The Forum EDITORIALS

Give hemp a chance

It is truly a mad, mad, mad, mad world.
Tobacco’s future has taken a turn for the worse, so what do Kentucky farmers
need? Among other things, new ideas for crops.
So far, farmers have displayed astonishing creativity. Freshwater shrimp
are being grown just north of Lexington; goats are being raised in Eastern
Kentucky; organic vegetables, vegetables for ethnic markets even emus and
ostrich are becoming part of the commonwealth’s farm economy.
Most folks believe there will be no one crop big enough and lucrative enough
to replace tobacco. The strategy, then, is to develop niche markets instead
of looking for one statewide solution.
But at a recent meeting in Frankfort, a maddening mentality was on display
when the subject of hemp was brought up. Hemp, of course, is a close relative
of marijuana. So some folks panic when the possibility of growing hemp is
discussed. They consider this one completely unacceptable niche market so
dangerous it should not even be explored.
This most recent proposal to let farmers legally grow hemp was called
“nothing more than an attempt to legalize the growing of marijuana.” No doubt
some of the folks who favor changing the law so industrial hemp can be grown
legally would love to see pot legalized, too, plenty of Kentuckians are
growing it now.
But most of the folks who have spoken up for hemp in recent months cannot be
lumped into that group. It’s hard to find anyone more mainstream than the
Community Farm Alliance, for example, or former Governor Brereton Jones, or
Stanley Dickson, the former chief executive officer of South Central Bell of
Kentucky.
Certainly there are more complications in adding hemp to our farm economy
than is adding, say, white radishes. But the complications are not so great
that they should be allowed to overshadow hemp’s potential. Farmers growing
hemp could be inspected. And hemp could be genetically altered so the shape
of its leaf differed from marijuana’s.
The larger problem than hemp’s association with marijuana is this: The value
of hemp remains unknown. Markets would have to be developed so that the
farmers who chose to grow hemp could see a good profit from it.
That’s the kind of development work that Karen Armstrong Cummings and the
folks at the Commodity Growers Coop are working on for other new farm
products. No doubt they could do the same for hemp.
Because of tobacco’s uncertainties, Kentucky farmers are going to need all
the help they can get in the coming years. The initiatives they will have to
take to survive will involve many kinds of risks.
But certainly a state that sees a future in emus, goats and bok choy can’t
afford to write off the possibilities of hemp, a hearty, native plant. To do
so would be mad, mad, mad.