12 CapitalPress.com
June 30, 2017
Washington farmers are legally planting hemp
HEMP from Page 1
Cultivation peaked in 1943, but
virtually ceased after the war. All
that was left is the volunteer hemp
that still grows along some Midwest
ditches.
Farm groups didn’t care when
the Controlled Substances Act of
1970 classified all cannabis plants,
including hemp, as a narcotic.
Meanwhile, hemp products re-
mained legal. According to the Con-
gressional Research Service, the
biggest supplier of hemp to the U.S.
is China.
In the 2014 Farm Bill, Congress
approved government-supervised
hemp “research.” But it has not tak-
en the final leap and removed hemp
plants and viable seeds from the list
of controlled substances.
Hemp remains subject to peri-
odic rules, or “statements of prin-
ciples” by the Drug Enforcement
Administration, muddying what is
and is not legal.
Right now, the DEA and the
hemp industry are battling in court
over cannabidiol, commonly known
as CBD and sold as a nutritional
supplement. According to the hemp
industry, CBD is a $100 million-
a-year business as mainstream as
Costco. According to the DEA, it’s
“marijuana extract.”
“Oh, it’s a dance, and I hate it,”
said Colleen Keahey, executive di-
rector of the Hemp Industries As-
sociation, a national trade group.
“We’re still just stumbling along.”
Different paths
Some 30 states have passed
hemp laws, according to the Nation-
al Conference of State Legislatures.
The laws vary widely. Oregon and
Washington, for example, have tak-
en drastically different approaches.
Hemp is just now being plant-
ed in Washington by a handful of
farmers, while Oregon is in its third
year of hemp production and has
more than 200 registered growers.
Washington carefully followed
the 2014 Farm Bill. Oregon start-
ed working on hemp rules in 2013
under the assumption that the U.S.
Justice Department’s hands-off
approach to legalized recreational
marijuana also applied to hemp.
Washington controls the seed
supply and bans the production of
CBD, which is extracted from the
flower.
Oregon hemp farmers grow for
the CBD market and obtain their
seeds from wherever they can.
“Who knows where it all came
from, but it jump-started the pro-
gram,” said Jerry Norton, a farmer
in Oregon’s Willamette Valley who
is in his third year of cultivating
hemp. Asked where he got his first
seeds, Norton said, “I’ll have to
take the Fifth Amendment on that.”
Oregon has not had run-ins with
the federal government over hemp,
said Lindsay Eng, the Oregon De-
partment of Agriculture’s director
of market access and certification.
“We haven’t heard from the
DEA at all, and we haven’t heard
from growers saying they have,”
she said.
mand base” for hemp natural foods
and body care products, according
to the congressional report. “Given
the existence of these small-scale,
but profitable, niche markets for
a wide array of industrial and con-
sumer products, a commercial hemp
industry in the United States could
provide opportunities as an eco-
nomically viable alternative crop for
some U.S. growers.”
Hemp advocates argue that de-
mand for hemp products will soar
if farmers are allowed to supply the
raw material.
“The farmers are the heroes
here,” Beckerman said. “Without
a crop being grown, we have no
chance at all.”
“Being a pioneer for industrial
hemp in Washington state is
definitely an adventure.”
CORY SHARP
former irrigation equipment salesman
Crop with a cause
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Cory Sharp talks about the ups and downs leading to the planting of hemp June 6 near Moses Lake in Central Washington.
Sharp started a business, HempLogic, and developed partnerships with farmers to try the newly legal crop.
Pioneer perils
Under Washington state rules and
DEA requirements, the seeds plant-
ed in Moses Lake last month were
delivered from Canada to the state
Department of Agriculture in Spo-
kane and locked up. The seeds then
had to be planted within 24 hours of
being picked up.
“Being a pioneer for industrial
hemp in Washington state is definite-
ly an adventure,” said Sharp, a for-
mer irrigation equipment salesman.
A few years ago, Sharp was in
Omak, Wash., had bought a sawmill
and planned to build tiny houses.
