Hemp, Meet Large-Scale Agriculture, Large-Scale Agriculture, Meet Hemp
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Case Studies
Former onion and alfalfa farms converted to grow hemp in Lancaster, California part of the Antelope Valley.
MATT BRODERICK | ANDRE BOURQUE
Every late-fall, early-spring, thousands of people drive a couple hours outside of Los Angeles into the central desert of California for a glimpse of fields of orange California Poppies, the state flower. The Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve there offers visitors a more than 1,700-acre park of poppy-blanketed hills.
As blooming seasons are dependent on the amount of rainfall during the winter to early spring, this year’s record-breaking levels brought about lush fields of orange rarely seen in recent years. And for the first time ever, this year's bloom was followed by the birth of regional hemp compliments of the 2018 US Farm Bill and it's reversal of hemp cultivation prohibition.
California's Antelope Valley is part farming country. At one point there were 29 multigenerational onion farmers growing on 5,000 acres, but less than 10% of them remain today. Things began to change In 2015 when farmers across the state lost nearly nine million acre-feet of surface water from the state and federal water delivery networks, nearly half their usual supply.
“I’m the last one,” Brandon Calandri of Calandri Farms said. Calandri grows white onions and red onions distributed locally to Stater Bros. Markets and Vallarta Supermarkets. The farmers he once shared the market with have left the market, and some, the area. Others joined the valley's 110,000 daily commuters in driving upwards of four hours a day in what has been called the worst commute in the nation, to and from Los Angeles just to bring home a paycheck.
They have few other options.
Donald Collins, co-founder of SoCal Farms knows the impact of water rationing first-hand, as well. He farmed up to 20,000 acres of cotton at one time. But producing final products from cotton requires a strict water regimen. For context, one cotton diaper requires 105.3 gallons of water, one T-shirt needs 256.6 gallons of water, one bath towel needs 401.4 gallons of water, a man’s dress shirt requires 414.5 gallons of water, and 987 gallons of water are required for one pair of jeans, according to the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association.
Alfalfa farming becomes difficult without an abundance of water, too. The No. 1 crop in the Antelope Valley, alfalfa consumes about seven-acre feet of water to grow. Without water, what’s an unrelenting farming community to do?
Adapt. In this case, from commercial agriculture to industrial hemp.
Hemp, on the other hand
Industrial hemp consumes about one-third of the water required to grow alfalfa. For Calandri and Collins, venturing into hemp farming made sense. Industrial hemp has is the strongest natural fiber in the world and offers over 50,000 commercial, medical, and consumable uses, one of which is cannabidiol (CBD), the wildly popular cannabis compound taking the health, beauty, and wellness industries by storm.
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