HEMP Issue #5

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ISSUE 5 Nov / Dec / Jan 2018 / 19

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Restore your basic nature.

Freshly harvested hemp rests by a workstation at George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate. Read more on page 37.

editor’s note

This harvest season, we’re thankful for hemp’s resurgence and for the work that farmers have done to help the plant thrive again.

04 thehempmag.com

hemp industry feels like a predominantly friendly place, full of opportunity, collaboration, and experimentation between individuals looking to improve the health of the planet and its inhabitants and maybe make some money along the way. Sure, the lack of federal regulation means there’s a dearth of quality lab testing for hempderived CBD oil (pg. 45), and plenty of unchecked, misleading claims circulating about the healing power of hemp (pg. 83). But small cultivators, including those contributor K. Astre spoke to at Colorado’s Shi Farms, are thriving — and more importantly, setting an example regarding what regenerative hemp farming practices can look like (pg. 62).

As momentum reaches a crescendo behind the federal hemp legalization movement, we don’t want to let this moment go by without acknowledging that it is special. Harvest has come and gone.

The flowers have been hung up to dry, the seeds hulled and pressed.

Spring may bring with it a new federal hemp economy, or it may not.

Either way, right now, we’re thankful for the hemp community and everything it’s built.

Julia Clark-Riddell Managing Editor, HEMP

PHOTO BEN DROZ

paradox of prohibition I find myself thinking about each harvest season: It’s perhaps because the federal government has considered hemp to be an illegal and dangerous crop for decades that, today, many people treat the plant with such special reverence. Of course, hemp has so many inherent merits that it certainly would be appreciated without help from government-sponsored scarcity. But I still believe the “you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone” phenomenon is a contributing factor to the current enthusiasm around hemp.

In 2018, the hemp harvest is more than a culmination of hard work and a reaping of resources, it’s a resurrection. To capture this idea quite literally, our contributing editor Ben Droz spent a day on George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate to witness the land’s first hemp harvest in decades, which was brought back via the lobbying efforts of a local hemp farmer (pg. 37). America’s reignited cultural appreciation for this versatile plant also features heavily in our cover story from associate editor Joel Hathaway, who dove into Montana’s traditional agriculture sector to speak with farmers now embracing hemp as a commodity crop (pg. 48).

In this issue, we’re also focused on appreciating the current moment in the hemp industry before it’s gone. Over the past few years, state pilot programs have allowed small farmers and local businesses to gain a foothold in the hemp industry. Right now, the THERE’S A CERTAIN

ISSUE FIVE

In northern Montana, farmer Colby Johnson stands next to part of 2018’s record hemp harvest. Read more on page 48.

features

THE FUTURE OF GMO HEMP 32

With hemp production and consumption on the rise, how much will genetic engineering play into hemp’s development as a commodity crop? By Annie Rouse A HARVEST ON MOUNT VERNON REPLANTS HISTORY 37 The land of America’s founding fathers sprouts hemp again. By Ben Droz COVER FEATURE THE NEW FACES OF HEMP: TRADITIONAL AG BETS BIG IN MONTANA 48

In 2018, Montana farmers planted roughly 6,000 percent more hemp acreage than they did in 2017. The people behind the surge are using different methods than — and generally don’t have the same experiences as — your typical hemp cultivators. As harvest season arrives, however, success for these farmers is far from guaranteed.

SHI FARMS: STEWARDS OF SUSTAINABILITY 62

Colorado-based Shi Farms has spent the past year scaling up and expanding to new climates, but one constant remains: Water and sunshine are all their hemp plants need. By K. Astre

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PHOTO ANDREW MARTIN

By Joel Hathaway

ISSUE FIVE

A New Belgium brewer, Kelly McKnight, works on a new beer batch in Fort Collins, CO.

contents

EDITOR’S NOTE 04 CORRECTION:

An update on USDA organic regulations for hemp farmers. 11 industry

STATE OF HEMP: BANKING ON BARR 13

THE RISE OF HEMP BEER 26

Kentucky Congressman Andy Barr talks hemp legalization and the need for banking reform in the hemp industry.

WHAT EPIDIOLEX MEANS FOR THE HEMP INDUSTRY 17

The first medication containing CBD has been approved by the FDA, but whether various government agencies can get on the same page regarding over-the-counter CBD supplements remains up in the air.

CATEGORIZING CANNABIS: SCIENCE-BASED ALTERNATIVES TO THE “HEMP VS. MARIJUANA” CONVERSATION 20

As our knowledge of the plant expands, there’s a growing sense that our taxonomical classification of its varieties should follow suit.

08 thehempmag.com

Craft breweries throughout the U.S. are sidestepping legal barriers to create beers featuring hemp, touting its taste, aroma, and efficaciousness.

PLAYING THE PERCENTAGES: LAB TESTING IN THE HEMP CBD OIL INDUSTRY 45

Both consumers and producers often struggle when it comes to testing, verifying, and owning hemp-derived products with trace levels of THC. While industry testing is common, it isn’t required, which presents difficulties for some consumers.

A SHORT, SHORT HISTORY OF HEMP IN WARTIME 59

It’s not all durable paper and facial oils.

GIFT GUIDE 68

This year’s treasured HEMP wearables, carriables, and curiosities.

A POLISH PALACE GIVES A NEW HOME TO EASTERN EUROPEAN HEMP 79

Much of Europe has been legally cultivating hemp for far longer than American producers, but it’s still stumbling on many of the same issues as the United States hemp industry.

HOW TO USE HEMP TO FIX ANYTHING 83

Or: How NOT to talk about CBD. HOLIDAY HEMP RECIPE: PECAN & HEMP PUMPKIN CRUMBLE PIE 84

Hemp gets a holiday makeover and a place at the dessert table in this nutrient-dense twist on a classic.

HEMP SPOTLIGHT 86

A hobby farmer experiments with hemp, and more from our website.

PHOTO COURTESY NEW BELGIUM BREWING

politics

Jaime Ritterer of Montana Hemp Co takes to the tractor half way through this year’s hemp harvest.

For more on Montana Hemp Co and the rise of the hemp hobby farmer, visit www.thehempmag.com

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 Executives

Lindsey Mandelbaum Shelby Nelson Jason Rosenberg Advertising

sales @ thehempmag.com Subscriptions

subscribe@ thehempmag.com Editorial Submissions

editorial@ thehempmag.com Stay Connected

facebook.com/hempmagazine instagram.com/hempmag twitter.com/hempmag CONTRIBUTORS

Dan Armstrong K. Astre Mitchell Colbert Ryan Garcia A.J. Herrington Robin A. W. Kelley

Kristen Kuchar Taylor Kent Andrew Martin Kit O’Connell Annie Rouse Liz Schoch

On the Cover

Colby Johnson stands in his forest of 13-feet-tall hemp, which included approximately 38 million hemp plants in 2018, on his farm near Conrad, MT. H E M P. C O

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HEMP TODAY MEDIA, LLC

PHOTO ANDREW MARTIN

Photo by Andrew Martin

CORRECTION:

USDA O R GA N I C R E GU L AT I O NS F OR H E MP FA R ME R S

we covered the struggles facing hemp farmers across America who are looking to get officially accredited as organic. In the article, titled “Organic Hemp Revolution’s Many Battles,” we wrongly asserted that hemp farms cannot receive the USDA organic seal without the USDA’s approval.

In truth, if a state-compliant hemp farm in the United States is certified by an accredited certifying agent as organic, they can display the USDA organic seal on their products.

Sam Welsch, the founder of the organic accrediting agency OneCert, is quoted in the article about OneCert’s work to grant hemp farms with organic certification. He recently spoke with HEMP to clarify the USDA’s organic hemp regulations.

According to Welsch, American manufacturers have been certified to process and package organic hemp food products since 2004.

Following the passage of the 2014 Farm Bill, which opened the door to domestic hemp farming in the United States for the first time since World War II, the USDA released no official rules around certifying organic hemp farming.

It was in this regulatory atmosphere that Welsch’s OneCert granted certification for growing organic hemp to a farm in Colorado, CBDRx, in the fall of 2015.

However, in February 2016, the USDA issued the first version of its Instruction 2040, which asked certifiers not to certify American hemp farmers as organic. This version of Instruction 2040 didn’t retract organic seals already granted to hemp farmers like CBDRx, as long as they continued to comply with USDA organic regulations.

Then, in August 2016, the USDA updated their policy and issued a new version of Instruction 2040, which allowed organic hemp grown in states with an industrial hemp agricultural pilot research program to be certified organic.

“Such certification entitles operations to use the USDA organic seal,” says Welsch. “It is only USDA policy, not USDA organic regulations, that limits the certification of organic hemp crops to those states with an industrial hemp agricultural pilot research program.”

Thus, it is perfectly legal now for hemp farms participating in state pilot programs to be certified as organic by accrediting agencies and to display the organic USDA label on their product. HEMP apologies for the mistake and hopes all farmers pursuing organic accreditation find their path smoother than we portrayed in Issue 4. — Julia Clark-Riddell IN ISSUE 4,

#hempmag 11

state of hemp

Kentucky’s representatives, including Congressman Andy Barr, are at the forefront of the push to legalize hemp.

BA N K I N G O N B A R R Kentucky Congressman Andy Barr talks hemp legalization and the need for banking reform in the hemp industry.

Inter view and Photos By Ben Droz

for federal hemp legalization, Kentucky’s politicians have led the way. Over the past few years, the Kentucky delegation has been unmatched on Capitol Hill when it comes to spreading the word about the plant and its potential. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell gets most of the media attention, but a few Kentucky representatives in the House have also been working for years to reform the federal government’s hemp laws.

One such hemp champion is Congressman Andy Barr, a Republican from Kentucky’s 6th District. Barr spoke on the House floor back in 2013 in support of the hemp amendment in the Farm Bill that has allowed farmers to grow hemp in Kentucky; he also co-sponsored the Industrial Hemp Banking Act, HR-4711, which would protect hemp farmers by making sure they can have access to the banking system.

On a muggy summer day, Barr sat down with HEMP’s contributing editor Ben Droz in his congressional office to discuss the importance of a separate hemp banking bill, the legacy of hemp in Kentucky, and the meaning behind the current momentum for hemp in Washington, D.C. WHEN IT COMES TO ADVOCATING

HEMP: How did you first get involved in hemp and what it’s been like working for and learning about hemp over the years and seeing it develop?

PHOTO BEN DROZ

Andy Barr: Well, as a congressman from central Kentucky, you

have to go back in history a little bit and look at the history of the land and the people where I come from. The district that I

represent is the congressional district that was represented by Henry Clay, also known as The Great Compromiser. He was Speaker of the House, he was a U.S. Senator, and he was also the Secretary of State in the John Quincy Adams administration.

What a lot of people maybe don’t know about Henry Clay is that he was a hemp farmer. In the early 19th century, mid-19th century, all the way through the early 20th century, central Kentucky was one of the nation’s top producing regions for hemp.

There’s a good reason for that. Along with burley tobacco, the blue grass, and the limestone water that comes from our area — which is the life of our bourbon distilling heritage — our region is perfect for the production and the cultivation of cannabis. That’s why this holds so much potential. Not just from a perspective of the past, but also for the future.

HEMP: NORML, a pro-marijuana non-profit organization, hasn’t given you the best grade on voting for other kinds of marijuana-related amendments. Where do you draw the line between hemp and other types of cannabis?

Andy Barr: Well, of course, the definitions will vary, but in general,

hemp is low-THC cannabis. It does not have some of the psychoactive effects of the higher-THC cannabis that is marijuana. Of course, we’ve seen some very positive benefits of cannabis with respect to some pharmaceutical applications, particularly in seizures and epilepsy. I think there is definitely room to explore pharmaceutical applications for different varieties of cannabis. There’s also, however, some applications for nutraceuticals, for textiles, for

#hempmag 13

“ We n e e d t o s a y t o t h e b ank in g r e g ula t or s , t h e Far m C r e di t Administration, and the Credit Union Administration that lending for legal hemp businesses should not be subject to any excessive scrutiny.” - A N D Y B A R R

clothing manufacturing, for auto manufacturing, and other uses.

