Officials in Ventura County, California, say that the county is likely to be one of the largest hemp-growing counties in the state if the registered land for cultivation and the expected gross earnings of $100 million materialize at the end of the ongoing harvest season.
Edmund Williams, the Commissioner for Agriculture in Ventura County, says that 40 percent of the counties in the state have imposed bans on hemp cultivation, and this could allow Ventura County to be the second or third top grower in the state according to the current statistics.
Williams says that he sees no reason why Ventura County should ban the growing of hemp within its jurisdiction since there is nothing wrong with farmers and processors taking the opportunity to benefit from the current boom in demand for CBD. CBD has been linked to so many health benefits and yet it doesn’t have the same intoxicating effects as marijuana.
The agriculture commissioner expects that nearly all the hemp grown in the county will be processed to extract CBD even if the FDA hasn’t authorized the use of this compound as a supplement, food additive or cosmetics ingredient.
Currently, the estimated cost of an ounce of CBD oil ranges between $30 and $300. This price range may be the reason why many estimate that an acre of hemp can bring in $60,000 in gross earnings before overhead costs are deducted. For comparison purposes, one of the most lucrative crops in California is strawberries which have an estimated value of between $70,000 and $75,000 before overhead costs are deducted.
However, one spends far less to grow an acre of hemp than they would to grow strawberries, and this could be the reason why people have rushed to grow hemp and not strawberries.
Andy Calderwood, the in-charge of the hemp program in Ventura County, says that a big fraction of the people involved in growing hemp seem to be people from outside the county, so a big portion of those earnings may go out of the county.
Some of the growers revealed that they agreed with landowners to let them grow hemp on that land in exchange for a fraction of the earnings.
Some critics say that the hemp cultivation program was rolled out before establishing regulations to protect churches, schools and neighborhoods from the likely problems of having hemp nearby. For example, the critics cite the strong smell of hemp as the flowers mature as one of the issues that should have been thought about before cultivation licenses are granted.
Experts say that those concerns can be given more attention in the coming years if their impact is significant, but for now, the experts feel that industry players like SinglePoint Inc. (OTCQB: SING) and Sugarmade Inc. (OTCQB: SGMD) may take those criticisms in stride as the usual complaints that people will raise about nearly everything.
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