ISSUE 4 Aug / Sep / Oct 2018
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I n s i d e T H E O R G A N I C H E M P R E VO L U T I O N COLOMBIA’S UNDERGROUND INDUSTRY | CANNABIS FARMERS SWITCH TO HEMP
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The Rodale Institute grows hemp alongside rows of corn on their experimental organic farm in Kentucky. Read more on page 20.
editor’s note
Scaling up the hemp industry means building an environmentally sustainable foundation first.
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And so, this issue discusses the hemp industry’s potential while never losing sight of our larger ecosystem. In “The Organic Hemp Revolution’s Many Battles,” industry leader Annie Rouse details how a handful of farmers across America are building up the organic hemp movement in the face of immense regulatory barriers. In “Composting Hemp Bioplastics & the Future of the Circular Economy,” expert James Eichner breaks down why we cannot espouse the benefits of expanding our hemp plastic industry without also talking about improving our composting systems. And as Rick Trojan’s first-person account of traveling through Colombia’s underground hemp industry winds its way up into the mountains, we see a model of how hemp can be integrated into society as a whole, fresh, medicinal crop. We also have a healthy salad recipe with hemp incorporated three ways, a guide to making hemp salve, an analysis of the hemp food market, and much more. Ultimately, we remember that while it might be tempting to sprint toward a future — any future — where hemp is legal, we must take the time now reflect on our ideals and work together to create a sustainable foundation as we build this industry up to scale.
Julia Clark-Riddell, Managing Editor
PHOTO ROB CARDILLO
IT’S TEMPTING to get carried away when thinking about the future of hemp. Today, more farmers are planting more acres of hemp in more states than last year, the political forecast for the plant hasn’t looked this promising since World War II, and the public is consuming hemp products with increasing excitement and frequency. When the HEMP staff was first brainstorming how to capture the plant’s momentum in this issue, we envisioned a magazine dedicated to this hemp-filled future — an issue that would focus on how the current hemp industry can overcome the hurdles in its path and move towards operating at full scale. But we quickly realized that many of the questions about scaling up the hemp industry return, as we all do, to the earth. We cannot talk about the future of large-scale hemp farming and widespread hemp product manufacturing without considering the ways these economies will impact our increasingly threatened planet. “With the crush of industrialization and greed comes the loss of life,” writes Winona LaDuke, a Native American activist and water protector in her 2005 book “Recovering the Sacred.” Today, LaDuke farms hemp on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota and educates others on hemp’s ability to help shift our society towards a post-petroleum economy if the crop is farmed and produced using regenerative practices. “I want to see the whole plant utilized and I want to see hemp as a part of an integrated farming economy,” LaDuke says. Here at HEMP, we agree.
ISSUE FOUR
In the mountains controlled by FARC revolutionaries, many Colombians grow cannabis and hemp. Read more on page 62.
features
THE ORGANIC HEMP REVOLUTION’S MANY BATTLES 20
As hemp farmers push to go fully organic, scalability issues and regulatory recognition continue to complicate their efforts. By Annie Rouse
IN OREGON, A MARIJUANA EXODUS CREATES A HEMP RENAISSANCE 44 Many of Oregon’s cannabis farmers are switching to hemp. They have plenty of reasons why. By Mitchell Colbert ROAD TRIP NOTEBOOK: INSIDE COLOMBIA’S UNDERGROUND HEMP INDUSTRY 62
The Hemp Road Trip explores Colombia’s illicit hemp industry as the country moves toward legalization, traveling through bustling cities and up dangerous mountain roads to experience a vision of hemp where food is medicine.
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PHOTO RICK TROJAN
By Rick Trojan
ISSUE FOUR
In the heart of Colorado’s San Luis Valley, Mile High CBD’s organic farm gets prepped for the 2018 growing season.
contents
EDITOR’S NOTE 04 politics
environment
industry
STATE OF HEMP: 8 HISTORIC HEMP DAYS IN WASHINGTON, D.C. 13
BRINGING BACK BIOCHAR 30
COMPETING IN A NEW GAME 38
COMPOSTING HEMP BIOPLASTICS 34
PAPER PROPHECIES 57
hemp health
HEMP FOR FOOD: A RISING COMMODITY CROP 60
WATER WARS WON! 27
After more than a year of fighting the federal government, a Montana hemp farmer finally wins the right to irrigate her crop with federal water. FORECAST 84
How to call your representatives on Capitol Hill and let them know why you want to see industrial hemp legalized in the United States.
In order for hemp bioplastics to be a truly sustainable alternative, they must be compostable — and we must have places to compost them.
HOW TO MAKE CBD SALVE 75
A naturalist’s guide for turning your hemp buds into healing balm. PRODUCT REVIEWS:
Summer Hemp Picnic! 77
RECIPE: TRIPLE HEMP SUMMER SALAD 81
Add raw hemp hearts, toasted hemp hearts, and hemp oil to a seasonal salad for extra nutrition.
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Professional athletes are increasingly turning to CBD for relief — and endorsing CBD products too. The hemp paper industry can serve as an indicator of the hemp industry as a whole; we’ll know the hemp industry has made it if hemp paper is thriving.
While CBD is gathering the hemp industry’s largest market (and acreage) share in the U.S., hemp foods are quietly experiencing rapid growth, with Canada leading the way. HEMP HINDSIGHT 88
Insight from our history’s heroes. PHOTO MILE HIGH CBD
Lobbyist Ben Droz was in the room when Sen. Mitch McConnell successfully added his hemp legalization bill to the 2018 Farm Bill. He recounts the inside details of the victory and what lessons we can carry forward.
The biochar market is exploding. What does this mean for hemp producers?
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Hemp grows on East Fork Cultivar’s organic farm, though lacks organic certification — along with the rest of the country’s hemp farms — from the stubborn USDA. More from their farm on pg. 44.
Publisher
Eugenio Garcia Art Director
Todd Heath Managing Editor
Julia Clark-Riddell Associate Editor
Joel Hathaway Copy Editor
Katie Way Contributing Editor
Ben Droz Account Executive
Shelby Nelson Advertising
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facebook.com/hempmagazine instagram.com/hempmag twitter.com/hempmag CONTRIBUTORS
Dan Armstrong Mark Bender Matt Brown Rob Cardillo Seth Crawford Colleen Codekas Mitchell Colbert James Eichner Daniel Garcia A.J. Herrington
Robin A. W. Kelley Kim Nguyen Kit O’Connell Matt Reily Annie Rouse Sophie Shillue Rick Trojan Laurie Wolf Bruce Wolf Henry Worobec
On the Cover
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PHOTO MILE HIGH CBD
Greenehemp Co.’s founder, Ryan Rowlett, holds fan leaves of a Cherry x Otto II strain and a Otto II Franklin strain in Greeneville, Tennessee. Photo by Mark Bender
state of hemp
Federal hemp legalization has found an unlikely ally in Sen. Mitch McConnell.
8 H I STO R I C H E MP DAYS I N WAS H I NGTO N, D.C. A federal hemp lobbyist recounts the week on Capitol Hill that culminated in Sen. Mitch McConnell successfully adding his hemp legalization bill to the 2018 Farm Bill, and discusses what we can learn from the victory. By Ben Droz
OVER THE COURSE of eight days in June 2018, as the weather turned muggy in Washington, D.C. and hemp farmers around the country tended to their young crop, hemp lobbyists and activists witnessed an unprecedented week of progress on Capitol Hill. From June 6 to June 13, the hemp legalization cause pushed forward with more momentum than ever before, reaching a climax as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell succeeded in inserting his Hemp Farming Act into the Senate Farm Bill — the passage of which would fully legalize hemp on the federal level for the first time since World War II. As a hemp lobbyist, I was working on Capitol Hill throughout the week and witnessed much of the excitement. As I reflect on that mid-June week now, recounting exactly what happened, I believe those eight days contain important lessons that we can learn to strengthen hemp activism in the future.
It’s Vote Hemp’s Lobby Day, and dozens of farmers and business owners from across the country have flown in to lead over 40 meetings with senators, congressmembers, and senior staff. Much of the lobbying is behind McConnell’s Hemp Farming Act of 2018, otherwise known as S.2667. Armed with a freshly passed Hemp History Week resolution, a list of 28 potential Senate cosponsors, and a hot tip from a senator that hemp funding was slated to be in the Farm Bill, we had very productive meetings that day.
It’s midway through the ninth annual Hemp History Week — an event when activists around the country push for hemp legalization — and there’s a new energy buzzing around hemp. Yesterday, Senators Ron Wyden, McConnell, Rand Paul, and Jeff Merkley filed a resolution to officially designate the week as “Hemp History Week.” The resolution won a unanimous vote, as it did in 2017. Unlike last year, however, this unanimous vote was just the beginning. On June 6, Wyden brought two hemp baskets full of hemp products to the Senate floor for his now-annual tradition. He
As we had been informed, the Senate Agriculture Committee released the base language of the widely anticipated 2018 Farm Bill on the morning of June 8. This massive five-year bill is over 1,000 pages long and includes programs for everything from sugar subsidies to food stamps. During the House proceedings leading up to the 2014 Farm Bill, hemp received its first vote ever and passed with strong bipartisan support. The final version signed into law included the now-famous SEC 7606, which opened the door to all the domestic hemp production that we see today. When the 2018 Senate Farm Bill was released on Friday, June 8,
PHOTO BEN DROZ
Day 1: Wednesday, June 6 — Hemp History Week Activism Picks Up Steam
spoke about the benefits of hemp for 11 minutes live on CSPAN for all the world to see. Hemp activists also hosted a happy hour on Capitol Hill, inviting hemp leaders and staffers to have a hemp beer and prepare for the week ahead. Day 2: Thursday, June 7 — Lobbying Efforts Intensify
Day 3: Friday, June 8th — Senate Farm Bill Includes Hemp
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“ As we all know, hemp is very diversified. It could end up in your car dashboard, it could end up in your food, it could end up in certain kind s of pharmaceu tical s. It’s t i m e t o figure it out and see where the market will take us.” -Senate Majorit y Leader Mitch McConnell
it included the word “hemp” 48 times in three different sections. With leadership from McConnell, the full language of the Hemp Farming Act of 2018 was included. Senators sent press releases with hemp in the headlines and major publications across the country framed hemp as a major reform in the Farm Bill. Day 4: Saturday, June 9 — Hemp History Weekend Continues the Momentum
With Hemp History Week events happening nationwide, there was no better time or way to share the fantastic news of the 2018 Farm Bill. There were events at hemp farms, breweries with hemp beer, concerts, and more. This was the largest Hemp History Week to date, with more hemp history to celebrate than ever, while making hemp history. Day 5: Sunday, June 10th — Meanwhile, in Germany…
Far away from Washington, D.C., a delegation from the Hemp Industries Association landed in Europe for a two-week tour that included participation in the 15th annual European Industrial Hemp Association Conference. The EIHA conference brought together over 340 hemp experts from 41 countries to discuss building a legal, global hemp industry, as well as to build support for the “Cologne Declaration on Industrial Hemp,” which calls for “reasonable and harmonized legislation on hemp extracts,” among other things. Day 6: Monday, June 11 — A Day of Rest and Preparation
Back stateside, hemp activists started the week slow. The Hemp History Week campaign was over, and all lobbyists could do was prepare for the Senate Farm Bill’s upcoming meeting, scheduled for Wednesday morning before the Agriculture Committee. Day 7: Tuesday, June 12 –– The Opposition Strikes Back
It’s a universally acknowledged political truth that nothing is as easy as it seems. In the late afternoon, the day before the Farm Bill was scheduled to be reviewed in committee, lobbyists got news of a new amendment introduced that was attacking CBD. The amendment was filed by a longtime enemy to hemp and cannabis, Sen. Chuck Grassley, who is co-chairman of the Senate
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Drug Caucus and chairman of the powerful Judiciary Committee. Grassley’s amendment sought to define any form of CBD as a type of ‘marihuana.’ The hemp industry took swift action. At 8:34 pm, the first action alert was sent out and people immediately started contacting their representatives and sharing the news. By 10:56 pm, another action alert was sent out by another organization, as social media posts multiplied. Letters from constituents poured into Senate and House email inboxes. With the urgency of a potential vote in less than 12 hours, the adrenaline was flowing across Capitol Hill. Day 8: Wednesday, June 13 – Final Senate Farm Bill Showdown
The day dawned a humid 70 degrees and time was of the essence. At 6:00 am, another action alert was sent out to hemp supporters. At 9:30 am, the bill was scheduled to be marked up by the committee and there was a possibility that the Grassley amendment could come to a vote. Not only did the entire industry pour in support, but equally as important, our allies on the Hill did the same. Before commencing the meeting, McConnell took the Senate floor to spend more than two-thirds of his time talking about the inclusion of hemp in the Farm Bill and educating fellow senators on the current state of hemp. Had this happened any other time, it would be breaking news. But during our historic week, this was just the kickoff to an historic day. By 10:00 am, the meeting had begun in the Agriculture Committee room. The room was packed, with the most powerful senators in Congress around a table, journalists in the corner working on laptops, and staffers shuffling around to hand out printed statements and amendments. One of the statements bore the letterhead from the majority leader’s office, with a headline, “McConnell Touts Hemp Farming Act in Senate Farm Bill.” The event was livestreamed for public consumption. McConnell started by talking about the benefits of hemp, like a true hempster. “As we all know, hemp is very diversified,” he said. “It could end up in your car dashboard, it could end up in your food, it could end up in certain kinds of pharmaceuticals. It’s time to figure it out and see where the market will take us.”
