 This is St. Tech, Hawaii. Community matters here. Aloha. I'm Marcia Joyner, and this is Cannabis Chronicles, a 10,000-year odyssey. And as you know, the cannabis comes from the hemp plant. And that plant has been around, like I said, for 10,000 years. And so we're journeying through those years of medicine and religion and the government and all of these different things that have been used, or hemp has been used for all of those years. And so today we are coming up to Hawaii. And the hemp project that the State Department of Agriculture has proposed. And we will meet two farmers who are growing hemp seeds on the Big Island. So it's a pleasure to talk to people firsthand, what do I call? Farmers who have spent a lifetime being farmers growing things, developing agriculture products. And that is Greg Smith and Steve Salaca. Green Hawaii genetics. Greg, can you hear me? Yes, I can hear you. Good. Tell us now, how long have you been a farmer? Oh, gee, since I go after 30 years, I've been doing some farmer farming, mostly in California, and then farming here in Hawaii for the last 12 years. I have an organic vegetable farm, and I do a CSA, and I do farmer's markets, and I run a farmer's market in Kona. So I've been involved with growing food as a farmer and as an advocate for most of my life. And so you were originally from California? Excuse me. Right. Why did you decide to come to Hawaii? Well, why not? I mean, it's a beautiful place, a fantastic place to grow food, and I just love the lifestyle. The better place. This is San Diego, which was a really nice place, but it just got so crowded that Hawaii was the place to come, and Kahu District is a pretty quiet area, so we love it down here. So you are in Kahu now? Yes. And so this farm that you have, the green Hawaii genetics, is that a new farm? Or tell us about some of the other farms you have there. Well, green Hawaii genetics has a contract with the Department of Agriculture to develop hemp seed for the state. We're one of three farms in Hawaii that is involved with the seed development, which is what we need to have happen before we can't start giving permits to farmers to grow hemp in Hawaii. So we're working on the genetics, and we're working on the strains that have been given to us by the Department of Agriculture to make sure they stay within the guidelines and looking to do the research to find out what is the best varietals that will do well here in Hawaii, and then we will be giving them to people who will be applying for the contracts to grow hemp in Hawaii. Now, with seed development, I'm not a farmer, so you have to tell me what it means being a seed developer. What happens? How do you develop a seed? Well, you start with different varietals that come from different places. We have seed from China, and we have seed from different areas, and we cross them with other genetics, and we try to get certain characteristics. There are growing seed for fiber, you grow seed for seed material for protein, and you grow seed for medicine. So there are different types of hemp genetics that are for specific growing needs, and so that's what we're working on, finding the best ones for Hawaii. Nobody has ever grown hemp here really, so this is all brand new. So you have to develop the seed for the climate, and is that what you're telling me? Yeah, and the soil. Right. We have volcanic soil, so China doesn't have volcanic soil. So Marcia, this is Steve Ciccala. So part of what the Department of Agriculture is asking us to do is because we're out of unique latitude, a tropical latitude, many of the hemp varieties have not been grown or tested over time at this latitude. And so it's mainly to see if the seeds are climatized to Hawaii and remain under the legal limit of certain cannabinoids, mainly THC. But on the big island, the climate is different than Molokai, so are you growing for each island, or how does that work? Well, hemp is an extremely versatile and hardy plant. It was found on every major continent, so there's a lot of diversity potential with hemp. We're basically operating under the assumption that if it does well in Kahu, we are testing it in a few other spots, and of course the other contractors are on other islands. There's one of the contractors at the University of Kauai in Oahu. There's a contractor over in Maui. So these seeds are being tested in different environments, and we'll be looking at and comparing what the results are, but we're anticipating them to be very similar. So, okay, let's assume that the seed works well, and you're planting, of course. How long does it take to go from a good healthy seed to a harvest, from seed to harvest? How long is that? Well, that depends. It depends on the time of year. It depends on the day length. We do some light manipulation to get plants to a certain size, but let's say in a normal growing season, if you were planting your hemp in the spring, you would harvest in the fall sometime. So you're looking at a seven or eight month cycle, and that's using natural lighting. But because we're manipulating lighting, we can pull a healthy harvest off in as little as two and a half, three months. Wow. So that means that you could have, if you were in business, you could have at least two harvests a year. Yeah, we're looking at more like three harvests a year. Three harvests a year. Do you have to rotate the crop, or like you do in some vegetables, or just leave it in hemp? Well, one of the things that Greg and I really see eye-to-eye on is we believe in sustainable organic agriculture as a foundational practice. So like any crop, you're not going to want to continue to plant hemp in the same space without regenerating the land. So our approach is to use organic fertilizers, to use crop rotation, to