Raegan Labat
In early February at the LSU AgCenter’s Plant Materials Center, the ten varietals of industrial hemp growing in the greenhouse along Ben Hur Road aren’t yet more than seedlings. But over the next three and a half months, they’ll be carefully monitored and nurtured by Dr. Gerald Myers and his colleagues at the AgCenter’s Industrial Hemp Working Group. The light sensitive plants—just beginning to sprout—bask for eighteen hours a day under the beams of warm, 260-watt overhead lights as they mature. By May, they’ll stand taller than my own measly five-foot-four stature, craning toward the conservatory’s glass ceiling, ready for harvest.
It’s been seventy-seven years since hemp was legally grown in the United States. Though it has long been considered taboo for its association with marijuana, hemp actually has a lengthy history in the underpinning of American agriculture. It was grown by not one, but two U.S. presidents—George Washington and Thomas Jefferson—and it was a prominent crop for U.S. farmers up until the early twentieth century. This ended when Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which enacted a tax on the sale of cannabis and did not differentiate marijuana from hemp. Though hemp and marijuana are both derived from the Cannabis sativa L. species, the two differ in their chemical composition, uses, and cultivation methods. Hemp contains less than .3% THC, the psychoactive cannabinoid in marijuana famous for eliciting the sensation of being high. All of the cannabis legislation in the years since—and contemporary cultural misconceptions about hemp—can be traced back to this statute, which was overturned in the Leary v. United States 1969 Supreme Court case and replaced by the 1971 Controlled Substances Act that remains in effect today.
Photo courtesy of Kristy Hébert
Through their company, Cypress Hemp, Kristy Hébert and Blake Bilger work to educate about hemp cultivation in Louisiana.
While hemp is primarily known for producing CBD, or cannabidiol, its applications are manifold. Hemp is a fiber, oil, and seed crop, so each part of the plant—seed, stalk, flower, and leaf—can be harvested to produce an array of textiles, industrial products, building materials, and CBD or hemp seed oil. Hemp can even serve as the building blocks of a home in the form of hempcrete—a mixture of hemp, lime, and water that naturally resists mold, does not burn, and repels insects. Hemp seed is packed with all nine essential amino acids, and can be consumed as a protein source along with hemp seed shells, which supply fiber. The hemp stalk and seed can even provide an alternate, sustainable fuel source— hemp biodiesel, methanol, and ethanol. Hemp is the plant that can do it all—feed you, clothe you, house you, and heal you, as Kristy Hébert, co-founder of Louisiana hemp company Cypress Hemp, likes to put it.
“Hemp is all around us,” said Hébert. “That’s what’s exciting to see, we’re finally embracing a plant that’s been grown by our founding fathers and was the backbone of America. People have to understand that this is an industrial revolution, and we’ve had an eighty-year prohibition on the hemp plant that made no sense.” Added co-founder Blake Bilger, “It’s like a little bit of amnesia due to a long miseducation.”
A New Frontier
Hemp’s reentry into the world of American agriculture began only six years ago with the USDA’s state Pilot Program. The 2014 Farm Bill provided for the cultivation of hemp for research purposes. However, Louisiana—which opted out of the program—wouldn’t seed hemp until the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill, which removed hemp from the Schedule I controlled substances list and federally legalized the cultivation and production of hemp as an agricultural commodity. The 2018 bill also allowed states to individually regulate hemp production, pending USDA approval of state submitted plans. Louisiana officially legalized the growth of industrial hemp and the sale of hemp-derived CBD products during the 2019 legislative session, and on December 23, Louisiana was the first state in the union to receive USDA approval for its industrial hemp proposal.
Newly elected Louisiana House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, R-Gonzales, sponsored House Bill 491. “This piece of legislation alone will create more jobs than any bills we’ve passed in the last twenty years,” said Schexnayder. The bill received widespread support from both legislative chambers, which can likely be attributed to its popularity among Louisiana farmers for the economic potential of the burgeoning CBD industry. In November, the AgCenter held an industrial hemp informational meeting in Shreveport for interested producers; a crowd of about five hundred attended the daylong presentation. “It gives the farmer an additional cash crop they can grow, and gives them another option,” said Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture Mike Strain. Fittingly, Gov. John Bel Edwards signed the bill into law in June with a hemp ink pen.
Raegan Labat
When writer Lauren Heffker visited the LSU AgCenter's Plant Materials Center in February, the plants were mostly tiny seedlings. But hemp plants, when full-grown, can reach over five feet tall.
