P.J. Sneed is a nurse at a hospital in Wichita, but only until the end of the June. Thats when hell quit to become a hemp farmer.
Ive not grown a stitch of hemp, he said. But I feel like I know how I could do it and have a plan to do it.
Hell need more than just enthusiasm to succeed as he trades the stresses of checking patients vital signs and administering medicine for the stresses of growing a new crop without experience or the benefits of crop insurance.
Earlier this year the Kansas Legislature paved the way for Sneeds decision after it legalized the cultivation of industrial hemp. Industrial hemp is the same species of plant that marijuana comes from (cannabis sativa), but its been specifically cultivated to produce a very small amount (by law, under 0.3 percent) of the psychoactive chemical, known as THC, that gets people high.
Boosters of the plant argue it has tens of thousands of uses. The fibers in its stalk can be turned into insulation, while the plants flower can be pressed into an oil rich with a chemical known as cannabidiol, or CBD.
CBD oil products are marketed to treat a variety of ailments. They drive most of the demand for hemp plants in the U.S. now. But experts and economists warn that creating a market from scratch, especially one with a stigma like hemp, is full of obstacles.
For starters, hemp requires special equipment to harvest and to process. The qualities that make it great for rope are the same ones that make it harder on machines than wheat and corn. So processors in have engineered their own solutions or found private investors willing to spend heavily to import a machine from abroad.
And even though a state can legalize growing hemp, the federal government still views it as a dangerous drug, the same as heroin or cocaine. Among other consequences, that cuts potential growers and processors off from access to traditional banking.
If Kansas farmers want to know what theyre really getting into, they can look to neighboring Colorado. Five years ago, it became the first state to let people grow industrial hemp since the 1940s.
Its an amazing plant. Its magic, William Wild Bill Billings said.
Hes the CEO of the Colorado Hemp Project. Not only does he grow hemp and sell seeds to new farmers, but he said hes benefitted from the products it can produce too.
Billings has arthritis and doctors told him hed need a knee and hip replaced. Three years later he said hes living pain-free by using a regimen of 100 mg of CBD oil a day.
Billings also said growing hemp is a huge opportunity for struggling farmers. He thinks as soon as they see the benefits, theyll be replacing their corn with hemp.
If they do, theyll need someone to sell it to. Thats where Ed Lehrburger, the CEO of Pure Hemp Technologies, comes in.
His company has developed ways to process every part of the plant from the fibrous stalk to the CBD rich flowers and buds.
