Two significant hemp projects are about to receive a major boost, thanks to Climate Smart Commodities grants. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) included the two projects on the first list of $3.5 billion in grants, announced last week by Secretary Tom Vilsack and funded through the USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation, per Lancaster Farming.
The Commodity Credit Corporation is a government-owned-and-operated entity, created in 1933 with the purpose of supporting, stabilizing and protecting farm income and prices.
According to Vilsack, the projects are meant to help develop and market climate-smart commodities, providing a voluntary, market-driven boost to sustainably produced commodity crops. The efforts will also “quantify, monitor, verify, and report the greenhouse gas benefits from the projects,” Vilsack said.
Of more than 1,000 total applicants to the programs, the announcement included a total of 70 high-dollar grants. Vilsack said they were “overwhelmed by the response,” as the USDA increased the total award amount to $3.5 billion from the originally announced $1 billion. Throughout the life of these projects, the USDA hopes to record more than 50 million metric tons of CO2-equivalent and greenhouse gas reductions, about the equivalent to removing 10 million cars from the road, Vilsack said.
The USDA specifically targeted hemp as a market that could reduce CO2 and greenhouse gasses via climate-smart practices, among other industries like forestry, dairy, livestock, peanuts and nut crops, fruit, vegetables and special crops, Vilsack said.
The first hemp-related project focuses on industrial hemp for fiber and grain. The USDA awarded a $15 million grant to provide open-access industrial fiber and grain supply chain data in a digital marketplace to Iconoclast Industries LLC, an Atlanta, Georgia-based company led by Ryan LaRocca. The project also aims to develop an inclusive workforce, versed in climate-smart practices, and to financially support underserved producers while they learn about these new practices, according to the USDA.
The project includes industrial hemp partners, along with some medical cannabis and cannabinoid hemp partners. Hemp industry parents included Nashville, Tennessee’s Ganjanesh Bioscience, Montana’s INDHEMP, Utah’s Global Hemp Association, Illinois company 357 Hemp Logistics, Florida’s Minorities for Medical Marijuana, Wisconsin’s Canndigenous and Washington, D.C. company EntreVation LLC.
Several universities are also listed as partners, including University of Florida, University of Georgia, Stockton University and Stillman College. Projects are set to take place in Florida, New York, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin.
The second hemp-focused project focuses on scaling up the industrial hemp supply chain as carbon-negative feedstock for fuel and fiber. The USDA awarded a $5 million grant to Jefferson City, Missouri-based Lincoln University, which aims to help commercial and market climate-smart hemp crops, simultaneously driving soil carbon sequestration and climate resilience. Additionally, the USDA said that the project will implement new genetics and management practices in order to increase hemp sustainability as an annual U.S. crop.
Partners include the D.C.-based National Hemp Association, San Jose, California-based DTE Materials, Murray, Kentucky-based HempWood, Kansas-based Midwest Natural Fiber, Colorado-based New West Genetics, New Haven, Connecticut-based REA Resource Recovery Systems, Missouri-based Rockwater and Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based Renaissance Fiber.
Oklahoma State University, Prairie View A&M University, St. Louis University, Southeast Missouri State University and University of Missouri were included as university and state partners. Projects are set to take place in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.
Hemp was also mentioned as one of multiple crops in other climate-smart projects for a number of other grants, including $90 million for ADM and Partners’ Climate-Smart Solutions, $50 million for Oregon State University: Climate-Smart Potatoes from the Pacific Northwest: Managing Soil Health for Climate-Smart Outcomes and $65 million for Texas A & M Agrilife Research: Texas Climate-Smart Initiative.
The USDA plans to announce more, smaller grants—between $250,000 and $5 million—at a later date, with a total of 450 grant recipients, Vilsack said.