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Lobbyists, staffers, and journalists watch the Farm Bill debate from an adjacent room on Capitol Hill.
Sen. Chuck Grassley was the sole opponent to the Hemp Farming Act’s addition to the Farm Bill.
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The chairman of the committee, Sen. Mike Conaway, replied by stating: “The leader has his amendment, and it will be successful.” Throughout the meeting, other committee members looked for ways to pile on their support and reference the hemp amendment. “We’ve been waiting for this for almost 20 years,” said Sen. Heidi Heitkamp. “We are excited for the hemp provision,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar. “We provide new economic opportunities in rural America by legalizing hemp, which is an important agricultural commodity,” said Sen. Michael Bennet. “It is a testament to this crop that it is so widely supported in our country.” However, an hour and 40 minutes into the hearing, a staffer whispered in the ear of the chairman: “I think Senator Grassley wanted to say something.” Then, Sen. Grassley spoke. “I object to this bill [The Hemp Farming Act] being amended to the Farm Bill on several grounds,” he said. “Procedurally, the bill is way out of order…today’s bill would allow any snake oil salesman to market and sell any CBD product as a dietary supplement, or anything else… It will put children at risk.” Grassley asked committee members to work with him on his “Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act,” which would establish a study to see if, and how, CBD should be rescheduled as a drug.
McConnell responded quickly and concisely, and said he and his staff consulted with the Justice Department, the FDA, and the Judiciary Committee and had incorporated “a number of their suggestions.” However, he said he would not consider “suggestions that would undercut the essential premise of the bill — mainly, that hemp and its derivatives should be a legal agricultural commodity, just as it was in the U.S. for many, many years.” When the final bill went to a full committee vote, every member voted in support of the bipartisan bill — except for Grassley, who seemed to oppose the entire Farm Bill because of his longstanding opposition to hemp. Now, the hemp industry can breathe a huge sigh of relief, celebrate the historic victory — and begin turning their focus to the eventual passage of the 2018 Farm Bill. Lobbyists have always known about the importance of having powerful politicians sign on to support a cause, and this lesson was only reinforced watching McConnell push hemp to new heights. But it’s important to remember that McConnell wouldn’t have come on board without more than a decade of ongoing grassroots activism, which built a strong foundation and network of supporters across more than 40 states. When the support and strength bubbles to the top, we see how it all pays off. Hemp is now the cream of the crop, and it is important that we continue churning, so we can build a powerful, legal industry.
TOP PHOTO BEN DROZ
W hen t he f in a l b il l w en t t o a f u l l c o mmi t t ee vo t e, e v ery memb er vo t ed in support of the bipartisan bill — except for Gr assley, who seemed to oppose the entire Farm Bill because of his longstanding opposition to hemp.
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Ross Duffield, an organic farmer at the Rodale Institute, holds his crop from 2017.
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THE ORGANIC HE MP R E VOLUTION ’S MANY BAT TLES As hemp farmers push to go fully organic, scalability issues and regulatory recognition continue to complicate their efforts. By Annie Rouse
CBDRX — a vertically integrated CBD company in Colorado — received the firstever USDA Organic Seal for their organic CBD crop. The issuance sparked controversy within the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and not long after the seal was granted, the USDA decided to put a stop to certifying any organic hemp. Today, the only organic hemp available in American grocery stores or on pharmacy shelves is imported to the United States after being certified organic abroad, predominantly according to Canadian or European Union organic standards, which the USDA recognizes as equivalent to American standards. Sam Welsch, founder of OneCert, an accredited organic certifying agency who certified CBDrx’s field, disagreed with the USDA’s decision to stop certifying hemp in the United States. Welsch says the USDA has regulations that prohibit accredited certifying agencies like OneCert from discriminating against certifying based on their country of origin. “If you look worldwide under the USDA organic program, you have 336 hemp crop producers, manufacturers, or handlers of products. That’s just the numbers that are certified to USDA organic standards,” says Welsch. “So why can we certify [organic] hemp growers outside the U.S. and not inside the U.S.?” Through OneCert, Welsch has continued to certify organic hemp and now has certified nearly 20 hemp operations since the 2014 Farm Bill’s passing legalized pilot hemp programs across the United States. However, even though Welsch has determined the farms fit USDA organic standards,
PHOTO ROB CARDILLO
IN 2015,
the farms cannot receive the USDA seal without the USDA’s approval. Even still, Welsch is operating in a legal gray area. Other organic certifying agents have not been as open to certifying organic hemp as Welsch and OneCert have been, because other certifiers do not view hemp as commercially legal, and therefore, do not think it is capable of holding the certified USDA Organic Seal, particularly when certifying processors. In the United States, the organic market hinges almost entirely on the USDA Organic Seal. Farmers are incentivized to grow organic because of the premium paid for the end product that possesses the USDA Organic Seal. However, even if a farmer is able to get their crop certified as organic, if every processing step throughout the hemp product’s supply chain is not certified organic, then the seal isn’t granted to the end product. Ultimately, organic hemp in the United States will not be able to flourish until the USDA changes its policy towards hemp farms and hemp processors. In the meantime, of course, farmers in the hemp industry are used to pushing forward anyway, despite the federal government. HEMP IN ORGANIC CROP ROTATION
While there may be difficulties certifying a hemp farm as organic, this hasn’t stopped farmers from researching organic hemp methods. For example, Ross Duffield is analyzing organic hemp farming techniques on research plots at the Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania. Duffield and the Rodale Institute have worked with Canda, Anka, and Santhica 27 hemp varieties, mostly monitoring the changes in soil and effects of crop rotations over time.
#hempmag 21
Hemp industry expert s detail t wo main bot tlenecks in the organic hemp supply chain: a l ack of processors avail able to buy and sell organic material and a lack of organic hemp grain available in the first place. After harvesting their hemp crop, Duffield and the institute plant rye as a cover crop for weed suppression and to absorb the remaining nitrogen the hemp did not accumulate. Then, they use a roller crimper, which flattens the rye into a mulch. Next, they plant soybeans that grow up through the rye mulch, and after the soybean harvest, Duffield plants wheat. Upon harvesting the wheat (normally around July), he will plant hairy vetch, a nitrogen-fixing legume crop, and then start the cycle over with hemp. So far, beyond the tasking paperwork and regulatory battles importing stable organic hemp genetics, the Rodale Institute has seen success with their fields. Duffield believes hemp will play a key role filling crop rotation voids, stimulating soil microbes, and improving weed suppression, all while providing farmers a new, high-value organic crop, but he knows there currently are limits. “The scale isn’t there for production,” says Duffield. “It’s coming and it’s not far off. It’s one of those things that will be here, but it’s just not here yet.” CANADA’S ORGANIC HEMP SUCCESS
Jason Freeman, founder of North American Organic Trade Solutions, a Canadian-based organic hemp grain company, understands the value of scalable organic hemp. Freeman started contracting with Canadian organic farmers in 1999 and has witnessed its growth over time. He thinks the biggest hurdles in the organic industry right now are the approval of hemp as an animal feed, particularly for feeding livestock harvested remnants, and the need for capital to build the U.S. organic supply chain. In Canada, it took time to develop the supply chain and create the market for hemp foods, but the investment paid off. Currently, organic hemp in Canada sells at a premium compared to organic corn and organic soy. Freeman believes that a decision of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to approve pesticides and herbicides for hemp “in theory should bolster [the organic market], as consumers don’t want to buy conventional hemp because it’s sprayed, and so it becomes much like other crops.” However, Freeman knows from experience that the supply chain needs to be intact in the United States for the farmer to truly benefit.
PHOTO COURTESY THE RODALE INSTITUTE
PROCESSING BOTTLENECKS & SCALING UP
Hemp industry experts detail two main bottlenecks in the organic hemp supply chain: a lack of processors available to buy and sell organic material and a lack of organic hemp grain available in the first place. Farmer and farm consultant Doug Fine has been lucky with finding organic land, given that he consults with hemp farmers in Hawaii, Vermont, Washington, and Oregon. Fine implements organic strategies on both a small research scale — a research plot in Hawaii, for example — and on a large scale, including at a 125-acre organic field in Washington with the Colville Tribe. Fine likes to think beyond organic and focuses on regenerative
The Rodale Institute’s organic hemp farm this spring.