Wildfire swept through and burned
him out. Last year, he saw on Face-
book that Washington Gov. Jay
Inslee had vetoed a bill legalizing
state-supervised hemp farming.
The veto was strictly a political
statement to scold lawmakers for
not passing a budget. Inslee vetoed
27 bills that day. The Legislature
overrode many of the vetoes, includ-
ing the hemp legislation. But Sharp
interpreted the veto in a way that
sparked his rebellious instincts, so
he researched hemp and contacted
farmers. “If I don’t see that Face-
book post, maybe I’m not in hemp,”
he said.
Sharp’s plan took shape as
WSDA spent a year writing rules for
farming and processing hemp, and a
certified seed program.
According to the rules, farm-
ers must pay a nonrefundable $450
application fee and $300 for a one-
year license. Inspection and testing
fees will total thousands of dollars
more. Farmers are subject to crim-
inal background checks and must
provide WSDA with the GPS coor-
dinates of their fields.
Hemp fields must be at least 4
miles from any marijuana grow as
a precaution against cross-pollina-
tion. The requirement came from
the state’s marijuana industry, a bil-
lion-dollar business and tax-generat-
ing machine.
Furthermore, hemp grown in
Washington must be processed there,
but not in private homes, slowing for
now the development of any cot-
tage industry. Harvested hemp can’t
leave the farm until WSDA issues a
“fit for commerce” certificate. Hemp
plants must be destroyed if they test
too high in THC, the psychoactive
chemical in marijuana.
“Many people have complained
Washington’s program is too conser-
vative,” Keahey, the Hemp Indus-
tries Association director, said.
The rules are meant to appease
federal authorities. The hope is that
the rules will lead to high-quality
hemp, access to banking services,
USDA grants and no problems with
the federal government.
“I’m not sure I would agree with
the term ‘conservative.’ I would say
we’re ‘federally compliant’ — on
purpose,” said Joy Beckerman, who
founded the Washington chapter of
the Hemp Industries Association.
After WSDA spent a year care-
fully crafting a federally compliant
program, the Washington Legisla-
ture in April inserted confusion. It
passed a bill taking hemp off the
state’s controlled substances list.
Lawmakers said they were fol-
lowing the lead of the federal gov-
ernment. The problem is, the federal
government hasn’t taken hemp off
its list of controlled substances.
To counteract that move, WSDA
hastily had lawmakers give it the
authority to penalize anyone grow-
ing hemp without a state license,
even though lawmakers one week
earlier had declared hemp was not a
state-controlled substance.
Sharp said it’s easy go down the
“rabbit hole.”
“The important thing is we have
hemp in the ground,” he said. “And
if we had fought over every detail,
that might not have happened.”
WSDA began issuing licenses in
May and so far has issued a handful,
including one to Washington State
University, which will try growing
five dryland varieties of hemp.
Sharp said he hopes to sell the
grain (sterilized seeds) and bale the
stalks in hopes of someday finding a
processor for the fiber.
“Being the first to do something
is absolutely exciting, but there are
pitfalls that come with it,” he said.
“We’re trying to make a commercial
product out of this, but as of now, we
don’t have a market for it.”
He said he has taken to repeating
a line to describe the state of hemp
in Washington: “Everybody wants to
be in hemp, until it’s time to cut the
check.”
Market potential
The Congressional Research
Service in March released a report
titled, “Hemp as an Agricultural
Commodity.”
According to the report, there are
no official figures for the value of
hemp imported into the U.S., though
the Hemp Industries Association es-
timates sales at nearly $600 million
a year.
Since little hemp is produced
domestically, most of it used in the
U.S. comes from China, Canada,
India, Romania, Hungary and other
European countries, according to the
report.
Overall, the congressional report
was reserved about the immediate
prospects for a robust U.S. hemp in-
dustry.
The industry must establish sup-
ply chains, breed suitable variet-
ies, upgrade harvesting equipment,
modernize processing facilities and
identify new markets, according to
the report.
