Story by James Turner, Staff writer

U.S. Congressman James Comer spoke at the William Cherry Exposition Center Friday, Oct. 26, to advocate research of agricultural hemp.

The Agricultural Hemp Educational Program was held to inform Murray of its role in the growing hemp industry.

Hemp and marijuana is often confused, but hemp has a different function, cultivation and application than marijuana, though both derived from cannabis plant. Murray State began to harvest hemp in 2017.

“When I think about hemp, it started at Murray State,” Comer said.

Comer expressed his strong support for hemp as an industry and was proud that Murray State is among the universities growing and researching hemp.

According to documents handed out at the event, after the 2014 U.S. farm bill passed, Comer called Tony Brannon, dean of Hutson School of Agriculture, and asked Murray State to participate in hemp research.

According to the documents, Brannon first asked graduate and student regent Jeremiah Johnson to take a university truck to Frankfort to get hemp seeds. However, Johnson’s truck broke down en route, leaving him stranded on the parkway. Brannon then asked graduate assistant Samantha Anderson to pick up Johnson on her way to Frankfort for the seeds.

“These two students picked up the seeds and became the first students to transport hemp seed all the way across the Commonwealth of Kentucky,” Brannon said in the document.

Murray has studied and researched the controversial crop ever since, though it has proven to be difficult to grow.

Brannon said there is no federal funding for research and development of hemp. He said there is no exact science for growing hemp since it is a relatively new crop in the United States. Brannon was still confident in their work and hemp’s place in Kentucky’s future.

“It’s never going to replace tobacco,” Brannon said. “But it’s another tool in the
Toolbox.”