It’s springtime for hemp — the dawn of a new age for Minnesota agriculture.
“This is pretty sweet!” yelled Charlie Levine, over the clatter of his hemp-planting rig. He kicked off the growing season last week on his Waconia farm, joining the stampede of 562 farmers rushing into the hemp market this year.
Hemp has been de-criminalized by the federal government, opening the floodgates for cultivation. Farmers are flocking to Hemp 101 classes, to take advantage of the state’s hemp-friendly climate.
The roadblocks are gone, the weather is good, the market is strong — and hemp advocates are giddy.
“This is a really exciting time,” said Zach Robins, attorney for the Minnesota Hemp Association.
A NUMBER OF APPLICATIONS
For farmers, it’s almost like a gold rush, because a crop of hemp may yield more than $28,000 per acre.
For consumers, the hemp-rush will mean hemp oils appearing in some food and drinks, hemp fiber in clothing, hemp powder for people and for animals. Commuters will notice the bushy 15-foot-tall plants in fields around the metro area.
The benefits of the state’s newest commodity, said Robins, will cascade from farming to processing to manufacturing to retail sales.
“This wonderful crop has an infinite number of applications,” he said. “It’s a very lucrative crop — at least, for now.”
A LONG WAIT
Hemp fans have waited 82 years for this moment.
Hemp has suffered from the reputation of a family member — marijuana. Marijuana contains high levels of THC, the compound which makes users high. Hemp has only tiny amounts of THC, but is harvested for its CBD oil and the fibrous stalks.
Both have been outlawed since 1937. At the federal level, both have been classified as the worst kind of narcotic — Schedule 1, along with heroin and LSD.
Hemp benefited from recent moves to legalize recreational use of marijuana. Colorado and Washington did so in 2012, and other states followed. In 2015, Minnesota passed a law allowing cultivation of hemp as part of a regulated pilot program.
That year, only seven intrepid farmers signed up.
But the federal 2018 Farm Bill changed everything. It pulled hemp from the list of dangerous drugs, effective in January.
HEMP 101
The Minnesota response was immediate.
The state’s first “Hemp 101” class was launched by the University of Minnesota Extension Service. Instructor Jake Overgaard was surprised when 70 farmers packed into the first session in Winona.
“Since then I have received a number of calls and emails, wanting more workshops,” said Overgaard.
The ranks of registered hemp farmers leaped from 65 last year to 562 in 2019 — so far.
“The growth is exponential,” said Whitney Place, assistant commissioner of the state Department of Agriculture.
‘A SPECIALTY CROP’
Planned hemp acreage this year will soar more than 10-fold to 7,744 acres. Indoor cultivation will jump 18-fold to a million square feet — picture a greenhouse as big as 17 football fields.
The Extension Service’s Overgaard said the state needs to address bottlenecks, including the lack of hemp-processing plants.
Nevertheless, he said hemp has potential. One year’s hemp crop could be worth $28,000 to $90,000 per acre, according to the Department of Agriculture.
Overgaard said hemp will never challenge corn and soybeans as a large-scale crop.
“Hemp is a specialty crop, like vegetables,” he said.
But many farmers are expected to jump on the bandwagon.
“I think they are sick of growing corn and soybeans,” said hemp-grower Levine.
AMID EUPHORIA, WORDS OF WARNING
Amid the hemp-induced euphoria, officials give new farmers a few words of warning.
“I think the hemp market is going to crash,” said the Agriculture Department’s Place. That’s because farmers across the country are switching to hemp, she said, which could saturate the market and cause prices to collapse.
Farmers must beware of the regulations that still apply. They must register as part of the state’s Industrial Hemp Act of 2016.
Growers also must declare whether they are planting varieties of hemp for flowers, used to make CBD oil for health-related uses. Most hemp farmers are planting these varieties.
But some are planting for grains and stalks. The ground-up grain is a health supplement, and the fiber from the stalks is used in clothing.
GOING HOT
Farmers face the risk of having their crop destroyed by airborne sneak attacks.
The THC level in commercial hemp is capped at 0.3 percent. But wind-borne hemp pollen can fly for several miles and cross-pollinate plants to boost the THC content.
“You need to be wary of your crop going hot,” said attorney Robins.
That’s already happened, once.
Officials tested oil from the farm of Luis Hummel of Lanesboro, and found it high in THC content. They ordered that he destroy his entire multi-million-dollar crop. Hummel currently is fighting that decision in court.
‘A VEGAN’S DELIGHT’
In Waconia, hemp-farmer Levine isn’t wasting any time.
At age 27, he is launching a new business called Hemp Acres. He converted a shed on his grandmother’s farm to a processing plant to produce CBD oil, edible hemp powder and feed for animals.
For three years, he has raised the hemp plants without fertilizers or pesticides.
“This is a vegan’s delight,” Levine said inside the plant as he poured golden-green hemp oil into a jug.
BOUTIQUE FARMING
Hemp fits into his vision of a Hemp Acres artisanal farm, with an apple orchard and a rotation of crops raised with nature-loving techniques.
Near a barn, he loaded up his planter with two-inch hemp seedlings. He and his workers hand-planted 30,000 seeds, which he bought for $1 each from a seller in Colorado.
He fired up the tractor and chugged to his hemp-field, towing a jury-rigged planting contraption behind.
Sitting inside, his brother Mickey placed the seedlings one-by-one into jaws on a rotating wheel, which slipped the seedlings into the ground.
The home-made rig couldn’t have been more different from the 48-row $250,000 planters used on big corn farms — just as his Earth-friendly mini-farm could be called the opposite of a corporate mega-farm.
“This,” shouted Mickey over the clankety-clanking, “is boutique farming.”