We do have a difficult situation in Kentucky right now with respect to an opioid addiction epidemic and so law enforcement continues to weigh in on recreational marijuana in opposition to that, but nevertheless, I think it’s important to not conflate the two debates.

Because ... I think advocates of legalization of marijuana and opponents of legalization of marijuana can come together on this issue. That is, the need to permanently legalize low-THC cannabis — industrial hemp — for all kinds of purposes. In fact, the hemp industry has so much potential for future expansion, because it can be used in so many products.

HEMP: You represent the heart of hemp country and you’ve got some constituents growing hemp. What does it mean to them?

Andy Barr: Well, of course, my area was known, not just for

bourbon and horses. It was known for many, many years as the capital of burley tobacco. Well, as smoking cessation programs have gone into place, as demand for tobacco has declined, both globally and domestically, many of our burley producers are looking for ways to diversify their agriculture operations. Of course, industrial hemp is a natural way in which tobacco farmers can look to other types of products, other types of commodities to continue their farming.

HEMP: We’re really excited about the Industrial Hemp Banking Act. What needs to happen for that bill to gain traction, or will we need it at all if hemp becomes federally legal?

Andy Barr: Well, I think we will still need it. It may be belts and

suspenders, of course.

I’m a co-sponsor of the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2017, introduced in the House by Congressman Comer, our former agricultural commissioner in Kentucky who was a champion of our pilot program in Kentucky. We do need to de-schedule industrial hemp, low-THC cannabis, because, again, it doesn’t represent the kind of drugs that are also represented on the Controlled Substances Act list. So, I believe we need the Industrial Hemp Farming Act to provide legal clarity for industrial hemp — for Kentucky and for other states — for pilot programs, for research, and for further commercialization of industrial hemp.

But I also believe we need the Industrial Hemp Banking Act, the bill that I introduced as a member of the House Financial Services Committee. What we’re doing with this bill is we’re making sure we have some legal clarity and a legal safe harbor for banks, credit unions, and lenders, including the farm credit agencies that are regulated by the Farm Credit Administration. We need to say to the banking regulators, the Farm Credit Administration, and the

14 thehempmag.com

Credit Union Administration that lending for legal hemp businesses should not be subject to any excessive scrutiny. We certainly do not want to choke off access to banking services or financial services for these businesses that are operating legally, producing a legal crop, and conducting a legal business. Unfortunately, some of these bank regulators and financial regulators conflate legal hemp with illicit marijuana.

I know some states are experimenting with different laws with respect to marijuana, but at least with respect to industrial hemp, you have a nationwide, federally authorized program for industrial hemp, and therefore, federal banking regulators and the federal Farm Credit Administration should be explicitly directed to allow for banks, credit unions, and other lenders to offer credit for these hemp businesses.

HEMP: Absolutely. What does it feel like to be a hemp supporter on Capitol Hill today, now that there is so much momentum?

Andy Barr: It’s really exciting. I mean, I think it’s an educational

process on both sides of the aisle. I think many law-and-orderoriented members of Congress have had pause, have wanted to learn more about this, or have been a little skeptical, because of the natural connection to other kinds of cannabis plants, which are illegal in some states. So, there’s an education process to explain to members who are strongly opposed to legalization of marijuana, that hey, you can hold that position, but you don’t have to hold a position that all cannabis should be illegal.

Frankly, other Americans are surprised to learn the amazing potential of hemp and all the different uses and applications for hemp.

You know, just right down the road from many of the hemp farms in Kentucky is the Toyota Motor manufacturing plant, the largest auto manufacturing facility in the world for Toyota. They produce a lot of cars, and guess what? In cars, there is a lot of need for manufacturing materials for the interiors of those vehicles. Hemp turns out to be a terrific potential use for interiors of vehicles.

So, the opportunities for industrial hemp are significant. Of course, CBD is where a lot of the profit center is right now, but there are other uses as well. In fact, one of the reasons I think Congressman Jim Himes from Connecticut is joining with me is that in Connecticut is a lot of high fashion and apparel manufacturing. I think folks up in that area recognize the potential in fashion and in clothing design to use hemp as a textile.

Hemp has so much potential, not just to improve the lives of every day Americans, but to provide jobs and economic activity as well for many. I’m looking forward to continuing our advocacy, both on the banking act and to permanently legalize industrial hemp.

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W H AT E P I D I O L E X M E A N S F O R T H E H E MP I N DU ST RY The first medication containing CBD has been approved by the FDA , but whether various government agencies can get on the same page regarding over-the-counter CBD supplements remains up in the air. B y K i t O ’ C o n n e l l the first CBD medication earlier this year, provoking a storm of speculation about the effect this could have on the availability of over-the-counter supplements and other hemp-based products.

The new medicine is called Epidiolex. Developed by a U.K-based company called GW Pharmaceuticals, it’s a prescription-only treatment for epilepsy that builds on decades of evidence that cannabidiol (CBD) can dramatically reduce the incidence of seizures, especially in otherwise difficult to treat patients. While the medication will be extremely expensive — its maker estimates the total annual cost of treatment at $32,500 — it means that CBD will finally be available by prescription in the United States. The CBD in Epidiolex is derived from cannabis with THC, not hemp.

Colleen Keahy Lanier, executive director of the Hemp Industries Association, suggests the move reverses years of government misinformation about cannabis.

“The advancement of cannabinoid science to confirm medicinal efficacy exposes nearly a century of inaccurate statements and propaganda that ... claimed that marijuana has no medical value,” she told HEMP in an email.

At the same time, Epidiolex’s approval highlights an ongoing conflict between the federal government and everyday users of CBD, which has become an extremely popular hemp-derived product.

A recent report by the Hemp Business Journal revealed that sales of CBD products reached $190 million last year. Thousands of people credit over-the-counter CBD oil supplements with relief of diverse symptoms, from chronic pain to anxiety. But while many hemp advocates argue these products are fully legal under various laws and precedents, portions of the federal government continue to disagree.

Consumers are understandably worried about whether the government will eventually crack down on their ability to buy hempbased CBD supplements online or in local stores. Unfortunately, the approval of Epidiolex and recent regulatory changes by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration do little to clear up the confusion or potential for conflict.

PHOTOS COURTESY GW PHARMACEUTICALS

THE U.S. FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION approved

THE DEA & LEGAL ISSUES AROUND HEMP AND CBD

After the passage of the 2014 Farm Bill, subsequent bills passed

by Congress blocked federal agencies from spending funds to interfere with any aspect of legal hemp programs.

Despite the widespread availability of hemp-based CBD products and increasing piles of scientific studies on the cannabinoid’s medicinal potential, the DEA continued to insist that CBD was illegal — from hemp and from marijuana (which, for simplicity sake we’ll

#hempmag 17

call any varietal over the 0.3 percent threshold) — and had no medical value. Then, the FDA approved Epidiolex in June, which appeared to force the DEA to change the legal status of CBD. On September 27, the DEA issued their new policy. Under the DEA’s ruling, only CBD-based drugs with FDA approval were moved to Schedule V. Currently, Epidiolex is the sole cannabidiol drug with FDA approval.

All other products containing CBD remain illegal from the DEA’s perspective, and in a legal gray area for just about everyone else.

The FDA, in a government letter written in May but only recently released to the public, actually asked the DEA to go further.

As reported by Marijuana Moment in October, the FDA wrote that “CBD and its salts … do not have a significant potential for abuse and could be removed from the [Controlled Substances Act].” The World Health Organization has also ruled that CBD is safe. However, DEA officials insisted that international treaties blocked them from removing CBD from the Controlled Substances Act. CBD’S LEGALITY REMAINS UNCERTAIN, BUT THE STATUS QUO COULD CHANGE

The FDA’s letter may be a sign that at least one federal agency is softening its stance toward the substance. The FDA has been at odds with the hemp industry at times, warning CBD companies that made health claims and suggesting food products with added CBD could be legally considered “adulterated.”

18 thehempmag.com

On September 10, PlusCBD became the first major hemp brand to receive “Generally Regarded As Safe” certification by the FDA, a major step forward for legal acceptance of CBD oil supplements and the latest sign that the unregulated industry is beginning to voluntarily adopt stricter practices.

Stuart Tomc, vice president of human nutrition at PlusCBD, told HEMP that he believes, in the future, “hemp CBD products will be regulated like anything else and strong demand will shape regulation.”

The other major factor influencing the hemp-derived CBD market is an amendment to the 2018 Farm Bill, which would legalize hemp by taking the question out of the hands of the DEA and placing it under control of the Department of Agriculture, with continued oversight from the FDA. However, at the time this article was written, the bill’s future looks uncertain. While hemp legalization has increasing support from both Democrats and Republicans, until there is legislative progress, the status of hemp and hemp-derived products like CBD remain up in the air.

At the same time, it’s unlikely that CBD supplements will disappear from store shelves or online vendors anytime soon.

“I think we should look at the history of caffeine, which is derived from the seeds and leaves of plants and is ... used in drugs and dietary supplements,” Lanier wrote. “The FDA’s not shutting down Starbucks or raiding green tea or coffee bean extract supplement manufacturers anytime soon.”

PHOTOS COURTESY GW PHARMACEUTICALS

Consumers are understandably worried about whether the government will eventually crack down on their abilit y to buy hemp -based CBD supplements online or in local stores.

20 thehempmag.com

CATEGORIZING CANNABIS

SC I EN C E- BAS E D ALT E R N AT I V E S I N T HE “ HE MP VS . MA R I J UANA” CO N V E R SAT I O N As our knowledge of the plant expands, there’s a growing sense that our taxonomical classification of its varieties should follow suit. B y M i t c h e l l C o l b e r t

just two subspecies of cannabis commonly discussed, Cannabis indica and Cannabis sativa.

Eventually, a third variety was added to the mix, the short and stocky auto-flowering Cannabis ruderalis. Under this system of nomenclature, hemp is considered a part of the Cannabis sativa family, but under most laws around the world, hemp can technically come from any of these three subspecies if the plant in question simply has below a predetermined THC level.

However, as research into the cannabis genome has developed, researchers created alternative nomenclature systems for the cannabis family, which includes what we colloquially call “hemp” and “marijuana.”

Recently, a number of competing nomenclature systems have come forward, based upon several studies performed to determine the proper taxonomy for cannabis. Out of these, the one which has gained the most acceptance among scientists and hemp farmers is known as the “Phylos taxonomy,” utilized by the Oregon-based biotechnology company, Phylos Bioscience.

In the Phylos taxonomy, the cannabis plant is split into different categories based upon its cannabinoid content. Type 1 plants are THC-rich with relatively little CBD, Type 2 plants have a balanced ratio of THC and CBD, and Type 3 plants are CBD-rich (with so little THC they can legally be classified as hemp).

According to Dr. Ethan Russo, a renowned cannabis researcher who is a proponent of this system of classification, the actual originator of the taxonomy was a scientist named Ernest Small of Ottawa, Canada.

Dr. Russo says that Small developed this taxonomy in 1975 and it has been in use ever since. Interestingly, Small was also the man who drew the line that determined hemp to be anything under 0.3 percent THC. At the time, Small admitted that 0.3 percent was an arbitrary point he chose on the low-THC spectrum.

EXPLORING THE ORIGINS OF THE PHYLOS TAXONOMY

MORPHOLOGY & TAXONOMY: SATIVAS VS. INDICAS

FOR DECADES, THERE WERE

Nishan Karassik, one of the founders of Phylos Bioscience, says that despite what the nomenclature’s name suggests, Phylos didn’t actually develop the system.

