SUPPORTS OK OF TEST PLOTS FOR INDUSTRIAL HEMP

Dear Editor,

I am writing to support Senate Bill 1397 concerning test plots for
industrial hemp. As noted in your Jan. 12 editorial, industrial hemp will
not be the salvation of the Illinois agricultural economy, but salvation is
best kept as a personal enterprise. In reality, industrial hemp is good
for the environment by replenishing nutrients drained from the soil by corn
and soybeans, grows without the use of pesticides, and positions Illinois
as a leader in this potentially profitable market.

This market, as Priss Parmenter noted in a recent letter to the editor, has
had its difficulties. But this market has only been cultivated twice
before: once in colonial times when the likes of George Washington and
Thomas Jefferson were hemp farmers; the other during WW II when the
cultivation of industrial hemp was promoted by our own federal government.

The two proposed test plots will provide the research necessary for the
General Assembly to make an informed decision on this issue at a future
date. To not fund the test plots is to ignore an opportunity for Illinois
to move to the forefront of this new market, a market that cannot be
adequately evaluated until its viability is ascertained.

Bryan Bickner, Chicago