Bob Crumley is on the other end of the line, talking up the virtues of hemp.
North Carolina’s top hemp advocate talks about how this genetic offshoot of marijuana is such a versatile crop that farmers can make money three ways off the same plant — the seeds can be used for food, the pods for nutritional supplements, the stalks used for fiber. “It’s a no-brainer thing for farmers,” he says.
He talks about how growing hemp was once considered a patriotic act. In colonial times, farmers were required to plant a certain number of acres of hemp — or pay higher taxes. The first drafts of the Declaration of Independence were written on hemp paper. Betsy Ross’s flag was made out of hemp. Hemp was the “America First” economic policy of its day, because the fibrous plant enabled the colonies to be self-reliant in everything from canvas for ships’ sails to uniforms.
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Crumley is just getting warmed up. It’s not enough that growing hemp is profitable and patriotic, he says. The federal restrictions on the plant constitute a classic case of big government getting in the way of innovation and free enterprise, he contends. “If you go into the history of hemp and how it got tangled up with marijuana in the 1930s, it ought to tick off every small businessman in the country,” Crumley says.
By this point in the conversation, it’s hard not to think: Gosh, this Carolina cannabis cheerleader sure sounds an awful lot like a Republican.
There’s a good reason for that. He is.
Not just any old Republican, either. In 2008, Crumley was the Republican candidate for attorney general in North Carolina. That happened to be a bad year for Republicans, so after the election, Crumley wound up back at his law firm in Asheboro. He also had three friends die of cancer, which got him thinking — and looking into treatments. He read up on medical marijuana, but his research on marijuana ultimately led him to hemp.
Here’s where we have to stop for a brief science lesson. Hemp and marijuana are both cannabis. The difference is marijuana is soaked with tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical that can get you high. Hemp is not. It does, however, have lots of other magical properties. The protein-rich seed can be eaten raw or ground into meal. The oil can be pressed into paints, plastics, and cosmetics. The fibrous stalks are light, but strong — so strong they’ve been woven into construction materials, even cars. Americans bought $688 million worth of hemp-based products in the 2016 but, historically and ironically, those products have been imported — because it was illegal to grow hemp in the U.S.
Why? Crumley blames big government— and big business. The DuPonts saw hemp as a threat to their synthetic nylons. William Randolph Hearst owned lots of timber and feared that hemp would reduce the value of his holdings. Throw in a frenzy over “reefer madness” and hemp was suddenly easy to outlaw. The way Crumley sees it, the federal government squashed the rights of small farmers, while manipulating the market in favor of corporate interests overseas. It makes no sense, he says, for Americans to be able to buy hemp-based foreign products, yet not be able to grow the plant and produce their own hemp products. Hemp is only now making a comeback thanks, well, largely to Republicans — proving that all politics really is local. When Congress passed a farm bill in 2014, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky made sure it included a provision to allow hemp farming — under certain circumstances, one of which is that state governments must give permission. McConnell saw hemp as a substitute for tobacco farmers who no longer had a market for their leaf.
In all, 32 states now allow hemp farming. Virginia joined the list last year, thanks, again, to another Republican — Del. Joseph Yost of Giles County. Yost’s argument was a classic economic development pitch —hemp farming would be good for Virginia farmers.
It would be, too — that is, if only Virginia farmers could actually sell their crops on the open market. Officially, all this hemp farming going on — 16,417 acres across the country last year — is for “research” purposes. This year, there are 102 acres of hemp growing in Virginia, all under the auspices of state universities, including some of it on Virginia Tech research farms, and some of it by individual farmers on a contract basis. Hemp research is done at the universities themselves, while some of it is also performed at private labs. Synthonics, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company in Blacksburg, was recently awarded the state’s first license for hemp research. “We believe that a pure powder of Cannabidiolic Acid (CBDA) from hemp leaves could have significant medical value,” Synthonics says. “Recent studies have shown the medicinal benefits of CBDA, especially as a potential therapy for chemotherapy-induced nausea for cancer patients and as an anti-inflammatory that may benefit people on opioids for pain relief.”
So what would it take to develop an actual commercial market for hemp? Ultimately, a change in federal law, which still classifies hemp as a drug. Or, at least, a more business-friendly state law that would encourage investment. Farmers have no incentive to grow hemp if they can’t sell the product, and they can’t very well sell it with no processors around. Virginia requires any processor to be a participant in a research program run by a state university that has an authorized hemp program —Virginia Tech, Virginia State, and James Madison University. North Carolina, by contrast, has no such requirement, which makes it easier for Founders Hemp to set up shop. The only requirement there is that the company buy hemp from licensed growers. The best that Yost could get through a hyper-cautious Virginia General Assembly was a research program; North Carolina law is specifically written to encourage commercialization. And that’s why, right now, there’s a 5,200-square-foot building going up in Asheboro, North Carolina, that may be the nation’s first food processing plant for hemp. Crumley has a company — Founders Hemp — that intends to produce roasted hemp seeds. (Think sunflower seeds). He has seven employees now and expects to double that by next year. In fact, he’s just one of 10 different hemp processors have that opened in North Carolina.
Here’s what we see: They’re creating jobs that could also be in Virginia, if only Virginia had the gumption North Carolina does.