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Groups explore industrial hemp checkoff

The National Industrial Hemp Council and The Hemp Industries Association have announced efforts are underway to create a national checkoff program.

Consultant John Johnson, former Chief Operating Officer for the National Pork Board, tells Brownfield it could take at least a year before a checkoff could be formed.

“It all depends on how quickly the industry can come to a consensus on the varying issues that need to be addressed.”

The first step will be forming a workgroup and following USDA protocols for the process.  Johnson says he will be recommending growers be assessed on the percent of the value of hemp much like the pork industry.

“Because you have a various number of products that have different values coming from the same essential crop, I would suspect that they will settle on the percent of value.”

Johnson says assessment dollars could be used for researching new uses of hemp, production practices, and developing new markets.

Research by Texas A & M finds checkoff programs have a 3-1 to 17-1 return on investment for producers.