Corn acres down but hemp's budding

The Chinese Ring-necked Pheasant isn't wildlife but it is a canary in a chemically and genetically engineered corn mine since the pesticide industry that greases Republican politicos doesn’t give a whit about anything but profit.

But, unless it replaces corn acres this blog hasn't supported widespread growing of industrial cannabis (hemp), especially on tribal lands because it is an invasive species capable of overgrowing native grasses. It was introduced to the western hemisphere by the Spanish in the south and in the north the colonizing Europeans began seeing the Powhatan population growing it around 1609. Thomas Jefferson would not plant tobacco because he believed it to be bound to the capitalism he abhorred and chose cannabis as his crop of choice for its utilitarian applications. 

Pastures in Brookings and Moody Counties and the ditches along the I-29 of my youth were adorned with feral cannabis from Sioux Falls to Omaha, descendants of an agribusiness destroyed by a racist and xenophobic law enforcement industry now dealing with bulging prisons.

After it was legalized by the 2018 farm bill a jury in Montana awarded more than $65 million to hemp growers in 2021 in that state after being screwed by Canadian and American businessmen yet replacing the ecocidal corn/ethanol subsidy in South Dakota with hemp acres is a bridge too far for Republicans who run for office on habitat destruction. Besides, why anyone would want to buy genetically engineered seed from Bayer Crop Science/Monsanto or some other Earth hater every year remains a mystery especially since pollen drift can destroy therapeutic and "recreational" cannabis crops. 

The good news? Welfare farmers planted less corn in 2024 while ninety-four percent of all corn acres planted in the United States are genetically modified, up from 93% in 2023 according to the US Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Farmers grow three different varieties of hemp in South Dakota: CBD, fibers, and grain and seed. South Dakota reached No. 1 for grain and seed acres in 2022 and now reached No. 1 for fibers this year. [South Dakota No. 1 state in nation for hemp production]

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