Illinois Hemp Growers Association
Shelby County Farm Bureau Industrial Hemp Program
Join us at the Lake Shelbyville Visitors Center for the 2020 Winter Program: Industrial Hemp as an Alternative Crop. February 6th, 2020 at 6:30 PM - Dinner and discussion with the Shelby County Farm Bureau and the IHGA.
Click here to view the Event Page
CEO of the Illinois Hemp Growers Association, Rachel Berry, will be speaking about the uses and reasons to grow industrial hemp as an alternative crop on your farm. Come seeking to learn and have your questions answered about industrial hemp!
Image credit: Korte & Luitjohan
IHGA's First Membership Meeting - Location and Giveaway
Our first membership meeting is coming up on Thursday February 13th, 2020. This is your opportunity to meet with other dedicated hemp growers and processors in the state of Illinois. But - the only way to get in the door is to become a dues-paying member of the IHGA.
Luckily, it's only $25 for the year and you can pay online or at the door. Your dues include invitations to 4 quarterly meetings and a whole lot more. See our blog post about membership dues and mark your calendars for this milestone event.
Attend the meeting for a chance to win this gift bag of 100% hemp goods:
3LB bag of USA grown organic hemp hearts
Black 100% hemp scarf
White 100% hemp terry socks
Natural/White 100% hemp pillowcase
The meeting will be held at Flour House in Princeton, IL. starting at 6:30 PM. Refreshments will be provided. This is a family friendly event.
Learn more about Flour House bakery:
THIS IS THE IDEAL HEMP/CANNABIS INSPIRED SYMPOSIUM!
Click the photo above to visit the SIU event page. This symposium is designed for practical information and tools for new and experienced organic hemp grower, producer, and processor. The event offers information on current research, rules and regulations, banking, insurance, security, pre-season, in season, and post season information.
There will be key speakers form Illinois and Kentucky offering a host of knowledge on certified seed, seed bed preparation, insect and disease control, irrigation, fertilization, flowering, sex identification, lab sampling, harvesting, drying, storage, the chemistry behind processing, and marketing. There will be numerous vendors that will be demonstrating their equipment and products. Our hope is to meet all your hemp producing needs.
Local Food and Farmers Market Conference in Peoria, IL
Whether you’re a farmer, market manager, retailer, distributor, or simply someone who loves to eat, you are part of the food system. You want your part to grow. Illinois Farm Bureau & Illinois Farmers Market Association wants you to not just grow but thrive. Specialty crop, small-scale farmers, small food businesses, and farmer’s markets face unique challenges and markets.
Workshops and training opportunities allow you the chance to gain new skills, expand business, and connect with others facing similar challenges. The Live Local Conference will help food businesses learn how to increase profits, develop a sustainable business, and grow market demand to build long-lasting family farms and businesses.
Industrial Hemp Production Workshop
The signing of the Illinois hemp bill has provided opportunities for the cultivation, distribution, and processing of hemp for fiber, grain, and CBD. This versatile cash crop has the potential to empower small farmer, but is not without its own set of challenges regarding planting methods, fertility, harvesting, storage and extraction.
To help give some perspective on the lessons learned from the 2019 growing season, University of Illinois Extension will be hosting its 2nd annual “Industrial Hemp Production Workshop” at Highland Community College’s Student Conference Center on March 24th, 2020. The workshop will begin at 8:30 and run until 3 p.m.
Public Narrative Training
Rachel attended a Public Narrative training session with the Illinois Stewardship Alliance hosted by the Chicago Reader. Public Narrative offers a flexible and diverse range of custom training programs to nonprofits, news organizations and individuals.
Topics include storytelling, messaging, podcasting, blogging and op-ed writing, building a communications plan, analytics and SEO, social media, spokesperson training and more. If you want to learn how to tell your story to the world, get trained by the experts at Public Narrative.
Learn more about Public Narrative:
In Other News
We have submitted our official comment to the USDA AMS. Thank you to everyone who took the time to craft their comments. There were over 2,370 comments submitted as of 01/28/2020.
We are seeing some movement from companies near Chicago and in Southern Illinois towards establishing fiber processing. Licensing agreements are being developed with opportunities for franchises and cooperatives. Stay tuned for further developments.
Chris Berry will be attending a screening of "Billion Dollar Crop" on February 8th in Decatur, IL. We will began at 1:00pm with the film. Following the film Chris will lead discussion with a few words and Q & A. This is a free event. The program will take place at:
UUFD - Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Decatur
3773 n. MacArthur Rd.
Decatur, Illinois 62526
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