IS HEMP STILL ACTUALLY HEMP?

“At Phylos, we need to ask the question: Is it the genetic hemp or the legal hemp?” says Karassik, pushing beyond the three-type nomenclature system currently in use.

Basically, Karassik questions whether there needs to be a way to describe the difference between the tall, stocky industrial hemp plants and the bushy, flowering hemp plants grown for CBD. The latter variety contains genetics almost identical to that of high-THC cannabis — minus the THC. Both kinds of hemp would be considered Type 3 under the Phylos system, but the two plants are quite genetically distinct from each other.

“The hemp that most people grow in the U.S. for CBD is not genetically hemp so much as drug cultivars,” Karassik says.

That difference means that the hemp plants in the United States “are grown like trees [for flower] instead of how it is grown in Canada and Europe, as a row crop for fiber.”

Another flaw of this new nomenclature system is that it is only concerned with CBD and THC, but there are hundreds of other cannabinoids to contend with in the plant.

#hempmag 21 23

22 54 thehempmag.com

“At Phylos, we need to ask the question: Is it the genetic hemp or the legal hemp?” — N i s h a n K a r a s s i k

ABOVE: Sofi McKenzie, lab technologist at Phylos Bioscience, works in the lab. BELOW: Botanist Richard Evan Schultes (left) poses in Afghanistan in 1973 with what he classified as Cannabis ruderalis.

PHOTO ABOVE PHYLOS BIOSCIENCE BELOW EARTH AWARE EDITIONS/THE LOST AMAZON/ WADE DAVIS

While Phylos currently uses the chemotype-based taxonomy because, as Karassik says “it is pretty straightforward with the major cannabinoids,” he admits that the “methodology seems somewhat flawed as you get into the minor cannabinoids.”

In Karassik’s view, “As long as everyone agrees that Type 4 is CBG … as all the minors come into play it will [eventually lead to something like a] Type 119.”

The Phylos taxonomy isn’t the only classification system challenging the old order. Karassik spoke recently with Amsterdam-based cannabis scientist Robert Connell Clark, whose system distinguishes between narrow-leaf and broadleaf cultivars.

Clark’s system has four categories: narrow-leaf drug, broadleaf drug, narrow-leaf hemp, and broadleaf hemp.

Unlike the Phylos system, Clark’s system is based upon the morphological characteristics of the plant, meaning it classifies a plant based on looks rather than what chemicals it contains.

Ultimately, no matter the taxonomy you find most effective, the 0.3 percent THC legal threshold is all that really matters. While no taxonomy is perfect, these new nomenclature systems are taking important steps forward to clarify the different effects these plants can have on users, while attempting to keep up with the rapid rate of genetic advancement in the cannabis industry.

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On the side of a building in Brooklyn, NY, New Belgium Brewery rolls out the marketing campaign for Hemperor HPA, their first hemp-infused beer.

26 thehempmag.com

T HE RI S E O F H E MP B E E R Craft breweries throughout the U.S. are side-stepping legal barriers to create beers featuring hemp, touting its taste, aroma, and efficaciousness.

PHOTO COURTESY NEW BELGIUM BREWERY

B y K r i s t e n Ku c h a r

#hempmag 27

On a tour of Brewhouse 2 in New Belgium’s Fort Collins, CO brewing facility, two visitors enjoy a beer and peer into one of the many brew kettles.

in Germany still abide by an old, strict purity law, creating beer only utilizing water, barley, and hops during their brewing process. American brewers today, by contrast, can’t get enough of innovative and unexpected ingredients that often push the limits — think spaghetti sauce, horseradish, and beyond. And despite some extra hoops to jump through and occasional pushback, hemp is now gaining popularity as an ingredient in American beers.

One of the most notable beers incorporating hemp on the market today comes from Colorado-based New Belgium Brewing, which is the fourth leading producer of craft beer based on beer sales volume, according to the Brewers Association. New Belgium’s hemp-based beer is the Hemperor HPA, which contains no CBD or THC and is similar to an IPA. The inspiration for this beer came when researchers from nearby Colorado State University were chatting about their recent work with hemp plants with New Belgium’s brewers over beers in the taproom.

Hemp is a cousin of the hop plant, so its inclusion in the brewing process should really come as no surprise. The cone-shaped flowers of hops are the pivotal ingredient in stabilizing and extending the life of beer, creating a bittering effect and providing the identifiable aroma many craft beer enthusiasts swoon for.

Since brewers are always keeping an eye out for different hop varieties and the complexities and flavors new strains can bring, the New Belgium brewers were instantly intrigued by the idea of using hemp to create a beer unlike anything they’d brewed before.

New Belgium, located in the beer haven city of Fort Collins just north of Denver, partnered with a local farm, Colorado Cultivars, for the hemp. After a variety of challenges — both creative and legal — the bottled beer hit the market more than two years after that initial taproom-based discussion.

Because of restrictions on hemp usage under the federal government’s Alcohol Tobacco Tax Trade Bureau, New Belgium isn’t able MANY BREWERS

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to use the flower or the leaf if they want to sell the beer outside of Colorado. But they can use hemp seeds and hemp hearts, which, combined with Cascade, Nugget, and Simcoe hops, offer a meaty, spicy flavor to the beer.

Hemperor also uses other natural ingredients to emulate hemp terpene flavors, including pine sap, orange peel, and grapefruit.

“As soon as you pop the cap off that bad boy, you want to get your nose in there and experience the aroma, just like you’d do with wine,” says Bryan Simpson, New Belgium’s brewing communications director. “It’s like opening up a bag of weed.”

The super-bold aromas are the pungent pine, herbal, and floral smells that you’d expect from hemp. So much so, in fact, that comments on social media include comedic responses such as, “be careful opening this beer in public.” Even in the large, well-ventilated Fort Collins taproom, when a customer orders a Hemperor fresh from the tap, one can instantly smell the unmistakable aroma of hemp.

Hemperor pours a light golden color, and despite its overwhelming, captivating aroma, the actual taste is much milder than you might expect after smelling it. “It drinks like a traditional IPA,” Simpson explains. With a medium body and a slight sweetness throughout, the 7 percent ABV beer ends with moderate bitterness and a dry finish. They’ve received overwhelmingly positive feedback, says Simpson, of what they refer to as “The World’s Dankest Ale.”

“Gi v ing br ewer s access to thes e t er p enes fr om cannabis is like hav ing no t es in a musical s cale tha t you didn’ t have b e f or e.”

PHOTOS COURTESY NEW BELGIUM BREWERY

-JEREMY MARSHALL, BREWMASTER AT LAGUNITAS

#hempmag 29

Because it is illegal in all 50 states to combine THC with beer, some brewers like California’s Lagunitas have created non-alcoholic THCinfused drinks instead.

Some brewers are also looking to experiment with terpenes from hemp’s THC-laden cousin, cannabis. But because it is illegal to add THC to alcohol in all 50 states, the cannabis beers consequently aren’t much different from hemp beers in the end. For example, the Lagunitas Brewing Company in Petaluma, California, has partnered with their neighbors, cannabis extract company AbsoluteXtracts, to create their Supercritical Ale, an IPA brewed with THC-free cannabis terpenes.

During a video explaining the beer, Brewmaster Jeremy Marshall shares how hops make a wide array of terpenes, but iterates how Supercritical Ale’s cannabis terpenes provide additional terpenes not found in hops.

“Giving brewers access to these terpenes from cannabis is like having notes in a musical scale that you didn’t have before,” Marshall says.

But dealing with hemp, which is considered a Class 1 substance in the U.S. as far as the Alcohol Tobacco Tax Trade Bureau is concerned, hasn’t been entirely easy. Despite being sold throughout most of the country, the beer is completely banned in the state of Kansas.

The Hemperor himself — the character on the beer bottle — wears an outfit adorned with hemp leaves. He was the star of a few short promotional films, but when New Belgium posted these comedic videos on Facebook, they would get flagged and have their account suspended since the algorithm predicted they were making drug references.

During the 2018 Craft Brewers Conference in Nashville, Tennesee, an alcohol beverage lawyer discussed the extra steps brewers need to take during a Cannabis and Craft Beer seminar.

Brewers are required to get approval from the Alcohol Tobacco Tax Trade Bureau and undergo a lab analysis for the hemp process.

They also can’t refer to their products as “hemp beer.”

Following these rules, however, hasn’t helped everyone avoid trouble with the feds. Two breweries in Florida, Devour Brewing and Invasive Species Brewing, both received cease and desist letters from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau after brewers were unaware that using cannabis terpene oil in their beer needed pre-approval. The same thing happened to a San Francisco brewery, Black Hammer Brewing, after they created a beer with hemp-derived CBD. Despite some difficulties, New Belgium and a handful of other breweries haven’t been deterred from pressing on. Portland’s Coalition Brewing Co. is producing Oregon’s first CBD-infused beer, Two Flowers. This West Coast IPA has a bitter grassiness, but is crisp and refreshing.

“This new emerging industry has many hallmarks of our own industry, with a focus on community, innovation, and a positive impact to the local economy,” Coalition Brewing says on their website. “We are excited that beer once again is giving us the opportunity and platform [for] breaking down barriers.”

California’s Humboldt Brewing Company also makes two hemp beers, their Nector Pale Ale and Humboldt Brown, brewed with hemp seeds, which they say add unique, herb-accented flavors.

Fitger’s Brewhouse, located in Duluth, Minnesota, brews their Homegrown Hempen Ale with ground hemp seeds every year for a local music festival.

BEER & THE MAINSTREAM

The challenges that New Belgium faced during their quest for a beer made with hemp inspired the brewery to become an advocate for hemp. This year, the brewery teamed up with Willie Nelson’s cannabis brand, GCH, and the industry organization Vote Hemp to create the American Hemp Campaign, an effort to support commercial hemp farming in the U.S. When people visit New Belgium’s website to learn more about The Hemperor, they can also view short educational videos on the benefits of hemp. Visitors are also encouraged to sign a pre-written letter that, based on their zip code, gets sent to their local legislator to legalize hemp. The letters express the benefits that less-regulated hemp would have on the environment and the economy, saying reducing restrictions would lead to more American jobs. So far, because of their campaign, the company says 2,000 letters have been sent to local legislators.

Regardless if beers brewed with hemp end with these creative, risk-taking brewers, or they become the next big beer trend, one thing is certain — they’re raising awareness on hemp and making a positive impact on the industry.

New Belgium brewer Ross Koenigs led the development of the Hemperor HPA. 30 thehempmag.com

PHOTO COURTESY ABSOLUTE EXTRACTS AND NEW BELGIUM BREWERY

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TH E FUTUR E OF GMO H E M P

With hemp production and consumption on the rise, how much will genetic engineering play into hemp’s development as a commodity crop?

B y A n n i e R o u s e | I l l u s t r a t i o n by R y a n G a r c i a

have in common? One multinational company — Bayer Pharmaceuticals.

In 2003, the pharmaceutical and life sciences multinational giant entered into an exclusive marketing agreement with GW Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturers of the cannabis-plant-based pharmaceuticals, Epidiolex and Sativex. Fifteen years later, in May 2018, Bayer Pharmaceuticals purchased Monsanto, an agrochemical company most notable for their investments in genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

The question is: Will the merger spark the introduction of genetically modified hemp, or does it already exist?

For millennia, humanity has selectively developed traits in plant and animal genes to achieve a desired outcome through a process called selective breeding. The cannabis species is no different. Over thousands of years, farmers across the globe have selectively bred hemp to increase its favorable characteristics, including recently breeding it to increase the concentration of its various cannabinoids.