A 2013 report by the University
of Kentucky, the state with the most
acres in hemp, concluded that in the
short term the re-emergence of hemp
would create “dozens of new jobs,
not hundreds.”
Then again, the U.S. market has
a “highly dedicated and growing de-
EPA plans to take another crack at defining
waters of the U.S. under Clean Water Act
EPA from Page 1
“Nobody understands the
need for good stewardship
and conservation better than
America’s wheat farmers,”
Chandler Goule, NAWG
CEO, said. “We depend on
clean water and healthy soils
to make a living and feed
the world. However, wheat
farmers also need regulatory
certainty so they know how
to stay in compliance with
the law.”
Craig Uden, president of
National Cattlemen’s Beef
Association, said rescinding
the rule is another great step
in the right direction.
“The
administration
deserves a great deal of
credit for injecting some
much-needed common sense
into our nation’s environ-
mental policies. It’s import-
ant to remember, though, that
this rule isn’t dead yet,” he
said.
Public Lands Council
President Dave Eliason said
ranchers in the West are al-
ready subject to an elevated
level of regulatory overreach
and the WOTUS rule as writ-
ten would have only made
the problem worse.
“It is reassuring to see the
steps that this administration
is taking to relieve some of
that regulatory burden and
provide certainty for our pro-
ducers,” he said.
The WOTUS rule broad-
ened EPA’s jurisdiction to in-
clude such things as upstream
waters and intermittent and
ephemeral streams — such
as the kind farmers use for
drainage and irrigation — as
well as lands adjacent to such
waters, National Pork Pro-
ducers Council stated.
“The WOTUS rule was a
dramatic government over-
reach and an unprecedented
expansion of federal author-
ity over private lands, said
Ken Maschoff, NPPC presi-
dent.
“It was the product of a
flawed regulatory process
that lacked transparency and
likely would have been used
by trial lawyers and envi-
ronmental activists to attack
farmers,” he said.
The National Potato
Council said the rule mas-
sively expanded the scope
of the Clean Water Act to ar-
eas of the U.S. — including
farms — that are unrelated to
its original goals and thereby
subjected growers to poten-
tial regulatory jeopardy.
“NPC has gone on record
as a strong supporter of re-
ducing regulatory burdens
that inhibit growers’ ability
to farm. Revoking this flawed
WOTUS proposal is a posi-
tive step toward that goal,”
said John Keeling, CEO and
EVP of NPC.
Wesley Spurlock, pres-
ident of the National Corn
Growers Association, said
the rule moved the country
away from the goals of the
Clean Water Act — restoring
and maintaining the integrity
of the nation’s waters. Draw-
ing clear lines on what is and
what isn’t jurisdictional will
enable farmers to implement
best management practices,
such as grass waterways and
buffer strips, without the bur-
den of bureaucratic red tape,
he said.
“These types of land im-
provements have enormous
water-quality benefits, such
as reducing sediment and
nutrient runoff – a win for
farmers and the environment.
Government should be mak-
ing these actions easier, not
more difficult,” he said.
Michael Strain, president
of the National Association
of State Departments of Ag-
riculture, said EPA has sided
with state and local govern-
ments, farmers, landowners,
and small businesses in its
decision to rescind the bur-
densome regulation.
“The 2015 rule lacked
clarity and was fraught with
procedural concerns and vi-
olations of congressional
intent, making it necessary
to start over with a new rule
that protects clean water and
respects state regulatory au-
thority,” he said.
Others groups were not
supportive of the action,
however.
“This proposal strikes di-
rectly at public health,” said
Rhea Suh, president of the
National Resources Defense
Council.
“The Clean Water Rule
provides the clarity we need
to protect clean water. Its re-
peal would make it easier for
irresponsible developers and
others to contaminate our
waters and send the pollution
downstream,” she said.
Bob Irvin, president of
American Rivers, said Roll-
ing back the rule is another
major blow to clean drink-
ing water and the health of
American families.
