Questions about hemp production were addressed during a Maysville-Mason County Chamber of Commerce lunch on Thursday.
Tom Keene, an agronomy specialist with the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, began by giving a little bit of history of hemp production in the state of Kentucky and across the nation.
According to Keene, hemp has been used throughout the years for various products, including ship sails, rope and other materials.
“It’s been around since the Europeans settled here,” he said.
Keene said when the farm bill was passed and industrial hemp began production in 2014, there were about 33 acres planted in Kentucky. In 2019, that number was 26,000 acres in 102 counties throughout the state.
Of the hemp planted, 25,000 were harvested.
“So, you see the trajectory that we are on here,” he said. “About 92 percent of that was for the CBD products. Very little, as you can see, was for grain seeds or fiber. In 2014, 47 percent was for grain, 32 percent for fiber and about 21 percent for CBD. You can see how that just totally flipped over.”
Keene said about 1,000 people applied to grow hemp in 2019. In 2018, there were about 200. It was requested that about 60,000 acres were grown, but there were only 26,000 acres grown. There are about 200 processors.
Nationwide, there were about 25,000 acres grown in 2017. In 2018, there were about 78,000 acres and in 2019, there are no numbers yet, but growers applied to grow about a half million acres, according to Keene.
“We didn’t plant all of that,” he said. “But, I tell you that to show you we are going in one direction. In America, as farmers, there is one thing we do; when something works, we plant the fire out of it.”
Keene also touched on the difference between hemp and marijuana.
According to Keene, the difference is the level of THC. There are about 100 different cannabinoids in the hemp plant, but THC is the one everyone is concerned with because it is psychoactive.
Keene said hemp must be 0.3 percent THC on a dry weight basis, because at that level, it will not cause any psycho activity.
“It has to be under that. Now, there is a big push to get this raised because people say it’s not doable, but it is doable,” he said. “We have the genetics to make it doable. In order to change that number, we would have to change federal law.”
During the discussion, Keene also touched on future concerns with hemp growing.
“We are going to continue to have a regulatory program,” he said. “Even if we get medical marijuana, we will still have a hemp program. If you grow outside of this program, you are breaking the law.”
He also said the federal drug administration has been quiet on hemp growing, CBD oils, medical marijuana and recreational marijuana.
He closed with one final thought.
“Never invest more than you can afford to lose,” he said. “This is a new venture and it’s not a get-rich-quick kind of thing.”
