Regional Agriculture: New Mexico & Industrial Hemp

HR1866, The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009 was introduced by Ron Paul (R-TX) and Barney Frank (D-MA) on the federal level last spring. Sixteen states have passed pro-hemp legislation, while eight removed barriers for research based production. NM House & Senate Hemp Farming Act bills were introduced on January 28, 2009, but have not been voted on. Instead, our legislature passed Memorials, HM 47/SM 30 that request and urge the NM Department of Agriculture and the State Board of Regents to “investigate the feasibility of state incentives for commercialization of industrial hemp.” The legislature has spoken," says attorney John McCall. "New Mexico lawmakers are on-board in support of industrial hemp farming, encouraging our scientists and educators to look at the subject without fear of retribution by law enforcement or negative conventional wisdom. All of the benefits of hemp can now be explored in a legal forum." In addition our Memorial addresses Congress to "to recognize industrial hemp as a valuable agricultural commodity, to define industrial hemp in federal law as a non-psychoactive and genetically identifiable species of the genus Cannabis and acknowledge that allowing and encouraging farmers to produce industrial hemp will improve the balance of trade by promoting domestic sources of industrial hemp." The legislative activity can be accessed at Vote Hemp/NM.

So what is currently taking place in our state?

Active since 2000, New Mexico Industrial Hemp Coalition (NMIHC) is now a Political Action Committee, allowing them to receive/contribute funds, organize to elect policy makers and work under an umbrella 501-C3. NMIHC ran last year’s bill carried by Senator McSorley (D), for monies to search for initial test growing plots that was turned into our current Memorials; no funding was procured. Back in 1999, a study done by the New Mexico Department of Agriculture (NMDA), by the research arm of UNM Las Cruces, produced a short, broadly based overview on the efficacy of hemp for New Mexico. It was inadequate and not anywhere detailed enough for today’s needs. Yet despite our legislators now paving the way for the proper state agencies to analyze the efficacy by testing and proper permitting, NMSU will not set up these processes. The Dept. of Agricultural Economics/Business College of NMSU somewhat rehashed their 1999 study into the 2008 Response to House Memorial 49, citing studies that are over 10-yrs. old and contends that the industry is “untestable until the DEA lifts its restrictions.” NMDA did however, recently award NMIHC $2700 for communication efforts which has gone into the development of their website, www.hempfornewmexico.com.

Navajo State Representative’s Ray Begaye, D-San Juan County & Vice-Chair of the Agricultural Committee sadly concurs. “I could not get any grant writer(s) from NMSU interested in the specialty crop initiative to move forward, so there was no application made for the hemp test plots.” Meanwhile, he is constantly educating about the misnomers of hemp and its perceived relationship to marijuana, stressing his belief that the crop can be a multi-million dollar statewide industry, feeling there are good prospects for our 22 Sovereign tribes. He is ardently working with NAPI, the Navaho Agricultural Product Industries consortium on the necessary processes that need to be considered for its cultivation. JIMMI, the Jicarilla International Marketing & Management Inc. (Apache) in Dulce, set up by the Native entrepreneur Jennifer Muskrat, focuses on alleviating economic and community debt. JIMMI researches and develops “value-added” products that focus on organic, progressive lifestyles and strongly supports hemp’s myriad of possibilities. JIMMI would gladly welcome a test plot on their Amarillo Ranch, where cultivation would use local land labor and capital, with the capacity to transformation lifestyles.

Should monies and impetus be garnered for testing at State experimental agricultural stations, NMHIC would like 3-4 plots, to have adequate proven data on yields, know required moisture, type of fertilization, length of plant, their growing spans and whether volunteer seed can offer a second crop from the original seed. The state’s low moisture fall necessitates irrigation, so the correct seed needs to be matched to the proper locale. It is a hardy plant though as the Ogala Sioux Tribe proved it to be a sustainable crop, growing well in the inhospitable soil of the South Dakota Badlands. The tribe produced healthy crops over two years, (only to have them destroyed by the DEA, incurring over $200,000 in losses). Small 1-acre study areas make the research slightly more costly as the planting and harvesting must be hand done but costs could be reduced if NMSU applies for the research permit. NMIHC feels bringing NMDA working through NMSU aboard once again, brings credibility to the overall research. The Coalition also seeks to identify the facilities needed for a collection point and central processing location.

Speaking of which, Wally Empson of Emerson Hemp in Manitoba has invented new processing technology that is much more economical than the European model that is government subsidized on both ends (growers & processors). He currently processes but is readying his company for the onslaught of sharing its technology, which is done with equipment readily available in North America. He says there is “huge interest in the United States and many, many industries want the product but it simply is not grown in enough quantity to supply them.” His foresight is concurred by the skyrocketing, global production. The whole stalk is used in bio/ethanol/diesel fuels; the bast fiber in traditional to cutting-edge Geotextiles (agricultural textiles), bio-composites in greener Pultrusion techniques and in car parts for its durability, strength and lightness (Toyota & Mercedes Benz). The hurd, (wood core) is incorporated in green building materials, industrial and paper-based products. The nut is found in breads, cereals, protein powders and milk. Cold pressed hemp oil is the most balanced of the fatty acids, the only one to provide the Super Omega-6GLA and is key in expensive, natural body-care products and technical paints, solvents, lubricants and coatings.

NMIHC’s research points to the most simple, cost effective way to enter the market as being that of food production. Living Harvest Foods out of Oregon grew by more that 300% in 2008 with gross sales of $4.4 million dollars and California based Nutiva’s sales increased last year by 125%, with gross proceeds of $6.5 million dollars. Biodegradable building materials such as Hempcrete, is another start-up industry that could be accomplished with a relatively small investment,” says NMIHC board member Kathleen Savage, of Santa Fe Hemp. One materials scientist in Aromas, California waited and bugged Emerson Hemp for 4 months before finally receiving hurd to experiment with, for a granite & hemp based building product. Emerson Hemp apologized and qualified that they just didn’t have enough of the material to send.

The efficacy of hemp as a highly valuable food source for both humans and animals is being studied by the Univ. of Manitoba’s Dept. of Human Nutritional Sciences, which has proven that hemp protein is highly digestible, carrying over to most major classes of livestock. There are current trials with laying hens and broiler chickens to see whether the use of the seed or oil will allow claims to be made relative to omega-3 content within the meat or eggs. Hemp can be as high as 31% protein, which would be used to assess its market price in relationship to soy; so while being raised locally it would fetch a handsome, global price. Alex White Plume, Ogala Sioux feeds the seedcake to his bison claiming, “they’ve never been healthier”, as does Taos Hemptress, Ruth Farhbach whose horses “absolutely love it!”

This very current information seems to counter the outdated figures citied by the NMSU Dept. of Agriculture in their 2008 revised study. They admit, “State-level data are not available; however, if an overly simple assumption that the market for hemp products would be evenly distributed across the country evenly, we can estimate that based on NM’s 0.623% share of the total U.S. population, it should attract 0.623% of the $2.4 million of total hemp imports.” Old economics and lackluster, investigative science will not lead us to a true assessed value of a food-based product and we are perhaps missing a real chance to jump on the lucrative, green industries bandwagon. Agricultural industries that can supply these innovative material needs, could be the winning fillies out of this century’s embryonic, green gates.

Cynthia Cox is cultural creative who manifests and envisions, currently living in Santa Fe. Her written material has appeared in the Sunday NY Times, and numerous art/cultural publications.