Back in the 90’s, I was featured in a News and Observer article on the potential for hemp to supplant, in part, the tobacco industry… which, in recent years has become less attractive to North Carolina farmers, and for many reasons. I stomped around in Greene County, and several surrounding counties, for two months in the spring of 1994, pitching my pro-hemp agenda, and educating regional farmers on the potential for hemp to replace their embattled tobacco crops. I used the Clinton administration’s threat (at that time) to raise taxes on cigarettes, as a catalyst to start a conversation about the greater potential for hemp farming. I suggested to the farmers, some of them family and friends from my childhood, that they should form a caravan and ride their tractors into Raleigh with signs saying: “WE WANT HEMP” and “NC FARMERS for HEMP.” I reminded them that (at that time) legalizing hemp (marijuana) was not something the anti-cannabis/hemp politicians wanted to talk about, really.
On the morning when my article appeared, as a caravan of busses headed to DC with hundreds of farmers and state representatives to protest the proposed tax increase, I was told that the pro-hemp article, in the News and Observer, which was passed around during the bus-trip (pre smart phone), was the news of the day. Everyone was talking about the problems with tobacco taxes… and the future potential for hemp as a state agricultural resource.
One of the farmers I talked to “in the field” was retired Maury farmer and State Agricultural Commissioner, Jack Edmondson.
Jack, who is since deceased, was a bright-eyed old fellow who listened with great interest to my pro-hemp pitch. I went through the whole long story about how hemp was outlawed for political reasons back in the 30s. In time, He, his son, Jack junior, and numerous other Greene County tobacco farmers signed the my pro-hemp petition.
I got kudos from all my friends, on the high-profile article in the News and Observer. Eventually I ran out of project funds (gas money) and decided I had done all I could for the cause at that time… Plus, the Clinton administration suddenly changed their tack and backed-off on the increased cigarette sells-tax initiative. I like to think the Clinton administration got a peak at the News and Observer article and saw the writing on the wall. Who knows? I did what I could when I saw an opportunity to get some attention on the issue of industrial hemp farming and production.
Meanwhile… Six years later, I ran into Jack Edmondson Junior at a friend's home while visiting in Greene County. He was quick to tell me that since our several conversations about hemp, six years earlier, he and his dad had been researching and developing a plan to build a hemp processing factory near Snow Hill. He said they had some “Raleigh boys go to work on it”. He said he had, through his connections, raised 8 million dollars for the land and construction of a hemp-production plant. I was pleased as a coot to see that my small effort four years before had flowered into a real-world result.
As it turns out, the “Raleigh boys” idea of a good-time was a little different than what I had in mind. That’s when I learned about a hemp-hibiscus hybrid plant called kenaf. The kenaf plant has many of the same properties as hemp, proper (less the intoxicating flower buds)… AND… there were no legal hurdles standing in the way of getting a crop in the ground.
So Boom! There is was… on a fresh plot of land in central Greene County. An 8 million dollar investment in the future… of kenaf. (?)
Next thing you know, folks are freaking-out, riding down the country roads and seeing acre after acre of “marijuana” plants. The first time I saw it was quite a visual treat… though I knew it was an illusion of what I’d prefer to be seeing. Kenaf, for all intents and purposes looks pretty much like cannabis. It really was a trip to stand in a field of it… and imagine.
But alas, instead of sweet little buds hanging of the ends of the branches… each plant has one or two prominent white flower blossoms… an hibiscus flower to be precise.
One day I was escorted through the kenaf processing plant. It was interesting to see how the kenaf plant is processed… in a long conveyor belt, dragging the greenery though several thrashing, shucking and drying stations, and on to being plastic-wrapped for shipping. It was explained to me that most of what was being produced was raw materials for pressing into fiber-board in the manufacturing of car dashboards. Also, there is a lively market for the hulls for use as an absorbent in place of straw, in stables and kennels.
Kenaf farming: a thriving new enterprise for North Carolina farmers… with a factory, all set up and running… (presumably) contributing to the greater economy of the region. I felt strangely proud.
But one thing stood out in my conversation with the plant manager that day.
According to his understanding, kenaf was only the first step to what he perceived as the beginning of true hemp-production… in the long run. I think he said in six or eight years they hoped to be processing cannabis-hemp… but the politicians would have to catch up with the investors. (wink wink, nod nod …)
So what could go wrong?
Plenty!
The pro-(cannabis) hemp forces lost out on the first round of political appeals… The plant management was replaced by a less hemp-friendly front office, The new manager visibly sneered when I mentioned the potential to easily switch the plant over to hemp production. He indicated mostly through posture that the plant was focused on kenaf production and cannabis-hemp was not in the picture for the plants future.
And then… somewhere along the way, Someone paid some punks to torch a field of kenaf, behind the plant, that was being dried on large pallets stacked 12 feet high. A field of some 60 stacks of pallets burned, and the sparks got into one the four large on-site warehouses and burned it completely to the ground. It was then that I learned just how much some of the local rednecks didn’t like that “marijuana” growing all over the place. It was just that big of a deal over in Greene County. I remember seeing the coverage of the fire on the news and feeling depressed that someone had attacked “my hemp plant” (no pun intended).
Then, on top of that, mother nature got involved and spoiled the party altogether.
One of the stages in the processing of kenaf requires that it has to dry in the field… slowly and more or less totally. As it happens, eastern North Carolina, in the fall… is wet. So there were big problems with the crop being harvested in a timely fashion, allowing for maximum “ripeness”.
After several years of disappointing returns for the effort, kenaf farming dried up as quickly as it had sprung up… at least around these parts.
I have not been keeping up with the kenaf plant/factory saga here, lately. But the last time I stopped by there to visit, about two years ago, I was told that the facility had been bought out by the Diamond Tobacco Group… It was also indicated to me that hemp production was back on the menu… in due time, and as evolving politics will allow. I bought a plastic-wrapped square, labeled bushel of kenaf fiber (for the barn but still have it in the bag/souvenir).
Today, news of the North Carolina’s General assembly’s official foray into the land of legalized-hemp production serves to validate my effort there to-wit… regardless of what happens at the Snow Hill plant.
I did a (Google-earth) fly-by… and then a ride-by of the processing plant. I have posted some pictures. There are four buildings, but there should be five, remember one (where the space is) was lost in the fire. I am noting (and remembering now… etc) that the plant has a new name… “Bio-Tech Mills Inc. / Cellulous Products Division ” Exactly!!
It’s been a long haul… but I’m at the end of my hempen road, in that respect. I’m just glad to see that my work to educate people and spook out the demons of greater prohibitions, way back then, was not a lost effort, after all. Maybe somebody owes me a comfy desk-job in a hemp processing plant, ha!
But seriously, I’ll take the credit for sticking their (farmer’s and Raleigh-boys') noses in it… “like oil in the fields” … go get it boys…
