The 2018 Farm Bill legalized industrial hemp and gave Native American tribes, as sovereign entities, the same rights as states to control and regulate its production. This month, tribal farmers across the nation will harvest their first legitimate crop, hoping to cash in on a global market worth billions of dollars. But whether their product will make it to market this year is still up in the air.In early June, Oglala Lakota tribe member Alex White Plume gathered together three generations of his extended family to plant their first-ever legal industrial hemp crop on land he owns on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.After Photo shows Oglala Lakota hemp growers Alex and Debra White Plume standing in their hemp field on the Pine Ridge Reservation, S.D., August 29, 2019.In 1970, the federal government banned the growing of industrial hemp, once a legal crop in the U.S. The Controlled Substances Act made no distinction between hemp, an agricultural product, and marijuana, a drug. Telling the differenceBoth hemp and marijuana are varieties of the cannabis plant. While they may look and smell alike, they differ chemically. Marijuana (Cannabis indica) contains as much as 20% or 25% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chemical that induces a “high.” Hemp (Cannabis sativa) contains less than .3 percent THC. One of the most versatile plants on the planet, hemp’s seeds, fibers and oils can be used to make health supplements, paper, fabric, biodegradable plastic, biofuels and even In this file photo, a young girl rides her bike on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwestern S.D. on Tuesday , Jan. 10, 2006. At least 60% of Pine Ridge homes are substandard, lacking electricity, running water or sewage systems. (AP Photo…The 2014 Farm Bill loosened restrictions, allowing hemp to be grown for research purposes only in states that made it legal. The new law allowed Indian tribes to partner with various states or universities to cultivate hemp on tribal land.In mid-December 2018, Congress passed an Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, right, looks over a pack made of hemp with Rob Bondurant, left, and Mark Galbraith of Osprey Packs of Cortez, Colorado, in the company’s exhibit at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market in Denver, Colorado, June 19, 2019.“So, Alex White Plume is in the limbo stage right now,” she said. “Alex is growing — and please put this in quotes — ‘against legal advice.’” Marks admits the USDA faces challenges, the greatest of which is coming up with a nationwide THC testing standard. Currently, several tests have been developed, but they vary in reliability, and an inaccurate result could force the grower into destroying his entire crop.This week, White Plume says his plants will have fully matured, and he’s planning to take a sample of his crop to a testing facility six hours away in Boulder, Colorado. If his plants test within legal limits and the weather — of late unpredictable — holds, his harvest could yield 2,700 kilos of product.With the price of hemp across the country at about $85 a pound, he and his family stand to gain — or lose — a lot.Either way, White Plume said he’s turning over the hemp growing to his grandson next year.“I’m just getting too old,” he laughed.
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