Doug Fine - American Hemp Farmer - Adventures and Misadventures in the Cannabis Trade

Praise for American Hemp Farmer

A fantastic piece of Americana that shows the way to a sustainable future.

DAVID BRONNER, CEO, Dr. Bronners Magic Soaps

With American Hemp Farmer , Doug Fine shows he is not just our preeminent hemp author, he is one of the most important authors of our time. As Ive watched him leap between tending goats on his Funky Butte Ranch and hemp fields in Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont, and who knows where else, it sometimes occurs to me that he might be the most interesting man alive. The resulting book is an absolute must-read.

ERIC STEENSTRA, executive director, Vote Hemp

After 83 years of prohibition, cannabiss emergence from the underground has sparked a gold rush that has every farmer, wannabe farmer, and agricultural entrepreneur rushing to stake their claim. With American Hemp Farmer , Doug Fine makes an incredibly well-written case for a regenerative agriculturebased, small- to mid-scale approach to the industry that prioritizes quality of over quantity, and where soil carbon sequestration is a bottom-line goal. Humorous, timely, and important.

JEFF CARPENTER, coauthor of The Organic Medicinal Herb Farmer

American Hemp Farmer would have been in George Washingtons library. President Washington grew hemp and was a passionate, regenerative agriculturist. Washington sought advice from those that practiced their trade. Doug Fines American Hemp Farmer is a scholarly, practical, and impeccably enjoyable work and a must-read for those who cultivate hemp or are interested in leaping in.

DEAN NORTON, director of horticulture, Mount Vernon Estate

In his latest, author Doug Finea modern day Johnny Hempseedhas painstakingly penned a love letter to the cannabis plant and all those who tend it. Doug details the beneficial and no longer forbidden relationship between cannabis and humanity and how together there is a path to rejuvenate the entire planet. As a state hemp program administrator, I hope every hemp farmer and policymaker reads this book carefully. It details a roadmap for success, for farmers and the planet. And thats probably because Doug doesnt just write about hemp, he lives it.

CARY GIGUERE, hemp program coordinator, Vermont Agency of Agriculture

As a hempcrete homeowner, Im proud to keep American Hemp Farmer on my shelf as the must-read book on hemp. Someday we may even see NBA arenas built from hemp. But for now, Doug should be prepared to lose more money at the poker table that sits on the hemp floor of my hemp-paneled card room.

DON NELSON, two-time NBA Hall of Fame inductee

Also by Doug Fine

Not Really an Alaskan Mountain Man

Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living

Too High to Fail: Cannabis and the New Green Economic Revolution

Hemp Bound: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Next Agricultural Revolution

AMERICAN

HEMP

FARMER

ADVENTURES
and
MISADVENTURES
in the
CANNABIS
TRADE

DOUG FINE

CHELSEA GREEN PUBLISHING

White River Junction, Vermont

London, UK

Copyright 2020 by Doug Fine

All rights reserved.

Cannabis, Cannabis sativa by Ida Pemberton, reprinted with permission by University of Colorado Museum of Natural History Herbarium (COLO).

No part of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

Project Manager: Alexander Bullett

Acquisitions Editor: Brianne Goodspeed

Editor: Michael Metivier

Copy Editor: Eliani Torres

Proofreader: Deborah Heimann

Designer: Melissa Jacobson

Indexer: Shana Milkie

Page Composition: Abrah Griggs

Printed in the United States of America.

First printing April 2020.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 20 21 22 23

Our Commitment to Green Publishing

Chelsea Green sees publishing as a tool for cultural change and ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book manufacturing practices with our editorial mission and to reduce the impact of our business enterprise in the environment. We print our books and catalogs on chlorine-free recycled paper, using vegetable-based inks whenever possible. This book may cost slightly more because it was printed on paper that contains recycled fiber, and we hope youll agree that its worth it. American Hemp Farmer was printed on paper supplied by Marquis that is made of recycled materials and other controlled sources.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Fine, Doug, author.

Title: American hemp farmer : adventures and misadventures in the cannabis trade / Doug Fine.

Description: White River Junction, Vermont : Chelsea Green Publishing, [2020]. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019058309 (print) | LCCN 2019058310 (ebook) | ISBN 9781603589192 (paperback) | ISBN 9781603589208 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: HempUnited States. | Hemp farmersUnited States. | Hemp industry United States.

Classification: LCC SB255 .F55 2020 (print) | LCC SB255 (ebook) | DDC 633.5/30973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019058309

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019058310

Chelsea Green Publishing

85 North Main Street, Suite 120

White River Junction, VT 05001

Somerset House

London, UK

www.chelseagreen.com

For the soil and the soil builders.
Thanks for doing your job well.

For the goats and the bear lost in the 2013 Silver wildfire. Were trying to address the causes herein.
Hence the appreciation for the soil builders.

And for all folks, rural or urban, who decide to give farming one more shot before caving to un-developers.
This time, the farmers are in charge.

The farm holds the key to human happiness.

WILLIAM J. HALE , director of organic chemistry research, Dow Chemical Company, in The Farm Chemurgic: Farmward the Star of Destiny Lights Our Way (1934)

Its beginning to look like it might work.

JOHN HICKENLOOPER , former governor of Colorado, who opposed his states cannabis legalization in 2012, on the $100 million in annual tax revenue the industry was generating by 2016

CONTENTS

S ix years ago, a bear fleeing a wildfire in our New Mexico backyard killed nearly all of my familys goats in front of our eyes. It wasnt the bears fault; he was a climate refugee. It was June of 2013, and drought had weakened the ponderosa pines and Douglas fir surrounding our remote Funky Butte Ranch. Beetles took advantage, and all of southern New Mexico was a tinderbox. Ho hum, just another climate event that until recently would have been called a millennial fire.

The blaze cut a 130,000-acre swath that year, poisoning the air before the monsoon finally arrived about half a day before we wouldve had to evacuate. But it was too late for the large juvenile black bear, whod lost his home and his mind. He didnt even really eat most of the goats. We lost all but one of the animals that provided our milk, yogurt, and ice cream.

Baby Taylor Swift survived, but Bette Midler, Stevie Nicks, and Natalie Merchant (who loved meditating with me of a morning) perished, as did the bear several weeks later, care of a Game & Fish marksman, upon going after a dozen of our neighbors sheep. Ever since, my sweetheart and I have had to keep a constant eye on our human and goat kids. We react like a frenzied SWAT team to any unusual noise up in the eponymous buttes above our small adobe ranch house. Weve had our climate change Pearl Harborthe event that shifted us into a single-minded new normal. If you havent had yours yet, you probably soon will.