Today, selective breeding is essential for creating consistency in the hemp plant, especially considering that entire harvests could be ruined if a hemp crop produces more than the legal limit of THC. According to Dr. Ron Turco, the department head of agronomy at Purdue University, a crucial difference between hemp and traditional crops like corn and soybeans is that we can now easily grow traditional crops because we’ve had decades to work with them using modern scientific techniques — decades to selectively breed for traits such as seed size, plant height, and time to ripening. Selective breeding creates uniformity in crops that ease planting and harvesting operations for farmers, which in turn, increases on-farm revenues.

Unlike the elongated process of selective breeding, genetically modifying or genetically engineering an organism — defined as inserting new genetic code or deleting a gene sequence — did not begin until the 1970s. It wasn’t until over twenty years later, in 1994, that the first commercial genetically edited agricultural product, the Flavr Savr Tomato, hit store shelves.

Since then, Monsanto and other agrochemical companies have invested in research and development to improve the growth and harvest of major cash crops, particularly corn and soybeans, by implanting the genes of bacteria or protein WHAT DO MONSANTO AND GW PHARMACEUTICALS

to help protect the crops from weeds and insects.

Conversely, hemp hasn’t experienced the same path of genetic modification. Dr. Turco is skeptical that any genetically modified hemp is currently on the market or even being widely researched today.

“There are no registered pesticides for hemp, so resistance to herbicides is not something anybody is working on because there is nothing to be resistant to,” says Dr. Turco. “And then no one has really talked about modification for something like disease control because they’re not really clear about what the disease issues are yet.”

University of California, Davis might be the first institution to crack the code for modifying hemp varieties. The school has teamed up with Colorado-based agricultural biotech company, Front Range Biosciences. Together, they’re attempting to map the hemp genome so that agronomists and biologists can have a reference code when they selectively breed hemp, or when they start to genetically modify the plant. Understanding the genome will allow for improvements in identifying plant behaviors and traits, which will then allow cultivators to select new varieties that require less inputs like water, pesticides, and fertilizers.

ENGINEERING THC-FREE HEMP

If GMO hemp did exist, it could potentially help ease production concerns. However, regulatory hurdles continuously prevent the crop from reaching its potential.

One of those major regulatory hurdles in the U.S. is the demand for farmers to maintain THC levels below the 0.3 percent threshold. If the Department of Agriculture tests a farmer’s plots and finds the THC content above 0.3 percent, even if by accident, the plot must be destroyed. This creates a large risk considering the efforts and expenses necessary to grow the crop, such as application fees, land use, labor, and fertilizers, combined with the opportunity cost of not growing more reliable crops and not having insurance to cover the lost hemp in case of destruction.

Plant breeders like Colorado-based New West Genetics are counteracting this risk by selectively breeding hemp for specific traits, like low THC.

#hempmag 33 23

“[We breed for] around twelve different traits, at least, that make it a realistically, mechanically harvestable plant,” says Wendy Mosher, CEO of New West Genetics. “THC is just one thing. We’ve created zero [THC genetics].”

Mosher says the company isn’t opposed to GMO crops, but they’ve experienced genetics equally as stable using traditional breeding methods, so their goal with hemp has always been to follow the traditional breeding path.

Dr. Turco believes removing the THC compound from the plant could be an area where genetically modified hemp could play a significant role in the future.

“That could have a major impact on the discussion of what is hemp and what is marijuana,” explains Dr. Turco, saying that it would be feasibly possible to create a THC-free knock-out mutant where the THC would never come back or a mutant that would only make CBD. “So, it wouldn’t necessarily knock out the THC — you just wouldn’t allow it to happen,” Dr. Turco says.

But farmers and regulatory agents should not expect to see genetically modified THC-free hemp hitting the market anytime soon. The USDA would have to approve any GMO crop entering the market, which likely won’t happen in the current legal grey area around hemp.

In addition, companies must pay tens of millions of dollars in approval fees and commercialization costs to get the genetics to market. Dr. Turco says that researchers have begun to investigate GMO hemp, but completely removing THC from the plant is just a scientific question at this point.

“Their long, long term goal is no THC for hemp, but I haven’t seen a publication or [even] a graph on that topic, so there is no evidence that [it] has occurred in anyone’s lab,” he says. “It’s one of those theoretical things that someone might want to do.”

BIOENGINEERING CANNABINOIDS

While some researchers are busy understanding ways to improve the plant species to reduce risk and agricultural inputs while increasing harvest yields and cannabinoid content, others are forgoing the plant altogether and focusing on engineering cannabinoids, like CBD, biologically.

Kevin Chen, CEO and co-founder of Hyasynth Bio, a Canadian company founded in 2014, thinks the long-term demand for cannabinoids, especially for pharmaceuticals, will never be met by current hempproduction methods. Instead, he believes his company can meet the demand by biosynthesizing cannabinoids — growing them in yeast as opposed to soil.

In this case, the plant is not even necessary. The cannabinoids themselves are not genetically modified like a Monsanto seed, nor are they chemically synthesized like the synthetic-THC pharmaceutical, Marinol. Rather,

32 thehempmag.com 34

the DNA of yeast is modified to create cannabinoidproducing yeast strains. This technology isn’t new to pharmaceuticals; the process is similar to how manufacturers produce insulin.

In fact, companies and researchers like Hyasynth Bio can order DNA sequences from DNA synthesis companies. The DNA synthesis companies send the physical DNA, which can be in a dry powder or liquid form, directly to Hyasynth Bio. “These DNA parts are then added to the yeast genome and optimized for growth and yield in similar ways as plants,” Chen says. “The end result is individual yeast strains capable of producing each of the cannabinoids. The new yeast strains are fermented and then extracted to isolate purified cannabinoids.”

The cannabinoids are chemically the same compounds of those grown and extracted in the plant material, they’re just created in a different manner.

The effectiveness of biosynthesized cannabinoids in comparison to plant-based cannabinoids hasn’t been scientifically studied. However, biosynthesized cannabinoids bring a lot of benefits to the cannabinoid space, particularly when it comes to medical applications. Because the process is based on fermentation — a process that is already used for fuels, pharmaceuticals, food, and cosmetics — the operations are currently scalable, particularly when considering maintaining quality control, finding experts, and building equipment.

In addition, biosynthesized cannabinoids require significantly less space to produce considerably more cannabinoids. According to Chen, “Cannabis requires 1,000,000 square feet of space to grow around 16 tons of pure cannabinoids per year, but large-scale yeast fermentation facilities that take up only 200,000 square feet would be able to produce 750 tons of pure cannabinoid per year or even more.”

Less space means less impact on the environment and more efficient production, so that compounds like CBD can reach the broader population who are seeking it for medical or therapeutic benefit.

“It’s our goal to take all the benefits that we know about from phytocannabinoids, and use a scalable technology, like fermentation, to make sure that anyone on the planet can access these benefits,” Chen says.

Chen also thinks in the long term, biosynthesis will make it easier to manufacture minor cannabinoids that are more difficult to extract from the hemp plants, which could open new research and development for future pharmaceuticals or be added to current hemp extracts already on store shelves.

With the FDA approval of GW Pharmaceutical’s plant-derived drug, Epidolex, other pharmaceutical companies are sure to follow their footsteps, but will these companies use hemp plants in their natural form or their genetically modified form — or perhaps will they not even use the hemp plant at all?

“Large-scale yeast fermentation facilities t ha t t ake up o nl y 2 0 0,0 0 0 s quar e f e e t would be able to produce 750 tons of pure cannabinoids per year or even more.� - K E V I N C H E N

#hempmag 35 33

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Historical reenactors demonstrate traditional hemp harvesting methods at George Washington’s old estate.

A HARV EST ON MOUNT V E R NON R E PL ANT S HISTORY The land of America’s founding fathers sprouts hemp again. S t o r y a n d P h o t o s by B e n D r o z

#hempmag 37

THIS SUMMER, HEMP RETURNED once more to a land steeped

in centuries of historical power. On August 22, a team of hemp farmers and historical reenactors gathered at the Mount Vernon estate of America’s first president George Washington to host a special hemp harvest. The reenactors, decked out in bonnets, aprons, and neckties, used traditional methods of harvest and processing to demonstrate how hemp was used in colonial America. While the amount of hemp they harvested was small, the impact of their harvest could be one for the history books.

The Mount Vernon harvest was part of a larger effort, spearheaded by Virginia hemp farmer Brian Walden, to bring hemp back to the land of the founding fathers. Walden worked for months with the Virginia Industrial Hemp Coalition before convincing historians to plant hemp at Washington’s Mount Vernon estate, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello plantation, and at James Madison University in Harrisburg, Virginia.

“It’s been two generations [since] we last grew hemp,” Walden said. “That means it’s lost from the general population’s knowledge or memory.”

Initially, Mount Vernon’s inaugural hemp crop struggled through monsoon-like rains that washed away much of the seed, but the hemp ultimately thrived on the land after it was resown.

With the hemp harvest at Mount Vernon, Walden’s effort came to a successful conclusion and presented a clear message: Hemp is central to colonial American history and should also represent the progress and future of America.

ABOVE: Brian Walden of the Virginia Hemp Coalition is responsible for helping to coordinate the historic hemp program’s return to Mount Vernon. He helped bridge the gap between researchers at the University of Virginia, and program directors at Jefferson’s Monticello plantation and Mount Vernon.

FOUNDING FATHERS’ HEMP HISTORY

During the 1600s, around 90 percent of early colonial Americans were farmers out of necessity and many of them planted hemp to use for rope and textiles. Hemp, like other agricultural products in colonial America, was grown by both small farmers and by larger, planation-based slave-owning individuals. Founding fathers George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Madison were among the nation’s most famous hemp farmers and wrote highly of hemp at the time. Out of the four founding fathers mentioned above, only Adams did not own slaves.

Washington mentions hemp at least 90 times in his writings, and there are many correspondences that show that he was interested in new hemp companies. In 1799, Washington wrote to then-Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton to request money to support hemp farmers, asking, “Do you conceive in suggesting the policy of encouraging the growth of Cotton, and Hemp in such parts of the United States as are adapted to the culture of these articles?”

Jefferson wrote more forcefully in favor of hemp, saying, “Flax is so injurious to our lands, and of so scanty produce, that I have never attempted it. Hemp, on the other hand, is abundantly productive and will grow for ever on the same spot.”

Jefferson even developed an innovation on the hemp brake decorticator to process hemp more efficiently. According to legend, Jefferson did not get a patent on this innovation, despite being a prolific inventor and the Secretary of State, because he wanted his innovation to be shared with other enterprising hemp farmers.

32 thehempmag.com 38

Colonial ships relied on a special hemp product called “oakum” in order to float. To build the massive boats of commerce and war, shipbuilders nailed together wooden planks by hand and made sure the seals were air tight with oakum. Here, a man at Mount Vernon recreates the process of making oakum, which included taking recycled hemp ropes or virgin hemp fiber and processing them into very fine fiber that would be fluffed in a way to create a non-woven strand, not unlike the nonwoven mat that today is the foundation of biocomposites. Like a biocomposite, the hemp was then impregnated with a waterproof binder (tar) and then used as caulking to line every seam of the ship for a perfect seal.

Historically, hemp was difficult to process by hand, and it was done in a similar way as flax linen. Here, Deborah Colburn, a historic trade interpreter at Mount Vernon, uses a heckle —— a board with nails —— to comb and separate the rough fibers.

#hempmag 39 57

“Fla x is s o injur ious t o our lands, and o f s o s can t y pr o duce, tha t I have never a t t emp t e d it . Hemp, on the o ther hand, is abundan tl y pr o duc ti ve and will g r ow f or ever on the same sp o t .” - T H O M A S J E F F E R S O N In the middle of the 18th century, Virginia was cultivating around 12,000 acres of hemp annually, and that increased to some 20,000 acres later in the 19th century. That would yield around 5,000 tons of hemp, which was processed in local hemp mills and used locally or exported to Great Britain. Citizens were even allowed to pay taxes in bales of hemp.

