Tim Cornie, co-owner of 1,000 Springs Mill, has pushed to legalize hemp cultivation and processing in Idaho for years. He remembers receiving an angry phone call while he was pressuring someone who was “livid” in a way like “‘how are you doing to our kids?'”
“At the time, I was explaining how important this product is to the body, how much history there is, how enjoyable it is for the body, the proteins and nutrients available,” Cornie said.
“I said, ‘Listen, you should feed this to your kids. That’s not what you think it is.'”
“He had a complete change from what he thought,” Cornie said.
Finally, they exchanged enough ideas to allow the Idaho Legislature to approve HB 126 in April. Gov. Brad Little signed the bill, making Idaho the nation’s final state to allow cultivation and crop processing, as Idaho Press reported.
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Last month, Idaho State Department of Agriculture officials announced that the agency had received approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to authorize Idaho businesses and farms to produce hemp. Idaho State Police approved opening the application process.
To date, 38 Idaho companies have initiated or completed a license application, Chanel Tewalt, deputy director of the Idaho State Department of Agriculture, said in an email.
“Every time you have a new industry, there are pioneers in that industry,” said Sean Ellis, a spokesman for the Idaho Farm Bureau, a nonprofit trading group that supported the legislation.
“The pioneers of the Idaho hemp industry will begin to show up,” Ellis said.
What the law allows
Kurt Mason and Tim Cornie, co-owners of 1,000 Springs Mill. Photo: courtesy 1,000 Springs Mill
Legislation authorized the production, research, and processing of industrial hemp by those licensed in Idaho, and allowed the legal possession and transportation of hemp products by removing hemp from Idaho’s list of drugs. list I.
The bill did not legalize hemp products sold to consumers, including CBD oil, which contain any amount of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.
Prior to the legislation, Idaho law did not distinguish between industrial hemp and marijuana. As a result, the state arrested several truck drivers carrying industrial hemp through Idaho and threatened them with drug trafficking charges that entailed mandatory minimum prison sentences.
There are two types of licenses that companies can apply for: a producer license or a handling license. A producer license is for people or companies looking to plant and harvest the crop, but not process it further, Tewalt said. A handling license allows users to process the crop into different products, he said. Some companies are applying for both the producer license and the handling license, Tewalt said.
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Understand hemp
Legalizing hemp required tackling serious misconceptions about cultivation. Hemp is often mistakenly thought to contain large amounts of THC, Cornie said.
But there are four types of hemp plants that can be grown for different uses. The best known, marijuana, contains THC as an active ingredient, Cornie said. But not only is the cultivation of this plant not legalized by Idaho law, but the plants are not closely related, Cornie said.
“I say that’s the difference between a cat and a dog,” Cornie said: cousins, but distant cousins, she said.
Another variety of hemp plant produces CBD, the oil of which is used to treat a variety of ailments. But because CBD products contain traces of THC, the cultivation of this hemp variety was not legalized either.
There are two varieties of hemp that will be allowed to grow in Idaho, Cornie said.
The former produces hemp seeds, which can be processed into a grain consumed such as rice or transformed into other food products.
“It’s super nutritious and people don’t have to be afraid of it,” Cornie said.
Hemp kernels, the part of the hemp seed that remains when the shell is removed, have more protein than soy, and the crop has been part of the local diet of East Asian crops, especially in China, for thousands of years, Cornie said.
The second variety allowed for cultivation in Idaho produces fibers that can be used for architectural and other purposes, Cornie said.
The Pioneers of Idaho Hemp
One of the pioneers of hemp in architecture is Matthew Mead, founder and CEO of Hempitecture, a Ketchum company specializing in hemp building materials. Mead lobbied for the hemp bill this spring, telling lawmakers that Hempitecture imported materials from Canada, but Mead hoped to get locally grown hemp. The company’s flagship product is HempWool, an insulating material for residential and commercial properties.
Today, construction teams are building a Hempitecture insulation manufacturing site in Jerome, about 70 miles south of Ketchum, in the heart of the vast agricultural region of Magic Valley. Company leaders expect the plant to be operational in May or June, according to a press release.
Cornie is the co-owner of 1,000 Springs Mill, based in Buhl. The company grows and processes a variety of organic grains and beans, including inheritance varieties, and hemp cultivation would expand the company’s offering.
Cornie plans to start on a small scale, planting between 5 and 20 acres, which will allow her to learn the nuances associated with plant growth. For example, the plant does not like to have “wet feet,” which means it does not require as much water as some crops, he said.
But a challenge producers can face is keeping the harvesting equipment clean of plant material so that the equipment does not overheat and ignite, he said. In addition, the plant has a high enough moisture content that must be processed shortly after harvest, rather than left in a truck overnight, Cornie said.
He’ll probably get seeds from Montana growers, he said. Finally, he hopes to develop a variety that adapts to the local climates of southern Idaho.
Some in the agricultural industry are wondering if Canyon County, one of the world’s leading seed-producing regions, will produce hemp seeds next, Ellis said.
Idaho Press journalist Ryan Suppe contributed to this report
