The San Luis Obispo County Farm Bureau hosted a hemp 101 session for growers Friday to help farmers come into compliance with current county and state regulations when it comes to industrial hemp production.
Industrial hemp is now a federally legal U.S. agriculture commodity.
However, earlier this week, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors passed a temporary moratorium on hemp production in order to address concerns, such as odor and potential cross-pollination with cannabis plants.
“There’s ways that hemp can be regulated to make it work well with neighbors in this community but to ban the crop outright, to place a moratorium on it, has really set back our industry and taken investment out of this county,” said Brent Burchett, SLO County Farm Bureau Executive Director.
Some of the things covered at the hemp 101 session included presentations from the SLO County Agriculture Commissioner’s Office, a SLO County farmer raising hemp, a local agricultural leader, and a former Kentucky Department of Agriculture hemp regulator.