For this year’s historic harvest at Mount Vernon, the hemp was grown appropriately on the “Pioneer Farm,” one of the five farms on Washington’s estate. But it was “Muddy Hole” that Washington specifically references in his diary in 1765. Here, he (or more likely, his slaves) planted hemp around May 15 and harvested it around August 15. This is such a short time to harvest that the hemp must not have fully flowered, so it is unlikely that any founding fathers grew hemp for its cannabinoids.

And, in keeping with historical accuracy, the hemp grown at Mount Vernon this year was of the industrial variety prized for its fiber, not the sort of hemp that is more popular with farmers today looking to harvest cannabinoids from the flower.

Ultimately, though the hemp industry of America’s forefathers is quite different from the current hemp industry, some things remain the same. As Jefferson says, hemp “will grow for ever on the same spot,” no matter the political atmosphere around it.

ABOVE: Hemp stalks were harvested at Mount Vernon by hand using a traditional sickle. This year, Mount Vernon grew hemp on its four-acre Pioneer Farm and harvested it with historical tools.

ABOVE: Hemp was a crop George Washington considered as a replacement for tobacco in the 1760s. At that time, England was paying a premium for American hemp. Although it did not become the profitable export crop Washington wanted, he continued growing hemp at Mount Vernon in support of various industrial needs on the estate. By the time he died in 1799, George Washington owned 123 slaves who he forced to live at Mount Vernon and grow hemp on all five of the farms that composed the estate. Muddy Hole was one of those farms, where Washington wrote that he sowed hemp on May 12, 1765.

LEFT: Mount Vernon’s director of horticulture Dean Norton spoke about the value of hemp before the estate’s traditional hemp harvest.

Norton has worked at Mount Vernon for nearly 40 years and has been an enthusiastic supporter behind the incorporation of hemp into the historic mission of Mount Vernon.

32 thehempmag.com 40

Hemp was a very common crop in colonial America. However, all harvesting, processing, and manufacturing was essentially done by hand and many hemp farmers, including Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, used slaves to complete the labor-intensive process.

A hemp brake is a primitive type of decortication machine used to separate the long bast fibers from the woody short fibers known as hurd, or shiv. The machine, powered by hand, literally breaks the hemp to get it ready for heckling. In fact, Thomas Jefferson even designed and created an improved hemp brake to process hemp fiber more quickly. Despite being a patent examiner who held many patents, it is believed that Jefferson decided not to patent his hemp brake so that he could share the technology and so that it could be innovated upon by others. Centuries later, we still have yet to innovate efficient hemp decortication processing in the United States.

#hempmag 41

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L AB TESTIN G IN TH E HEM P C BD OI L I N D U ST RY Both consumers and producers often struggle when it comes to testing, verifying, and owning hemp-derived products with trace levels of THC. While industry testing is common, it isn’t required, which presents difficulties for some consumers. B y A . J . H e r r i n g t o n packed up her car to move from New Mexico, she didn’t think twice about the 10-milliliter sample bottle of Functional Remedies CBD oil she put in her bag.

Maddux, 50, had more pressing things on her mind — namely her mother’s stage IV colon cancer and the trip to Montana to be with her. But, as she was driving through Wyoming, she was pulled over by a deputy sheriff in Teton County for having expired license plate tags. When the deputy determined that Maddux’s driver’s license and insurance had lapsed and Maddux told him she was unable to appear in court or pay an $850 fine, she was arrested.

As Maddux was being booked, jail personnel found her bottle of CBD oil. When a field test showed the presence of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, in the oil, Maddux was charged with a felony. Despite being well under the federal limit of 0.3 percent THC (independent tests of the Functional Remedies product later revealed a THC content of 0.06 percent), Maddux still found herself in trouble because, under Wyoming law, possession of more than 0.3 grams of CBD with any amount of THC is a felony.

Maddux’s experience illustrates the confusion over the arbitrary THC limits that delineate the difference between industrial hemp and cannabis. In most of Europe, THC levels must not exceed 0.2 percent, while Austria’s limit mirrors the U.S. at 0.3 percent. In Italy, 0.6 percent is allowed, and THC levels up to 1.0 percent are permissible in Switzerland.

This inconsistency in the hemp potency rules, even between different states in America, can lead to trouble like what Maddux experienced and underscores the importance lab testing has in the hemp industry.

PHOTO COURTESY VAPING360.COM/CBD-OIL-CANNABIDIOL-HEMP-OIL

WHEN ANITA MADDUX

AN INDUSTRY OF PERCENTAGES

To comply with THC limits, many hemp farmers and CBD oil companies employ the services of cannabis analytic testing laboratories. These labs specialize in the analysis of cannabis and hemp flower, as well as products derived from the crops.

Besides quantifying the levels of THC and other cannabinoids, testing labs can determine if samples include dangerous substances such as pesticides, bacteria, molds, and other contaminants. Although required testing of hemp products is being considered in Colorado, most states do not have regulations mandating lab testing of CBD products.

Dr. Anthony Smith is the chief scientific officer of the cannabis lab testing chain Evio Labs, which has 11 locations in five states. Smith estimates that about 25 percent of the company’s business is related to industrial hemp, including testing growing plants in the field for farmers and state agricultural departments. Evio’s hemp customers are looking for a variety analytical services, from a basic cannabinoid profile

and pesticide screening all the way to full test panels that comply with FDA regulations for nutritional supplements.

Smith says that the importance of lab testing depends on the customer’s location in the supply chain. For growers, monitoring THC levels to ensure they do not spike above 0.3 percent is critical, as crops that exceed the limit must be destroyed.

LAB TESTING ADDS VALUE

For producers of hemp CBD oils and products made from them, lab testing not only verifies a product’s safety and potency, but also allows manufacturers to maintain consistent quality.

“Testing isn’t just out there because it’s the rules,” says Smith. “It adds value to a business.”

Hemp farmer Bryan Sawyer of Envision Farms in Monte Vista, Colorado says regular testing is key to maintaining THC levels within government limits. He tests his fields weekly after flowering begins and tracks the progression of CBD and THC levels to help him predict optimal harvest

“Testing isn’t just out there because it’s the rules. It adds value to a business.”

- Dr. Anthony Smith #hempmag 45

time. But Sawyer notes that hemp farmers are still learning all the variables that can impact cannabinoid production.

“This is new to all of us, so we don’t know if there’s environmental impact if, say, a big cold front comes through or if the barometric pressure affects anything,” says Sawyer. “If you give them too much phosphates, potash, or microbes, what does it do to them? All that stuff people are still figuring out.”

Brian Smalley, the CEO of the Freedom Hemp Company — which operates five farms throughout Oregon — says that the expense of lab testing for CBD oil producers is so enormous that it dramatically drives up the price of finished products.

After spending an estimated $35,000 to $40,000 each of the last two years on analysis fees, Freedom Hemp is in the process of installing its own testing and extraction facility, slated to be up and running in October 2018.

Smalley adds that the cost of lab testing can be so expensive that some farmers forego it altogether. As an agricultural product, industrial hemp products have no requirements for laboratory analysis in Oregon unless they enter the regulated cannabis market. Freedom Hemp has all its products tested for cannabinoid potency and contaminants, a practice Smalley believes should be a requirement.

“We will test thoroughly because there is only one way to make good medicine and that’s not to cut corners,” Smalley says.

Tyler Strause is the CEO of Randy’s

Club, a producer and retailer of hemp CBD topicals and tinctures under the brand Randy’s Remedies. He founded the company with his mother after his father was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2008 and succumbed to the disease in 2010. Strause’s family used medical cannabis to help manage his father’s symptoms and side effects with success.

But a lack of testing standards and results made it difficult to consistently find effective products.

“When we decided to start our business, we set out to create the kinds of products we wished we had when he was still alive,” Strause remembers.

Randy’s Club uses hemp oil, grown and produced in Kentucky, in its products that it sells across state lines. Before the oil can leave the state, it must be lab tested for potency and purity. Once the tests have been made and the CBD oil is issued a certificate of analysis, it can be shipped to the company’s co-packer in California.

While the lab testing of hemp and CBD goods provides valuable information for companies at all levels of the supply chain and can help consumers determine what is in the products they are using, it does not and cannot eliminate the confusion about the delineation between hemp and cannabis in different jurisdictions. Without clear and consistent regulations for the cannabinoid content of industrial hemp products, cases similar to that of Anita Maddux are likely to continue.

FOCUS ON CONSUMERS: LAB TESTING FOR CBD PRODUCTS

Unless a CBD oil product has been produced to be sold in a regulated cannabis market, there are no requirements for lab testing results on CBD package labels in the United States.

However, nearly all hemp-derived CBD oil products will state how many milligrams of CBD per serving the product contains, though many won’t necessarily include verified lab testing results. For those interested in beginning a CBD supplement regimen, 25-50 milligrams of CBD per day is often recommended as a starting dose and it’s always best if the product has verifications from an independent lab.

Also, information about other results for other compounds found in hemp-derived CBD oil are not commonly found on product packaging, although it can sometimes be found on a manufacturer’s website.

If this data is available (usually on a pass or fail basis), hemp CBD products should be free of the following contaminants: Pesticides: Although hemp can be grown

successfully without the use of pesticides, some farmers still use agricultural chemicals on their crops and overspray from nearby fields is possible. Hemp products should not contain residues of insecticides, weed killers, fungicides, or other chemicals.

Biological Contaminants: CBD products

should not be contaminated with bacteria, molds, or fungi.

levels of heavy metals than others, either naturally or through contamination. Hemp plants can accumulate dangerous metals including arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, copper, lead, and mercury.

Residual Solvents: Hemp oils produced

with hydrocarbon solvents can sometimes have residual contamination.

Many cannabis testing labs will test samples brought in by consumers for potency and contamination, but the cost can be prohibitive. A full panel of tests for potency and the above contaminants can cost $500 or more. Potency tests can be completed in as little as one day, though biological contamination panels can take five days or more.

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PHOTO COURTESY VAPING360.COM/CBD-OIL-CANNABIDIOL-HEMP-OIL

Heavy Metals: Some soils have higher

THE NEW FACES OF HEMP

TR ADITIONAL AG BET S BIG IN MONTANA S t o r y by J o e l H a t h a w ay | P h o t o s by A n d r e w M a r t i n

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In 2018, Montana farmers planted roughly 6,000 percent more hemp acreage than they did in 2017. The people behind the surge are using different methods than — and generally don’t have the same experiences as — your typical hemp cultivators. As harvest season arrives, however, success for these farmers is far from guaranteed. the more impressed I am with the plant. You can turn it into so many different things,” says Colby Johnson, a fourth generation Montana farmer. He’s standing in a field with multiple hemp varieties that stretches well beyond the horizon and what the eye can take in, holding a flower from one of his plants.

The Johnson family plants and harvests around 20,000 acres of crops on their farm near Conrad, Montana, about 50 miles from the Canadian border. They grow malt barley, winter and spring wheat, dirham, green peas, yellow peas, lentils, garbanzo beans, soy beans, corn, canola, alfalfa, and sainfoin — and now hemp.

As he surveys his first harvest this year, Johnson brims with excitement.

“It’s amazing. We grow wheat too, so compare it to a wheat seed. When I put a wheat seed in the ground, at harvest, we can turn it into what: flour for bread, beer, maybe a couple of other things? But hemp, you put one little seed in the ground […] I could stand here for the next week and list the things you can use hemp for,” Johnson says.

“You can also have five different businesses in a small town using hemp in different ways that don’t have to compete with each other,” he continues. “There’s someone in Fort Benton making pellets for stoves. There’s a guy in Bozeman who’s doing hempcrete. And for farmers, for every acre that goes to hemp, it probably means that the prices of other commodity crops go up as less acreage is planted of them.”

