A sea of green flashed when the tractor trailer’s doors were opened. At first glance, it looked like a truckload of marijuana had landed in Chesapeake.
Although they looked like the psychoactive plants, the new crop of 2-foot tall plants were hemp.
Roughly 88,000 of the plants, which were bought from an Emporia hemp farm, will be grown in greenhouses and a field in Chesapeake.
They’re worth about $264,000, but the investment in buying farming equipment, renting greenhouses, transporting the plants and other costs has reached around $5 million, according to James Lee, owner of the new hemp operation, Bon Bon Farms. The farm is named after Lee’s 1-year-old daughter, Bonnie. He declined to name his partner, who is mostly funding the farm.
Hemp is a new track for Lee, as is farming. But he is a self-educated expert on marijuana and has worked as an activist promoting legislature to legalize marijuana for medical and recreational uses. He even served as a cannabis consultant for a Chesapeake applicant vying for a Virginia Board of Pharmacy permit last year. The company was not chosen for one of the five state permits.
But another door opened on a potential cash crop when Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signed legislation allowing hemp to be farmed for industrial purposes.
Hemp fiber is mostly used to make rope, canvas, fabric, paper and other goods. It is essentially the same plant as marijuana, but it contains no more than 0.3% of THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical that causes users to have a psychoactive “high.” Plants above that level are classified legally as marijuana.
Lee said of the new law: “It was just a complete shift from medical, clean-room grows to now merging the 17 or 20 years of cannabis knowledge and expertise with the big agriculture industry. So I just started researching and learning everything I could.”
State registration for hemp growers, processors and dealers began in March. It’s the first year since the 1930s that anyone can legally grow the crop in the state for commercial use.
“Normally most laws go into effect July 1 at the start of the new fiscal year, but this one had an emergency clause so farmers could plant in March and April,” Elaine Lidholm, director of communications for the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said in an email.
For the previous five years, hemp was allowed to be farmed only for research purposes, she said.
With the door now open to people like Lee, there’s a chance to establish the market in the state. And he will have competition.
As of July 3, the department had issued 847 industrial hemp grower registrations, 161 processor registrations and 36 dealer registrations. Thirty of those registrations are in Hampton Roads: 14 in Chesapeake, nine in Suffolk, three in Virginia Beach, two in Isle of Wight County, one in Newport News, and one in Portsmouth. Like Bon Bon Farms, which is registered as a grower and processor, companies can register as more than one type.
“Growers plan on planting more than 8,500 acres in industrial hemp this growing season,” Lidholm said.
Lee said there are several options for what the farm’s hemp fiber will be used for, but none has been settled on for now.
“Our intention this year, for the most part, is to sell off our harvested biomass to processors that are already establishing their processing facilities this year,” he said.
“The laws change on a daily basis,” Lee said, “so by the time the plants are harvested and we do what we’re doing, (that plan) might change.”
The plants are a couple feet tall now and will be harvested once they’re around 8 feet in September or October. Up to 200 acres will be planted by Bon Bon Farms this season.
Lee said revenue projections would be premature at this point but “speaking theoretically of course, an acre of hemp flower can be worth around $400,000 before any processing takes place if you grow ultra high quality plants. But to do that you’re spending $10,000 on nutrients every time you feed them which is multiple times per week, so it’s not within reach of everyone.”
Lee said he doesn’t plan on pursuing the marijuana market if applications are opened again for more pharmaceutical processors.
“I’m pretty good with what I’m doing right now. I don’t see myself diverting from this,” he said. “Once we get everything planted for the season, it allows for a more normal life. I’m not traveling all over the place. It’s what I love and it’s home. I’m here in Chesapeake where I’ve wanted to do it anyway.”
Lee said he hopes to help other farmers get started in the industry. There may be others who are looking for a change, just like him.
“The next thing I know, I’m a hemp farmer.”
Briana Adhikusuma, 757-222-5349, b.adhikusuma@pilotonline.com
