Ag Department writing rules to govern industrial hemp

The Illinois Department of Agriculture is currently writing rules that would govern how industrial hemp can be grown in the state.

Senate Bill 2298, sponsored by State Representative Dan Swanson, was signed into law back in August.

“Especially in Galesburg, you know Galesburg Sale Barn use to be a hemp factory back in the early days,” Swanson had told WGIL. “I think that could offer a potential diverse crop. Not a big rotation crop but something that could help us with some ‘set-aside’ or something like that.”

Swanson said, “This allows our agricultural community an additional, diversified crop and many other business opportunities throughout Illinois.”

One of the leading industrial hemp researchers in the United States, University of Kentucky agronomist David Williams, says he thinks it could be a viable crop in Illinois and across the country.

“It will never, ever, compete with or replace corn and soybeans. I’m not inferring that. Will it become a potential commodity crop? Yes, potentially it can.”

He says it does have the potential to be used in animal feed, for its oil, and as a fiber.

Swanson says that Kentucky has been growing hemp for the past three years and has brought additional revenue and business to the agricultural community.

The return per acre is between $700-1,200 an acre.

The Illinois legislature passed and the governor signed a law earlier this year that legalizes industrial hemp.

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