This year’s harvest will be the first season for statewide hemp production. Last summer, the LSU AgCenter and Southern University were the only two producers in Louisiana permitted to start cultivating hemp for research purposes, a provision written into the industrial hemp bill. The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry (LDAF), the agency regulating industrial hemp production in the state, expects to begin distributing licenses on February 20 and anticipates that a crop will be in the ground by May 1.
The state is advising farmers to start small and proceed with caution for this first season. Hemp is a labor-intensive crop, and bears a degree of uncertainty due to the lack of preexisting knowledge about how best to farm it in Louisiana. As there is not yet a mainstream process in place for exporting the crop, every element of production is in the testing stages. This work is unprecedented territory.
"We're finally embracing a plant that's been grown by our founding fathers and was backbone of America. People have to understand that this is an industrial revolution, we've had an eighty-year prohibition on the hemp plant that made no sense."
—Kristy Hébert
The LSU AgCenter’s Industrial Hemp Working Group is tasked with discerning which seed varieties are compatible with Louisiana’s climate, as well as determining best management practices for planting and providing that information to the public. The variety of hemp that thrives at Colorado’s high elevations or in Kentucky’s diverse seasons won’t necessarily thrive in Louisiana’s hot and humid climate. We have more pests than our northern counterparts, and Louisiana has several different regional climates; a seed genotype that adapts to North Louisiana may not react the same in South Louisiana soil. “We’re bringing it back to the plant,” said Ashley Mullens, who is the coordinator of the AgCenter research group. “We’re in the infancy stages, so we’re going to be learning right alongside the producers.” The establishment of a definitive AgCenter-approved standard for hemp growing practices in Louisiana is still years down the line, Mullens said.
Raegan Labat
Dr. Gerald Myers is part of the LSU AgCenter team working to break ground in the studies of hemp farming in Louisiana. Through their research, they hope to answer questions like: “What seed varieties work best in Louisiana’s climate?” and “What are the best practices for planting?”.
“We want to become a genetic database, and we want to get into plant breeding to create varieties,” said Mullens. “This could be the beginning of a very long-term, very major research endeavor for the AgCenter. “The potential for intellectual property … researchers are excited about it.” Added Dr. Myers, “It has been a joy working in an area where none of the information is Louisiana-based.”
The Movers and Shakers
For Hébert, hemp was the catalyst that changed her life. In 2012 during her freshman year at LSU, Hébert was run over seven times by a drunk driver and was subsequently wheelchair-bound for over a year. As she navigated recovery and learned how to walk again, Hébert searched for holistic alternatives to opioid medications, which her body wouldn’t tolerate. When she discovered CBD, its therapeutic effects were transformational. CBD, or cannabinol, is extracted from the hemp flower and leaves, and supplements the body’s endocannabinoid system, which works to maintain homeostasis.
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After her experience, Hébert made it her mission to bring plant-based healing to others, graduating in biological engineering upon her return to LSU. Together, she and Bilger founded Cypress Hemp in 2017. While the Baton Rouge based business is primarily a retailer of hemp-derived products, Hébert and Bilger are also hemp advocates and farmers themselves. The duo cultivates and harvests the hemp they use, and they utilize Cypress Hemp’s platform as a way to educate others on the abundant uses and benefits hemp yields. The co-founders worked closely with LDAF and Schexnayder on the 2019 industrial hemp bill, and were a vital proponent in gathering public support for the measure. Hébert and Bilger were previously growing hemp exclusively in Bilger’s home state of Virginia under the 2014 pilot program, but this season they’re growing in Louisiana, too, thanks to the bill’s passage. They’ll test plots at Hébert’s family farm in Cut Off, and they’re also partnering with several Louisiana farmers to grow multiple cultivars in different regions of the state to test the varying climates for large-scale production.
Currently, the pair is also in the midst of founding a new nonprofit organization—the Louisiana Hemp Industries Association—to connect farmers, processors, and businesses. Due to the novelty of the industry in Louisiana, many growers don’t yet have relationships with processors or seed sources, and establishing a network among producers ensures the industry can continue to move forward.
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“As it becomes more scalable from a pragmatic standpoint and a farming standpoint, I think hemp will be able to displace crops like soy and become one of the most, if not the most, grown crop in the United States long-term,” said Bilger. “Sustainable agriculture is where everything is driving toward, and hemp is the perfect fit.”
Bilger may be onto something. While this is only the beginning of a long road ahead, industrial hemp could be the future of Louisiana agriculture. The AgCenter’s incubating green buds may not look like much now, but they’ll develop over time, teaching us how to adapt and adjust our methods in the process. After all, all growth starts the same way—with the planting of a seed.
