PUTNEY — U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell recently made the following statement regarding industrialized hemp and its impact on Kentucky:
“I am convinced that allowing its production will be a positive development for Kentucky's farm families and economy,” he said.
“[Commissioner of Agriculture John Comer] has assured me that his office is committed to pursuing industrialized hemp production in a way that does not compromise Kentucky law enforcement's marijuana eradication efforts or in any way promote illegal drug use.
“The utilization of hemp to produce everything from clothing to paper is real, and if there is a capacity to center a new domestic industry in Kentucky that will create jobs in these difficult economic times, that sounds like a good thing to me,” McConnell said.
Starting at this point, it will take our country and state five years at a minimum to realize the full potential of industrial hemp.
We must grow it this spring, because each year is critical with our current economic, environmental, and political instability.
U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has got to attend to the fact that the federal government is in violation of NAFTA to keep Vermont from exporting this commodity. Push him. We must peacefully export this crop that we import.
We also need to see that our energy needs can be amply fulfilled right here in the state with seed crops, and that we also need what I call “perma-farm policy,” where a single perma-farm domain is a small 3-to-5-acre lot, granted tax free in perpetuity to the family who will cultivate it using methods of sustainable, zero-waste, high-yield focus gardening and organic principles.
A perma-farm community is, of course, comprised of a number of these domains on one plot. Establishing 25 of these farms within five years and 100 within 10 will stabilize Vermont and dramatically benefit our local economy, our health and well-being, and our portion of the planet.
Finally, we must push our legislature to create a public bank for Vermont. We should have the value of leveraging our tax monies and other deposits for a 20-percent return by reinvesting it in things like a $20 million hemp processing plant in the Rutland region near the rail line. We should benefit from interest on business loans for the new hemp businesses made through the local banks backed by our public bank.
Lastly, framing the gun-control issue as a gun-control issue leaves the real problem untouched. All these shootings have involved psychiatric medications. Laws for oversight and restrictions of these are the correct response to the shootings.