With marijuana a growing topic on a national scale, there are many more benefits to legalization than the opportunity to indulge in smoking and edibles. The hemp industry is showing promise as a major breakthrough in sustainable production.
“Kentucky’s hemp production is taking deeper root as experimental projects expand in the second year of testing its potential as a cash crop. Spring planting season is expected to include at least several hundred acres of industrial hemp, Adam Watson, the state Agriculture Department’s hemp program coordinator, said Monday. Statewide hemp plantings totaled about three dozen acres last year, he said. More than 100 farmers and processors —mostly growers — are expected to participate in the next round of pilot projects, he said. Last year’s tiny production turned into the state’s first legal hemp crop in generations. The crop once thrived in Kentucky, but growing hemp without a federal permit was banned in 1970 due to its classification as a controlled substance related to marijuana.”
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