use cover crops, just like we would in our food crops. So it's really a point that we want to bring across when we talk about hemp is we're not here to just use another plant to extract the minerals of the soil, but we're here to grow a plant that brings the community up and has economic potential, but also really can create an agricultural system that's sustainable over the long term. So you're treating this like any other food product that you're growing? In that way, yes. Obviously the growing conditions and some of its needs are different than food crops, but as far as our practices, our agricultural practices are very similar. That's where I was going with that. The practice, the love with which you treat this plant. That's right. Yeah. Now, once it reaches maturity and it's ready for harvest, what happens then? What goes on with the harvest? Well, first of all, you have to test it. So you have to stay within the guideline and there's a certain stage within the growing cycle that you test the plant at. And if you stay under the 0.3 percent, then it will be accepted by the Department of Agriculture as an industrial hemp. And then it's sort of up to the industry to decide what they want to do with it. So if somebody wants to create hemp creep, then they can create hemp creep. If they want to create a seed crop to feed animals, they could do that. If they want to regenerate the soil, they can do that. Or if they want to create medicine, they can do that. So it's all kind of up to the individual grower as to what direction they want to take with it. But they just need to stay within the guidelines that the state puts in front of us, which is basically staying under the 0.3 percent THC. That's pretty much the national standard for hemp. So that gets it out of that section A or whatever the cannabis. And what we're trying to do is give stable seeds to the Department of Agriculture so that when a farmer goes to grow it, they know that they're going to be able to stay within those guidelines. And it's not easy because the seed has a lot of variable. So it's not easy to get a stable seed, but that's what we're working for and that's what we hope we can do for the Department of Agriculture. So you are growing various seeds to see which one actually stays within the guidelines that produces a healthy crop that the state then can issue to whoever has a license. Is that correct? That's correct. We're not only just testing, but we're also developing, which was I think Greg's point a little bit earlier in the conversation. So the state has purchased some seeds that we're testing for a climatization. But at the same time and concurrently, we're also developing our own seed varieties that we know that we can actually adjust cannabinoid levels by hydrating. And so those things are happening concurrently on the farm and with the company. This is really exciting. Tell us now, you mentioned hempcrete. What is hempcrete? So hempcrete is a building material that is essentially just hemp fiber and lye. And so it's a non-toxic building material, fairly lightweight, no bug problems. And so it's becoming a very popular building material. And we think it has great potential in Hawaii. There's definitely a lot of folks interested in the hempcrete here. Obviously because we have such high cost on our building materials. So that's what some folks are interested in producing hemp. In some ways, it could be a byproduct of other hemp products such as if you're growing a seed crop for either animal feed or protein food or hemp seed oil, you can use then the fiber in a dual crop type of varietal for both like a hempcrete and a seed crop. So you take the oil out and make CBD, I guess, I don't know. And then you take the fiber and you make a building material out of it. Well, there's different products that are being called hemp oils. So we just want to clarify for your listeners. The hemp oil that gets pressed from the seed and that is the seed, that's the oil that you've been able to buy in the grocery store since the late 90s. That's essentially a dietary, a food substance. So the oil that comes from the seed has no cannabinoid or very little cannabinoids in it like CBD. That other type of hemp oil gets extracted from the flowers, the plant material, and that comes from trichome production. And that's what we would consider a medical grade industrial hemp. And that's the oil that you could then use for CBDs or CBG or some of the other cannabinoids that we're interested in. So the oil that comes from this could be used for like soy milk. You could use hemp milk and things like that. Absolutely, absolutely. You're already seeing hemp milk on the shelf. It's used as an oil that's saying salad dressing similar to flax. You know, hemp seed is being used for so much right now, but certainly the oil is going to be a very popular item in the future as it has been. We need to take a break. We'll be back in just a minute. And then I want to talk about CBDs and what is a CBD, okay? We'll be right back. Sure. This is Stink Tech, Hawaii, raising public awareness. Aloha. My name is Mark Shklav. I am the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea. Law Across the Sea comes on every other Monday at 11 a.m. Please join us. I like to bring in guests that talk about all types of things that come across the sea to Hawaii, not just law, love, people, ideas, history. Please join us for Law Across the Sea. Aloha, and I'm Marcia Joyner with Cannabis Chronicles, and we are talking to my two new best friends, Greg Smith and Steve Salock at Green Hawaii Genetics on the Big Island. And it's time that we all in the state talked about hemp. Hemp has the potential as an industry, if we but look at it, hemp has the potential to give us a whole new