Ag Commissioner Comer Talks Hemp on Kentucky Newsmakers

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source: Ace
Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer appeared on Kentucky Newsmakers with WKYT’s Bill Bryant to discuss his “full court press” to get the Kentucky General Assembly to support industrialized hemp.

Comer also appeared at the Lexington Forum on Thursday, January 3, to drum up support.
Comer tells Bryant, “I believe it’s going to be legalized at the federal level at some point this year, and the first few states that get on board are going to be the states that develop the industry. The states that develop the industry are going to obviously have the markets for the farmers, but they’re also going to be the states that create the jobs, and this is what this is all about. Creating jobs in rural communities, and opening up a new market for Kentucky farmers.”

As for prospective products, he says, “In Europe, they’re taking all sorts of products out of the automotive industry that we use here and make from plastic — in Europe, they’re making them from industrial hemp. You can make products in the construction business — where we use wood for plywood here in the United States — they’re using hemp in Canada. If you go in your family’s bathroom, you’ll see cosmetic products in there made from industrial hemp, imported from Canada. We can produce that hemp in Kentucky, and manufacture it in Kentucky. Senator (Rand) Paul is very fond of (supporting) making paper from hemp. If you look at the Declaration of Independence, it was written on paper made from hemp back at that time. It’s much more sustainable and greener to make paper from industrialized hemp than it is from trees.There are a lot of uses for industrialized hemp that other countries are doing — we can do that in the United States. And if we’re going to do that in the United States, which I think we will, let’s do it here in Kentucky.”

Bryant asked, “is Kentucky a good place to grow hemp, from an agricultural standpoint?”