My guest this week is a timely one.  Michael Bowman is Founding Chair of the National Hemp Association.

He is also the author of Section 7606 of the 2014 Farm Bill, a provision that grants U.S. farmers the right to cultivate hemp in states where hemp production is now legal for the first time since Congress passed the 1933 Farm Bill. 

He’s known in some circles as “Mr Hemp” for his activism and he has been instrumental in shaping the State of Colorado’s hemp policy as Chair of Colorado’s New Energy Future and served as Co-Chair of Governor-elect Bill Ritter’s Energy Transition Team.

A graduate of the Colorado Agriculture and Rural Leadership program, Michael has spent his entire adult life active in rural advocacy. He has served as founding board member of numerous environmental and hemp advocacy organizations including the Rocky Mountain Hemp Association, Colorado Industrial Hemp Commission, the American Renewable Energy Institute and the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance to name a few. He is also a co-founder of the Colorado Farm2Cafeteria workgroup, advisor to the Savory Institute and a board member of the North American Industrial Hemp Association.

Michael is a Next Generation Fellow in Columbia University’s American Assembly and a 2008 recipient of Gamma Sigma Delta’s Significant Achievement in Agriculture by Colorado State University.

With everything going on right now around hemp, I thought it was the perfect time to get him on the show to answer some questions about what to expect in 2019.

I brought on Nelson Lindsley from Poetry of Plants to assist me in the interview. Some of the audio quality of this taping wasn’t as good as I would have liked, so apologies in advance for some of the background noise