The Silicon Valley of hemp? Advocates say latest leap is a start

Grace Schneider
Courier Journal

A Kentucky company announced Monday it had developed hemp plants without a trace of THC, the stuff in marijuana that gets people high.

Along with University of Kentucky researchers, GenCanna Global hailed the development as a breakthrough to grow the global hemp industry and make Kentucky the Silicon Valley of hemp innovation.

"This is a really big deal. You're now able to draw a clear line between" hemp and marijuana, Jonathan Miller, a lawyer who's led the state industry's lobbying efforts, said during a morning announcement in Lexington.

Kentucky's industrial hemp initiative, overseen by the Department of Agriculture, is entering its sixth season. It posted record sales of $50 million last year, and is expected to expand from about 11,000 acres last year to 42,000 approved for the coming season.

More:Here's how Kentucky families benefit from McConnell's clout in D.C.

Earlier:Mitch McConnell is fighting hard to legalize hemp

Kentucky growers and processors have produced an array of hemp varieties to make chocolates, salves, fiber for manufacturing, and the increasingly popular CBD oil. That chemical processed from buds on the cannabis plants is sold to control pain, anxiety and even epileptic seizures. The market is projected to top $2.1 billion by 2020, according to Hemp Business Journal.

But some farmers and processors in Kentucky and other states have been hampered by natural variations in plants that produce high-quality CBD and levels of THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, above the .03 percent level. 

That's forced the state agriculture department to order such "hot hemp" plants destroyed.

The federal 2018 Farm Bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump in December removes industrial hemp from the Controlled Substances Act, but doesn't change the .03 percent standard, Steve Bevan, GenCanna's president, said an interview.

Also:McConnell: Hemp legislation will give Kentucky farmers a new cash crop

Background:Hemp brings jobs and more than $16.7 million in sales to Kentucky

But having plant seeds, plant starts and other genetic material with 0 percent THC is a breakthrough because growers won't have to worry at all about THC levels. GenCanna plans to patent the breakthrough.

The farm bill makes hemp a legal plant, clarifies the definition of the plant and eventually may allow farmers to get crop insurance. The USDA also will be the national regulator, Bevan said. 

The privately held GenCanna is based in Winchester, where it employs 160 and has spent millions of dollars growing and expanding production to commercialize the crop. Last month, the company announced plans for a $40 million investment near Mayfield to dry and extract hemp.

The work underwritten by GenCanna at UK has helped speed development of hemp as a viable crop for Kentucky farmers, agronomy professor David Hildebrand said in a statement.

"The overall goal of our industrial hemp research is to improve the quantity and efficiency of CBD production, as well as production of other valuable non-THC cannabinoids in hemp varieties optimized for Kentucky,” he said.

Elsewhere:'Biggest thing to happen to agriculture': Hemp may be grown in Indiana

UK also is working on a more rapid way to accurately measure cannabinoid levels in large numbers of hemp plants. Eventually, they may be able to scan thousands of plants from a drone to identify key molecular characteristics, Hildebrand told the Lexington crowd.

"We really believe hemp has a great future in Kentucky," Bevan said.

Grace Schneider: 502-582-4082; gschneider@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @gesinfk. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/graces