Testimonials
Supporters Speak Out
James Forbes
Tiger Fiber
Hey I’m James Forbes with Tiger Fiber, I’m headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, growing in both the states of Illinois and Missouri. The biggest reason I’m in support of the THC exemption is seeing the pain on a lot of our farmers faces when they go over 0.2-0.3 % and still not have any psychoactive effect. We are a hemp fiber processor and we de-risk the crops that we grow in Missouri and Illinois, and I say that meaning we give the seeds away to the farmer, and even if they get zero yield, we still pay them something so that the industry doesn’t have a bad rap. And we can’t keep affording to do that with the losses, especially knowing that we’re predominantly fiber: it’s non-consumable, non-psychoactive, and it’s not being ingested. And that’s the reason I support this exemption!
Greg Wilson
HempWood
Howdy everybody, it’s Greg Wilson from HempWood and we have 27 employees in Murray, Kentucky, making HempWood flooring, furniture, and cabinetry six days a week! We support the hemp exemption because it allows us to grow our business and keep everybody employed.
Trey Riddel
IND HEMP
Hi I’m Trey Riddell with IND Hemp. We support the hemp exemption for our growers of grain and fiber so we can better serve them and the industry. We need to get hemp to look more like other agricultural commodities. Reduce the cost, reduce the complexity for our farmers to grow it. We need better availability of genetics for our farmers. And, we have to get rid of some of the rigmarole they have to go through until they get more acres.
Mandi Kerr
Global Hemp Association
My name is Mandi Kerr with the Global Hemp Association, and I support the fiber and grain hemp exemption for a couple of reasons. One of the biggest things is as we’ve done research trials for fiber, we’ve had less success on some certified seeds. And so, our concern is if we’re going to scale the industry, we’ve gotta be able to open the industry for varieties while we stabilize genetics.
Ken Elliot
IND Hemp
This is Ken Elliot, coming to you from Fort Benton, Montana, in the heart of IND Hemp country. I’m the President and Owner of IND Hemp. The question is: why do we want the hemp exemption? We want the hemp exemption because our farmers—who happen to be wheat farmers and barley farmers most of the time—sometimes they’re hemp farmers and the USDA with the current regulations treats them like criminals. They want fingerprints, they want FBI background checks, and it’s too much for our farmers. It's easier to keep raising wheat and barley, and as a consequence the hemp industry in Montana struggles to get off the ground. That’s why I want the hemp exemption.
Mattie Mead
Hempitecture
Hi my name is Mattie Mead, I’m the founder and CEO of Hempitecture. We are a sustainable non-wovens company that is based out of Twin Falls, Idaho. I support the fiber and grain hemp exemption because as a company that is seeking to produce sustainable, high-performing insulation products, in competing with conventional products such as fiberglass and rockwool, we need to give our farmers the chance to produce the materials we need so that we can compete at a larger scale. Right now, the bureaucratic red tape that surrounds the industrial hemp industry limits farmers abilities to get involved in the industry, by way of background checks, by way of fingerprinting. We need to give our farmers a chance to produce these materials.
Melissa Peterson
Global Hemp Processing
One of the biggest challenges that we run into all the time with our farmers right now, is the fact that they want hemp to be an agricultural commodity. They don’t want all the handcuffs that the Colorado Department of Agriculture has thrown at them. One of them being the fingerprinting, the background checks, the testing (the 30 days before harvest testing). I mean I could go on and on. The planting, the planting reports, the harvest reports. They’re farmers. You know, they’re third-, fourth-, fifth- generation farmers. They’re interested in going out, planting the crop, harvesting, having a safe place to bring their commodities. And, what we’ve done to them in this industry, is we’re slowly removing this as a rotational crop. And, the farmers have kids that want to get involved, but they’re not interested in just the regular hay, or corn, or potatoes. It excites them to be part of a new industry, it excites them to be part of the fiber and grain industry. We, at Global Fiber, focus on fiber. We’re not in that sector right now. For us, the fiber doesn’t flower, it doesn’t go to seed. So as far as we’re concerned, we’re always going to be below those [THC] levels and our farmers are interested in growing it. I understand that dual crop is important for economic reasons, but its just right now, I think maybe fiber for us is the way to go and so this exemption is going to help with that quite a bit.
Jacob Waddell
U.S. Hemp Building Association
My name is Jacob Waddell and I’m from the U.S. Hemp Building Association. Hemp exemption means lowering risk for businesses.
