Hemp – the type of cannabis plant bred for its strong fibers and health benefits rather than psychoactive properties – has a long and storied history in the commonwealth. WMRA’s Sara Prince talked with local hemp businesses about how they process the crop and the regulatory challenges they face, and filed this report.
Hemp has been part of human history for thousands of years.
At Pure Shenandoah in Elkton, a banner stretches across the wall, tracing hemp history back to 8000 B.C. Abner Johnson is the Chief Operating Officer of Pure Shenandoah.
ABNER JOHNSON: And then we discover some healing properties of it early in 2800 B.C.
When Europeans crossed the Atlantic, hemp came with them — arriving in places such as Jamestown, where it quickly became essential.
JOHNSON: They actually had it mandated that farmers had to grow hemp because they were using so much.
That was back in 1619 when the Virginia Assembly ordered colonists to grow hemp for ropes, sails, and rigging for the British Empire.
But hemp’s story hasn’t been linear. It has followed a cycle of widespread use, decline, stigma, and then … rediscovery.
Today, that rediscovery is happening at the intersection of farming, manufacturing, and wellness. And Pure Shenandoah is helping build up that rediscovery as both a hemp grower and processor, especially since hemp farming has been on the decline in Virginia after the market was oversaturated six years ago.
JOHNSON: It’s just bridging this gap between farmers and retailers. We’ve been growing industrial hemp for textiles and building materials since 2020, 2021, but we just started processing like, a year ago.
As far as growing hemp is concerned – the methods depend on what it’s used for. Industrial hemp for textiles and building materials is planted densely – sometimes up to a million seeds per acre – to produce tall, strong, fibrous plants similar to bamboo. Hemp grown for cannabinoids is spaced farther apart, encouraging bushier plants with more flowers.
JOHNSON: The cannabis plant has different breeds. Some of them are better for seed production and the stock production. Others have been naturally or selectively bred to produce better flowers, higher or different CBD to THC ratios.
Because specific compounds at different dose levels affect people differently, hemp and cannabis products don't come with simple instructions. And cannabis researchers say this is where we just need more information. Ryan Vandrey runs the cannabis science lab at Johns Hopkins University.
RYAN VANDREY: People often want to say, well, is cannabis good or bad for condition “x.” And what people often lose sight of is that we’re kind of, I think, outside the area of making blanket recommendations.
From a practical standpoint, highly controlled conditions can yield very reliable botanical products.
VANDREY: The further away you get from the raw plant material, the more consistent and reliable it tends to be, so long as this process for manufacturing is the same. As far as I know, there’s no governing body of cannabis manufacturing or cultivation.
Without those standards, and without clear cut statewide lab testing protocols in Virginia, even with accredited labs – consumers largely place their trust in growers, processors, and sellers.
When it comes to the science of manufacturing, at Pure Shenandoah, the raw hemp is processed for wellness uses, preferably, with carbon dioxide extraction – which turns the plant material into a food-grade oil used in a range of products. But ethanol extraction is also used, though it’s a bit of a strong flavor.
JOHNSON: It almost looks like peanut butter but it comes off like a soft-serve ice cream. It’s a very potent oil and we can utilize it for certain products. We like to use it for topicals because those fats actually help absorb into your skin better.
In nearby Ruckersville, another processor, Green Valley Nutrition, is doing similar work. Ethan Pompeo is the founder and CEO.
ETHAN POMPEO: The goal of that initial extraction is to get the enriched CBD, enriched oil out of the plant material and from there we can distill down the pure CBD.
For both Green Valley Nutrition and Pure Shenandoah, testing becomes critical – ensuring products are safe, consistent, and meet state standards. Under Virginia law, hemp products may not contain more than 0.3% THC and have to be clearly labeled with information about the laboratory where they were tested. The shifting regulations have challenged the processing industry. The regulatory hurdles are a concern for farmers as well.
According to Pompeo, many have stopped planting hemp because they’re waiting to see what happens with marijuana legalization.
POMPEO: Unfortunately, a lot of people were led to believe this was going to get tobacco land out of that rut, in Southwest Virginia in particular. You know, grow hemp and you have a bright future. And that’s just not how it played out at all.
The effect, says Pompeo, has been economic — pushing some processors to start looking across state lines for hemp to purchase.
Still, hemp’s potential remains on many fronts — just as it has for thousands of years.
And like its past, hemp’s future may depend less on the plant itself … and more on whether the systems around it are ready and capable to support it.