“Without the Clean Water
Rule’s critical protections,
innumerable small streams
and wetlands that are essen-
tial for drinking water sup-
plies, flood protection and
fish and wildlife habitat will
be vulnerable to unregulated
pollution, dredging and fill-
ing,” he said.
Beckerman emerged as an effec-
tive advocate for hemp in the state
capitol in Olympia, where the crop
has been embraced by both parties
for its economic potential.
“She got our attention and made
us aware of what it’s all about,”
said Senate Agriculture Committee
Chairwoman Judy Warnick, a Moses
Lake Republican.
Beckerman traces her activism to
a flier handed to her at a 1990 Grate-
ful Dead concert. Four years later,
she opened a hemp-products store in
Woodstock, N.Y. “Cannabis wants
to serve humanity,” she said.
Beckerman is on the national
board of directors of NORML, the
National Organization for the Re-
form of Marijuana Laws, but her
task in Olympia has been to stress
the differences between hemp and
marijuana.
“We’re having to get through the
taboo,” she said.
Hemp and marijuana are un-
avoidably intertwined, though.
Moscow, Idaho, farmer Tom Trail,
who retired in 2012 after 16 years in
the state House of Representatives,
introduced bills to legalize hemp
farming in Idaho several times. The
crop remains one of Trail’s favorite
subjects, but also illegal to cultivate
in Idaho.
“It just seemed like a majority of
folks simply could not break out the
difference between industrial hemp
and marijuana,” he said. “Even
though you would have to smoke
a hemp cigar as big as a telephone
pole to get even a slight kick.”
Hemp sold for its purported
health benefits — as opposed to
paper, textiles and construction ma-
terials made from it — complicates
matters, at least with the DEA.
In 2004, the DEA lost a battle in
the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
over regulating hemp food products.
The DEA and the Hemp Industries
Association are back in the same
court litigating over CBD, a major
market for Oregon hemp.
“Above all, I want to heal peo-
ple,” said Norton, the Willamette
Valley farmer. “In my estimation,
this will be bigger than Vitamin C.”
In Washington, hemp flowers,
from which CBD is extracted, may
yet find a use. The Legislature has
authorized a study into whether
hemp farmers should be able to sell
the material to marijuana processors.
Issue brought unwanted
attention on social media
CONTROL from Page 1
farm can maintain organic
certification.
“This looks fine,” farm
manager Nathan Stelzer said
in a late-night email follow-
ing a June 21 meeting with
the county court. “Thanks for
the good interactive commu-
nication and discussion today.
I think we can have a very
good working relationship,
now that we know each other
better and have a clearer un-
derstanding of the meaning of
‘control.’”
Commissioner Tom Mc-
Coy said he’s optimistic
the farm, its neighbors and
the county have reached an
agreement that will work for
all three.
That wasn’t the case earlier
this spring. The farm’s weeds
have been an irritant to other
farmers for several years, es-
pecially those who grow cer-
tified wheat seed. This year,
the weeds were described as
“rampant.”
Sherman County officials
warned Azure they would ask
the state Department of Agri-
culture to quarantine the farm,
and said they would spray
weeds with herbicide if the
farm didn’t get a handle on
the problem.
But using convention-
al week killers would cause
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press File
Nathan Stelzer, center, manag-
er of the Azure Farms organic
operation on the outskirts of
Moro, Ore., at a May meeting
with Sherman County commis-
sioners. The farm has reached
an agreement with the county
to control its weeds.
Azure to lose organic certifi-
cation for three years after the
last application.
Azure Farms appealed to
its fans and followers on so-
cial media, and county offi-
cials received an estimated
59,000 emails critical of their
stance on the issue.
At a county court meet-
ing in May, held in a high
school gym to accommodate
the crowd, residents said they
were angry about being vili-
fied on Facebook and called
names by people they’d never
met. Nathan Stelzer and his
brother, David, who is pres-
ident of Azure Standard in
nearby Dufur, apologized for
the social media outburst.