industry so that we're not so dependent on tourism and the military. And so I am talking today on the phone to two farmers who are really at the core of developing the right seeds that can take us into a whole new world. And those are seeds for growing hemp. Now hemp has been around for 10,000 years and it grows everywhere, but the state and these farmers are working at giving us a plant that is hearty and healthy and will grow all over the state of Hawaii and give growth and development to a new way of life, a whole new industry. And so I am absolutely delighted to talk to Greg Smith and Steve Salock. And welcome back gentlemen. I am so glad to know you. Thank you. So tell us a little bit about the opportunities of making this into a whole new world for Hawaii. Or am I dreaming? Yeah, well we are really excited that this could really stimulate agriculture here in Hawaii. The economical opportunities are vast. It's probably one of the fastest growing industries. Of course the Canada industry is growing in all kinds of directions, but the CBD hemp industry is exploding on the mainland. And we are looking forward to seeing it have an opportunity to grow here in Hawaii. We are pretty lucky to have the head of the Department of Agriculture supporting this opportunity for the state. Scott Inright has been a very important part of why we are able to get to where we are today. And he has supported this opportunity to bring him to Hawaii. And it's been a full process. We've had a lot of ups and downs trying to get through legislation and through bills getting passed. We've been sort of working on this for over three years with the Department of Ag. But we are very close to seeing permits being given out by hopefully March or no later than April. And that's extremely exciting to know that there will be farmers that will be able to start growing hemp in Hawaii for different reasons. And it's the beginning of something very big for the state, a whole opportunity for processing all types of products. And we know people on the mainland are making very large amount of money growing the CBD hemp. And so it has the potential of really helping small-scale agriculture. A one-acre farm in Oregon produces as much as $100,000 an acre. So that's pretty amazing. I don't know if it's going to stay that way, but right now it's really booming. On the Department of Agriculture's webpage, it says if you're going to get the license, you need ten acres of farmland. That's the minimum. That's the minimum. I'm saying $100,000 an acre. Hi, Marcia, this is Steve's to call it. The way that we understand the application process is that you won't have to have ten acres, but you can grow up to ten acres under this initial permit. So even if you don't have ten acres, I think there's still the possibility of getting one of these permits, but you won't be able to do more than ten acres for the first year. We imagine that will grow in the first few years. So if I buy a license, or apply for a license, then I can say to my friend who is a farmer, can we use your land to grow hemp? Can you come together as a... Sure. Like any corporation, you can create partnerships, LLCs, or other types of corporate contracts to partner. There's no reason why the person who wants to apply for the permit has to have the land, but you do need to know where that land is going to be before you apply for the permit. Of course, yeah. But you can come together as a, like you said, an LLC, some kind of a partnership. Sure, of course. Yeah. Okay. Next step. Now... If you go on the website for the Department of Agriculture, there are some rules as to how you can apply, what it costs, what the specific things you have to do to be able to get a license, and so I would tell anybody out there that if they're really interested, they should go to the Department of Agriculture website and just put in hemp. And on the very bottom of that page that tells you about the guidelines, there is an access that you can go to and it will give you the rules of what the application is going to be about. It won't be the application, but it will give you the basic idea of what the rules are. Yeah. That was... Go ahead. We anticipate for the first year that there will be limited amount of permits, but we're encouraging more and more anybody that's interested in applying because I think that will demonstrate to the Department of Agriculture that in very short order, they're going to need to increase the amount of permits so that the average farmer will have access, but it looks like maybe the first round will only have about 10 or 15 permits available. I think this is wonderful. I'm looking at the big picture, of course, since I'm not a farmer, but looking at the big picture, places like Molokai, who they need industry desperately, places like that that can use, can benefit from this industry, it is just so exciting. Next step, to go from... Okay, let's assume that I have 10 acres and it's ready for harvest. How do I process the hemp into the next step to let's assume biofuels? I know nothing about biofuels, but... Yeah. You picked an interesting example. If you were growing hemp for biofuels, I would imagine you would already have a plan in place to send your hemp. We know that the Pacific Biodiesel over in Maui is definitely interested in growing hemp for their biofuels operation, so you would have some type of a strategic partnership with a corporation that's ready to process your hemp. And I would say that in general, for any end product that you're looking at making from hemp, don't necessarily wait until you're growing hemp to decide then where it's going to go. You're going to want to know what type of hemp you're growing, depending on what your end product is that you desire, whether