Dec. 14, 2016 – Kewaskum, WI – Over the past several months, Rep. Jesse Kremer (R-Kewaskum) has been meeting with the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, the Wisconsin Department of Justice, the Wisconsin Farm Bureau and the non-partisan Legislative Council in an effort to give new life to our economy and floundering agriculture sector through a rebirth of the industrial hemp commodity in Wisconsin.
Nationwide, the United States imports $500 million of industrial hemp every year to manufacture products ranging from hemp-fiber auto panels to the replacement of Kevlar in bullet-proof vests.
In recent weeks, the Wisconsin Farm Bureau adopted a new policy regarding their official position on industrial hemp: “We support the production, processing, commercialization and utilization of industrial hemp and that it be regulated by USDA rather than the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).”
Rep. Kremer issued the following statement in response to the Farm Bureau’s move, “I am pleased that the Wisconsin Farm Bureau has taken a position in favor of industrial hemp. This policy shift will allow us the opportunity to move forward together on an issue that is certain to boost our depressed agriculture industry and give birth to jobs through a new manufacturing sector, the processing of hemp stalks, in Wisconsin.”
Kremer has been working diligently with agriculture committee chairs in the Assembly and Senate to provide the public with an informational hearing on the topic in January.
(Rep. Kremer’s recent research and opinion on this topic can be found here: http://legis.wisconsin.gov/assembly/59/kremer/media/1289/11_21_16-hemp.pdf)