I am very excited that the National Farmers Union has passed a strong pro-hemp resolution at their annual meeting two weeks ago in Rapid City, SD. Here is the policy that was passed:

"We urge the President, Attorney General, and Congress to direct the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to differentiate between industrial hemp and marijuana and adopt policy to allow American farmers to grow industrial hemp under state law without requiring DEA licenses."

This resolution is the result of some hard work by Vote Hemp advocates in ND and the Rocky Mountain region including Wayne Hauge (ND), Gloria Castillo (NM) and Ruth Fahrbach (NM). Vote Hemp worked to get resolutions passed at the North Dakota Farmers Union as well as the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union and then to get the resolution placed into the national strategy. We also funded a booth at the NFU convention which was staffed by Gloria and Ruth. During the convention, they distributed flyers and hemp product samples from Natures Path, Nutiva, Bronner's and Living Harvest educating the 600+ delegates in attendance. Apparently there was no dissent and the policy was passed easily.

This ties in perfectly with our current Hemp History Week campaign to get the Department of Justice to change their policy on hemp farming.

NFU President Roger Johnson, formerly the Agriculture Commissioner in North Dakota, will now be able to advocate for a new hemp policy on behalf of American farmers! The NFU mentioned the policy in a press release following the convention.

For the last four growing seasons, farmers in North Dakota have received licenses from the North Dakota Department of Agriculture to grow industrial hemp. Despite the state's authorization to grow hemp, these farmers risk raids by federal agents, jail time and possible forfeiture of their farms and assets if they try to grow the crop, due to the failure of DEA to distinguish non-drug industrial hemp from drug varieties of Cannabis.

The National Grange also recently added pro-hemp language to its national policy. The only major farm group without a hemp policy is the Farm Bureau and they are our next target.

As the news in this issue shows, the rest of the world gets it and is profiting off of hemp grown and processed in their countries. With your help we will continue to work towards a solution to the issue here in the U.S.

Regards,

Eric Steenstra
President
Vote Hemp