Wednesday, January 15, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
11
Sisters filmmaker documents rise of hemp
By Jim Cornelius
Editor in Chief
PHOTO PROVIDED
Ann Richardson of Sisters has
joined the Deschutes Land Trust
Board of Directors
RICHARDSON: Sisters
woman works with
many nonprofits
Continued from page 3
is so vital to preserving and
protecting our high-desert
home,= Richardson said.
<The Land Trust is truly
fortunate to have Ann join
our board of directors,= said
Executive Director Brad
Chalfant. <Her professional
background and leadership
experience is unique and
will add additional depth
to an already strong board.
Since the Land Trust holds
and cares for land forever, a
key role for our board is to
strengthen the connection
between the community and
the lands we protect. Having
first met Ann in 2000, when
she volunteered at our Camp
Polk Meadow Preserve, I9ve
been continually impressed
by her energy and passion
for the community. We9re
thrilled to welcome her to the
Land Trust board.=
For more information on
the Deschutes Land Trust,
call 541-330-0017 or visit
www.deschuteslandtrust.org.
Hemp. It9s everywhere
in Central Oregon. The crop
that many Founding Fathers
grew more than 200 years
ago is suddenly a boom-
ing agricultural industry in
Sisters Country.
Greg Moring, a filmmaker
who moved to Sisters about
a year ago, is creating a film
titled <Hemp Is Back: The
Road To Riches?= which
explores the hemp boom. He
has launched a Kickstarter
crowd-funding campaign to
raise $20,000 for the comple-
tion of the film.
The film focuses on a
cooperative consisting of
a retired fire captain with
Parkinson9s Disease, a gro-
cery commodity broker, two
freight truckers, a gas sta-
tion owner, and one farmer;
the co-op is in their first year
growing hemp in Central
Oregon.
<When the retired fire
chief bought 50 hemp plants
and grew them to process
into CBD oil to help his
P a r k i n s o n 9s s y m p t o m s ,
his results amazed himself
and his friends, prompting
(their) banding together to
grow over 100 acres of fields
in the Sisters, Redmond,
Terrebonne area,= Moring
wrote in his Kickstarter proj-
ect synopsis.
Moring has a deep back-
ground in documentary and
feature film work, and though
he is currently working as a
massage therapist, he contin-
ues to produce documentary
work.
<That9s the part of the
industry that I really love,=
he told The Nugget.
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Moving to Sisters last
February, he was intrigued
by how much acreage was
planted in hemp. He came
across the story of the retired
fire chief and knew he had a
documentary subject.
<It9s kind of an interest-
ing mix of people who got
together to do this,= he said.
He hopes through his film
to educate viewers about
what hemp is 4 the same
plant that produces marijuana
but producing the chemi-
cal compound CBD, which
is purported to have many
benefits, from sleep enhance-
ment to pain relief, without
the psychoactive compound
THC that creates the <high=
associated with marijuana. In
fact, testing for THC is one
of the unexpectedly com-
plicated aspects of hemp
production.
Documenting the <bumps
in the road= to riches in the
hemp industry is another
focus of the film.
<Our film will exam-
ine the bumps in the road
to wealth or ruin, including
scarcity of seed and starts,
refusal of banks to allow
PHOTO PROVIDED
Greg Moring, right, interviewing Jeff Steiner of OSU’s Global Hemp
Initiative Center for his film “Hemp Is Back: The Road To Riches?”
hemp business banking, state,
federal, and county fees and
regulations, mother nature,
and the economic boom for
fertilizer suppliers, testing
labs, processors, farm equip-
ment suppliers, and available
labor pool,= Moring notes.
<With a 50 percent failure
rate for new farmers, how
the grow and harvest ends
will tell the story of Oregon9s
hemp pioneers and their
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success and failures.=
Like most boom econo-
mies, high hopes lead pio-
neers into uncharted territory.
Crops can be devastated by a
hailstorm or harsh weather.
And producing too much
product without enough pro-
cessing capacity can spell
trouble even for a successful
crop.
See HEMP FILM on page 18
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