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| Members of the Louisiana Industrial Hemp Alliance (LIHA) held their inaugural meeting at the Southern University Agricultural Land-Grant Campus on January 14, 2019. Seated from left are, Curtis L. Willis, Ph.D.; Joyce James and Bobby R. Phills, Ph,D., Chancellor-Dean of the SU Land-Grant Campus. Standing, from left, are Joe Lavigne; Arthur Walker, LIHA Chair; Odis Hill, SU Ag Center Assistant Area Agent; Winston L. Brumfield; Versa O. Clark; Andra Johnson, Ph.D., SU Ag Center Vice Chancellor for Research and C. Reuben Walker, Ph.D., SU Land-Grant Campus Associate Vice Chancellor for Auxiliary and External Engagement. |
Baton Rouge, La. – The Southern University
Land-Grant Campus hosted the inaugural meeting of the Louisiana Industrial Hemp
Alliance (LIHA) on Monday, January 14, 2019.
The meeting, which was held in Fisher Hall
on Southern University’s Campus, was convened to address new legislation
regarding Industrial Hemp.
“Industrial HEMP has been around for
millennia,” said Arthur Walker, Chair of the LIHA. “It is a grain in the family
of Cannabis Sativa L. The difference between it and other versions of the
cannabis plant is in the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) levels. It has a level of
.3% and below. Marijuana, its cousin, has THC levels of 5 and above,” he add.
THC is the psychotropic component of the
plant that can cause individuals to experience a “high.” Making it virtually
impossible to get high from the Industrial Hemp plant.
However, it was still classified as a
schedule I drug, along with marijuana, by the Nixon administration in the 70’s.
Making it illegal to be grown in the United States, but, the purchase of
imported raw materials to manufacture products from the plant was legal.
Many of these products include clothes,
soap, fiberboard and insulation.
“For a number of years the US has spent
over $150 million per year on importing Industrial Hemp products just from
China alone,” said Joe Lavigne, LIHA member. “We feel that Louisiana is the
perfect safe space to take a fraction of that market and really drive the
Industrial Hemp economy.”
“The small farmers and the small business
owners of Louisiana need that infusion of opportunity,” expressed Walker.
The 2018 Farm Bill officially removed
Industrial Hemp from the schedule I classification. Industrial Hemp is now
classified as a commercial commodity like corn, sugarcane, and rice.
“Now farmers can get crop insurance and
receive financing opportunities from the federal government to start growing
Industrial Hemp,” said Walker. “The whole commodity designation and moving
Industrial Hemp from the Department of Justice, where it was a schedule I drug,
to the control of the Department of Agriculture is a game changer.”
As of the end of December 2018, 40 states
had passed legislation that allowed their farmers and business owners to get
involved with Industrial Hemp. Louisiana is among the last 10 states to have no
legislation for the commodity.
“With the passage of the Farm Bill, those
40 states that have passed legislation are now ready to go to
commercialization, as long as their laws are modified to fit under the federal
umbrella,” said Walker. “Louisiana has to have something established from
ground zero.”
The Alliance hopes to influence
legislation in the state of Louisiana to allow the state’s small farmers and
business owners to involve themselves in the commercial end of Industrial Hemp.
If legislation is passed, the Southern
University Land-Grant Campus plans to assist small farmers in the propagation
of the crop.
“Part of the Southern University
Land-Grant Campus’s mission is to work with small, limited resource farmers
throughout the state. We will assist the LIHA in helping to teach small farmers
how to grow, cultivate and prepare this commodity as a value-added crop that
can be exported throughout the world,” said Bobby R. Phills, Ph.D.,
Chancellor-Dean of the Southern University Land-Grant Campus. “It is our hope
that this crop will enable small farmers to remain on their farms and be able
to earn a decent living by growing Industrial Hemp.”
The Louisiana Industrial Hemp Alliance’s
mission is to aid in the acceptance of the free marketing of Industrial Hemp as
an agricultural crop in Louisiana. The organization is dedicated to a free
market of Industrial Hemp, Low-THC varieties of Cannabis, and to change current
laws to allow Louisiana farmers to grow this crop and Louisiana processors to
process this crop on a commercial scale.
The Southern University Ag Center and the
College of Agricultural, Family and Consumer Sciences together are called the
Southern University Land-Grant Campus.
For additional information about the
Louisiana Industrial Hemp Alliance, contact Arthur Walker at
artw@communicationsone.com.
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