PENDLETON — For a few years, hemp — non-psychoactive variants of the genus cannabis — looked as if it might offer Eastern Oregon farmers a profitable alternative crop.

Hemp is grown for seed, fiber and extracts, such as seed oil and cannabidiol, commonly called CBD. Fiber was the traditional use, especially in naval applications. Today, hemp clothing still is available.

When the 2018 federal Farm Bill removed hemp and its extracts from the Controlled Substances Act, many farmers joined the stampede to get in on the seemingly lucrative venture.

Rebecca McCormmach is a Pendleton-area farmer and hemp seed oil business owner. She said that was an exciting time with a lot of learning.

“And learn we did, one challenge at a time,” she said. “2018 was a unicorn year boasting perfect weather for farming, with perfect summer temps and a mild fall. There was much ease and success in farming hemp in these conditions.”

But the next two seasons would bring something quite different.

While 2019 brought crop devastation from freezing temperatures and hail storms, 2020 saw record highs baking young seedlings to a crisp before they had a chance to flourish. The hemp market shifted. While some farms managed to survive the rollercoaster experience, many decided the risk was too great.

McCormmach joined the hemp industry in 2018.

“I’ve never been so tired in my life as I was planting nearly 20 acres by hand,” she said. “Some days were spent with mud to our elbows chasing water leaks and gophers, some hoeing weeds, some chasing flyaway plastic. … and then there were the evenings we could just stroll through our fields enjoying the view. I loved every minute of it.”

Now her cold-pressed hemp seed oil has found favor with customers, especially as a feed additive for high performance horses.

Cannabidiol is a phytocannabinoid, discovered in 1940. “Phyto-” means derived from a plant. CBD is one of 113 identified cannabinoids in cannabis plants, along with psychoactive tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, and accounts for up to 40% of the extract. Clinical research on CBD has included studies related to anxiety, cognition, movement disorders and pain.

Cannabidiol can be taken internally in multiple ways, including by inhaling cannabis smoke or vapor, by mouth and as an aerosol spray into the cheek. It may be supplied as oil containing only CBD as the active ingredient (excluding THC or terpenes), CBD-dominant hemp extract oil, capsules, dried cannabis, or prescription liquid solution.

CBD does not have the same psychoactive effects as THC, and may change the effects of THC on the body if both are present. Research into the mechanisms of action for its therapeutic biological effects has advanced in the past decade.

History of Hemp

During the Age of Sail in the 18th and 19th centuries, hemp made the best rope for ship cordage, so the material was vital for the fledgling U.S. Navy. But in 2020, the Navy banned hemp shampoo, lotions and other cannabidiol products.

In the 1760s, when the price of tobacco plummeted, George Washington considered growing hemp to diversify his Mount Vernon plantation. While he ultimately decided to focus on wheat, he did grow hemp for domestic use. He turned the plant fibers into rope and thread for sewing sacks, making canvas, repairing seine nets on his Potomac River fisheries and possibly clothing his slaves. Thomas Jefferson also took an interest in growing hemp as a cash crop.

After 12 years of research, Henry Ford in 1941 produced a prototype car fueled by hemp oil, other vegetable oils and ethanol. Its panels were made 70% from cellulose fiber and plastic composite. He hoped eventually to “grow automobiles from the soil.”

McCormmach lamented the association hemp has with its cousin, marijuana. Hemp, she said, has had a long road to being understood and appreciated.

Despite discovery of the highly beneficial CBD, it would be another 48 years, to 1988 and the discovery of the mammalian endocannabinoid system, a molecular signaling system within the body that is involved in regulating a broad range of biological functions, she explained.

“In layman’s terms, the ECS is built in at our time of creation,” she said. “Its purpose is to recognize, receive and employ endocannabinoids where the body needs them in an effort to create homeostasis.”

Fast forward another four years to 1992 when a study by Czech analytical chemist Lumir Hanus and American pharmacologist William Devane isolated the first endocannabinoid in the human brain. They named it “anandamide” from a Sanskrit word meaning “joy” or “bliss.”

Hemp cultivation today

Although the hemp market has changed for the present-day farmer, McCormmach continued, hemp thrives in an incredible number of applications.

“Today, hemp is used to make clothing, home textiles, nutritional supplements, animal health care products, skin care products, plastics, home construction materials and even automobile and aircraft parts,” she said. “Several well-known auto companies are using hemp plastics in the fabrication of door panels, trunks and dashboards. In addition to being inarguably more eco-friendly, hemp plastics are also cheaper and more durable, naturally making them safer than fiberglass counterparts.”

Aside from its practical uses in everyday life, hemp most recently has been in the spotlight for CBD and its potential health benefits for mammals.

“Though it has been a long road, one might argue it has been well worth the journey. It’s like climbing the Mount Everest of learning,” McCormmach said. “But to learn it, is to love it.”

Now, she said, her focus is on the CBD line she developed following its first year’s harvest, with the main focus on equine.

“I love this side of the line, because the horses don’t talk or analyze what you gave them,” she said. “You just see the results. And the results are fascinating.”

Cultivation has presented many challenges, McCormmach said, and many farmers opted to throw in the towel and leave their big hemp dreams in the dust. But she said she considers these temporary setbacks for hemp. Hemp, she said, is alive and well.

Courtney Moran, president of Oregon Industrial Hemp Farmers Association, shares McCormmach’s optimism. She said, “There still is a viable CBD market, it just looks different from a few years ago. In 2019 with so many new farms coming online across the country we saw overproduction, which led to the market decline. The global events that followed created additional challenges. Many farmers did not grow again in 2020 or 2021 because of the drop in market price. The reserves from previous years of production are getting used up, and farmers have shared with us that they are planning production for 2022, many with smaller acreage than in previous years.”

“The Cannabinoid Hemp industry is alive,” Moran continued, “and those that have remained in the industry are seeking new opportunities with other minor cannabinoids.”

She added, “The future is not in CBD alone, but with the production of a broader range of minor cannabinoids that provide therapeutic benefits. The most recent interest is with CBDA and CBGA after the results from the studies at Oregon State University were made public.”

“If federal regulations provide clear pathways for CBD itself,” Moran concluded, “we may see a further resurgence for CBD. We encourage the industry to contact their members of Congress to continue to advocate for federal pathways for hemp-derived CBD and to contact state regulators to ensure pathways are opened for sales of minor cannabinoids in state.”

The Oregon Industrial Hemp Farmers Association hopes the regulatory “gray zone’’ to which hemp-derived extracts have been consigned at the federal level could be resolved this year. That assumes Congress decides to act. Like most non-coronavirus items before legislators, federal regulation of extracts derived from hemp stalled in 2021. However, a number of bills already introduced in Congress this year would regulate CBD use in dietary supplements and its inclusion in food and beverages. They are gaining support to be heard in relevant committees.  Change is far from certain, and in any case, CBD prices have for the present crashed.

While CBD is on the ropes, McCormmach’s equine hemp seed oil business remains profitable. Hemp made a comeback once. It might do so again. 

— John Tillman