Image Source: Jonathunder Via Wikimedia Commons
June 30, 2018
Minnesota’s pilot program for industrial hemp is now in its third growing season. And state officials report the program has been gaining traction.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune, quoting the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, says there are 30 licensed hemp growers and five licensed processor this year, with 1,323 acres dedicated to hemp production in 2018.
That contrasts to the program’s first season in 2016, the first time that hemp had been legally grown in the state in decades, when only 38 acres of hemp were farmed throughout Minnesota.
“I think the potential for this crop is very good,” farmer Michael Erickson, who is preparing to sell his first crop of hemp grain later this month, told the newspaper. “There’s profit to be made.”