#hempmag 23
practices, with a particular obsession for analyzing soil microbes. He uses cover crops like alfalfa to help build the microbial environment in the soil biome and manures to help fertilize. Fine believes the biggest differences between his one-acre plot and his 125-acre plot are not in the inputs or the soils, but rather in the transition to mechanized equipment and the lack of harvesting equipment. Ben Pasley, a Kentucky organic farmer, could not agree more. He’ll have to hand-harvest his organic CBD field, which will reduce his margins, making the ability to sell his organic CBD at a premium even more important. He’ll have additional difficulty finding a certified organic processor to pay the premium. STABILIZING ORGANIC GENETICS
Duffield, Freeman, Fine, Welsch, and Pasley are all excited for the future of organic hemp, particularly as markets open and genetics stabilize. Pasley believes that in the coming years, “it’s going to be easier for organic CBD farmers to find the right genetics, to be competitive in the field against weeds, [and] to also have a good CBD percent per volume, so that they can expect at least two times as much as what conventional CBD is going for.” Increases in organic premiums may come as the market opens and international agricultural giants like Monsanto and Cargill spring to capitalize on hemp genetics, potentially pressuring the USDA to clarify their guidelines on hemp. Historically, these companies have had a keen interest in genetically modified (GMO) seeds that are resistant to herbicides and pesticides, but GMO seeds are not approved for certified organics, which could be helpful in bolstering organic hemp markets. But according to Duffield, “more farmers, especially when it comes to soybeans and corn, are moving away from GMOs. They still may be spraying using conventional methods, but they’re not using as much GMO seed, or at least it seems to have leveled off.” Duffield suspects the same will be true with hemp if the EPA approves pesticides and herbicides for hemp farming. In a market supported by CBD for health benefits, purity is important and organic production plays a significant role in purity. Once hemp farmers have all of these options at for their disposal, it remains to be seen if hemp markets will welcome GMO seed or will transition more fully to organic farming.
LEFT: A woman tests the soil in an organic field at the Rodale Institute. MIDDLE: Doug Fine and his dog. RIGHT: Flipping out over organic farming at East Fork Cultivars. More from their farm on pg. 44. 24 54 thehempmag.com
#hempmag 25 53
The Helena Valley in Montana, where Kim Phillips fought to grow her hemp.
WAT ER WA R S WO N! After more than a year of fighting the federal government, a Montana hemp farmer finally wins the right to irrigate her crop with federal water. By Kit O’Connell
Montana hemp farmer Kim Phillips finally learned that her long struggle with the federal government was over: She had won the right to irrigate her crops with federal water. “They tried every which way to stop it, but I lucked out and would not back down,” Phillips said. On May 31, the Federal Bureau of Reclamation informed Phillips that they would allow her access to federal water for use on her hemp fields. The news came just in time, as hemp growing season was right around the corner. It only took Phillips about two weeks to mobilize and get her hemp planted. “All our plants are pretty much in the ground now,” Phillips told HEMP in early June.
IN LATE MAY,
WEAPON OF CHOICE: LEGAL PRESSURE
Dan DuBray, chief of public affairs at the commissioner’s office of the Bureau of Reclamation, confirmed that Phillips was granted a water permit. “Ms. Phillips has been authorized to use 69 acre-feet of federal water from Reclamation’s Canyon Ferry Reservoir, delivered through the facilities of the Helena Valley Irrigation District,” he wrote in an email.
As HEMP reported in our Small Farmer Issue last April, Phillips found herself entangled in the complex legal system of federal water rights in the western United States. The 2014 Farm Bill legalized growing industrial hemp under the auspices of state research programs, but some federal agencies have proven resistant to this change. The Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees access to federally controlled water, appeared to be among them. Although Phillips met the strict requirements of Montana’s hemp growing program, the Bureau of Reclamation denied her water permit in 2017. Her crops withered on the vine. All of this appeared poised to repeat this year, with the Bureau initially denying her application for water again early this year. Phillips fought back, enlisting the aid of Vote Hemp, a nonprofit devoted to hemp legalization and development. The organization put her in touch with Patrick Goggin, a senior attorney at Hoban Law Group and a specialist in cannabis and hemp law, who eventually secured her victory. “I’m going to be able to irrigate because of the willingness of the Bureau of Reclamation to see the light,” she said. Phillips also told us media coverage of her story also helped
#hempmag 27
free up the water she needed. “It took all the newspaper articles and everybody helping,” she said. ‘CASE-BY-CASE’ PRECEDENT
Ultimately, the Bureau only issued Phillips a water contract after hearing from both Goggin and another attorney that Phillips hired. It’s still unclear what the future holds for other hemp farmers, and whether they will also have to enlist legal aid in order to irrigate. “[The Bureau of] Reclamation will review future applications on a case-by-case basis,” noted DuBray. As interest in hemp farming expands, Phillips’ case is unlikely to be an isolated one. Any water that passes through irrigation ditches or other infrastructure built by the federal government is in turn controlled by the Bureau of Reclamation. As a result, federal water access is vital for many farmers in the West.
“They looked over the law and allowed me to have this water, so I’m very happy,” said Phillips, expressing excitement about finally being able to grow hemp, along with lingering regret over the crops she lost last year. She also told HEMP she recently partnered with Montana Tech, a university in Montana, to study hempcrete using her plants and is planning on documenting her research on her new website, Plan-It Hemp. She said she hopes her efforts helped to “carve out a legal niche” to help out the next hemp farmer in need of water. Now she wants to spread awareness of hemp as a safe, profitable option for small farmers like her. “It’s an agricultural crop and that’s how it needs to be treated,” Phillips said. “This plant is not harmful. We’ve had millennia to learn that.”
RIGHT: Kim Phillips celebrates planting her hemp seedlings in Montana, after finally winning the right to irrigate her field with federal water. 28 thehempmag.com
PHOTO COURTESY KIM PHILLIPS
The 2014 Farm Bill legalized growing industrial hemp under t he auspices of state rese arch progr ams, b u t some feder al agencies have proven resistant to this change.
Several kilns create biochar outside the Biochar Now facility in Berthoud, Colorado.
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BRI N G I N G B AC K B I O C H AR The biochar market is exploding. What does this mean for hemp producers? B y J o e l H a t h a w ay | P h o t o s M a t t R e i l y
HERE’S A FAMILIAR STORY: Farmers in America have recently started to rediscover a product with massive potential that was utilized in the past and is now making a comeback. This time, the product isn’t hemp, but biochar — a soil amendment made from combusted plants that can trap carbon dioxide. Today, the hemp industry and the biochar industry share many similarities as independent forces, but the two are also beginning to overlap as producers experiment with making biochar from hemp. The two emergent industries both face challenges of education and scalability to reach their highest potential, as players both big and small look to make their mark.
WHAT IS BIOCHAR?
Biochar is a type of charcoal created by applying heat to organic material. Wood is the most commonly used material to create biochar, but other substances such as straw, corn stalks, and hemp stalks can also be used. Biochar is made by heating this organic material while starving it of oxygen — which would instead create flames and reduce the plant matter to ash — to produce a highly permeable, absorbent, carbon-rich biomass. Evidence, both from physical remains and via the accounts of 16th century European explorers, shows that pre-Columbian Amazonian peoples commonly used biochar as a soil amendment. For reasons currently unknown, its utilization was largely abandoned after colonialization. But now, centuries after its use in the Amazon, biochar is coming back in a big way. VERSATILITY UNDERPINS THE MODERN BIOCHAR INDUSTRY’S GROWTH
Just as it was in the Amazon, most biochar today is produced for use as a soil amendment. Because it retains moisture as well as water-soluble nutrients, biochar can be used to increase soil health, and in turn, crop yields. And it can do so in less-than-ideal circumstances, says James Gaspard, CEO of Biochar Now, one of the largest biochar producers in the United States. “All of our customers have seen large increases in crop yields after they apply our biochar,” Gaspard tells HEMP. “And the poorer the soil, the larger the percentage in increased yields they see.” But biochar’s potential goes beyond simply enhancing soil.
“The market is very versatile,” says Rowdy Yeatts, owner of High Plains Biochar in Laramie, Wyoming. “Biochar can be used as an additive for cattle feed by adding small amounts. It can be used for water treatment. It’s primarily used as a soil amendment for greenhouse farmers, but it’s starting to be used more by traditional agriculture for drought tolerance.” Scientific studies have shown that biochar is able to store greenhouse gases, and doesn’t decompose for centuries, meaning that it also has the potential to help mitigate global warming. It can also be added to bodies of water that have high levels of pollution. Once in the water, the biochar traps harmful substances like heavy metals or nitrogen, which can be produced from agricultural activity. When the biochar is sifted out of the water, the pollution is removed too. There’s an extra bonus when biochar is used to remediate nitrogenrich water (which can be damaging to the health of aquatic species). Once removed, the biochar is then charged with nitrogen, making it an extra-effective fertilizer when added to soil to promote crop yields. CREATING SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING
Another benefit to biochar is that rather than harvesting natural resources that are dwindling, the soil amendment can be created from materials that are generally considered waste, including hemp stalks from plants primarily grown to produce CBD. This year, Yeatts attended the NoCo Hemp Expo in northern Colorado. Since much of their product is being sold to hemp and cannabis producers, it isn’t surprising that biochar producers like Yeatts fit right in at hemp-centric events. But while attending the conference, he encountered something a bit unexpected. “I ran into Michael Bowman [founding Board Chair of the National Hemp Association] and our conversation spiked an interest in me about hemp biochar,” says Yeatts. “We’re now working on trying to get a load of hemp waste product shipped here to perform a test run and see what properties it will have as biochar.” The utilization of materials that would otherwise not have an industrial application further exemplifies biochar’s ability to not only increase production, but become a viable tool in our arsenal to help combat issues like deforestation and global warming.
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Gaspard is well-versed in the reuse function of biochar. “Our biochar is created from beetle kill trees in Colorado,” he says. “We receive the dead trees from a stewardship contract with the Forest Service, which allows us to take a product that otherwise has no use and turn it into biochar. We’ve taken over 4,000 tons of trees in a two-month period that would otherwise go to waste. These trees are dead and basically useless for other commercial uses. We even take the pieces like branches that would never be used by the logging industry. We take and use it all.” While Gaspard has a good working relationship with the Forest Service, he says that relationship took time to build. While trust in the biochar industry may be growing, it’s hampered by producers selling an inferior product. “The biggest hurdle facing our industry is snake oil salesmen,” says Gaspard. “People we deal with — some of them have been burned. They’ve tried biochar from some company and they’ve been sold a garbage product. That does more damage than them not knowing about biochar at all.” It’s a concept all-too-familiar to hemp producers creating a quality product. However, as both industries grow and government regulation creeps in, these issues will likely subside. WITH RAPID GROWTH COMES SCALABILITY ISSUES
Like hemp, the limit of biochar’s growth will be somewhat dependent on the cost of production decreasing enough to make an end-product that is affordable enough to become ubiquitously used by consumers. “As we get new technology and people figure out better ways to scale, costs will come down,” says Yeatts. “It’s still a little expensive for most traditional largescale agriculture, but as some of the issues around shipping and production get sorted out, and more regional
Beetle kill trees — meaning trees that have been killed by beetle infestations — are processed into biochar at the Biochar Now facility.
