Hemp production could save agriculture in Hawaii.

The recent reporting on the University of Hawaii’s study about growing hemp here is extremely hopeful. The preliminary results of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resource’s experimental study on its farmland in Waimanalo point toward excellent possibilities.

The timing of agricultural land becoming available on Maui and the announcement that Alexander & Baldwin (A&B), through its agricultural subsidiary Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. (HC&S), is considering hemp as a viable crop indicates how views have changed since industrial hemp was erroneously classified as a drug over 50 years ago.

Fear and misinformation were responsible for this connection and it has taken far too long for public and governmental perception to find its way back to reality. Other countries around the world have been reaping the benefits of hemp (literally) as an agricultural product, an industrial staple and a boost to their economies for many years. Even though hemp research is now permitted in Hawaii, federal restrictions based on the laws from the “war on drugs” make it very difficult to import the necessary seeds.

There is a need for legislators and law enforcement officials to look at this issue from a fresh perspective and, in addition, legalize the commercial growing of hemp — on the federal and state levels both.

State Rep. Cynthia Thielen (R, Kailua-Kaneohe Bay) has been an articulate spokesperson on behalf of hemp for a long time. She was the first — and for a long time, the only — political leader to grasp the difference between hemp and marijuana and to have the courage to talk about it. Until recently, very few people understood or were interested. Thankfully, more state legislators now support industrial hemp and its vast potential.

Public and private opinion are quickly changing. People are finally listening and becoming aware that hemp only contains 0.3 percent THC, rendering it non-psychoactive (unlike its cousin, recreational marijuana). This emerging perception is quite promising.

Among the talking points referenced by Thielen and HC&S are the many commercial uses of hemp, including food, clothing, paper and building materials. Of course, science and industry have and will produce many more.

The UH project indicates that the growing conditions in Hawaii are ideal and that our climate allows for multiple crops each year.

The wisdom of assessing this important study would be beneficial in many areas: to the Legislature as it considers the continuation of funding the study and establishing any necessary guidelines for the industry, to farmers as they consider things such as crop rotation and the viability of a new “cash crop,” to businesses as they consider the many industrial uses of hemp, and to landowners as they seek continued agricultural use of the land.

It’s difficult to imagine a downside to growing hemp.

Our state and communities should extend a huge mahalo to UH, to Thielen and to A&B for this progressive thinking and for the great potential their ideas have for the growth of our economy and the health of the aina.