West Kentucky Star

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Industrial hemp
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Comer, Paul to Talk Industrial Hemp Today

By WestKyStar Staff

LOUISVILLE, KY - U.S. Sen. Rand Paul and Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer will push for industrial hemp farming in Louisville at the Kentucky Farm Bureau's annual country ham breakfast that will bring together some of the state's biggest names in politics.

Paul and Comer have a news conference scheduled for Thursday morning at the Kentucky State Fair and Exposition Center. Both want federal restrictions on hemp farming to be lifted.

Their news conference will be followed by the ham breakfast that will be attended by Gov. Steve Beshear and U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell.

The center of attention, however, will be a champion country ham that will be auctioned off as a fundraiser for charity. Last year's prize ham fetched $600,000.

Published 06:23 AM, Thursday Aug. 23, 2012
Updated 06:16 AM, Friday Aug. 24, 2012

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- Name: B. L.
  
  8/22/2012 3:54:14 PM
  
  Great point Bobby - another good selling point. Well, unless you are the one with the marijuana field near by a hemp field
  
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  Name: Bobby M.
  
  8/22/2012 12:42:19 PM
  
  Hemp when cross-pollinated with cannibis renders the marijuana worthless because of it's low potency.
  
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  Name: B. L.
  
  8/22/2012 12:37:35 PM
  
  All reports I have seen blame the cotton and oil industries as well. Seems that biofuel can be made from hemp, so the big government oil lobbyists don’t seem to like it very much. It is also great in healthcare products and can actually take the place of some medication ingredients, which again the RX lobbyists don't like very much.It's time for Kentucky to take teh lead in something and this sounds like the perfect opportunity to do just that.
  
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  Name: Judy T.
  
  8/22/2012 8:41:52 AM
  
  B.L: From what I have read hemp was made illegal thanks to Dupont's new nylon product and someone with power who owned a lot of trees, there may have been others. They didn't want the competition. With hemp gone for the paper and rope they had the market cornered. I am not sure but I think the "Reefer Madness" film pitch was to sell it to the people. Money Talks.
  
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  Name: B. L.
  
  8/22/2012 7:29:28 AM
  
  Hemp is a very valuable and versatile plant. Here's hoping that they can get this passed. I've never understood why hemp was made illegal anyway. Everyone should check into the many uses of hemp, here's one link that tells some of the uses: http://www.informationdistillery.com/hemp.htm
  
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  Name: Judy T.
  
  8/21/2012 9:25:56 PM
  
  It would be nice if it passes. A cash crop for farmers with no chemicals needed that pollute our waterways. We might even get some factories to make the hemp products. The trouble is they will probably have a fight from big oil companies with deep pockets. I wonder if dupont still has the pull they had when it was banned.
  
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