Farmers Urge CT Legislators to ‘Get on Board’ With Hemp Farming

Is growing hemp the same as growing marijuana?

According to medium.com., cannabis, hemp, and marijuana are NOT the same thing. According to an article in the NewsTimes, members of the Environment Committee in Connecticut's Legislature claim that growing hemp is one way to revitalize the farming industry.  

Marijuana, hemp, and cannabis even if they're not the same they are in cahoots with one another. Cannabis is a family of plants that have two primary classifications, Indica and Sativa. Marijuana can be part of either classification. Hemp is a sole member of the Cannabis Sativa family.

Hemp does contain some THC but really not enough to get you high. Also known as industrial hemp, its seeds and flowers are used in health foods while the fibers and stalks are used in hemp clothing, building materials, paper, biofuels, and plastics. Check out this working industrial hemp farm in Oregon.

The Federal Farm Bill passed in 2018 legalized industrial hemp and that means it can now be grown legally by farmers. An acre of hemp could produce 500 to 1,500 pounds of dried flowers and yield prices between $30 and $100 per pound. There's an incredible amount of bureaucratic red tape involved to get industrial hemp farming up and running in Connecticut, but it could be the answer to revitalizing the farming industry in our state.