The American Farm Bureau Federation, the largest farming organization in the United States with 4.6 million members, passed a resolution last week at its annual convention in Reno, Nev., calling for research that could lead to the reintroduction of hemp into the American farm economy.

The resolution, adopted by a unanimous vote of the state Farm Bureau presidents and all 300 voting convention delegates, says: "We recommend that American Farm Bureau Federation encourage research into the viability and economic potential of industrial hemp production in the United States. We further recommend that such research includes planting test plots in the United States using modern agricultural techniques."

Marion County's Craig Lee, an associate member of the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association, said, "I know this is a big step forward for the Kentucky farmer, who is under great pressure to hold onto his farm and to make a living from that farm. This will help farmers diversify, and it will give added value to their farms.

"I know if the farmer ceases to exist, we all pay the price for his non-existence. If we can hold a vision as a state and be the first to help diversify the farmer into growing hemp as a sustainable agricultural product, it will be one more commodity he will have to make an income from."

Lee said the Farm Bureau's resolution "is going to be a major factor in amending these laws on hemp, where it can be used as a rural economic development program. This will help our state, our communities, and local businesses."

"We need to go forward and have a vision into this resolution," Lee continued. "The farmer needs something. We've tried everything else."

Often described as "marijuana's misunderstood cousin," industrial hemp is from the same plant species that produces marijuana. Unlike marijuana, however, industrial hemp has only minute amounts of tetrahydrocannabinols, or THC, the psychoactive ingredient that gives marijuana its drug properties, according to a news release from the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association Inc. (KHGCA), in Lexington.

Industrial hemp is currently grown legally throughout Europe and Asia and is being grown in test plots in Australia and Canada, the news release said.

Andrew Graves, incoming president of the Fayette County chapter of the Kentucky Farm Bureau and vice-president of the KHGCA, introduced the resolution at the convention.

Graves' family farm, just outside Lexington, grew 500 acres of seed hemp for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's "Hemp for Victory" campaign during the 1940s.

"What we are asking for is research to determine whether industrial hemp can once again become a profitable agricultural commodity for American farmers just as it is for farmers in other countries around the world," said Graves. "Where would agriculture be without research?"

Thomas J. Ballanco, legal analyst for the Colorado Council for Industrial Hemp Development and author of the "Colorado Industrial Hemp Production Act of 1996," which is pending before that state's legislature, also attended the convention.

Commenting on federal legislation that prohibits marijuana production, Ballanco said, "Congress never intended to discourage legitimate industrial hemp farming and federal law still allows its production. It is pretty clear from the Congressional Record that Congress intended to allow farmers to continue to produce the non-drug hemp crop."

In a separate resolution at the convention, the American Farm Bureau also voted to affirm its policy in support of government efforts to eradicate illegal drugs, including marijuana.