Ohio to Follow Kentucky’s Lead in Hemp Production

If Ohio manages to have proper licensure and paperwork completed on time, they will be able to participate in this year’s planting season, a season in which the state will plant its first hemp crop since the plant was federally legalized.

Last week, the Mohican Growth Foundation and the Loudonville Farmers Equity hosted a presentation to assist Ashland County farmers with the resources they need to venture into the hemp business.

The Department of Agriculture Hemp Program in Ohio, which is led by the executive director David Miran Jr., is the point of contact for farmers and processors who need help.

Kentucky started hemp production in 2013 under state law and has been at it for the past five years. The Bluegrass State is ahead of all states in hemp production. Federally, hemp was legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill.

Miran said that hemp was legal in the 1930s, but the amount of tax that was imposed on the crop led to its ‘death.’

During the event which was held on Tuesday, the executive director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture Hemp program spoke on the history of hemp farming and production, and he said that America has a long history of hemp production. Miran also noted that there is a lot of circumstantial and historical evidence that president Washington and Jefferson were growing hemp on their fields, and that hemp paper was used to draft the Declaration of Independence.

Miran explained that hemp is a variety of the cannabis plant, but there is a distinct difference between legal hemp and illegal marijuana.

The difference is the THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) concentration found in the respective plants. The law stipulates that hemp plants cannot contain more than 0.3 percent of THC. THC is the compound that induces a high, and it is found in high percentages in marijuana. Point to note is you are not going to get high from using hemp products.

Chemical analysis has to be done for the levels of THC to be determined. Hemp farmers in Ohio will be required to provide samples from each of their hemp fields routinely to ensure that their crops are within the stipulated THC limit of 0.3%.

If a field’s first test is above the stipulated threshold, a second sample is requested, and if it also tests above 0.3%, the crop will have to be destroyed.

Farmers can grow three varieties of hemp crops.

Hemp for fiber, which is used to produce ropes, textiles, building materials, and insulation; hemp for grain, which can be pressed to provide hemp oil. Hemp seeds also contain high protein content and can be added to foods. Farmers can also retrieve hemp flowers to make CBD.

According to Miran, ninety percent of the farmers plant hemp for CBD, and the crop’s growing season is similar to that of corn, ranging from late May until October.

In Ohio, hemp farmers are supposed to have either a hemp cultivation license or hemp processing permit, and they must also pass a background check.

Hemp planting locations must be mapped out for law enforcement so that they can monitor the plant’s production, details on the mapping process were given during the event by the State Representative Darrell Kick.

Kick further said that the farmers would have a GPS coordinator as well as documents showing that one is legally producing or transporting hemp.

Hemp fields are not to be fenced, and signs should be erected around the farm. And the hemp field must be 500 meters away from schools and parks and 100 ft from homes.

It is believed that hemp industry players like MCTC Holdings Inc. (OTC: MCTC) are confident that farmers in Ohio will benefit from the lessons that producers in other states learned during last year’s hemp growing season.

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