By CELESTE BAUMGARNTER

Ohio Correspondent

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Farmers Union (OFU) has added hemp cultivation in its 2019 statement of public policy proposals, as the new farm bill lifted the federal prohibition on the cultivation of industrial hemp.

“Agriculture needs some alternative crops, something from which farmers could actually make money,” said OFU President Joe Logan. “OFU supports a state hemp program, but only if it is designed to work and be available to all farmers in all parts of the state.”

The farm bill offers a generalized authority for state departments of agriculture to each develop a process by which industrial hemp – the plant that does not contain tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive cannabinoid found in cannabis – can be grown legally, Logan said. Because of the transition in Ohio’s administration, the situation is on hold.

“Many people are anxious to begin working with the state legislature and the administration to make that happen,” he said. “Many people are head-over-heels about the potential for growing hemp for CBD oils (CBD is cannabinoid, which does not contain THC). CBD oils are pressed from the flowers of the industrial hemp plant.”

Some people believe CBD oils contain healing properties that can be helpful for Parkinson's disease and an analgesic used for easing pain and relaxing muscles and joints, skin conditions, and more, but these are anecdotal, Logan said.

“But right now there is an excitement for farmers and businesses to get involved in the production of industrial hemp for the CBD oils,” he explained.

“I have a friend in the United Kingdom, and normally they grow wheat, barley, and canola, graze some sheep and lose money on all those things. He has been growing industrial hemp for CBD oil, and they have made a lot of money. He said it is refreshing to have an agricultural enterprise that pays back.”

Already there is an Ohio Hemp Chamber of Commerce and a Hemp Roundtable, Logan said. Those and other entrepreneurial organizations want farmers to start growing industrial hemp so they can process it into “valuable” products.

They are not concerned about farmers, Logan said, so OFU’s interest is in making sure that the industry is open enough that farmers can grow the crops they want to grow, and that opportunities for processing and marketing will allow them to capture and hold on to much of the value they are producing in the marketplace.

Already Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) is being asked to do research by various companies that would like to get things rolling with industrial hemp in the state, said Gary Pierzynski, CFAES associate dean for research and graduate education and director of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station.

“But we’re not allowed to, because the state has not taken the appropriate legislative action to permit us to do so,” Pierzynski said. “We’re telling people it’s not going to happen this growing season, but maybe next year.”

According to Ohio Department of Agriculture spokesman Brett Gates, “The farm bill exempted hemp as a Schedule 1 controlled substance. As a result, the Ohio General Assembly is considering legislation to allow both the cultivation of hemp and the production of hemp byproducts, including CBD oil-based products. The Department of Agriculture stands ready to implement any legislative measures that are enacted."