A phrase in the KSFY report, Noem urged caution on industrial hemp ahead of committee meeting,"Noem . . . [asked] lawmakers to consider the "unknowns" surrounding industrial hemp," reminded us of an unforgettable moment in former United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's discourse.
In 2002, Rumsfeld said:
Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones.
Is South Dakota's governor attempting to perform an analysis technique known as the Johari window? We dug deeper.
Rapid City Journal staff reported in Noem submits 315 hemp questions to group studying legalization:
Gov. Kristi Noem has submitted a list of 315 questions to state House and Senate leaders involved in a summer hemp study, her office said Monday.
During a session Monday in Pierre, Noem’s administration planned to urge legislators to consider the unknowns surrounding potential legalization of industrial hemp. . . .
Noem vetoed a bill last winter that would have legalized industrial hemp in South Dakota after the 2018 farm bill adopted by Congress authorized states to adopt their own hemp regulations.
Many other states had already allowed experimental hemp-growing that was authorized by the 2014 farm bill, and others have rushed to legalize industrial hemp since the passage of the 2018 farm bill. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, South Dakota is now one of three states (plus the District of Columbia) that does not allow any hemp cultivation — although some cultivation is occurring on Native American reservations in South Dakota, where growers have asserted rights under federal laws. . . .
Meanwhile, a Monday news release from the South Dakota Farmers Union said it is working with legislators to develop an industrial hemp bill to win Noem's approval in 2020.
The Farmers Union said several legislators met Monday in Pierre with Doug Goehring, the North Dakota commissioner of agriculture, and with leaders from other states where industrial hemp is legal. . . .
Read a PDF of Noem's 315 questions at the Park City paper; the press release announcing the questions is here on the South Dakota governor's site. Drug sniffing dogs are involved.
Meanwhile in Minnesota, those dirty hippies at Farmfest (run by IDEAg Group, a Delaware Limited Liability Company that's part of the American Farm Bureau Federation) explored unknowns using much more hands-on approach, IDEAg noted in Farmfest 2019 to Feature Industrial Hemp Demo Plot.
The Marshall Independent reported in Hemp plot draws interest at Farmfest:
Farmers roamed an industrial hemp plot in the warm sunshine at the southwest corner of the Farmfest grounds Tuesday.
With the cultivation of industrial hemp now legalized, a number of newly-created hemp businesses advertised themselves in a nearby tent, touting the industry as having great appeal and profit potential.
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture issued an estimated 310 grower licenses as of July 2019 for producers togrow hemp on an estimated 8,000 acres of land.
It all began with the 2014 Farm Bill that allowed states to run pilot programs to study the grow, cultivation and marketing of industrial hemp.
Minnesota legislators followed suit in 2015, passing the Industrial Hemp Development Act that mirrored the 2014 Farm Bill.
The 2018 Farm Bill legalized the production of hemp nationwide for commercial purposes. It officially removed hemp from the definition of marijuana in the federal Controlled Substances Act.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) now has purview over hemp and recognizes it as an agricultural commodity. The USDA oversees state programs and gives program guidance.
Minnesota will move into a commercial licensing hemp program starting in 2020 but growers will still need a license to legally grow or process hemp through the MDA. Applicants will submit research proposals and field locations, undergo a criminal history background check, and pay program fees.
At the end of the growing season, licenses are required to report agronomic, processing and marketing findings. All fields are sampled within 30 days of harvest by MDA inspectors. Plant samples are tested for total THC concentration to ensure compliance with statutory industrial hemp definition.
Growers and processors are looking to cash in on the lucrative cannabidiol (CBD) market while prices remain high and regulations are few. . . .
But in South Dakota, it's more important to fret about the children. In Minnesota, Forum Communications Dana Ferguson reported in Hemp, hop crops generate strong buzz, sobering reality check at Farmfest:
A day earlier, U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson at a congressional listening session at Farmfest said hemp's future as a Minnesota crop could be promising, but it could also burn out if not enough processors step in to buy the plants.
“I think there’s more interest in hemp than anything I’ve ever seen,” Peterson said. “If everybody buys hemp that is talking about it, you are going to collapse that market and screw that up."
Overproduction a problem in agriculture? Perish the thought of that known.
Photo: Kristi Noem, the governor with Michele Bachmann eyes. She says the state has more questions than answers when it comes to industrial hemp and that “Other states are struggling to implement their industrial hemp laws," according to Noem has hundreds of questions about industrial hemp. Photo credit:SD Gov/MGN via KOTA TV.
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