Virginia Hemp Farm Aid launched to support local cannabis farming and promote Virginia-made hemp products.

For thousands of years before the twentieth century, the super plant hemp was cultivated by farmers in Asia, Europe and the Americas--serving as a valuable raw material for clothing, rope, sails, paper, medicines and food. Industrial hemp served as a primary crop and valuable source of commerce for settlers in the New World. In fact, King George mandated that each farm plant a tablespoon of hemp seeds and grow at least one acre to support British industry. Harvested hemp was even considered legal tender to barter and pay debts and taxes. Like nearly all Virginian producers, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson harvested cannabis and extolled the virtues and value of this bountiful green blessing.

All that ended abruptly and tragically in the twentieth century in the United States, when greedy and wealthy industrialists foisted the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 upon our duly-elected lawmakers, which made it criminal to grow marijuana, categorized hemp as marijuana, and rendered sustainable hemp farming virtually impossible. The hemp industry was later completely eviscerated in the same manner, when the1970s Controlled Substances Act classified marijuana and its non-lethal, industry-serving cousin hemp as a schedule 1 drug, along with cocaine and heroin.

Thankfully--nearly fifty years later--progressive America has come to its senses and is working to decriminalize both hemp and marijuana. Farmers in Virginia and elsewhere are now reclaiming the bounty of industrial hemp, harvesting the crop state-wide and creating a new market for hemp products. CBD and similar cannabinoid compounds have taken the lead in attracting millions in sales from interested and eager consumers, and industrial products like t-shirts and other clothing and apparel, livestock bedding, organic plastics, and nutritional additives are providing local farmers new opportunities with great potential. Farmers are eager to diversify their crops away from tobacco, soybean, and even corn to once again cultivate what many believe is the world's oldest and most beneficial super plant on Earth: hemp.

But the damage of prohibition has been done and there is still much work to do to rectify this great wrong and enable our local farmers to transition successfully to hemp farming. Threats of out-of-state corporate giants threaten to squeeze our local producers out of the market. Lack of state-supported processing facilities and incentives render their efforts uncompetitive. And retailers stocking their shelves with out-of-state brands--who have had years of advanced development time as Virginia hastened to catch up--discourages consumers in Virginia from "buying local."

Virginia Hemp Farm Aid will address these and other issues to offer robust support to this burgeoning industry in two ways:

1. We plan to pool resources to develop a state-wide marketing campaign encouraging Virginian consumers to buy local, Virginia-made CBD and hemp products. 
2. We will educate the public and state lawmakers on the challenges facing Virginia farmers during this exciting time of transition, and promote workable solutions. 

Stay tuned for upcoming initiatives and events...together we can all AID VIRGINIA HEMP FARMERS!

Virginia Hemp Farm Aid is supported by James River Hemp Company