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producers pop up, that will change.” Gaspard says that Biochar Now is working to try and be the first to figure those issues out. “Right now, for row crops, it’s not quite cost effective because the delivery method [of manual application] is inefficient,” he says. “We’re working on a pelletized product that can be delivered by an air seeder, which will allow more targeted applications. That will make it more cost effective for, say, a corn farmer.” Beyond that, says Yeatts, the industry has potential to use the process of creating biochar in other ways. “For greenhouse farmers, and particularly cannabis producers, they could use their waste stalks to create biochar,” Yeatts says. “They’d get biochar to charge their soil from the stalks, but also could heat their greenhouses with the excess heat created from making biochar.” THE FUTURE HOLDS PROMISE
With so many potential uses, the biochar industry looks set for continued growth. Yeatts estimates that the market is doubling every two years. Hemp growers, it seems, will become a larger part of the biochar industry, both as consumers of biochar and as producers of stalks to create the product. Both industries are facing similar challenges when it comes to this period of growth, with small and large producers carving out a space for themselves, technology rapidly expanding, and a burgeoning market as the public learns about their products. The forecast for that growth, says Gaspard, is promising, as biochar producers are currently feeling the effects of increased market demand. “It took three or four years until we could sell everything that we could produce. Now, we sell everything that we can produce.”
A no t her benefi t t o bio ch a r is t h at r at her t h a n h a rve s t ing n at ur a l r e s o u r c e s t h at a r e d w i n d l i n g , t h e s o i l a m e n d m e n t c a n b e c r e at e d from materials that are generally considered waste, including hemp stalks from pl ant s primarily grown t o produce CBD.
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15% food 13% yard waste / 2% other
30 % packaging
40 % recycled
60 % landfilled
COMPOSTING HEMP BIOPLASTICS &
TH E F UT URE OF T H E C I R C U L A R E CO NO MY In order for hemp bioplastics to be a truly sustainable alternative, they must be compostable — and we must have places to compost them. B y J a m e s E i c h n e r | I l l u s t r a t i o n by D a n i e l G a r c i a EVERY YEAR, public excitement about the potential of using industrial hemp to make sustainable packaging materials seems to increase. And for good reason — the potential is huge, especially for hemp paperboards and hemp bioplastics. Hemp has a myriad of present and potential benefits as a feedstock for paperboards and bioplastics. Hemp requires less water than other industrial crops and none of the pesticides, it grows to maturity in just four months, and remediates the soil so it’s an ideal rotational crop, one metric ton of hemp sequesters 1.5 metric tons of carbon… and so on and so forth. But the sustainability of hemp only gets us so far. One of the biggest challenges facing hemp as a feedstock for packaging materials is recovering the materials at the end of their product lifecycles.
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That said, recovery is a challenge for all packaging materials — whether they’re fossil fuel-based, bio-based, recyclable, biodegradable, or compostable. A 2016 study by the EPA reveals that 30 percent of our municipal solid waste is packaging. For reference, the next largest categories are durable goods and nondurable goods, both at 20 percent. Furthermore, only 40 percent of packaging waste is recovered while 60 percent is landfilled. Not only is this an incredible amount of waste, it’s also billions of dollars in lost profits in the form of unrecovered materials. And the problem is even worse when we single out plastic packaging; 95 percent of the value of plastic packaging material is lost after its first-use cycle. That’s the equivalent of $80–$120 billion per year.
ILLUSTRATION SOURCE: EPA’s 2016 Advancing Sustainable Materials Management Report & The Sustainable Packaging Coalition
95 p e r c e n t o f t h e va l u e o f p l a s t i c pa c k a g i n g material is lost after it’s first-use cycle. That’s the equivalent of $80 - $120 billion per year. There are plenty of incentives to improve our waste recovery systems, both financial and environmental. So, what’s the holdup? And, what’s the solution? It’s a complicated problem, but one that may be solved as we continue to move towards a circular economy. BUILDING A CIRCULAR HEMP ECONOMY
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, an environmentally focused British think tank, defines a circular economy as “restorative and regenerative by design.” A circular economy is meant to build economic, natural, and social capital by adhering to three guiding principles: design out waste and pollution, keep products and materials in use, and regenerate natural systems. The philosophical foundations of a circular economy can be traced back thousands of years, as humans learned to follow natural cycles and feedback loops. However, our contemporary concept of a circular economy emerged in the 1970s, when it was becoming clear that our linear “take-make-dispose” industrial model is leading to scarcity, volatility, and unaffordable pricing levels. What do hemp and hemp-based materials have to do with a circular economy? The short answer is: everything. After all, hemp is both restorative and regenerative. In a circular economy, hemp is an ideal industrial crop and materials feedstock — packaging or otherwise. The lifecycle of all products is ultimately the same in a circular economy: sourcing, manufacturing, distribution, use, and recovery. Recovery is a challenge, and while it’s just one piece of the puzzle, it’s the most important piece we have to deal with when it comes to packaging. And recovery is further complicated because it includes recycling, composting, and all other waste management strategies. THE IMPORTANCE OF COMPOSTING IN A CIRCULAR ECONOMY
When it comes to bioplastics such as hemp plastic, much of the conversation frequently revolves around how easy it is to recycle hemp plastics. However, recycling is not necessarily the simplest option. Issues with recycling include consumer engagement, access, sorting, processing, and end markets. Consumer engagement is high and people want to recycle. Unfortunately, recycling is difficult and the numbers tell a different story: less than 10 percent of plastic is actually recycled, according to a 2017 report from Science Advances. Access to recycling in the U.S. varies state by state, county by county, and city by city. When it comes to sorting, material recovery facilities have to separate 2D packaging from 3D packaging. They then have to separate packaging by material type. However, the largest issue with sorting is contamination. For instance, when something like food residue degrades the value of a recoverable material, it can make it difficult and even impossible to recycle. Concerning the processing of recyclable materials, things like labels, inks, additives, colorants, and coatings can further complicate
the process. And even if materials are successfully processed, we have to ensure there’s an end market for the recycled materials. Recycling isn’t a complete failure, but there’s a gross misconception about the impact and success of the system. While we should absolutely recycle everything we can, we can’t view recycling as the ultimate solution to waste recovery; it’s just one piece of the puzzle. Composting is the other major piece of the waste recovery puzzle. While consumer engagement around composting is much lower than it is around recycling, it has grown significantly in recent years and it will continue to grow as composting becomes a more widely adopted waste recovery strategy. However, our current infrastructure around composting is lacking. For instance, 51 percent of municipal solid waste in the U.S. is compostable, but we’re currently only able to compost 5 percent of that waste, according to the Sustainable Packaging Coalition. There’s also public confusion surrounding the terms “biodegradable” and “compostable.” Biodegradable refers to a material’s ability to break down quickly through natural processes into raw materials. Compostable, however, refers to a material’s ability to biodegrade quickly in a composting environment and produce usable compost soil at the end. Other issues with composting include collection, infrastructure, processing, and certifications. There are three general types of composting: home composting, community composting, and commercial composting. Further complicating the issue, not all composting facilities are created equal and the variance in access and processing capabilities varies even more than with recycling. Less than 5 percent of composting facilities in the U.S. accept even the most basic compostable packaging materials. However, this doesn’t change the fact that compostable packaging will play a huge role in the future of composting. Certifications will be the key to the success of compostable packaging because they will help bridge the current gap between compostable materials and composters. With that in mind, an interesting opportunity is emerging in the U.S. due to the growing number of biomass energy plants coming online. Wood chips — a key ingredient for composters — are now less available because they’re being redirected to biomass energy plants. This opens the door for compostable packaging to become more widely accepted by composters. Furthermore, composters with volume-based pricing stand to make a lot of profit by accepting compostable packaging. Ultimately, we need to move away from fossil fuel-based packaging materials and continue developing more bio-based packaging materials. These are all relatively new technologies and they’re not perfect, but if we don’t continue to adapt and innovate, we’re never going to reach a sustainable circular economy. None of these challenges should deter the development of hempbased packaging materials — they should serve as motivation because there’s an opportunity for the hemp industry to influence the evolution of our waste recovery systems.
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COMPE TING IN A NE W GAME Professional athletes are increasingly turning to CBD for relief — and endorsing CBD products too. By A . J. Herrington | Photos Dan Armstrong
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Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced last year that it would remove cannabidiol from its list of prohibited substances for 2018, athletes around the globe cheered the decision. Those already using CBD could breathe a sigh of relief, and curious competitors could now give it a try without fear of repercussions. Permitting athletes access to CBD creates opportunities for companies to straddle two exploding markets: sports supplements and hemp. Worldwide sales of sports nutritionals (which include sports drinks and bars, protein and weight-gain powders, energy gels, and products for before and after workouts) are expected to top $45 billion by 2022, according to data aggregator Statista. And research from the Brightfield Group shows the market for CBD products is expected to grow 55 percent each year, hitting $1 billion in the United States alone by 2020. Ryan Petry, a professional mountain biker based in Boulder, Colorado, is an athlete moving into the intersection of sports and CBD. With a thriving cannabis industry in Colorado, he had heard about the health benefits of CBD and THC, but until manufacturers started making products from industrial hemp, rules banning competitors from using marijuana meant cannabinoid therapies were off limits to Petry. “Until it became more mainstream for companies to produce CBD-only extracts, it was one of those things that I knew I couldn’t touch,” says Petry. “I knew that there were good properties, but I knew I couldn’t get involved, being an athlete.” Recently, iKOR Labs, the Colorado manufacturer of a CBDbased workout recovery product, asked Petry to try their sublingual CBD spray. Besides finding relief from inflammation, he
WHEN THE WORLD
noticed that CBD’s ability to ease anxiety was also helping him, and started working as a brand ambassador for iKOR. “I’m not a very anxious person, but I’m always juggling, just like everyone else, a million different things,” he says. “It’s nice to be able to focus a bit and not worry about every little thing.” HEMP CBD THRIVES AS MARIJUANA STILL PROHIBITED FOR ATHLETES
Even though the decision by WADA cleared CBD use for athletes, marijuana and synthetic cannabinoids are still prohibited. And in the ruling, WADA points out that some CBD products might still result in a positive screening for banned substances. “Cannabidiol is no longer prohibited,” the decision reads. “However, cannabidiol extracted from cannabis plants may also contain varying concentrations of THC, which remains a prohibited substance.” Unlike Petry, many retired athletes did not have the benefit of a legal hemp industry and its resulting CBD therapies when they were active. Instead, they turned to medical marijuana. Former NFL offensive lineman Kyle Turley, who was featured recently on Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s CNN special “Weed 4: Pot vs. Pills,” is one of those athletes. Turley learned early in his career (which began as a first-round draft choice by the New Orleans Saints in 1998) both that marijuana could help ease the mental and physical stresses of football and how to beat the league’s system for drug screenings. Turley didn’t learn about CBD until Gupta’s first “Weed” documentary, which featured young epilepsy patient Charlotte Figi, but he had noticed that some marijuana strains provided him
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more relief than others. When he later had those strains tested by a lab, he found his favorites were high in CBD and terpenes. Turley now takes cannabidiol daily and founded Neuro XPF, a company offering CBD products for athletic performance and recovery. Now an advocate for cannabis in all its forms, Turley has invested in medical marijuana companies in California and Nevada. When CBD from hemp came into the marketplace, he saw a chance to share the benefits of CBD with other athletes, even if they didn’t live in a cannabis-friendly state. “This is the way in the door,” Turley says. “This is the way to give every person across the country an opportunity at health and wellness through cannabis. Right now.” Another former NFL player, Ricky Williams, also recently entered the cannabis business. Williams created controversy in 2004 by temporarily cutting his football career short when he decided his wellness program, which included cannabis, was more important than the league’s drug policy. His company, Real Wellness by Ricky Williams, offers hemp-derived CBD products and others with cannabinoids, including THC, sourced from medical marijuana.