it's fiber, seed, or cannabinoids for medicinal use. I know the product I want. Because this is in a very new beginning stages, the building of the infrastructure to develop this industry hasn't even begun yet. So it's going to take some real financing and some real... Strategic partnership. Yes, strategic partnerships to start this industry because the processing hemp is a bit complicated and can be quite expensive, so you really need to create a partnership. But once we get the plant growing, I think that's just all going to start taking place and investors will come in and be a part of it here and why. Now, I'll tell you the one I think where we can make a killing. Well, there's two products. Two products. Number one, a hemp can replace copper tone for suntan because we got to get rid of copper tone. Now, and it's been proven that it works to protect the skin from suntan. That's number one. And number two is the fuel or oil or whatever it's called, fluid for the 3D printer. Now, that one has to... We've got to have a corner on that. So tell me about the CBD because that is the thing that everybody talks about. Every store has... Everybody's got a CBD line. Tell me exactly what is CBD and how it works. Sure, well, CBD is the acronym for cannabidiol. And cannabidiol is the non-psychoactive cannabinoid that is responsible for majority of the health benefits of the cannabis plant. So for many years that everybody assumed THC was what people wanted to equate the medicinal effects to, but science and time has shown us that CBD is the primary healthy cannabinoid related to reduction in inflammation, anti-spasmodic, anti-carcinogenic, and the list goes on and on. It's quite an extensive list of health benefits. Essentially, CBD helps regulate the endocannabinoid system, which is found in all mammal bodies. And that endocannabinoid system is a recent discovery in Western science, just discovered in the late 80s and still being understood in its totality. But what they do know is it's responsible for the homeostasis of the human body, so the balance of the human body. So when someone starts using CBD or some of these other cannabinoid, whole spectrum extracts, their endocannabinoid system basically comes closer to balance and they feel better, whether it's reduction of cholesterol or insulin production regulation, whatever it is, better sleep. Anxiety is a major one we see benefits from. So it's really an amazing thing helping a lot of people with a lot of different health issues. I am impressed, thoroughly impressed. Every store, everybody, somebody says they have CBD. How do you know what is real CBD or somebody that's just put a label on something? How do we know? Yeah, that's exactly what I was about to make a point on. There's a lot of folks rushing to market because obviously the industry is growing so rapidly. So one of the things that Greg and I really like to educate and advocate for is to make sure that you know where your CBDs are coming from. It's really great to feel like we have access to these products now and a lot of people are just excited that they're on the shelves, but really now it's up to the consumer to do their own work just like they would on any other product or industry. Is it organically growing? That's really the main question when it comes to cannabis. Having been in the cannabis industry for over 20 years, it's unfortunate to have to say but a majority of the industry is not organic, which means they're using chemicals, synthetic fertilizers, high levels of pesticides and fungicides, and if your source of your cannabis and hemp is not organic, it's quite likely that you're consuming something that you might not like to be consuming, especially if your immune system is compromised or you have health issues. You really want to make sure you can get as close to the source of your product as possible. Know your farm or know your food. It's the same thing with cannabis. You want to make sure that the other ingredients that they're combining the CBD into is also high-quality ingredients. We're not big fans of the isolate that's being used in a lot of the products. CBD isolate is advertised as 99.9% pure, but in our opinion it's not as healthy of as a product as a whole spectrum extract, which has other cannabinoids, brings the entourage effect, and is a less industrial process to get it processed. The isolate is quite an industrial process. Is that on the label? How can I tell? Or do I have to call you and say send me some? Well, you certainly can visit our Mono Artists and Botanics website to look at the products that we're offering them, because we have taken care to really look at each ingredient that we include, and we use only whole-spectrum organic extract. But it should stay on the label if it's from isolate or whole-spectrum extract. You're looking for something that is not from isolate. If it says CO2 extracted or distillate, then you're looking at something that's more wide-spectrum. In our opinion, isolate isn't as healthy. If it says isolate, it's not as healthy as a full-spectrum? This is just what the data and the science is showing, that entourage effect when other cannabinoids are in their natural form in relationship to each other, you have a better health potential as far as an outcome if you're using these cannabinoids. When you're only using one CBT, then you're not getting that total interaction, which they call the entourage effect. That's why we're advocates for whole-spectrum extract. Now, tell us again the name of your company that makes CBD. Sure. The company that I have is called Mana Artisan Botanics, and our website's mana-potanics.com. Mana-potanics.com. Thank you, gentlemen. This has been a real pleasure. And as the crop goes on, we will talk more.