MORGANTOWN — The stigmas and disinformation that has followed industrial hemp as an agricultural product are going up in smoke and West Virginia’s farmers are taking notice of the plant used in everything from textiles to plastics to the booming CBD industry.
According to West Virginia Agriculture Commissioner Kent Leonhardt’s office, 132 farmers across West Virginia grew 641 acres of industrial hemp in 2019. That’s up from 155 acres in 2018.
“God bless West Virginia,” Mary Hastings said in response to that news. “That’s great.”
Hastings is one of the farmers licensed to grow hemp in the Mountain State. She does so at a family-run farm — Conscious Harvest — at the intersection of Kingwood Pike and Green Bag Road.
“West Virginia has a long history of agriculture, but it’s always been hard for a farmer to make a buck, so there are a lot of back-to-the-earth kind of people who have become really disillusioned,” she said. “But you’re seeing there’s a new generation that’s excited about hemp, and you’re also seeing there’s an older generation that’s also excited about the possibilities of hemp.”
Hemp is a variety of cannabis sativa from the same plant species as marijuana.
Patrick Kyle, Hastings’ brother-in-law, came to West Virginia from Washington, where he worked in the recreational cannabis industry. He explained that the only real difference between the two plants is hemp is very low in THC, the psychoactive component in marijuana.
“Federal law says that anything over .39% Delta 9 THC is no longer hemp, but marijuana,” Kyle said. “But the similarities are uncanny; the way it grows, the way you treat it, the drying and curing process.”
While hemp is and has been used in hundreds of industrial applications, the biggest market right now is for cannabidiol oil, or CBD, a legal, over-the-counter substance used in everything from soaps and lotions to remedies for pain and anxiety.
Ted Hastings, Mary’s brother, said the family initially planned to sell the harvest of their small plot to be turned into CBD, until they discovered the market for the smokable flowers.
While Conscious Harvest is licensed to grow up to one acre, they’re producing substantially less.
“You look at places around town like Cool Ridge and Smoker Friendly. They’re already selling the hemp flower and the price on it is exorbitant,” he said, explaining that the process of cutting, trimming, drying and curing needed to produce the flower is far more labor intensive than selling the whole plants at a bulk price for CBD production. “We just decided that it might be better for us, since we only have a third of an acre, to go ahead and process this into cured, dried flower and then get it into places like that.”
Kyle said you smoke the hemp flower just as you would its potent cousin, only you receive the effects of CBD, not the high associated with THC.
Mary Hastings said she’s not received a lot of pushback because of her crop, though she did field some interesting questions during a recent farm bureau meeting.
She said farmers recognize an opportunity when they see it. For her, the opportunity is not only economic, but idealistic.
“They know it’s a crop and they know you can make money off of it. We want other farmers in the business and we know people have applied because of our plot,” she said. “I’m hoping that hemp can replace a lot of the petrochemical industry in West Virginia. I would say that’s my goal.”
Far more problematic than any long-held anti-hemp sentiments are people stealing the plants with the hope of getting high. Ted Hastings said as much as a third of their crop has been lost to theft, prompting the family to turn to around-the-clock surveillance.
Even so, the Hastings said they hope to expand their operation in the future, matching the trend statewide.
According to Leonhardt’s office, more than 407 applications have been submitted for the 2020 growing season as of Oct. 1.
“It’s great to see, despite some uncertainty from our federal partners, continued excitement and interest surrounding this new, legal crop. The next step for us is to figure out how to keep all this raw material being grown within our borders by converting the plant materials into usable supplements, fibers, fuels and other products,” Leonhardt is quoted as saying. “To continue to develop this industry, we need to pair processors with producers.”
To obtain an industrial hemp permit, an application must be submitted during the filing period along with a $100 fee and all required documentation, including a background check. Once all documentation is submitted, the application will be reviewed. There is an additional fee of $100 plus $5 per acre for the license.
