Local farmers can learn about potential new economic opportunities related to industrial hemp during a free “dinner and a movie” presentation at Vance-Granville Community College. The event will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 27, from 5:30 until 8 p.m., VGCC Warren County Campus, 210 W. Ridgeway St., Warrenton, NC 27589
Attendees will watch an award-winning independent documentary, “Bringing it Home,” directed by North Carolina-based filmmakers Linda Booker and Blaire Johnson and distributed by Bullfrog Films. The 52-minute film sheds light on the history of industrial hemp in the United States and in Europe. It also discusses the various uses for industrial hemp, including as a sustainable building material. More common uses for the crop are for the textile, paper, cosmetics, food and animal feed/bedding markets. North Carolina is home to one of the few industrial hemp processing plants in the country: Hemp, Inc., in the Nash County town of Spring Hope.
Industrial hemp became a legal crop in North Carolina in 2015, and the state’s new Industrial Hemp Commission only recently received funding. A state research program on industrial hemp is set to begin in 2017. The pilot program would operate under guidelines established in the 2014 federal Farm Bill.
After the film, Jeff Cartonia of the North Carolina Industrial Hemp Association will be part of a panel who will take questions from audience members.
Dinner will be provided at no charge to attendees who RSVP by Sept. 23 to ped@vgcc.edu or (252) 738-3385.
VGCC’s Small Business Center, Human Resources Development and Personal Enrichment departments are partnering to organize the event. This informational program is made possible in part by a grant, entitled “Cultivating and Connecting Agricultural Communities,” awarded to VGCC as part of the Rural Community College Agricultural Cooperative Initiative, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture
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