Hoping that hemp production can help offset the decline of the sugarcane industry, Hawaii has passed a bill that makes planting commercial hemp legal. The Hawaii Strategic Industrial Hemp Development Act of 1999 allows private companies to fund industrial hemp research at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
Hemp legislation has also passed in North Dakota and Minnesota and has been introduced in Kentucky, Montana, Virginia, Vermont, Illinois, Oregon and Colorado. The California Democratic National Party supports industrial hemp. In Kentucky,
many farmers see hemp as a potential substitute crop for tobacco.
Canada is in its second year of hemp production. This year, Health Canada received
about 750 applications to grow industrial hemp. Roughly half of Canada’s 1999 crop of 25,000 acres is in Manitoba and is managed by one company, CGP Canada, a subsidiary of the U.S. company, Consolidated Growers & Processors. The certified organic acreage is estimated at only 1500 acres, but is considered to be a growing trend.
Source: The Hemp Commerce & Farming Report
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