Alright okay so we're talking about history. You can see these documents here,
these are from the Polo hemp mill that was built in Illinois. My wife Rachel
actually visited this place and talked to the person who is still in charge and
they preserved all these historical documents from the World War 2 era. So,
these are actual documents that you can go if you go check it out they'll let
you browse bump through them take pictures whatever you want it's it's
really great stuff. So the company that that built all these mills for the World
War 2 war effort was called war hemp Industries Incorporated,
and they start they started the Polo hemp mill in Ogle County from 1943 to
1944 and it was the pilot Pro or it was the pilot plant for the entire program
which included the USDA creating a hemp division to direct the establishment of
42 hemp mills 11 of which were in Illinois. It's interesting to note that
Illinois had over 25% of the mills even though there were six states involved in
the program; and during those years especially in 1943 280,000 acres of hemp
where it's grown across the US across Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, and
Wisconsin. These acres were mostly hand harvested and processed
specifically for fiber. So that's that's our history in Illinois is we have we
have this great legacy of processing for fiber. So we're going to talk some more
about the basics of hemp. I'm sure all of you are familiar with hem but just like
to go over sort of a quick picture of what I see. Hemp is a variety of cannabis
sativa that can be used for food fiber and medicine. It's one of the fastest
growing plants and one of the first plants to be farmed over ten thousand
years ago. It is 's an annual that grows well in the Midwest United States. It
grows like a row crop when you're doing it for seed or
fiber but much like a vegetable crowd when grown for flower and there are many
different varieties for each purpose that you intend to grow for. So let's
talk about those varieties or at least the different styles of growing that you
can do with hemp. So we're talking about growing hemp
flower I think a lot of people in this room and
most of the people that we've talked to are very interested in growing hemp for
flower. Many Illinois farmers are interested but they want to grow for not
only the high potential income that you can make off of it, but everyone
expresses that they want to either advance research or make their own
beneficial products for them to use themselves. So, they have more of a an
investment in it than just making money. Also small farmers in Illinois, they
recognize it as a crop that can scale up and/or leverage into a fiber or seed
operation so that they can just start with a few initial acres and build from
there.Something interesting about flower is there are national level
variables at play for the development of large-scale production of flower here
including oversupply and regulatory hurdles from the FDA if every state
starts mass producing flower we do risk an oversupply which can affect a lot of
people's investments. So we'll move on to seed this is a hemp field that
looks like it's being grown for seed. You can see it's much more densely planted
than the flower field but you can see it most of the plants just develop straight
up they don't get a chance to bush out like in the last slide there and there's
no there's no walking space in between these plants unlike here. So when you
grow for seed, Illinois Drummer soil is prime farmland for the production of
grain. Farmers in Illinois have experience and equipment that can easily
adapt to growing hemp seed. Many of these potentially large hemp seed operations
are lacking organic certification which makes hemp seed production significantly
more profitable. However farmers are interested in
converting their land from corn and soy to a sustainable rotation involving hemp
and additional regenerative practices which can include organic certification.
And apart from that seed markets may soon open up for the animal feed market
which could give conventional farmers an outlet to still continue to grow hemp
grain without that organic certification, so that's seed. We will talk about
fiber; here's a shot of a man standing next to a really tall hemp fiber field
this this not all varieties of hemp fiber get that tall but they certainly
can go 15-16 feet and the fiber market is the most underrepresented in the
industrial hemp picture right now but some Illinois farmers are enthusiastic
about growing it including me. Fibre processing infrastructure is virtually
non-existent within the state and still weak in states that have had legal hemp
for years. So, I think that if we can develop large-scale
hemp fiber supply chains we can help put Illinois at the forefront of the hemp
industry. And an interesting thing about fiber is some amount of fiber is going
to be grown regardless of the variety that you grow so the more we grow the
more Illinois needs market opportunities for it.
So let's talk a little bit about that market hemp industry analysis. Right now
we have we're lacking in a few things but we also have some positive things
that are looking good for the state, The things we're lacking in is a supply
chain for dedicated intermediate processing. Farmers are going to need a
place to immediately sell their raw baled hemp and right now there is
nothing. We're lacking and approved certified genetics and varietal research
there's not many seeds on the certified seed list right now that you can grow
and the sources for them are few and far between.
We are lacking a widespread industrial hemp pilot program to fund
research and development. Other states that legalize hemp years ago started
with the pilot program that helped them sort of get their market off the ground
but in Illinois they didn't really have that, they did a small amount of research
and now they're just opening up the program for everyone so now we're all
doing the research. So those are some of the things we're lacking but some of the
good things are there is interest in from current value-added producers to
adopt hemp as a feedstock for new products. If we can come up with the way
to process hemp and make it so they can just feed it right into their process
without changing anything they would most certainly be willing to adopt those
products based on them being new environmentally friendly is sustainable
etc. Another good thing is if we do start creating a large supply of hemp
here in Illinois, startup companies will flourish because they'll have a local
supply of this you know very profitable material. Another good thing is we have
interest from a lot of the institutions of higher education in the state for
doing hemp research Western Illinois, University of Illinois, Illinois State, and
Southern Illinois and many community colleges around the
state are all starting some form of hemp research this year or have been doing it
for years. And finally people in Illinois are
excited about hemp and the jobs that can help create in our state. Everyone we
talked to is very very excited about the hemp market I think this room is a
perfect illustration of that. Everyone here you're going out and learning
something new you're excited for the new opportunity and I thank all of you for
being here. So with that out of the way let's talk about the environment for a
minute. This map shows total nitrogen being delivered into the water from
agriculture in the Midwest, this goes into the Mississippi River and heads
down to the Gulf of Mexico. You can see illinois's right right in the
center of it and so I think it's up to us to sort of reverse this trash
of over saturation of nutrients running off into the water.
So sustainable ecological agriculture requires a revival of some traditional
methods in order to reverse environmental degradation. Cannabis hemp
is arguably if not obviously the best choice for the purpose of productive
environmental stewardship. Hemp can give you phytoremediation
of contaminants and soil reduction in chemical inputs and
increased biodiversity while simultaneously providing a resilient
source of food fiber and medicine. So if we start to grow hemp hopefully we can
reverse this and also create a resilient source of all the things that we need
within our communities so we don't have to depend on outside sources for our
live. So are we there yet? These are three steps that are going to
have to happen we will see these things happening in the next year or two. From
2019 to 2020 this these things are going to happen, the Illinois Department of
Agriculture is going to establish their rules and regulations, licensees will begin to
research hemp and also to produce some hemp, and with that first batch of
production will see local development of value-added processes and goods. So if
you're a beginner if you're new to the industry and you want to participate or
if you're already involved consider keeping up with the IHGA. We've been
developing resources and providing services and information for curious
farmers and others who are just getting started. We developed content with an
easy-to-understand approach that will continue to persist as we both grow
together in this industry. So right now I'd like to ask you all to visit our
website and subscribe our website is IllinoisHGA.com you can
become a member on the site and it's easy to participate in our discussions
on our forums; it's free and it's just starting.
You can also book an initial consultation with us so that we can get
you the specific information you have questions about and you can see what
it's like to work with us. That's it. Thank you all. I'm happy to answer any
questions please everyone find me or talk to me at the Q&A. Thanks again.