Johnson is part of an emerging trend. This year, Montana farmers are planting hemp in acreage that far exceeds what they’ve done before. And it’s largely being done using methods associated with traditional agriculture, in places that few visitors to the state have ever seen.

“THE MORE I READ AND LEARN ABOUT HEMP,

THE MONTANA YOU’VE NEVER SEEN

At the extreme north end of the 3,100-mile-long Continental Divide Trail, where most hikers end their arduous journeys, sits the Crown of the Continent, Glacier National Park. With its sublimely turquoise, glacially-fed rivers, abundant wildlife, and majestic peaks, it draws over three million tourists each year.

For many visitors that come to Montana, Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks — and the communities that immediately surround them — are the one small snippet of the state they’ll ever see. While the postcard-perfect peaks and wild rivers are very much a part of the real Montana, between and around them you’ll find valleys and plains filled with family farms and ranches.

If you travel east from Glacier, past the long shadows of the park and the craggy peaks of the Front Range, you encounter a different Montana altogether. Here, in a land historically inhabited by the Blackfoot Tribe, whose reservation now sits about 25 miles to the west, you encounter what’s known as the Golden Triangle, named for its rich soil and ideal agricultural conditions. Tourism may be what draws most visitors to the state, but in most of Montana, agriculture is king.

For the past few years, the hemp industry has been booming in states that have a historical connection to the plant or an established, legal cannabis industry. But in Montana, which has neither, it’s been slow to take. That is, until now.

That’s likely because Montana is a relatively conservative state where hemp is still strongly associated with marijuana.

Generally speaking, the communities of the state that rely most heavily on agriculture for their economies are among the state’s most conservative. So while small pockets of hemp production popped up around the state, many farmers remained wary of growing a crop that, until very recently, was associated with illicit drug use. But with Republican legislators now increasingly backing hemp as an agricultural commodity, attitudes are evolving.

A 38 MILLION PLANT HEMP HARVEST: THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGIN’

While Montana may have been slow to ramp up production of hemp, in 2018, they’ve turned that trend on its head.

Justin Loch is the membership director of the Montana Farmers Union, an ag advocacy organization based in Great Falls, Montana, that works to support family farms.

With over 1,600 paying members in Montana (the Montana Farmers Union is part of the National Farmers Union, which has over 200,000 members), the organization is one of the

Colby Johnson stands in a sea of ruderalis in Montana’s Golden Triangle.

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In 2018, Montana farmers like Johnson are planting an unprecedented amount of hemp, hoping that the mechanisms to get it to market will be in place in time for harvest.

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The roots of a ruderalis hemp plant, neatly plucked from the ground, display some of its structural soil benefits.

ABOVE: A simple barbed wire heart adorns a fence line near Choteau, MT, where the craggy peaks of the Front Range give way to fertile prairies and farmland. BELOW: Round bales of hemp are one of the harvesting methods that Johnson is testing this year.

largest farming-focused organizations in the United States.

In early 2018, Loch traveled the state providing educational workshops about industrial hemp, where he was met with large crowds.

“When I did these workshops, there were 60–75 people at most of the meetings,” Loch says. “It was pretty well received. Farmers are leaning towards [hemp] because other commodity crop prices are in the toilet. They’re looking for new crops to get income.”

Johnson, who traveled to some of the workshops to help educate other farmers, reiterates Loch’s sentiment.

“Whether it’s wheat prices, or barley, or whatever, prices are generally sh*t right now. Farmers need a crop that they can grow and make money on. And right now, I think that’s hemp,” says Johnson.

Last year in Montana, the state’s hemp pilot program only allowed producers to plant 50 acres. In 2017, Johnson, his father Paul, and his brother Ross each planted 50 acres of industrial hemp for hemp hearts. This year, they’ve combined their efforts to seed 350 acres of multiple strains of hemp, hoping to sell it most of it for CBD extraction instead. An agronomist on their farm recently estimated a plant density of 110,000 plants per acre, meaning they’re sitting on roughly 38,500,000 hemp plants.

The Johnsons are not alone in their expansion. In 2017, Montana had 14 hemp producers with a combined 425 acres, says Ian Foley, who works for Montana’s Commodity Services Bureau and heads its Industrial Hemp Pilot Program. Much of that hemp was grown for foodstuffs, likely a product of Montana’s (and its pilot program’s) proximity and agricultural

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“We’re seeing a big increase in terms of acreage. This year, we’re seeing hemp growing in around 100 locations, good for about 25,000 acres.” - I A N F O L E Y

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ties to Canada, where hemp is primarily grown for food.

“This is my second year with the program,” says Foley. “We’re seeing a big increase in terms of acreage. This year, we’re seeing hemp growing in around 100 locations, good for about 25,000 acres. And it’s primarily being grown for CBD.” If you paused when you read that number — 25,000 acres — you’re probably not alone. But it’s not a typo. In 2017, the entire nation planted 25,713 acres of hemp per Vote Hemp’s 2017 U.S. Hemp Crop Report. In other words, when Montana farmers decided to try out hemp, they went big.

But while the present state of Montana’s hemp industry is thriving in terms of interest, education, and acreage, the situation isn’t perfect.

WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THAT HEMP

The surplus of hemp grown this year in Montana illustrates a collection of problems echoed across

the hemp industry writ large, particularly when it comes to processing bottlenecks and seed sourcing issues.

“We have a whole ag development division.

We’ve had processors from all across the U.S. and Canada contact us, but it’s still all about markets,” says Foley. “Our farmers know how to grow stuff. We have reasonably good access to [hemp] seed from Canada at a reasonable price, but we need markets and processors.”

Also, while Montana farmers do have access to seed at competitive prices, Loch says, “The varieties of seeds that the state got from Canada aren’t that high in CBD. Farmers have to buy seed through the pilot program, and all the seed comes from Hemp Genetics International in Canada.

And while it’s quality seed, their varieties are more for food grade oil or hemp hearts.”

Loch’s statement reiterates the confusion surrounding the acquisition of approved seed varietals, not just in Montana, but around the country.

While not alone in his interpretation which seeds are approved, the Montana Pilot Program’s website states “Only seed purchased from the Pilot Program seed repository or ordered from a DEA-approved source can legally be planted in Montana.”

For farmers, it means performing due diligence and contacting their state’s pilot program for clarification are the safest way to ensure compliance and move forward.

Johnson says that most of the plants on his farm, which are the Canadian ruderalis variety, are currently testing at about 3 percent CBD, which is far below the percentage of many of the nation’s smaller scale hemp farms that grow specifically for CBD. But with the large amount of acreage that Montana farmers are planting, and the fact that many of them use seeders, pivot lines, and harvesters to grow and harvest their crops (minimizing the number of people and hours required to produce the crop), it’s possible that the lower percentage will be counterbalanced by the sheer amount of product grown.

Planting, growing, and harvesting hemp for CBD in this manner hasn’t really been tested yet —meaning the overall outcome is still unknown. For instance, if the crops produced by Montana farmers generally have a low percentage of CBD, what will it mean at

A pivot line sits over a massive plot of multiple hemp varietals, which were planted using a seeder. They’ll be harvested using traditional farming methods for commodity crops.

processing? Will it be economically viable to extract? And if some of the traditional agriculturists use pesticides and insecticides on their hemp fields, which seems likely, will these compounds become over concentrated during extraction?

Figuring out how that works will fall on the shoulders of Montana’s CBD processors. And therein lies another cloud blossoming on the horizon. As Foley puts it, “There is only one largescale processor of CBD in the state. It’s in Eureka.”

That processor in Eureka is Vitality Natural Health, which sits in the state’s extreme northwest corner near the Idaho and Canada borders. Speaking with HEMP, multiple people familiar with the Montana hemp industry expressed concerns about the company’s ability to process the amount of acreage planted this year, as well as its relationships with farmers.

“We’ll see if Vitality Health can take care of [the farmers],” says Loch. “I’ve heard that 90 percent of the hemp in Montana is contracted with them to be processed as CBD. When this all started this year at planting season, people were calling the Montana Farmers Union asking if the processor was legitimate; we told them enter at their own risk. But there just aren’t a lot of places for Montana farmers to take industrial hemp right now.”

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“Farmers here are looking for ways to make money because margins are so low on other crops. But a bad processor leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth and they won’t want to grow hemp anymore. There are other options for what to grow.” - C O L B Y J O H N S O N

One block off of Main St. in Conrad, MT sit bins and elevators, the calling cards of communities surrounded by productive farmland.

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Johnson says that originally when they planted this year’s crop, they considered sending it to Eureka.

“They promised $800 an acre, but they seem super sketchy,” he said. “It’s a great time to get into the hemp game, but we need processors in Montana. Farmers here are looking for ways to make money because margins are so low on other crops. But a bad processor leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth and they won’t want to grow hemp anymore. There are other options for what to grow.”

Now, Johnson says, he’s in talks to bring another processor to Conrad, which he estimates would provide around 15 much-needed jobs to the 2,600-person town.

But that processor won’t be up and running for 2018’s harvest season.

HEMP reached out to Vitality Natural Health multiple times and received no response.

Loch is hoping that, at the end of the day, farmers won’t be stuck with harvested crops they can’t sell.

“A few years ago, there was an oil seed crop called camelina that was processed for jet fuel. But the market tanked, and we still have farmers sitting on it,” Loch said. “We hope that doesn’t happen with hemp. If there aren’t enough processors, we get a glut. If they can’t process it or there isn’t enough CBD content, the farmers will just have to sit on it.”

A lonely Montana highway heads east towards the Missouri River and Big Belt Mountains.

A circle of tipi stones stand testament to the Blackfoot Tribe’s historical hunting grounds near the Marias River Breaks.

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The edge of the Front Range marks the boundary between the Bob Marshall Complex’s 1.5 million acres of designated wilderness and the vast northern Montana prairieland.

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The sun sets on a field filled with Angus cattle near Conrad, Montana.

“I talked to people in Oregon and they said ‘You have to plant it by hand.

You have to pick it by hand. It has to be hand-dried.’ I’m not hand-picking 350 f*cking acres. We’re going to figure out how to do it on our own.” - C O L B Y J O H N S O N

UNCERTAIN? YES. BLEAK? MAYBE NOT.

Johnson, for his part, acknowledges the uncertainty about who and how his hemp will be processed, but doesn’t seem overly concerned.

“We kinda just have to figure it out ourselves,” he says. “It’s all pretty much new. The same thing applies to when we planted. I talked to people in Oregon and they said ‘You have to plant it by hand. You have to pick it by hand. It has to be hand-dried.’ I’m not hand-picking 350 f*cking acres. We’re going to figure out how to do it on our own.”

It’s a quintessentially Montanan attitude in a state where rugged individualism is very much a societal undertone. And it’s also a sentiment that hits to the heart of Montana’s hemp industry: While in other states it appears that the industry is being by led by people who have learned to cultivate their plants with expertise garnered via the medical cannabis industry, in Montana, the growth is being

spurred by traditional agriculturists — farmers much more at home at a county rodeo than in a cannabis dispensary.

It’s likely that these farmers will have to learn the intricacies of the plant from growers who cut their teeth in the medical cannabis industry. But it’s also likely that people who have been growing crops, working with processors, and getting product to market for decades will have just as much to teach the emergent industry.

Despite uncertainty about seed varieties and processors, hope for the hemp industry abounds in Montana, just as it does elsewhere in the U.S. Surveying his recently harvested wheat fields that sit adjacent to the steep bluffs and meandering, arterial canyons of Marias River Breaks, Johnson waves his hand in a wide swath across the horizon.

“We’ll figure out something to do with it. And as long as we can find a use for it and get it to market, all of this you see here will be hemp next year.”

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During the Battle of the Hemp Bales in the U.S. Civil War, Confederate soldiers used hemp as protective shields.

A S HORT H I S TORY OF H E M P I N WARTI M E It’s not all durable paper and facial oils.

