Farmers in New York plant first hemp crop in 80 years
10/03/2016 / By D. Samuelson
What do Mark Justh, a retired JP Morgan banker, and Daniel Dolgin, a former Washington D.C. national security and counterterrorism expert have in common? Plenty, and it’s all good. Justh and Dolgin are co-owners of JD Farms, a diversified 1,300 acre organic patch of topsoil nestled in Eaton, New York, situated 230 miles north of the Big Apple. These two gentlemen are also pioneers who have successfully traversed state and federal regulations in order to plant the first batch of industrial hemp seeds in the state of New York since 1936.
Their industrial hemp seeds were procured in Canada because in the United States, as reported by the New York Times, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) still considers industrial hemp to be regulated as a Schedule 1 drug. JD Farms had to jump through hoops to even obtain the DEA import permit to get the Canadian seeds. This makes no sense, considering that industrial hemp is a cannabis plant that contains less than .03% of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) which provides the psychoactive effects of marijuana. Industrial hemp, as reported by Medicaljane.com, has a wide variety of uses, such as foods, resins, paper, oils fiber and fuel.
Hemp supplements can also help support good health. For example, it can help to support a healthy inflammatory response and may even help to reduce stress but without psychoactive effects. Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, has recently partnered with Native Hemp Solutions to provide you with hemp extracts that are lab-validated. The CBD content is verified right in-house at the Ranger’s own CWC Labs, to help ensure authenticity.
If the doors to hemp cultivation continue to open up across the states, they’ll probably be pretty busy at that lab.
The 2014 Farm Bill opened the window for industrial hemp production by allowing “the transportation, processing, sale and distribution of hemp grown in research programs.” Individual states were also required to approve industrial hemp production. In New York, it was Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo who had the vision and charged on to sponsor the New York state hemp legislation that allowed JD Farms to make industrial hemp history.
JD Farms was required to have a research partner to oversee the entire hemp production process. As reported by Donnalupardo.com, Morrisville State College was given the first hemp research license and they subsequently “entered into agreement with JD Farms.” Federal law even required the farmers to have an armed security guard present while the seeds were being planted, to “make sure all of them went in the ground.”
All of the red tape, legalese and federal oversight makes it difficult for farmers to take advantage of a crop that offers such astounding benefits. But Mark Justh and Daniel Dolgin are very happy to have persevered and planted thirty acres of those precious seeds. More acreage is being planned for. Food and fiber companies have already expressed an interest in this year’s crop. These pioneers are paving the way for other farmers to share the bounty.
Sources:
Tagged Under: Benefits of Industrial Hemp, First New York hemp crop since 1936, Hemp for food fiber paper and fuel, Hemp growing in New York, JD Farms
RECENT NEWS & ARTICLES