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While many athletes have pushed for sports organizations to allow cannabis use, most organizations have been resistant. Current professional football player, free agent Mike James, recently petitioned the NFL to allow him to use medicinal marijuana to treat pain. James had followed the usual regimen of post-injury recovery and developed a dependence on opioid painkillers. Despite a doctor’s recommendation that cannabis was a better option, the NFL denied James’ request. Although Williams and Turley personally believe that cannabis remedies that include all the plant’s properties, including THC, can provide more benefit, they both recognize that continued prohibition makes hemp CBD an option available to more athletes. Williams notes that despite the NFL’s continued ban on marijuana and THC, league drug screenings don’t test for CBD, making it a safe alternative. As more and more competitors learn about the benefits of CBD, many will want products tailored to their lifestyle. Companies that can successfully blend the cannabinoid into sports performance supplements will be able to run the expected track of both rising market segments — and athletes can benefit from representing the game-changing supplements too.
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A MAR IJUANA E XODUS CR E ATES A H E M P R E NAISSANCE Many of Oregon’s cannabis farmers are switching to hemp. They have plenty of reasons why. By Mitchell Colbert
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PHOTO KIM NGUYEN
David Vincent, a farm technician at East Fork Cultivars, removes flower from a cannabis branch during their 2017 harvest in Takilma, Oregon. East Fork Cultivars grows cannabis both above and below the 0.3 percent THC delineation.
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a hemp farmer in Eugene, Oregon — first told his corn-farming father about the profits he was making on his hemp farm, his father didn’t believe him. Willison’s father only makes $600 an acre on his corn farm, so he thought Willison’s hemp math must be wrong. “The hardest part in convincing other farmers to get into hemp is getting them to believe how much money they can make from it,” says Willison, who now owns a hemp and cannabis breeding company called Eugenius. Willison exclusively bred cannabis for 15 years. But recently, he switched his focus to hemp and breeding for “the minor cannabinoids like CBD, CBG, CBDv, and THCv.” Willison says his transition was inspired by the shocking price drops in the cannabis market. “The price of marijuana has tanked in Oregon,” he says. “I never thought it would get so low.” Despite Willison’s father’s doubts, the math is simple — and it’s impacting cannabis farmers across Oregon: A pound of quality cannabis in Oregon now sells for about $500 a pound, when just last summer, that same pound was selling for $1,500. The result is also simple: A significant number of Oregon’s cannabis farmers are switching to hemp alongside Willison. Plus, farmers interested in producing CBD are sticking with hemp and forgoing the cannabis game altogether. Earlier this year, the Associated Press reported that applications to cultivate hemp in Oregon “have increased more than twentyfold since 2015, making Oregon no. 2 behind Colorado.” Oregon’s cannabis regulations have both precipitated and encouraged this trend. Cannabis licenses from the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) are more expensive than hemp licenses from the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA). The cheapest cannabis license is $1,250 (including the application fee) and can get as expensive as $6,000, compared to the hemp certification, which is just $1,300. The hemp license also allows unlimited acreage, whereas the largest cannabis grow license limits farmers to less than an acre.
WHEN TREY WILLISON —
Consequently, farmers “can make more than $100,000 an acre growing hemp” thanks to the high demand and low supply of quality CBD-rich medicine on the market, according to the Associated Press. HEMP spoke to five Oregon hemp farmers, including Willison, to better understand the cannabis exodus and hemp resurgence. Three of these farmers are now entirely in the hemp market, and two still have a cannabis farm. While all five of the farmers recognize the fiscal benefits of choosing hemp over cannabis, they all say they were motivated to start farming hemp for more personal reasons. Their collective experiences provide an eye-opening look at things to come for states just starting to legalize marijuana and hemp, as regulators and farmers are forced to grapple with the newly legal industries and their fluctuating economies. SWITCHING FROM CANNABIS TO HEMP
Cannabis has always been a part of Matt Brown’s life. He’s been cultivating it for the past 13 years, both in California and Oregon. He never anticipated he would become a hemp farmer and admits he “used to have the same stigma as everyone else about hemp, that it was a bunch of males grown on top of each other for textiles.” After moving to Southern Oregon, he learned that “there was more to the hemp industry than t-shirts and hats.” When Brown’s father was diagnosed with throat cancer and given just 90 days to live, he immediately began chemotherapy, using cannabis tinctures, and a low dose of Rick Simpson Oil (RSO), both very high in CBD. Brown says thanks in part to CBD, his father is still alive today. While Brown’s interest in CBD was piqued by his father’s experience, he says his decision to become a hemp farmer was ultimately because of his daughter. “She can walk through my hemp fields, but that could never happen with cannabis because there is such a stigma around it,” he says. Brown transitioned his adult-use cannabis business, Fire Ridge Farms, into the Fire Ridge Hemp Co., and now has two farms, totaling nearly 160 acres, and a breeding facility.
A p ound of qua l i t y ca nn a bis in Oreg on now sel l s f o r a b o u t $5 0 0 a p o u nd, w hen j u s t l a s t s u mmer , that same pound was selling for $1,500.
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Hemp farmer Matt Brown says one reason he switched from cannabis to hemp is so that his daughter (right) can walk through his fields.
PHOTO MATT BROWN
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ABOVE: Seth Crawford and his father Bruce survey their fields of hemp, growing in the Oregon summer sun. RIGHT: Mason Walker, CEO of East Fork Cultivars.
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TOP PHOTOS SETH CRAWFORD BOTTOM LEFT KIM NGUYEN LOWER RIGHT DREAMLAND ORGANICS
Brown’s story is similar to many other hemp farmers in Oregon, including David Tracy, who is now the owner of a small-scale organic hemp farm named Dreamland. When Tracy first began growing cannabis, he never dreamed he would end up growing hemp. Born in Massachusetts, he wanted to start a cannabis business there, but “it was way too expensive,” so he went out west to Oregon. He originally intended to open a dispensary, but that changed when he got to Oregon. Tracy met a landowner interested in starting a hemp farm and another partner who already had a dispensary, which was the impetus for him starting Dreamland Organics. Today, Dreamland has “only an acre of land to work with.” Tracy says they “can’t compete with the guys doing massive acres of hemp,” so their goal is “to be the craft cannabis of hemp.” He says he is interested in scaling up his business, but only wants “to scale up as much as I can find people who share my vision and philosophy of creating quality medicine.” According to Tracy, Dreamland decided to go for a hemp license rather than a cannabis license because the “hemp license took two weeks to get from the ODA instead of nine months from the OLCC.” But he stresses that
there is a difference in his product. “While it legally is hemp, what we are breeding is effectively cannabis,” Tracy says. “And it grows and smells like it.” CBD BREEDING IN THE HEMP-ONLY SPHERE
Some Oregon farmers switched from cannabis to hemp not because of the falling marijuana prices, but because the simpler hemp regulations make it easier to experiment with breeding for cannabinoids besides THC. When Seth Crawford started breeding cannabis with his brother Eric 15 years ago, he says he “didn’t even know what hemp was” and “generally had no idea what strains we were growing.” Then, 2014 changed everything. Crawford went from teaching Oregon State University’s first class on cannabis politics to helping the university get involved in industrial hemp research. “The Federal Farm Bill was passed in 2014, and that was also when CBD was really taking off, so [my brother and I] began looking into the hemp CBD market,” says Crawford. Through his research, he says he knew there were “some varieties we had developed for the medical cannabis market [that could] pass the standards of industrial hemp.” And he was right.
LEFT: Erik Crawford of Oregon CBD holds a hemp cola. RIGHT: Oregon CBD’s flagship product is this hemp strain, Special Sauce. BELOW: David Tracy plants hemp at his Dreamland Organics farm.
#hempmag 49
He and his brother’s company, Oregon CBD, has expanded rapidly since then. Originally, they grew three acres of hemp, but soon scaled up to a 60-acre farm. They realized there was no way they could plant clones on that scale, so they began growing from seeds. Many other farmers were scaling up at the same time and had the same problem. However, because of their early work developing CBD seed genetics, Oregon CBD was capable of filling this need, which turned them into “the largest seed company in Oregon.” BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
Of course, nobody has to choose between hemp and marijuana — and many cannabis breeders are finding it’s best to have permits for both industries when experimenting with cannabinoids. Willison, who breeds both cannabis and hemp at Eugenius, has been able to experiment widely while occupying both industries. He has bred strains with elevated levels of unknown cannabinoids, such as one “with 0.4% of an unidentified cannabinoid that is chemically similar to oxycodone.” Another
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interesting phenomenon he has encountered in his breeding is “a lot of CBD-rich strains have a high level of Delta-8-THC and myrcene.” Another company finding success breeding both cannabis and hemp is East Fork Cultivars, a farm outside of Cave Junction, Oregon. East Fork keeps both of their farms running concurrently, which allows them to experiment with high-CBD, low-THC strain development. East Fork has a modest-sized, two-acre organic farm, with only a bit over an acre planted for hemp, as well as a separate outdoor cannabis plot where they do all of their breeding. To transfer their genetics from their marijuana farm to their hemp farm, East Fork sells their seeds or clones to a dispensary then buys them back. Mason Walker, the CEO of East Fork, says that their breeding setup is ideal. “If we develop THC-rich cultivars, they can stay in the OLCC system,” Walker says. “Or, if they end up being CBD-rich, we can bring them into the ODA market.” Walker says he doesn’t see too much difference between his cannabis and hemp cultivations, plants that he feels “are becoming increasingly the same.”
PHOTO KIM NGUYEN
Wildflowers line rows of CBD-rich cannabis at East Fork Cultivars’ Southern Oregon farm. East Fork grows cannabis for Oregon’s adult-use market and hemp for national and international markets.
The East Fork Cultivars harvest team processes whole cannabis plants, cutting them down into flowerbearing branches that will be dried and cured.
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“ O n c e C h i n a g e t s i n v o lv e d , t h e price will bottom out. Hemp will only be marginally profitable as more countries get involved.”
PHOTO KIM NGUYEN INSET PHOTO FIRE RIDGE FARMS
WILL THE HEMP BUBBLE BURST, TOO?
As the marijuana industry in Oregon is suffering from glut pricing, it’s likely that the hemp industry will experience the same phenomenon in the next few years, as more farmers switch to hemp and supply increases. And hemp farmers also have to worry about international competition — more than their marijuana counterparts, still stymied by international drug regulations. “Once China gets involved, the price will bottom out,” says Trey Willison. “Hemp will only be marginally profitable as more countries get involved.” If Willison’s predictions are true, then all of the farmers who rushed into the hemp market will be in the same predicament their cannabis-growing neighbors have already experienced. But Willison is still optimistic — much like his hemp farming peers in Oregon — and enjoying the harvests as they come. “Everything has its season,” he says. “Within a couple of years, [current CBD prices] will be gone and people will diversify into seeds, fiber, or other uses.” Walker of East Fork Cultivars says that he enjoys growing hemp compared to marijuana, regardless of the price. “I like to say we grow our cannabis inside of a medium security prison — with 8-foot-high fences, security cameras, and steel doors around our vault, all mandated by the state,” says Walker. “With hemp, we can be farmers again.”