B y K a t i e Way

as a benevolent wünder-crop. It grows fast and tall, its cultivation is a salve for our dying planet, and its myriad uses compel proponents of the plant to lavish it with praise.

But hemp is just a plant, and in the hands of humanity, this raw material hasn’t always been used for our betterment; it’s also been a tool of war and imperialism.

Hemp’s primary usage during wartime through the ages has been in the realm of maritime conflict, says Barney Warf, a professor and human geographer who has conducted research on cannabis and hemp.

“For military purposes, things like rope and sails would probably have been the most important applications there,” Warf says.

The Vikings, for instance, are thought to have used hemp rope and hemp sails on their tour-de-plunder, based on remnants of cannabis plants found in Norwegian bogs that date back to 800 AD. Centuries later, hemp also played an important role as a crop of the colonizer.

“When there was a maritime world economy and basically getting people and goods around by ship, a lot of the colonial powers were very interested in hemp,” Warf says.

In the 1600s, the Spanish attempted to grow hemp in Colombia and succeeded in Chile, mostly to provide rope for their fleet of ships. Not to be outdone, the British also got their colonists in on the action.

“In Jamestown, Virginia, they were required to grow hemp,” says Warf, largely in order to provide the British Navy with more of that sweet hemp rope.

The Revolutionary War didn’t put a stop to hemp in the Colonies.

In fact, the earliest drafts of our Declaration of Independence, the publication of which sparked our revolution, were reportedly written on hemp paper. If that sounds like a stretch, try this: Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp, and the IT’S EASY TO EXALT HEMP

U.S.S. Constitution, America’s oldest Navy warship, nicknamed “Old Ironsides,” was rigged with literal tons of hemp fiber.

Less than a century later, hemp was used much more directly during the Civil War’s first Battle of Lexington, a Confederate victory also known as the Battle of the Hemp Bales. Why? Because it was there that the pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard used wet bales of hemp as shields to protect them from Union firepower — and successfully advanced far enough to force the Union commanders to surrender.

The final conflict in which hemp played a major role was also one of the last major world conflicts: World War II, in which both the United States and Japan leaned heavily on the crop.

In Japan, hemp was considered an essential component of many military supplies, according to Japanese cannabis expert Junichi Takayasu.

“During World War II, there was a saying among the military that without cannabis, the war couldn’t be waged,” Takayasu told the Japan Times in 2014. “Cannabis was classified as a war material, used by the navy for ropes and the air force for parachute cords.”

Stateside, nothing better encapsulates the U.S. military’s demand for hemp better than “Hemp for Victory,” a 1942 propaganda film produced by the United States Department of Agriculture. The film aimed to convince farmers to grow more hemp by enumerating hemp’s good qualities, all done over black and white footage and a musical score that swells fat with patriotism. A narrator lists all of the things American hemp be made into to serve the troops — thread for shoes, parachute webbing, “countless naval uses” — declaring proudly that “American hemp will go on-duty again!”

None of this historical context necessitates that we abandon all hemp, ye who enter here. It’s just a reminder to be careful about how we use this versatile plant, as humanity learns more and more about what’s possible to do with it.

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Franklin the French Bulldog, Tova the St. Bernard, and David Turetsky work (and smile) at Shi Farms.

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SHI FARMS: STEWARDS OF SUSTAINABILIT Y Colorado-based Shi Farms has spent the past year scaling up and expanding to new climates, but one constant remains: Water and sunshine are all their hemp plants need. B y K . A s t r e

at Shi Farms this summer, as they eagerly and confidently awaited the final decision on federal hemp legalization. It’s been an exciting year for them — planting hundreds of acres of hemp, extracting pesticide-free CBD, and expanding their business into a new state, all while sticking to their deep commitment to growing green. For Steven Turetsky, the managing director of the Colorado-based hemp cultivation company, sustainability isn’t just a buzzword. It’s a part of the long-term vision for the company.

“We see hemp as one of the most sustainable agricultural commodities because it has so many uses, compared to other crops that are only single-use,” Turetsky explains. “The first pillar of our sustainability model is to have a dual-use crop where we’re using the entire plant for as many uses as possible. For instance, with hemp, you can take the flower and use it for CBD or you can take the stalks and use it for industrial applications.”

Though they’re a small crew, the team at Shi Farms (short for Sustainable Hemp Initiative) has been a very busy bunch.

Their pilot harvest of 15 acres in Pueblo, Colorado last summer was successful and provided the momentum for them to scale up this year. They planted 100 acres on their own farm and co-opted another 100 acres in eastern Colorado with a partner farmer. They also expanded into New York, planting a small, two-acre pilot plot to test the environment and see how hemp grows in a different climate. The results have been exciting.

“The one thing we definitely have learned is that hemp is a very hearty plant and that it will grow anywhere,” says Turetsky.

“We’re still waiting to see the differences in things like terpenes and cannabinoid content based on environmental factors.”

Turetsky says that Shi Farms loves “gobbling up” all the research they can find on hemp cultivation to help with the expansion. In the more-arid Pueblo climate, for example, they used dry-farming techniques. But in the fertile growing region of the New York’s Hudson Valley, Turetsky says there’s been an excess of water.

“It’s called the Black Dirt region. There’s this glacial soil that’s there — it’s black as night,” he says. “The farm gets plenty of water, so we had to deal with things like needing to dig ditches to drain excess water. That’s never been an issue for us. So, that’s THE ENERGY WAS HIGH

been a unique experience. But the plant has reacted phenomenally to any climate, which has been cool to see.”

Luckily, Shi Farms has also had great luck in working with New York to get their business up and running faster. Turetsky noticed that the state borrowed some practices from Colorado in terms of how they were monitoring farms with GPS and harvesting reports, so the company was ready for those types of regulatory oversights.

That preparedness left lots of room for Shi Farms to focus on what’s most important to them — growing quality hemp with a zero-waste philosophy. The farm grows primarily for CBD, but they try to make sure they utilize more of the plant than just the cannabinoids.

After they extract CBD from the flower, they take the “spent hemp,” or the ground up flower material without any cannabinoids in it, and use it as fertilizer on the still-growing outdoor crops. Then, they grind up the stalks of the hemp plant — which Turetsky says are a woody-type hemp stalk, not the fiber type — and use probiotics to create a compost, using the Japanese farming technique called bokashi.

“The question we get all the time is: ‘Are you guys organic?’

What we tell people is that the only inputs that go into our outdoor field are water and sunshine,” says Turetsky. “This crop is so special and unique that you are cultivating a weed, more or less. This plant has tolerated so many conditions and has tried to be eradicated by so many different countries at various points in its history and it’s persevered. So, there’s really no nonsense to it.

We only use water and sunshine and the plant does the rest of the work. We hope to keep it that way.”

So, what’s the future of the hemp industry look like? Turetsky believes that the industrial applications of hemp will begin to take off.

“When you look at hemp, as opposed to cotton, and how much water it consumes and how fast it can grow, there should be way more hemp textiles,” he says. “People should be wearing hemp clothing and there should be hemp paper goods, because hemp grows way faster than trees and is more sustainable than the lumber industry. All of the reasons that hemp was criminalized back in the ’30s are the same reasons that we believe will champion us to continue the development of the commodity.”

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Steven Turetsky and Drew Ferguson, the farm’s director of operations, pose with their first harvest.

“We see hemp as one of the most sustainable agricultural commodities because it has so many uses, compared to other crops that are only single-use.”

— Steven Turetsky

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He also sees major advancements on the science side that may change the way we see hemp altogether.

“We’ve only scratched the surface on cannabinoid science, and that’s going to be what will drive the next five years of innovation,” he says. “You’re going to see rare cannabinoids coming to the forefront, like CBG and CBC and other cannabinoids we haven’t even identified yet. I think we are going to see some really cool medical discoveries in how cannabinoids can help our bodily functions. So, like, recombination of cannabinoids into novel formulations based on specific cannabinoid ratios is something I think we will see a lot of in the next couple of years.”

Even with so much evolution and innovation to look forward to, Shi Farms’ mission is simple, straightforward, and smart.

“We want to just highlight the natural benefits of hemp and the special qualities that make hemp such a great agricultural crop,” Turetsky says. “There’s no need for fancy branding or crazy marketing speak. Hemp is the star of the show, and we’re stewards of the plant.”

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HEMP LEASH AND HARNESS The Wigglywoos leash is constructed of good old-fashioned hemp, coupled with quality buckles and a natural cork leather handle. This classic, comfortable leash and adjustable hemp harness is sure to make any pooch happier and classier than a clam. A very dapper dog leash indeed. Wigglywoos.com

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REVELRY DUFFEL BAG The Around-Towner is the perfect intermediate size duffle for daily pursuits or quick overnighters.

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CANNADIPS $15 per tin Suprisingly satisfying with unique, long-lasting flavors, this product will help slow someone’s chewing habit, while also preserving their patience and uplifting their spirit. For real. It comes in three original flavors with hemp-derived CBD, crafted using all-natural (tobacco free) ingredients.

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KOI CBD OIL Koi Naturals’ 1000 mg full-spectrum CBD oil contains an array of helpful cannabinoids, including CBD, CBDV, and CBG. A pleasing orange flavor compliments this lab-certified, pesticide-free product.

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STEEP FUZE CBD COFFEE This is delicious coffee from one of the original CBD coffee infusers. Steep Fuze derives their CBD extracts from organic, outdoor hemp, and they built their flavor profiles after years of experimentation. Their secret: They infuse the hemp extract directly into the natural oils of the raw coffee beans during the roasting process.

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CANNA RESCUE Designed to counteract the effects of consuming too much THC, this handy little tincture might be able to bring you back down to Earth if you’ve accidentally imbibed in excess.

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CANNUKA Body Cream $ 28 This is a nourishing formula that can deeply moisturize your skin. Rich in anti-inflammatory CBD isolate (100 mg), Manuka honey, beeswax, hemp seed oil, grapefruit extract, and other ingredients, this product will leave your skin refreshed and hydrated, and won’t break the bank.

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Marzenna and Kehrt Reyher stand in front of Poland’s Palace at Naklo, where they run the Hemp Center of Excellence.

A P O LI S H PA L AC E G I V E S A N E W HOM E TO E A S TE R N EU ROPE AN H E M P Much of Europe has been legally cultivating hemp for far longer than American producers, but it’s still stumbling on many of the same issues as the United States hemp industry. B y R o b i n A . W. Ke l l ey Kehrt Reyher and his wife Marzenna decided they wanted to move out of the Polish city of Warsaw. They did so in a less-thanunderstated fashion, purchasing the Palace at Naklo, a dilapidated but beautiful 18th-century Arcadian-style structure in southern Poland.

The property needed enough work that the couple didn’t move there full-time until 2011, but they’ve since turned it into more than a residence. The palace has become a haven where experts from around the world can learn about hemp and a local symbol of the potential of hemp in Eastern Europe.

With the U.S. hemp industry in its relative infancy, many assume that the European market is more established and advanced. Europe, and particularly the Eastern Bloc nations, have maintained hemp as a legal crop, instead of eliminating its cultivation like much of the world.

But Reyher, who is also the editor of the Hemp Today industry publication, says that the perception that the European hemp industry is more advanced than its American counterpart might not necessarily be true. When it comes to defining the amount of THC in hemp and

PHOTO COURTESY NAKLOPALACE.ORG

IN 2002,

finding places to process a crop for CBD, Eastern European nations are still working out the kinks. The solutions they find are likely to make their way across the Atlantic.

EUROPE STRUGGLES WITH LOW-THC THRESHOLDS

“I would not say that Europe is ahead of the United States,” Reyher says. “Europe has a serious problem with THC limits.”

According to the European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA), Europe moved from 0.3 percent THC threshold for hemp to the lower level of 0.2 percent in 1999. The theory for this decrease was to prevent the cultivation of higher-level THC plants in industrial fields with the intent of illegal production.

