Allen said other farms that may not have the same resources are losing potential money-making opportunities to retailers selling products derived from cannabis plants.
SPRING HILL, Tenn. (WKRN) — One Middle Tennessee farmer is harvesting this year’s hemp product. However, an ongoing lawsuit is seeking to challenge Tennessee’s “emergency” rules for growing hemp.
A Spring Hill farmer said the hemp industry’s future still has a lot of room for growth.
“It is really a plant that could save the world,” owner of Allenbrooke Farms, Daniel Allen, said.
Hemp harvest season has started in Middle Tennessee. At Allenbrooke Farms in Spring Hill, this means cultivating about 15 to 20 acres of hemp plants that will later be turned into CBD oil.
“We are taking whole plants, chopping them up, and drying them real quick,” Allen explained. “Then, we have a different machine that sorts the stem out of it. We put them in bags and then send them to where they can be processed into CBD oil and then further refined into different products.”
While this year’s hemp harvest will bring the Allenbrooke family farm over six figures, Allen said other farms that may not have the same resources are losing potential money-making opportunities to retailers selling products derived from cannabis plants.
“It’s just a little too one-sided for me,” Allen told News 2. “I feel like we are protecting the rights of people to sell something that’s not even grown in or done in the state. That being said, it is either being illegally grown in the state or coming from out of state, which is just not fair to farmers.”
This month, the Tennessee Growers Coalition and two other companies filed a lawsuit against the Department of Agriculture for their delay in setting new rules for the selling and producing hemp. Allen said he has grace for the department.
“They actually started a cannabis division,” Allen added. “They are in their infancy and they have limited resources, have limited people. It is hard for them to get through 19,000 comments.”
Allen said that he thinks once the rules are enacted, they should help Tennessee’s industry and assure consumers. However, he also believes that the industry needs to be allowed to grow and that consumers should support small Tennessee businesses.
“A lot of people have sacrificed a lot to get it to where it is,” Allen said. “A lot of people are going to continue to lose a lot and sacrifice a lot. Any support you can give for the small businesses, the retail businesses, and the farmers is greatly appreciated and helps move the industry forward.”