This week on the Hemp Podcast, Lancaster Farming talks to farmers around the country and the world about spring planting — what they’ve got in the ground, how much hemp they’re growing this year, what conditions are like in the field, and more.
We talk to several Pennsylvania farmers, as well as folks in Missouri, Kansas, North Carolina, Michigan and more, including an exclusive interview with Roman Fedorowycz, an American farmer who’s been living and farming in Ukraine for over 30 years. He runs a 5,000-acre farm in the western part of the country, where he usually grows various grains and vegetables, and, of course, hemp. But things are a little different this year.
Fedorowycz talks about the atrocities committed by the Russian army and how that’s affecting agriculture in Ukraine, considered to be one of the breadbaskets of the world.
“This year, we have a number of issues,” he said. “Number one, since the ports are blocked and Ukraine is one of the biggest exporters...of corn, soybeans, sunflower oil and things like that, we can’t get our products to go out of the main ports in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov because of the Russian blockade.
“The other issue is that where the fighting is going on in the south, the east and the northeast, obviously there’s no spring planting going on and there’ll be no harvest going on.
“And on top of that, many regions west of Kiev and north of Kiev and east of Kiev were mined by the Russians when they were pushed out. I have many friends who have thousands and thousands of acres that they have to be de-mined or remove unexploded artillery and other things out of their fields. So many of those farmers are not planting this year,” Fedorowycz said.
This week's guests include:
Eric Trajtenberg from Paradise Hemp Farm in West Grove Pennsylvania where he’s a growing small batch CBD. https://www.paradisehempfarm.com/ & https://pahemplawyer.com/
Mike Murray from Moka Hemp in Burlington, Pennsylvania, where they focus on smokable CBD flower. https://www.mokahemp.com/
Rusty Peterson with Essen Atlas and Align Agro in Michigan, where they’re growing fiber varieties. https://www.alignagro.com/
Victor-Alan Weeks from 404 Twenty in Caswell County, North Carolina, where he and his business Partner Jalen Madden are focused on CBD production.
Jeff Limbaugh from Midwest Natural Fiber in Sikeston, Missouri, where they’re growing hundreds of acres of fiber hemp and other crops. https://www.midwestnaturalfiber.com/
Aaron Baldwin from South Bend Industrial Hemp in South Bend Kansas, where they’re working with a network of farmers to grow several thousand acres of dual crop fiber & grain. https://www.southbendindustrialhemp.com/
Roman Fedorowycz from Ukr Hemp Seeds in Ukraine who tells us about the atrocities of Russia’s war on Ukraine and how that’s affecting spring planting there. http://ukrhempseed.online/
Raphael Cutrufello from Hezekiah Jones in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. http://www.hezekiahjones.com/
Steve Groff from Cedar Meadow Farm in Holtwood, PA, where’s got fiber, grain and CBD varieties. https://cedarmeadow.farm/
Dale Norely from Tasunka Farm Organics in Birchrunville, PA, where this year she grew smokable flower in the greenhouse over winter and wholesale seedlings this spring. Right now they are doing maintenance on their fields and will be planting outdoors again next year.
Special Thanks to our sponsors:
IND HEMP West Town Bank