end of the road, but it's unbelievable progress, and I could not be happier with this development," Furnish said. "I appreciate Sen. McConnell holding firm for Kentucky, and I believe the day is coming when we will see this crop completely restored to the commonwealth."

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/01/28/3056 ... rylink=cpy

Ryan Grim

DEA Seizes Kentucky's Hemp Seeds Despite Congressional Legalization

HuffingtonPost.com | Ryan Grim | Posted 05.14.2014 | Politics

Read More: Hemp Legalization, Drug War, 420, Dea Kentucky Hemp, Industrial Hemp Kentucky, Legal Hemp, Industrial Hemp, Hemp Prohibition, Farm Bill, Legal Weed, Kentucky Hemp Seeds, War on Marijuana, Marijuana Prohibition, Kentucky Hemp, Dea, Politics News


The Drug Enforcement Administration has seized a batch of seeds that were intended to be part of the launch of Kentucky's legal hemp industry

Kentucky Sues DEA To Free Its Impounded Hemp Seeds [UPDATE]

HuffingtonPost.com | Ryan Grim | Posted 05.14.2014 | Politics

Read More: Hemp Legalization, Drug War, 420, Dea Kentucky Hemp, Industrial Hemp Kentucky, Legal Hemp, Industrial Hemp, Hemp Prohibition, Farm Bill, Legal Weed, Kentucky Hemp Seeds, War on Marijuana, Marijuana Prohibition, Kentucky Hemp, Dea, Politics News


Kentucky on Wednesday sued the federal government for return of agricultural hemp seeds seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration after the agency...

In Kentucky, Democrats And Republicans Can All Agree On Hemp

HuffingtonPost.com | Matt Ferner | Posted 05.21.2014 | Politics

Read More: Legal Weed, Kentucky Hemp Seeds, Rand Paul, Mitch McConnell, Hemp, Marijuana, Alison Lundergan Grimes, 420, Dea Hemp Seeds, Kentucky Hemp, Legal Hemp, Industrial Hemp, Politics News


They may be political rivals, but Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) and his Democratic challenger, Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes...


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Members of the local media record a hemp planting on Tuesday afternoon at the University of Kentucky Spindletop Research Farm in Lexington, Ky. (Matt Barton / University of Kentucky College of Agriculture)

By Paresh Dave



Kentucky, DEA settle lawsuit over hemp seed import. Now, the first crop of seeds is in the earth.
May 27, 2014, 5:20 PM




The week after a quick legal battle came to an end, Kentucky researchers sank hemp seeds into the earth and began an anxious wait for green sprouts to surface as part of the state's first legal crop of cannabis since the World War II era..

The state-sponsored planting of hemp Tuesday at a University of Kentucky farm was the second of seven expected to take place before the end of the month.

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Benson Bell, executive director of the Kentucky Office of Consumer and Environmental Protection, left, and Adam Watson, program coordinator, weigh a bag of hemp seed for the pilot growing effort at the Kentucky Department of Agriculture in Frankfort. (James Crisp / Associated Press)

Authorities sharply curtailed hemp growing in the U.S. in the 1930s because cannabis plants produce both the flower referred to as marijuana and the fibers known as hemp. While the flower secrets a chemical compound that produces an intoxicating high, the seeds and stalk do not. Still, until February, the ability to legally cultivate hemp was limited.

A new federal law now allows for states to run pilot projects aimed at figuring out how much profit there is in growing hemp, which can be used to make food, fuel or material.

The Kentucky ceremony marked the first planting in the U.S. of imported industrial hemp seed as part of the new program. This month, Kentucky's Murray State University planted seeds bought from California.


The 13 varieties of seeds imported from Italy that were planted Tuesday had been at the center of a skirmish involving the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The agency refused to OK the import, citing conflicting laws. After Kentucky sued, the two sides agreed to a compromise with the help of a federal judge.

Kentucky secured a drug-importer permit, but it won't have to spend thousands of dollars putting in place extra security measures at the farms.

Holly VonLuehrte, chief of staff for the state agriculture commissioner, called it an unusual and reasonable arrangement.


“We certainly hope it'll be able to grow.”
- Holly VonLuehrte, chief of staff for the Kentucky agriculture commissioner, on the state's hemp-growing pilot project


"Our permit application was expedited, and none of our producers are adhering to the normal requirements like the razor-wire fences," she told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday. "What used to be unduly burdensome restrictions have been eliminated because of the new law."

The seven plots of hemp will be harvested in the fall, assuming they grow. Researchers plan to investigate which varieties grow best and what conditions -- such as soil type and fertilizer -- work well.

"We certainly hope it'll be able to grow," VonLuehrte said.

The cannabis plants grown at the universities would be destroyed. Private farms working with the state would have the option to sell the fibers and seeds to see how much they can fetch.

Kentucky was once the country's leading producer of hemp, making about 40,000 tons a year just before the Civil War. State officials have said they hope hemp farming and processing can reinvigorate the state's economy.


"The University of Kentucky's pilot program will help us recover much of the knowledge about industrial hemp production that has been lost since hemp was last grown in Kentucky," state Agriculture Commissioner James Comer said in a statement. "With their help, we will bring industrial hemp back to Kentucky and with it new jobs and new farm income."