With momentum mounting in the world of hemp, Clover Leaf University is proud to be planning the first Industrial hemp course approved, regulated, and licensed by the Colorado Department of Higher Education's Private Occupational School Board. Class details are to be released in the next few weeks!
CLU is working with the Depatrment of Agricultutre and other state agencies in the development of the hemp industry in Colorado. In fact, the University has close ties with people working hard to build the landscape from the ground up. Cultivation professor Adam Dunn is one of the lastest hemp importers preparing to scale the crop to an industrial level. We also are proud to have Samantha Walsh on our elite curriculum advisory board. She is doing amazing work in the hemp world recently, including the passing of industrial hemp bill SB-241, that allows for farmers to grow industrial hemp in Colorado without a permit from the DEA. We are excited to expand the production of hemp because of its potential to heal contaminated and overused farmlands, and to be researched and developed as a product that can supply fiber, building materials, fuels, plastics, and many more products in position to improve and clean our lifestyles.
Aljazeera America reports that “Federal legislation outlawed hemp as part of a war on marijuana in 1937, however, this year's Farm Bill passed on Feb. 4 contains a provision that allows colleges and state agencies to grow and conduct research on the plant in states that allow it.” The article continues in discussion of the classification and qualities of hemp. “Though industrial hemp and marijuana come from the same plant, Cannabis sativa, hemp seeds are bred to produce plants with 0.3 to 1.5 percent THC, whereas marijuana has 5 to 15 percent. THC, the ingredient in marijuana that gets people high, is far too low in hemp to have the same effect.”
“The crop right now is sellable," he says. "I've already had people contact me on my website saying, 'We know you're growing stuff and we want to buy it from you already,' And we haven't even put it in the ground." Remarked Jim Denny, one of over 100 hemp growers approved by the Colorado Department of Agriculture to plant hemp seeds. NPR goes on the report “…today U.S. hemp seed is scarce. It's technically still illegal to import viable seed — it has to be sterile. So anyone with usable seed is suddenly very, very popular.”
“Everybody's on board with it,” he said. "Farmers, rather than to keep a field fallow or have a low value crop, then they can put in a high-value crop." Stated Rep. Vincent Buys of Washington. Whatcom County of Washington is piloting an one year study around the benefits of allowing farmers and educational institutions to cultivate hemp seeds in the state. The article goes on the suggest that hemp seeds, although ancestors of the marijuana plant, do not have the same adverse effects due to low THC levels and can in fact provide nutritional and agricultural benefits.
