For years social media platforms shadow-ban our Posts, and sometimes outright ban us altogether.
But so does “our” side.
With everyone in their own little siloes, hemp’s right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing, and rarely even acknowledges its existence.
With a 95% drop in U.S. acres over 5 years, there appears to be no imperative for success, too much grant and institutional money at play.
Despite grain for food being hemp’s best chance for global success, rivaling the soybean industry, my articles on it is often met with surprise even among hemp fans. Since the beginning, the “Hemp = Fiber” mindset has long been the food side’s obstacle among hempsters, even today.
For instance, it would be natural for the hemp building industry to incorporate more lifestyle considerations in their movement, after all, don’t their hemp houses have kitchens?
And many hemp associations are so focused on the easier aspect, fiber, to the exclusion of grain despite the symbiosis of the two: growing for grain yields at least 4 times more weight in fibrous stalk. Building walls is nice but feeding people is a noble calling, and people eat daily.
Despite not even being fully legal yet, hemp grain for fodder gets way more attention from the Universities with hemp programs than the one segment long with the most consumers, retailers, sales and profits, driving the most acres: grain for food.
The irony is compounded by the fact that including hemp grain for food in their programs would allow them to expand to include other post-ag harvest school departments, such as nutrition, food process engineering and operations, food product R&D, marketing and communications, package design, etc.
Consumer packaged foods, medical foods, industrial food ingredients… the market is huge and needing replenishment daily, yet ignored. The new medical and nutritional discoveries in the seed monthly, the potential for hemp grain as a legitimate food ingredient is vast, rivalling soya.
While the hemp industry pre-2018 Farm Bill was built on cooperation, the post-legalization hemp industry is being destroyed by ignorance and petty fears of competition.
Has any media, university, expo speaker, or association told you that USDA has been publishing the prices of hempseed foods every Friday for years, with a link so you could read them yourself? Didn’t think so.
Yes, hemp grain for food is just that big, yet is mostly supplied by companies in China and Canada. “Made In USA” hemp grain could easily take that market share, giving the retailer a red, white and blue halo.
Hemp’s first huge success story keeping the industry alive in the dark years a generation ago. Easiest way for a company to “get into hemp,” or for an entrepreneur to start; no farm, factory or finances needed. Millions of consumers, thousands of retailers, fat margins, global sales, near 100% addressable market renewed daily… yet only crickets from those who demand the right to educate us.
No wonder acres are down 95% while they pat themselves on the back.
Nice threads, Emperor.
By RR published in Hemp Today®️ Q2 2025, out now.
