 All this month at Appalachian Wireless, get the only truly water-resistant Android smartphone the Samsung Galaxy S7 for just $99.99 and get a second one free while supplies last. Service agreement is required. Better service? Bigger savings? That's today's Appalachian Wireless. A Pye County company is hoping to persuade local landowners and farmers to start growing hemp. Late last week, Patriot Bioenergy Corporation announced it has received a multi-year permit to process industrial hemp, which company officials believe could help the eastern Kentucky economy. And the processor's permit right now enables us to basically purchase hemp from individuals or companies that are growing hemp and we have the right to process that hemp. And for our purposes, our focus has been on energy-related or industrial applications. Ford says research has shown blending hemp with coal can produce a cleaner-burning fuel, which he says could have a huge impact in our region. That's obviously a big part of our focus is to work with the coal companies and with the coal industry to strengthen the coal industry to improve its environmental aspects, the things that they get criticized for. And so those are the things that we're looking at as far as a Pye County company. But the challenge now is getting people to grow hemp, which Ford says could be huge for Pye County. If you have an acre, if you have a hundred acres, there is value in that, potentially. Because we really, we've never grown tobacco in Pye County, some other counties around us have, but we really don't have a strong agricultural base here, but we do have a lot of potential farmland that's not being utilized. And so hemp is a good crop, a good cash crop for that. And he says there are resources available for anyone interested. We encourage people that are interested in growing to become members of the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association, and it's a farmer's cooperative statewide. For more information about local plans for processing hemp or to inquire about growing it, visit the website on your screen. Reporting in Pye County for EKB News, I'm Shannon Deskins.