{"id":23931,"date":"2015-01-09T02:07:21","date_gmt":"2015-01-09T01:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=23931"},"modified":"2015-01-08T11:08:20","modified_gmt":"2015-01-08T10:08:20","slug":"public-hearing-held-tuesday-rules-industrial-hemp-oregon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/public-hearing-held-tuesday-rules-industrial-hemp-oregon\/","title":{"rendered":"Public hearing to be held Tuesday on rules for industrial hemp in Oregon"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Oregon Department of Agriculture, the agency charged with overseeing industrial hemp production, will hold a public hearing Tuesday on the draft rules<\/a>. The meeting begins at 9 a.m. at the agency\u2019s offices, located at 635 Capitol Street Northeast, Salem.<\/p>\n

Prospective hemp producers said they\u2019re happy\u00a0the state is finally moving ahead with a hemp program, but they said key problems remain. They cited high licensing fees and a prohibition on producing hemp seeds as concerns. Hemp seeds are used as dietary supplements and to make hemp oil, an ingredient in food. Oregon\u2019s industrial hemp law requires seeds be used to cultivate a crop.<\/p>\n

Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, a proponent of industrial hemp, said the state\u2019s hemp law and the rules that will guide the new industry may need to be tweaked, but they\u2019re a good first step.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am in strong support of us moving forward and getting the rules of the current statute in place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Eighteen states, including Oregon, have laws defining industrial hemp as distinct from marijuana and have removed barriers to its production, said Lauren Stansbury, a spokeswoman for the Hemp Industries Association. Only three states \u2013 Colorado, Kentucky and Vermont — planted crops this year.<\/p>\n

Courtney Moran, an attorney with expertise in hemp production, said she hopes the Oregon Legislature reduces the minimum acreage required for hemp production from two and a half acres. She also would like the state to issue special one-year licenses to producers who want to conduct research on the crop.<\/p>\n

Moran said high licensing fees \u2013 it will cost producers $1,500 for a three-year license \u2013 \u201chave been a huge problem,\u201d but she said some producers will move forward\u00a0anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know lots of people ready to go,\u201d she said. \u201cThey want to plant this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jerry Norton, a hemp activist from Salem, hopes to plant the crop this spring. He said he\u2019s begun lining up the equipment and land for hemp production, but he said he doesn\u2019t have a clear sense of how large his operation will be.<\/p>\n

Norton echoed the enthusiasm of hemp activists nationwide\u00a0who see major economic potential in the plant.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could save America,\u201d he said. \u201cI am talking about everything from biodiesel fuel to food to health care products to paper. It\u2019s endless. There are thousands of applications.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Oregon Department of Agriculture, the agency charged with overseeing industrial hemp production, will hold a public hearing Tuesday on the draft rules. The meeting begins at 9 a.m. at the agency\u2019s offices, located at 635 Capitol Street Northeast, Salem. Prospective hemp producers said they\u2019re happy\u00a0the state is finally moving ahead with a hemp program, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[],"supplier":[2786,8916],"class_list":["post-23931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","supplier-hemp-industries-association-hia","supplier-oregon-department-of-agriculture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23931\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23931"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=23931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}