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*Per 30g Serving
OME GAS
*per 30g serving
GF
NON
GMO
READY TO EAT
The modern day printing press hasn’t changed much in decades, unforunately.
PAPE R PROPH ECI E S The hemp paper industry can serve as an indicator of the hemp industry as a whole; we’ll know the hemp industry has made it if hemp paper is thriving. B y H e n r y Wo r o b e c
IF YOU WANTED TO, today, you could buy specialty hemp paper. You could scroll a note on it, carefully fold it into a miniature aircraft, and set it aloft towards your buddy’s cubicle across the room. While it would be an expensive way to communicate, it would be a significant one. The oldest surviving paper specimen in the world — which happens to be from hemp — is over 2,000 years old. Since that time, the prevalence of hemp paper has indicated not just the existence of hemp, but also the scope of its cultivation, and this remains true today. Before the industrial revolution in the eighteenth century, paper products were made with pulped rags from materials such as hemp waste. Hemp paper was typically a convenient byproduct rather than the primary reason for hemp cultivation. Instead, the plant was primarily used for food, fabric, and rope. When demand
for those parts of the plant increased, it created a surplus of extra material that could be made into paper. In this way, hemp paper served as the indicator product for the state of the hemp industry. Much like how an abundance of otters indicates a healthy river, an abundance of hemp paper indicates a thriving hemp industry. For example, consider colonial North America. This was a time when empires were built by the strength of their navy and the strongest material for the lines and sailcloth was hemp. Britain depended so heavily on hemp that it would fine landowners for not growing the prized crop. This extended to American colonies with the mandate that they ship their hemp harvests back across the pond. Hemp was so abundant that Americans invented new ways to process and mill hemp paper. The standard factoid from this revolutionary period is
that the Declaration of Independence was first scribbled on hemp paper. Of course, the fate of the United States’ once innovative and booming cannabis industry is well known. Today, however, the wheels of innovation turn again behind the scenes, preparing for the return of the hemp industry. In the past few decades, hemp paper products have been limited to specialty items like rolling papers, and the greater industry has been something of a sleeping giant. Aside from legalization, the industry lacks biomass and the technology required to scale up. “You can’t do an expanded array of things with hemp paper at this point, but there are your basic marketing collateral pieces that you can do,” says Morris Beagle of TreeFreeHemp Paper Company. TreeFreeHemp sells hemp-blend paper products, and have recently expanded into
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Pure Vision Technology CEO Ed Lehrburger examines a barrel of shredded hemp that’s on its way to being turned into pulp and used for paper and other products.
marketing materials for companies that wish to present themselves as environmentally conscious. Hemp pulp provides a number of environmental benefits over tree pulp. The lower lignin and higher cellulose contents in hemp reduce the dependency on acids and toxic chemicals in the papermaking process. The greater strength of hemp paper also means that it can be recycled up to seven times, whereas tree paper has a limit of three recycles. Finally, while trees take an average of twenty years to mature, industrial hemp takes four months. “It’s kind of like buying organic strawberries. You can spend six bucks for a container of those, or you can spend $2.50 for your conventional ones that are soaked in chemicals, that are the worst fruits possible to eat,” says Beagle. In short, the environmental arguments for hemp paper present plenty of motivation to make the switch, but realistically, scaling up hemp paper would have to come from the greater resurgence of the hemp industry. Green Field Paper Company in San Diego, California is the largest source of hemp paper in the United States, but the company imports their hemp pulp from Spain. Because the relatively miniscule amount of hemp grown in the United States — about 25 thousand acres — is predominantly grown for cannabinoid oils, there is too much focus on the more flowery manifestation of hemp, which is not as good for other products like paper. “We need millions of acres of hemp growing, so that we have stalks, we have seeds, we have flower,” Beagle says. Beyond the need for more fibrous hemp, the hemp paper industry also needs the development of more technology to extract these substances in a scalable way.
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Inside a 40,000-square foot, old brick cannery in Fort Lupton, Colorado, Pure Vision Technology is tackling the question of processing. After twelve years of research and development, it designed and built a continuous countercurrent reactor (CCR) in 2003 for refining hemp biomass into multiple raw materials for a variety of products. In 2014, it started processing hemp feedstock. Hemp stalks go in and different raw materials exit: pulp, lignin, sugars. Production of commercial-scale, four-ton per-day CCRs is projected to start in 2021. This is exciting for hemp entrepreneurs like Beagle, who believes the future of hemp paper is in packaging. If the CCR technology pans out and the scale of hemp agriculture booms, it would be feasible to make biodegradable packaging materials all from hemp. If all packaging could move to biodegradable materials, that would be a huge shift towards sustainability. In his 1977 book, “Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence,” Carl Sagan wrote, “It would be wryly interesting if in human history the cultivation of marijuana led generally to the invention of agriculture, and thereby to civilization.” Wryly indeed. That is a broad speculation from one of the 20th century’s foremost critical thinkers, but the notion that scaling up cannabis production launched civilization brings up another important question: What role could a resurgence of hemp play in redirecting civilization towards a more sustainable future? If the hemp industry is able to scale up to a level where hemp is the most practical material for something as trivial as paper planes, that would indicate a significant contribution in trajectory towards sustainability.
PHOTOS COURTESY PURE HEMP TECHNOLOGIES
R e a l i s t i c a l ly, s c a l in g u p hemp pa p er would have to come from the greater r e s u r g e n c e o f t h e h e m p i n d u s t r y.
Hemp for Food:
A R I S I N G COM MOD IT Y CROP While CBD is gathering the hemp industry’s largest market (and acreage) share in the U.S., hemp foods are quietly experiencing rapid growth, with Canada leading the way. B y R o b i n A .W. Ke l l ey
AS DIETARY PREFERENCES change and
consumers become more health conscious, hemp’s versatility and nutritional benefits are driving growth as producers of hempbased foods look to claim a portion of the estimated $800 million hemp-based product industry in the U.S. While a 2017 congressional report states that no estimates on hemp agriculture are official, the Hemp Business Journal estimates that U.S. hemp food sales comprise 17 percent ($137 million) of the $820 million hemp-based product sales for 2017. Compare this figure to estimates from the Hemp Industries Association — which reported that in 2015, hemp food sales comprised 16 percent ($89.5 million) of the $573 million hemp market — and it appears the industry is burgeoning. Canada has a head start on the American hemp foods industry, with commercial licenses for growing hemp allowed beginning in 1998. Despite the rapid expansion of hemp acreage in the U.S. over the past four years, most hemp destined to be used as a foodstuff is still imported, with Canada the number one source of hemp seed and oilcake imports to the U.S., according to the 2017 congressional report on hemp agriculture.
One of the first companies to capitalize on Canada’s legalization of hemp foods was the Winnipeg-based Manitoba Harvest. “Canada is generally further ahead of most countries,” says Manitoba Harvest CEO Bill Chiasson. “Over 20 years ago, we began working with the Canadian regulatory agencies to help them understand the benefits of hemp, and ‘demystify’ hemp. It is also clear that many other nations are looking at what has been done in Canada, and they are starting to change their regulations as well.” Chiasson says that Manitoba Harvest has seen consistent 20 percent growth every year for the past five years. He attributes this to consumers eating more nutritious products in general. “Shoppers are beginning to become educated on hemp and discovering new delicious applications to add some nutrition to meals,” he says. “We’ve seen a spike in incorporating and adding hemp to simple meals and using it as plant-based protein options.” Chad Rosen, the founder of Victory Hemp Foods in Campbellsburg, Kentucky, says the biggest challenges to expanding the U.S.-sourced industry are genetics and education. Without consistent research, farmers don’t have access to the information needed
to grow their best crop, which leads to inconsistency. “Most commodity crops have enjoyed decades and decades of research,” says Rosen. To him, hemp farmers need this same education to produce consistent products. Lack of genetic research coupled with the fact that some states only allow farmers to grow very small acreage leads to a situation that is not cost effective for the farmer or the hemp food producer. The current situation, says Rosen, is “like giving a 16-year-old a car but not the keys.” While Rosen sees growing pains, he also sees a bigger picture for hemp-based foods that means more than sprinkling hemp seeds on a salad. “What we need to do as an industry is to incorporate hemp foods into other formats in the market.” Both Chiasson and Rosen use the term “laser-focused” when discussing the need for ongoing education about the benefits of hemp-based foods. As knowledge of hemp foods increases, Rosen sees a future where hemp is the next commodity crop alongside corn and soy. “Hemp is a tremendous replacement for soy and corn,” Rosen says. “We cannot survive with just two crops. Hemp will be the next commodity crop. I have no doubt.”
C a n a d a h a s a h e a d s ta r t o n t h e U . S . h e m p f o o d s i n d u s t r y, w i t h commercial licenses f or growing hemp all owed beginning in 1998.
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The mountains outside Silvia, in Colombia’s guerrila territory.
The cityscape of Cartegena, Colombia.
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Road Trip Notebook
INSIDE COLOMBIA’S UNDERGROUND HEMP INDUSTRY The Hemp Road Trip explores Colombia’s illicit hemp industry as the country moves toward legalization, traveling through bustling cities and up dangerous mountain roads to experience a vision of hemp where food is medicine.
S t o r y a n d P h o t o s B y R i c k Tr o j a n
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Three generations are present to process hand-cured and hand-crafted cannabis.
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Cannabis and hemp are grown in secret up in Colombia's mountains, where motorcycles are the primary mode of transportation.
WITH A BENEFICIAL climate and plenty of
agrarian land, Colombia has the potential to become a worldwide leader in producing hemp. Legal hurdles — along with complicated realities on the ground — still stand in the way. But as Colombia moves forward from its complicated past, new opportunities abound. This spring, I set out on another leg of my years-long Hemp Road Trip to find out where the Colombian hemp and cannabis industries are headed.
LEGAL STATUS OF CÁÑAMO & CANNABIS
Even though Colombia is historically known for the landrace sativa strain “Colombian Gold,” cannabis remains illegal for public consumption and cultivation, though the government has started issuing licenses to a select group of companies to grow cannabis and hemp. However, in 2012, the Colombian government decriminalized possession of up to 20 grams and personal cultivation up to 20 plants. On the low-THC side, plants called cáñamo (industrial hemp), are not fully legal for cultivation. The word on the street is the government expects that to change in the summer of 2018; but for now, only hemp research is authorized.