The EIHA is now pushing to increase the level back to 0.3 percent so that European producers can compete in the ascendant global hemp market. The current lower limit leads to a restriction of varieties available to farmers, and the EIHA states that the lower percentage “does not have a noticeable effect on illicit cannabis production.”

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“Europe’s going to have a problem competing if they can’t raise the THC limit to at least 0.3 percent, and that is what they are trying to do at this time.”

— Kehrt Re yher

Beginning in 2014, The Nakło Foundation, which is restoring the palace, also launched To Grow A Village, an economic development project based on re-introducing the cultivation and processing of industrial hemp. Pictured above is a photo from their 2016 harvest.

FOCUSING ON FIBER

While the THC-limit restrictions present an obstacle to European producers, the European hemp industry does expand hemp usage in ways that the U.S. is just beginning to touch on in its initial stages.

Based on historical building practices, hemp is quickly escalating in European building material usage.

According to a special edition of Hemp Today that launched at last year’s NoCo conference, hempcrete is gaining attention in Europe as architects move toward greener building materials. (It’s common knowledge within the hemp industry now, but worth repeating: Building with hempcrete is an energy-efficient way to build, providing temperature regulation and fire resistance while decreasing a building’s carbon footprint.)

In Poland, Reyher says builders are looking to the hemp industry for shiv (or the woody interior of the hemp stalk) to create hempcrete.

“There is a shortage of shiv for building. I can say that unequivocally,” Reyher says. “I’ve got a long-term builder calling me looking for shiv. There’s where we really need technology. It’s got to be specially built machines for separating fibers.”

ACCESSIBILITY TO AFFORDABLE AND MOBILE PROCESSING

Much like the American hemp industry, finding places to process hemp for CBD has proven to be an issue in the European industry.

“I do get a number of calls from people who are looking for processing, especially this year, and I think it’s just riding along the back of a CBD boom,” says Reyher. “There’s not that many places I can send them to in Europe. We’ve got guys who are working at full capacity or guys who have a proprietary approach to things and they already have their supply chain set up and don’t want to do processing for other companies. I believe there is definitely a need for more production capacity, particularly with the extraction of CBD.”

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One solution is the development of smaller machines that can perform a variety of operations from harvesting to decortication. The benefit of these “micro-machines” is that they offer mobility because they can be put on the back of a truck or hooked up to a tractor.

Aside from the benefits of affordability and mobility, smaller machines are also able to handle the more delicate production of highquality flower buds, according to a 2018 special edition of Hemp Today. For smaller farmers who currently harvest by hand, these machines can reduce labor and provide consistency.

Reyher sees an opportunity for expansion of smaller machines to the U.S. “Those guys will probably sell into the United States, I imagine, or someone will sell a patent,” he says. “So, when the United States need those machines, it will happen pretty fast.”

THE HEMP CENTER OF EXCELLENCE

With his expansive knowledge of the global hemp industry, Reyher is now hoping to educate others at the Palace at Naklo, which he and his wife have dubbed the Hemp Center of Excellence.

Recently, he began hosting four to five hemp education summits a year, and he’s planning to expand to six gatherings in 2019. The summits are limited to an exclusively small group of about 25 participants and focus on bringing hemp professionals from all over the world together.

“People come here and I see them doing business with each other, and it’s really cool,” Reyher says. “We want to develop here a microlearning center where you process hemp. I get a lot of questions from people, like ‘Can you teach me how to process CBD?’ and everything else.”

Reyher says he’s definitely going to host a hemp education summit dedicated to machines this year “because there’s a lot of possibilities.”

As the global hemp industry becomes more integrated and regions expand the varieties of hemp they’ve traditionally grown, this type of education will be essential, as hemp producers and processors share their expertise with their global counterparts.

PHOTO COURTESY NAKLOPALACE.ORG

“Europe’s going to have a problem competing if they can’t raise the THC limit to at least 0.3 percent, and that is what they are trying to do at this time,” Reyher says.

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H OW T O U S E C B D T O F I X A N Y T H I N G .

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Of course, we’re only kidding. We love hemp, but let’s calm down the CBD hype — it’s reaching dangerous levels. have you ever been tired, hungry, stressed, restless, content, lonely, or in love? Have you ever felt feelings? If you have, you obviously have a condition that you need to treat, and one which can only be treated through the wonders of plant medicine. No counseling or introspection required!

Or maybe you’re suffering from an incurable disease?

Good news! A trusty little cannabinoid known as cannabidiol (CBD) is undoubtedly a cure for your ailment — no need to consult the scientific journals or your doctor.

Forget your body! Is your bike chain looking rusty? Man, 3-IN-ONE oil is so your grandpa’s household lubricant of choice. It isn’t even made out of plants! No problemo.

Throw some CBD tincture drops on it for just $29.99 and watch that puppy purr.

You know there’s some tiny detail in your life that you just realized could improve. Remember when that guy Shane you met at the co-op last January told you about that CBD product he used for … something? Exactly what, you can’t remember, but c’mon, pay that premium for those three little letters. Purchase.

Of course, the examples above are hyperbolic. But we at HEMP frequently receive promotional materials for various CBD products (which we love, thank you!), and some of the claims on these products range from playfully exaggerated to simply dangerous. We’ve seen hemp seed oil-infused lube disguise itself as CBD oil and swear it’ll maximize performance in the bedroom; we’ve seen CBD added to everything from nail polish to air fresheners; and perhaps most insidiously, we’ve seen CBD oils suggest that they’ll cure cancer.

AS A HUMAN,

So, what should you say about CBD? If you’re selling it, consult a legal team! But if you’re a CBD aficionado or hemp enthusiast, the answer is a little less technical.

1. First, hemp is an extremely versatile plant. But let’s cool it with the idea that hemp has 50,000 uses. Sure, that number might be true if you want to win on a technicality and say that “Use No. 43,381 is to put hemp in plastic forks and Use No. 43,382 is to put hemp in plastic knives.” Of course, we think hemp is incredibly useful and definitely underutilized in modern society, but exaggerating won’t help the credibility of the plant.

2. Tell everyone to check CBD product labels to see if they have verified testing information from authorized laboratories.

Seriously, we’ve learned the hard way. Avoid anything with residual pesticides or mold.

3. When you recommend CBD oil to your Uncle Roy for his anxiety, make sure you remind him that you are not a doctor (unless you are) and that he should do some independent research too. Also, call your Uncle Roy more often.

He misses you!

4. Ask yourself: Do I really need CBD infused into my pants?

You definitely want pants made from hemp textiles, but these sort of non-ingested hemp products are usually made from parts of the hemp plant (bast fibers from the stalk) that contain only small, residual levels of CBD. The manufacturer knows this and they’re hoping you don’t.

Remember that hemp and CBD are worthy of your love, but that love can be a dangerous, fickle thing when it reaches the level of obsession. Tell yourself this: The honeymoon phase is over, and it’s time for the commitment stage. Commitment only works if it’s based on honesty and reality. Pursue that. — HEMP Staff

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recipe

PE C AN & HEMP P UMPKI N C R U M BL E P I E Hemp gets a holiday makeover and a place at the dessert table in this nutrient-dense twist on a classic.

P h o t o s a n d R e c i p e by L i z S c h o c h

TRADITIONALLY, PUMPKIN PIE embodies the pinnacle of fall flavors,

highlighting the season’s sweetest variety of squash. A tender, baked crust filled with creamy, spiced pumpkin may seem hard to improve upon, but this recipe does just that. Think pumpkin pie meets streusel with a sprinkling of nutty hemp hearts!

Let’s take this recipe apart piece by piece to understand the different flavors and textures that make it anything but a simple slice of pie.

First, both the crust and crumble are mixtures of almond meal (also known as almond flour), butter, and sweetener. The result is a tender crust that mimics wheat flour, only it’s a lot less work.

Next, pecans and hemp hearts turn that basic almond flour formula into a crumble topping. Hemp hearts add a unique nutty flavor that pairs perfectly with the pumpkin filling. Better yet, there’s no sweetened condensed milk, just a little mascarpone cheese, so this pie sets up nicely without dulling any of the pure pumpkin flavor.

Why add hemp? Small but mighty, the seeds bring a hefty dose of amino acids, healthy fats, and a long list of micronutrients to the table.

Hemp is a simple and flavorful way to add a superfood ingredient without sacrificing taste.

And hemp is versatile, too! Swap out the brown sugar for a drizzle of honey and make this crumble a tasty topping for yogurt, or add an extra scoop of hemp hearts for a midday snack. How’s that for a multitasking holiday recipe?

One last note before we get baking: This recipe contains no wheat flour, but feel free to use your favorite pie crust recipe in its place. Or, if you’re seriously short on time, bake the crumble and add it to a cheater’s (store bought!) pumpkin pie and keep it between us.

Liz Schoch is a nutritionist who runs the Inspector Gorgeous blog, where she creates plant-based, low-sugar recipes at inspectorgorgeous.com.

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FOR THE SHORTBREAD CRUST 1 ½ cups almond flour 2 tbsp granulated sugar* ¼8 tsp salt 3 tbsp butter 1 egg FOR THE FILLING 4 oz mascarpone cheese, or cream cheese, room temperature ½ cup granulated sugar* ½ tsp vanilla 15 oz canned pumpkin puree 2 eggs, beaten 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice ½ tsp ground cinnamon FOR THE CRUMBLE ¾ cup almond flour ¼ cup brown sugar* ¼ cup hemp hearts ½ cup chopped pecans ¼ tsp salt 4 tbsp butter *To reduce the grams of sugar in this recipe, feel free to use your favorite granulated sugar substitute.

TO PREPARE THE CRUST 1. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the almond flour, salt, and sweetener. 2. Cut in the cold butter with a fork or pastry cutter until the mixture resembles sand. 3. Mix in the beaten egg to form the dough. 4. Press the pie dough into a 9-inch pie pan, extending it up the edges of the dish. Use a piece of waxed paper to smooth the crust with your hands, removing any uneven areas. 5. Bake at 350° Fahrenheit for 10 minutes until lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool.

TO PREPARE THE CRUMBLE 1. Like the crust, whisk the dry crumble ingredients together, then cut in the cold butter with a fork. The butter pieces should be pebble-sized and even throughout. 2. Pile the mixture onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 350° Fahrenheit for 10 minutes. Allow to cool while you prepare the filling.

TO PREPARE THE FILLING 1. Beat the mascarpone or cream cheese and sugar with a hand mixer until smooth. 2. Add the

pumpkin puree and spices and continue to mix until the cream is fully incorporated, followed by the beaten egg. 3. Once the filling is smooth, scoop into the cooled crust and tent the edges of the crust with foil to prevent overbrowning.

4. Bake at 350° Fahrenheit for 45 minutes, just until the pie is set. 5. Remove from the oven and top with the prepared hemp crumble.

6. Bake for an additional 10 minutes. 7. Let the pie cool completely to set before serving and enjoy!

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Hemp

H I N DS I G HT

WANT MORE HEMP? FOR THE LATEST on the hemp industry, including

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PHOTO TAYLOR KENT

science and tech, culture, politics, agriculture and industry news, visit thehempmag.com. On our website, you’ll also find farmer profiles such as our coverage of Jaime Fitterer, a hobby farmer who runs the Montana Hemp Co. (right).

“I work eight to 12 hours a day,” Fitterer says.

“The hemp farm has gotten pretty much every lunch period I’ve had all summer. After work, my son and I are out here quite a bit. We come out here and I put lots of weekends in it. But it’s worth it.”

Read more at thehempmag.com/2018/10/montana-hemp-co

“The hemp farm has gotten pretty much every lunch period I’ve had all summer. After work, my son and I are out here quite a bit. We come out here and I put lots of weekends in it. But it’s worth it.” - J A M I E F I T T E R E R

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