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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis farmer had a million-dollar hemp crop -- until South Carolina bulldozed it
HARLEYVILLE, S.C. After Hurricane Dorian battered his farm in September, John Trenton Pendarvis faced a costly decision. Dorian's winds had blasted the hemp he had planted in early summer. On one particular 10-acre field and its nearly mature crop, he had already spent over $75,000 for licensing, seeds and labor a sum that he hoped to recoup by selling the post-harvest hemp oil and flowers for several million dollars.
But the flattened plants were not his only problem. Because of water issues, he had used acreage not officially permitted for hemp by the state agriculture department. He called the agency to ask whether he should hire a crew to manually prop up the 25,000 plants. They said, Keep doing what youre doing,? he remembers.
He got a different response several days later when a phalanx of law enforcement officers arrived, handcuffing and arresting him for illegal hemp cultivation, then bulldozing his crop. It must have been 30 of them coming from everywhere, Pendarvis said recently, surveying the crushed remains on his farm northwest of Charleston. Now its just all rotted up.
As his case wends through the courts despite South Carolina not yet prescribing a penalty for what it considers a misdemeanor crime Pendarvis has become emblematic of the hurdles that farmers face in growing a crop legalized through the 2018 federal farm bill. Laws are evolving across the conservative South, where hemp grows well thanks to the warm weather and fertile soil.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/this-farmer-had-a-million-dollar-hemp-crop--until-south-carolina-bulldozed-it/ar-BBYRczF?li=BBnb7Kz
rickford66
(5,530 posts)And Democrats have no problem predicting these consequences. Name a problem and the Republicans will always pick the wrong solution or not address it at all which is as bad as not doing something.
superpatriotman
(6,253 posts)with his crushed dreams
Newest Reality
(12,712 posts)The list of the uses of hemp transcend just the fiber. Even a casual perusal indicates that it is an extremely versatile plant that also yields a good source of protein as well as useful oils and byproducts.
My view of this is that the prohibition is more about competition to certain industries than it is the mere resemblance to its sister strains or ultra-low THC content, (you would have to smoke so much of it that you would die from smoke inhalation before you got high).
That competition is purported to be one of the several ulterior motives to going from the government requiring the growing of hemp during war to an unreasonable and unjustifiable effort to make it criminal.
As the THC-heavy strains become legal in more states, it will be interesting to see how the prohibition of a very useful crop will be kept in place and I encourage people to look into the history of these plants and also the many benefits of growing hemp.
Response to Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin (Original post)
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