I set out to get a better understanding of this country and help where I could with the expansion of cáñamo and cannabis. The tour would take me completely across the country and over 6,400 miles. We travelled from Cartagena to Montería, through Medellín to Silvia in guerilla territory, up to the capital of Bogotá, and then finally returned to Cartagena. We would often drive overnight, then tour farms, fish hatcheries, and businesses, speaking with locals who were interested in cáñamo and cannabis. BIENVENIDOS A COLOMBIA
We started in Cartagena, a beautiful, historic city with stunning colonial architecture and international flare. It’s home to one of the busiest ports in Colombia, and rife with opportunity, as well as crime. In Colombia, cash is king — I spent more cash in Colombia in two weeks than I spent at a high-end resort in the Hawaii Islands. But, that’s a small price to pay for organic food and security against cartel violence. We then moved on to Montería, the beautiful capital city of the Department of Córdoba at the center of organic farming and distribution. It was there I first walked
on organic land that reminded me of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon — sponge-like, trampoline-esque, bouncy soil. After Montería, we attempted to drive to the infamous city of Medellín, but in true road trip fashion, our vehicle died in the middle of nowhere, between two of the three massive mountain ranges we needed to cross. It wouldn’t be a proper Hemp Road Trip without some vehicle trouble. As we were driving overnight through the second steep mountain range, the vehicle suddenly started to overheat. We tried a couple
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Javier, one of Trojan’s guides, comes out of a local kitchen constructed from bamboo and adobe mud. Structures like this could be made from hempcrete in the future.
In order to enter this area as an outsider gringo, I needed HELP FROM THE people on the inside to protect me from potential theft, kidnapping, or murder.
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of times to let it cool down in the crisp, chilly mountain night. It would cool, we’d get back on the road, and 1-2 miles later the vehicle would overheat and force us to pull over. Once, 15 miles from the nearest town, we had to pull our vehicle over on the side of the road, right after a downward turn, in an incredibly precarious situation. Tractor-trailers occasionally tore down the windy mountain roads at insane speeds, only slowing to narrowly pass the trucks going up the slope. On the positive side, the stars and natural setting, seen without light pollution, were incredible. With no tools and no help for miles, we decided to push it and keep driving and pulling over until we ended up at a mountainside midnight café. As it turns out, a bus was headed to Santander de Quilichao, where we were to meet our guides and protectors the next day. After some discussion, we agreed to abandon our broken vehicle and take tour buses for the
remainder of our journey. Arturo, my guide, would return later to retrieve his vehicle. As it turned out, the busses would be a blessing in disguise, as both Arturo and I would not have to drive, and could get some sleep on overnight journeys. We hopped on the bus bound for Santander de Quilichao, where we would meet the locals for transport — and protection — and head into jungle mountains never conquered by the Spanish or the Colombian governments, inhabited by peoples that still speak indigenous languages along with Castellano Spanish. HEADING TO GUERRILLA TERRITORY
Our first stop was the mountain town of Silva, where about 37,000 people who speak four languages — Nam Trik, Misak, Castellano, and Nasa Yuwe — live at an elevation of 2,800 meters. Silvia rests in the Cauca region, much of which is under the de facto control of the
An irrigated farm in the Cรณrdoba region of Colombia is all organic and produces high yields.
Clones of high-THC strains grow in substrate in the Colombian mountains.
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FARC. Formed in 1964 as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party, FARC was the largest of Colombia’s rebel groups, estimated to possess some 10,000 armed soldiers and many more supporters. As a Marxist organization, FARC supports the redistribution of wealth and opposes the influence that multinational corporations and foreign governments (particularly the United States) have had on Colombia. Until recently, they used hijackings, bombings, kidnappings, and narcotrafficking to financially support themselves and destabilize the Colombian government. The people in Cauca live under the control of FARC, who have historically taken the locally grown cannabis, coca, opium, and other plants to market internationally to fund their activities against the Colombian government. In fact, three years earlier, as a village I was visiting was hiding out from the guerilla faction violence, helicopters flew overhead and shot through the roof of the local high school, killing three people. They look back at this day as a long distant past, and hopefully, as something that will torment them no longer. In August 2017, FARC negotiated a historic ceasefire with the Colombian government, and gained official recognition as a political party in exchange for ending an armed struggle that had killed thousands of Colombians on both sides. Currently, they are allocated 10 seats in the Colombian Congress, five in the House, and five in the Senate. Despite the ceasefire, the Cauca area is not keen on outsiders, and remains controlled by FARC hierarchy. In order to enter this area as an outsider gringo, I needed help from people on the inside to protect me
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from potential theft, kidnapping, or murder. Thankfully, my guide was able to setup the connections required to remain alive, photograph, and report back. My accommodation consisted of a couple of small rooms, about 8 ft. by 8 ft., with walls made of bamboo rods and adobe mud. The kitchen was a similar size dwelling, with an electric stove and fire pit used to make some of the most delicious coffee I’ve ever tasted. Lucky for me, our local hosts were celebrating a quinceañera — or 15th birthday — of a local girl named Luisa. Here I was in the middle of the Colombian jungle, in the highest mountains in all the land, surrounded by guerillas growing cannabis, coca, and opium (amongst other medicinal herbs), celebrating a fifteen-year-old’s birthday. We enjoyed local cake and sang songs, and I celebrated by dancing with her 83-year-old grandmother, who could shoulder-roll like a pro! My guide introduced me to Javier, who grows cannabis under incandescent lights on the steep mountainsides surrounding the village. We did our standard introduction, “Rick, the expert in cáñamo from the U.S., not cannabis, but the industrial side of the plant.” It was a similar introduction across the country. Javier was using the terpenes from the cannabis plant in a very unique operation. He bottled up the distilled terpenes and was using them as a cleaning product for his home and cultivation facility. This was news to me: cannabis’s many applications also include utilizing it as a cleaning supply. It was a pivotal moment in my understanding of that culture and helped bring new light to this incredible plant. This plant not only adapts to its local soil, altitude, and
rain conditions, it also adapts to provide the local people what they need, as a cleaning supply, nutritional supplement, healthy food, or natural medicine. I tour the world explaining the amazingness of this plant, and I fully realized, at this moment, the true meaning of that adaptability. HEMP HAS ANSWERS!
Just after this realization, as if the universe needed to imprint this idea in my brain like a Texas rancher branding calves, a lightning strike hit. The thunderclap was loud enough to scare everyone in our group, and it took out the local power, leaving everything dark. There I was, without power underneath the starlit sky, needing to find my way back to my adobe accommodation in the jungle. Typically, a situation without light in the middle of guerilla territory in Colombia would freak me out. However, I walked home alone, without light, direction, or guidance, and completely without trepidation. I realized during my walk home that this plant is so much more powerful, and has so much more potential, than I ever gave it credit for. It was my “aha” moment for cannabis. The next day, I was blessed with a tour of the local mountains and landscape, where I held cáñamo stalks nearly half a foot in diameter from plants over 14 feet high. We ate off-the-plant coca seeds and leaves and drank cannabis juice. This lifestyle is so engrained in the lives of locals that I stumbled upon a full-length soccer field in the middle of the cáñamo jungle, which provides everything the young players need for nutrition, recovery, and motivation. In fact, as it was explained to me at the Indio Center for Medicinal Plants and Herbs, the locals consider food as medicine. The children are taught, from a young age, how
LEFT: A training garden grows outside of Colombia’s Institute of Medicinal Plants. ABOVE: Medicinal gardens include poppy plants with opium bulbs.
Cannabis plants in Colombia’s guerrilla territory grow taller than many people.
The next day, I was blessed with a tour of the local mountains and landscape, where I held cáñamo stalks nearly half a foot in diameter from plants over 14 feet high. #hempmag 69
In Toribío, Colombia, treacherous mountain roads are conquered with public transport like this bus.
to cultivate medicine — or as we call it in the U.S. — food. They are taught to recognize and cultivate medicinal herbs from the land that will help grandma feel better or sustain mother during pregnancy. There is even a local fishery that utilizes fresh mountain spring water, combined with quinoa and medicinal herbs, to feed their fish. I usually don’t choose to eat fish, especially when it has bright orange skin and includes the bones and head on the plate. However, there was so much nutrition in this fish that my body overrode my mind’s aversion and I ate the flesh, the skin, the bones, the everything — except for the head. It was absolutely delicious and amazingly nutritious, and like everything I ate in Colombia, it was organic and straight from nature. ONWARD, TOWARDS THE CITY
From the adobe dwellings of Toribio and Silvia in the Cauca region, we headed down the mountains towards Bogotá. This sounds simple, but after a hellacious lightning storm and downpour, some of the roads were simply washed out on the steep slopes of the Northern Andes. We were cramped in a Toyota truck, with five persons in a four-seat vehicle, moving slowly down the muddy roads, trying not to end up high-centered between deep tire tracks.
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Meanwhile, the locals were packed on a large school bus, bearing up the mountain as if there was not a deadly cliff drop to their left. After miles of white-knuckling it down from the mountains, we finally reached a small town and transferred to an overnight bus headed to Bogotá. Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, has over 10 million residents, and up to 4 million additional migrant workers at any given time. I had the opportunity to meet with local business incubators and actually teach a class about cannabis in Spanish to entrepreneurs and farmers. As they began to learn that cannabis is much more than something to smoke or eat, they became excited and very engaged. Questions ranged from cannabis as a food to using it as an energy source, and even as a bioaccumulator that can help as a rotational crop for future yields. We talked about cultivation, processing, marketing, and distribution — under the constructs of the Colombian law — which currently does not allow nationwide cultivation. My hope, and that of those attending the seminar, is that Colombia will soon see a legal hemp industry, so that the Colombian people can enjoy the benefits of domestic use and cultivation — and can bring their hemp medicine down from the mountains and into the full sun of legalization.
ABOVE: Author Rick Trojan (third from left) poses with the men who helped make his road trip possible. RIGHT: The historic district of Cartagena, Colombia.
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HOW TO MAKE CBD SA LV E
PHOTO COLLEEN CODEKAS
A naturalist’s guide for turning your hemp buds into healing balm. TOPICAL CBD SALVE is a lovely remedy for pain, inflammation, and skin issues. You can use it for sore, strained, and pulled muscles, achy joints, chronic pain issues, and dry or itchy skin. It’s also effective to use during massage therapy. Plant medicine can be a powerful thing, and it’s wonderful that hemp is finally starting to be recognized as a valuable and effective medicine in this country. Hopefully, we can continue down the path of making hemp legal and available to everyone who needs it — because hemp truly is natural medicine at its finest. And better yet, you don’t need to buy any expensive CBD salve at the store because you can make it yourself at home! Unfortunately, it’s still difficult to acquire hemp flower in most places. The only distinction between a hemp plant and a cannabis plant grown for flower is an arbitrary 0.3 percent THC limit, which means hemp flower and high-CBD flower share many of the same healing properties. If you live in a state where recreational cannabis is legal, local dispensaries may have high-cannabidiol clones available for you to take home and grow in your garden with other vegetables. But sadly, no states with legal hemp programs allow civilians to grow hemp at home sans permit. If you live in one of these states, your best bet is to simply buy pre-made CBD oil, available online, in some health stores, and in many dispensaries. Because I live in Oregon, I was able to make CBD-rich infused oil from high-CBD plants I grew in my own garden. Here’s how I made the oil, and then infused it into a CBD salve.
