Posted on 06/03/2019 1:28:30 AM PDT by Windflier
Thanks to a provision in the 2018 Farm Bill, hemp is no longer a federally illegal controlled substance in the Unites States. The passage of the Farm Bill allows farmers and cultivators to grow the once demonized cannabis plant and even restart long forgotten operations.
As it turns out, legally allowing farmers to grow the plant and sell it to processors is having a massive effect on employment in the United States, across multiple sectors. The hemp industry took in $1.1 billion in revenue in 2018 and is on track to more than double that in 2022, with $2.6 billion in revenue, according to New Frontier Data.
The effects of the hemp boom will be felt far from the agriculture fields and even the hemp processors, with job growth expected in the form of “accountants, lawyers, compliance officers, government regulators, IT specialists, financial and insurance experts, transporters, researchers and lab technicians, marketers, CFOs, CEOs and various retail employees,” according to CNBC.
“Job creation is going to happen in every economic bracket,” said the executive director of the DC-based National Hemp Association, Erica McBride Stark.
The hemp industry will create high-skilled management jobs, labor-type jobs and everything in between. It’s going to touch all of society.
Stark recently returned from the 6th annual NoCo Hemp Expo in Denver, Colorado. More than 225 exhibitors and 10,000 attendees were present—twice the size of last year’s gathering.
Indeed, the online job listing search engine, reported an increase in job openings in hemp-related industries this year and HempStaff has seen hemp related jobs double in the last year.
And while hemp is federally legal in the United States, only 41 states allowed the cultivation of hemp as of February and only 24 states had farmers actually growing it last year, which means there is plenty of room for growth and expansion. According to NBC, “Total hemp acreage in the U.S. was at 78,176 acres, up from 25,713 in 2017,” with the average increasingly considerably over the next few years.
It should be noted, too, that despite hemp’s new federal status, the Farm Bill stipulates that individual states can choose to establish their own agriculture and commerce programs, or not. As of February, 41 states allowed cultivation of hemp for commercial, research or pilot programs, although only 24 states had farmers actually growing hemp last year.
While hemp can be used for a wide variety of things including textiles, building materials, and food, the primary focus and most trending use of the plant is for producing CBD oil. CBD oil is made from the flowers, buds, and seeds of the hemp plant.
CBD oil is a non-psychoactive phytocannabinoid found in cannabis plants. It has been shown to aid users in treating anxiety, arthritis, pain, depression, and more and is being used with increasingly frequency to relieve pain associated with cancer and cancer treatment and in an attempt to treat the cancer itself.
In 2018 alone, CBD-containing products generated $390 million in sales in the U.S. and that number is predicted to reach $1.3 billion by 2022.
Of course, a billion or two is a droplet in the tank of our national economy — and the new spending on that industry is diverted from spending elsewhere, so it is really not a great net creator for other than the individuals in that particular business.
Please see #19.
Of course, we get so much Omega-6 elsewhere in our diet that a higher Omega-3 would be better coming from hemp oil, or any other addition to what we eat.
I live in Kentucky and I was always led to believe hemp, when legal, would be a large cash crop here. My father-in-law had a hemp quota in WWII. I have seen or heard zero about hemp or hemp start ups in rural Kentucky.
“Woody Harrelson is greatly pleased.”
Hemp is not psychoactive.
Thanks for the recipe! I will try it for sure. At this point I’m willing to try almost anything.
I have 26 acres in northern maine if anyone wants to pay to grow hemp on
it
I highly-recommend bone broth and a high-quality collagen supplement to aid in your healing.
Ironically, hemp is doing better than marijuana. Weed is selling wholesale for about $35 an oz in Oregon and there is a tremendous amount of supply.
Hemp must have less than .3% THC or it gets destroyed.
You do realize that the ALA profile for omega 3 means that there is only about 5% available for absorption, don’t you?
There are so many falsehoods used on foods and drinks with flax and chia it’s become an urban myth that humans can digest ALA like animals. It’s false labeling that remains unchallenged.
To the contrary, it’s expensive fiber . Hemp is in this category, as with its seeds with a compromising profile of omega 6.
Thank-you! I’m discouraged with it but the doctor said healing would be slow. I’m so active that it’s been really difficult trying to stay in shape with a bad foot.
I look forward to clothing made of hemp fiber, and bedding, etc. Sooooffft.
Hemp, the new Jerusalem artichoke!
Is it? I've never even seen hemp cloth before. Can't wait to try it.
http://www.kyphotoarchive.com/2017/03/22/woody-harrelsons-kentucky-hemp-battle-2000/
I dunno. I don’t think Seagrams is doing too bad.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.