Joe brings 28 years of Hemp Industry experience and relationships to Halcyon’s portfolio and acts as spokesperson and corporate relations.
In 1992 he reignited the grassroots hemp effort after discovering the 1942 Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association and became a leader in the national movement to allow U.S. farmers to grow industrial hemp. During this era, Joe collected feral hemp seeds, reorganized the Co-op, met with Governor Jones about forming Kentucky’s Hemp Task Force and organized the first International Hemp Conference. He helped gain Kentucky’s and the National Farm Bureau’s support for hemp, became a founding board member of Kenex, the first commercial industrial hemp operation in Canada, and was instrumental in drafting and passing Kentucky’s hemp legislation.
Fueled by the idea “to know the law, you have to test the law”, Joe’s passion to leave the world a better place led to him orchestrating the challenge of Kentucky’s hemp law by strategizing with friend and actor/environmental activist Woody Harrelson’s 1996 planting of four hemp seeds in the hills of Kentucky. This action would propel the reintroduction of hemp into the agricultural landscape of the United States and solidify Joe’s role as a Hemp Pioneer.
This story and many other lively tales are currently being chronicled by Joe for his upcoming book.
Learn more about Halcyon at www.Halcyon420.com.
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