By Colleen Codekas
RECIPE: CBD-INFUSED OIL THE FIRST STEP in making this salve is to
make a CBD-infused oil. You’ll need to start with some dried buds from a high-CBD or hemp strain. An optional (but recommended) step is to decarboxylate your buds, as it will make more of the CBD bioavailable to the body. Luckily, this is an easy process: Simply spread your buds out in a single layer on a sheet pan and bake at 230°F for 40 minutes. Then, fill a pint-sized jar about threequarters full of your decarboxylated buds and completely cover them with the carrier oil of your choice. You can use whichever oil you prefer, or even a blend of oils. Olive oil, sweet almond oil, or melted coconut oil are all good options. Cover the jar with a lid and let sit in a cool, dark place for at least six weeks. When you’re ready to make the salve, strain the buds out of your oil with a fine mesh sieve. If you want to make an extra-strong CBD-infused oil, place a second round of decarboxylated buds into the oil and repeat the process. You’ll end up with a highly fragrant, beautiful, and CBD-rich oil.
RECIPE: CBD SALVE THIS RECIPE will make approximately ten ounces of salve in total, and you’ll need some tins or jars to store your finished salves in.
INGREDIENTS 1 cup CBD-infused oil 1 oz. beeswax 1 oz. refined shea butter (unrefined also works, but it has a distinct scent)
DIRECTIONS 1. Put the CBD-infused oil and beeswax into the top container of a double boiler and stir as the beeswax melts. (Tip: You can make a double boiler with a smaller pot, bowl, or a heatproof glass measuring cup over an inch or so of simmering water. If you use a glass measuring cup, put something in the bottom of the pot it can rest on, such as a canning jar lid.) 2. When the beeswax is almost completely dissolved, add the shea butter. Stir until the wax and the shea butter are completely dissolved. 3. Carefully pour the hot salve into your desired containers or tins. 4. Let them sit undisturbed until they completely solidify before using; it usually takes an hour or two. 5. This salve smells amazing — like fresh hemp — which, to me, has a beautiful and herbaceous scent. If you’d like to add in some other scents, feel free to include a few drops of essential oil at the same time that you add the shea butter. Lavender or sweet orange essential oils are both good choices to try.
Colleen Codekas runs the blog Grow Forage Cook Ferment (www.growforagecookferment.com), a website that teaches about herbalism, wildcrafting, permaculture gardening, real food, and fermenting. She also has her own Etsy shop, Coco’s Herbals, where she sells handmade herbal salves and lip balms.
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PRODUCTS
What you need for a summer hemp picnic
1. Mocha Chip Hemp Bar www.evohemp.com / $22.99 per case
The entire line of Hemp Bars from Evo Hemp have unique and energizing flavor profiles, but the stand-alone in our minds was the Mocha Chip bar. The folks at Evo Hemp are representing very well in the hemp food space. From getting on the shelves at Whole Foods and branching out into hemp protein powders and tinctures, their products genuinely taste great and are full of flavor no matter how they’re packaged or consumed. And although we liked all of their hemp-infused energy bars, from cherry walnut to mango macadamia, we were quite impressed with a stand-alone bar called the Mocha Chip. With coffee, cocoa powder, monk fruit extract, and 12 grams of protein, these bars are both healthy and tasty. We really liked the texture each bite presented, with a crunch created from the green pea. As far as the hemp used in with these healthy, nutrient-rich delights, it’s a powder. Tip: Keep your box of Mocha Chips in the freezer like you would with a candy bar, as they will easily melt.
ADDED PROTIEN.
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3. Grandy Oats www.grandyoats.com / $48 for a case of six 9-oz. bags
2. CBD POWER BAR Rebranding as @corebodydevelopment – Available soon
There are two main things we love about the CBD Power Bar: the simple ingredient list and the 20 mg of lab-tested CBD in each bar. Each Blueberry Crunch bar provides over 517 mg of potassium, as well as vitamin B6, calcium, phosphorus, and a short list of natural ingredients including hemp seeds, sunflower seeds, cashews, CBD-infused honey, tapioca syrup, and dried blueberries. The bar is dense, which makes you feel fuller with each bite. If anything, the bar was too dense, so we recommend consuming with a liquid to help moisten each bite. Coupled with good branding and blueberry goodness, we hope to try more flavors and products from this company soon. Word on the street is that CBD Power Bar is re-branding under the new moniker of Core Body Development. The CBD in this bar also makes the snack a nice relaxant to add to your late-day river trip outing, or mid-day golf meeting.
PACKS A PUNCH.
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MORNING SUNSHINE. Why wouldn’t you add a little seed to your feed? With a plethora of (hip) granola options on the shelves, it’s hard to determine what to purchase, especially when a small bag of fancy granola is typically priced higher than your mainstream cereal brands. But, as the late Kurt Vonnegut wrote, “In this world, you get what you pay for.” As most of the lower-priced cereals are full of processed chemicals in today’s sad state of boxed everything, HEMP agrees that paying a bit more for quality is worth it. The Super Hemp Blend “Coconola” Granola is a grainfree, coconut-based granola with added protein from hemp, almonds, cashews, and pumpkin seeds, which has a nice, sweet molasses finish. The small-batch flavor is apparent and the chewy clusters are packed with coconut flavor, which seemed a bit heavy at times. While we would have liked the flavor of a date or a cranberry to mix in with the texture of the coconuts, that was our only suggestion. The folks at Grandy Oats have been keeping it real in Maine for 39 years. No artificial ingredients, because as they say, “You can’t fake good taste.” As a bonus, the Grandy Oats team offsets their energy with 288 solar panels and is certified organic by the USDA. Just another reason to try them out.
4. HILARYS HEMP BURGER hilaryeatswell.com / $6.59 per container of 2
5. BONGWATER HEMP ALE Don’t let the frozen hockey puck fool you, these veggie burgers are a real treat. They are especially tasty if you’re in the mood for a meatless picnic lunch. They’re actually great for river camping, because you can keep them in your cheap cooler all day and if they get a little warm because you went skimpy on the ice, nothing will spoil. We’ve always been a fan of homemade veggie burgers over the frozen kind, but let’s face it, taking the time to mash up a bunch of grain or garbanzo beans and add-ins like kale or pine-nuts is a pain. So, let our girl Hilary help you out. Hilary’s Hemp & Greens Burger made a delicious patty ready to eat straight out of the box. Unlike other veggie burgers that warn you must cook them all the way through to prevent food borne illness, these little gems are certified vegan. We’d advise using a hefty spoonful of coconut oil to fry these in to create a nice outer layer, as they seemed to fall apart quite easily once cooked. But, each bite was moist and fresh tasting. With ingredients like kale, spinach, beet, greens, parsley, collards, dandelion, celery, mustard, paprika, turmeric, garlic, and thyme — what could go wrong? We would definitely purchase these burgers again.
THE GREEN BURGER.
kettlehouse.com / $8.99 per 4-pack
THE ORIGINAL HEMP BEER. Leave it to Missoula, Montana to produce one of the first hemp ales on the market back in 1999. Fresh Bongwater Hemp Pale Ale is made with Montana-grown barley and Canadian-grown industrial hemp, making it a smooth drinking, slightly nutty light ale with 5 percent alcohol content in each 16-oz. can. We really enjoyed the light flavor profile with hints of malt, but would have never known hemp seeds were used in the brewing process had we been blind taste-testing. While $8.99 for four beers seems like a steal, and was one of the main reasons we picked these up over some newer, fancier hemp beers on the market today, the beer still had a nice smooth taste and finish. It had a slightly sweet, malty flavor, though it would have benefited from a bit more hops — given that hops is chemically related to cannabis and hemp. Either way, we love what the guys at Kettle House are doing. Remember to support your local brewers — especially when they join the hemp cause.
SEND INFO ABOUT YOUR PRODUCTS TO EDITORIAL@THEHEMPMAG.COM IF YOU’D LIKE US TO TEST THEM OUT.
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recipe
T R IPL E HEMP SUMM ER SA L A D Add raw hemp hearts, toasted hemp hearts, and hemp oil to a seasonal salad for extra nutrition.
PHOTO BRUCE WOLF
B y L a u r i e Wo l f WHEN THE SUMMER heat is reaching its peak, a fresh salad that takes just minutes to put together is a perfect meal. This light and crisp salad includes all the gifts of produce that summer brings as well as the benefits of hemp. Hemp hearts — the fleshy inside of shelled hemp seeds — and hemp oil are packed with omega fatty acids, protein, and essential oils, so they’ll help make this vegetarian salad filling enough to serve as a standalone lunch or dinner. As always, salads are not an exact science, so feel free to take out what you don’t like from the recipe and add what you think is missing. Avocado? Sure. Cherries? Why not! The only items that require cooking for this salad are the toasted pecans and hemp seeds, but if you don’t want to turn on the oven, just toss them around in a sauté pan for a few minutes. You also could scrap the pecans entirely, and allow the nutty flavor of the hemp seeds to shine on their own. It’s also not necessary to cook the corn — each kernel is bursting with flavor as it is.
INGREDIENTS — Serves 4 5 cups mixed greens ½ small red onion, thinly sliced ½ cup corn kernels 1 small ripe nectarine, thinly sliced 6 strawberries, thinly sliced 8 cherry tomatoes, sliced in half ⅓ cup feta, crumbled ¼ cup pecans, toasted ¼ cup hemp hearts, toasted
DIRECTIONS 1. Wash and dry the salad greens and place them at the base of a large bowl. 2. Prepare the fresh salad ingredients, placing them over the greens in the bowl once they are ready. Slice the red onion into ¼ inch slivers. Shuck a fresh ear of corn and run a knife along the cob to remove the juicy kernels. Cut a nectarine in half, remove the pit, and then slice into thin wedges, about a ¼ inch wide. Remove the stems of the strawberries and cut into small pieces. Cut the cherry tomatoes down the middle. 3. Lightly toast the pecans and the hemp seeds, either in the oven over low heat or in a sauté pan on the stove. 4. Toss the salad with the vinaigrette and split into four even bowls. Enjoy!
HE M P V I N A I G R ET T E INGREDIENTS — Makes a very generous cup ⅓ cup hemp oil ⅓ cup olive oil ⅓ cup balsamic vinegar 2 tablespoons raw hemp hearts 2 tablespoons fresh herbs parsley, dill, and chives 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
DIRECTIONS 1. Finely chop the herbs and mince the garlic. 2. In a jar with a lid, combine all the ingredients and shake well before serving.
1 clove garlic, minced Salt and pepper to taste
Visit laurieandmaryjane.com for more hemp- and cannabis-infused recipes.
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evohemp.com
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forecast
WITH POLITICAL MOMENTUM growing behind hemp, it’s more important than ever that hemp industry professionals, entrepreneurs, farmers, activists, and consumers make their voices heard in Washington, D.C. So, call your representatives and let them know not just that you want to see hemp legalization, but exactly how you think hemp legalization should look! The Hemp Roundtable, an industry lobbying group of which HEMP is a member, has an online portal that makes emailing your representatives simple at:
hempsupporter.com
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PHOTO COURTESY MARK BENDER OF GREENEHEMP CO
C AL L YO U R R E P R E S E N TATIVES !
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