Kansas is now home to an institution that will educate farmers and the next crop of industrial hemp workers – America’s Hemp Academy.
Opened late last week in a ceremony hosted by businessman Joe Bisgono and Kansas Governor Jeff Colyer, the Academy is located in DeSoto; a city in Johnson and Leavenworth counties.
“The primary purpose of our course is to inform and train students in those theory and practical experiences which will best prepare them for Industrial Hemp employment opportunities,” states the Academy.
Aspects covered in tuition include history, fundamentals of growing, harvesting and processing the crop, and also production of cannabidiol (CBD) oil.
“It was an honor cutting the ribbon at America’s Hemp Academy,” said Governor Colyer. ” This is a great step in keeping Kansas a leader in the hemp industry. The academy will work hard educating and training farmers to properly grow and sell industrial hemp.”
In April this year, Governor Colyer signed a bill into law (SB 263) to create an industrial hemp pilot program in the state.
Proposed regulations for the state’s Industrial Hemp Research Program are just about ready for prime time. These were developed by the Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA) in consultation with the industrial hemp advisory board and with input from the public. A public hearing is scheduled for Jan. 9, 2019 to consider adoption of the proposed regulations.
As in a number of other states, industrial hemp is defined in Kansas as all parts and varieties of the cannabis sativa L that contain a THC concentration not exceeding 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis.
Founder and CEO of fast food chain Mr. Goodcents, Joe Bisogno, has been a strong supporter of industrial hemp making a return to the state, which was once a leader production of the crop. Mr. Bisogno is also the founder of the Academy.
“Kansas has 350,000 acres to grow just one product that they can harvest twice a year; that will make so much money for Kansas that it’s mind boggling,” said an obviously very confident Mr. Bisogno early this year.
Trivia – in 1863, Kansas ranked first in the U.S. for bushels per acre. A bushel is a measure of capacity, but it’s not clear what was actually being measured .e.g. seed.
