Voice Your Support For Hemp As A Climate-Smart Commodity that Promotes Justice and Equality

Urge the USDA to approve a hemp industry supported proposal for its Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities grant program!

In introducing the USDA’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities grant program — providing $1 billion for pilot projects that create market opportunities for commodities produced using climate-smart practices – Secretary Tom Vilsack lauded hemp as a climate-smart commodity and encouraged grant applications from the industry. The USDA program also prioritized projects that promote racial justice and equality.

Out of the many hundreds of applications being submitted, one group bears special recognition for addressing both sustainability and justice. Tennessee State University, alongside University of Tennessee, and the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, and the Hemp Alliance of Tennessee are submitting a project proposal that will create opportunity for the implementation of climate-smart production practices, create methods for measuring, monitoring, and verifying the carbon capture and greenhouse gas benefits, and develop markets for hemp as a climate-smart commodity by enhancing availability and access to industrial hemp through a sustainable supply chain, from planting to production. It will also help ensure that the industry develops a certification program that will recognize meaningful sustainability practices in hemp growing and consumer products. Critically, as well, this project helps address racial inequities, and empowers farmers of color, minority-owned enterprises and other disadvantaged communities in the promotion of agricultural sustainability.

Read more about the proposal here.

Hemp is a key part of diversifying the potential of American agriculture for all. Industrial hemp will increase the resiliency of agricultural production in a changing climate, and it presents a crucial opportunity for developing alternative crops to ensure the viability and global competitiveness of American agriculture in the present and into the future.

Help US encourage USDA’s approval of this hemp proposal!

If your company would like to endorse this initiative alongside other industry leaders, please send US an email with an image file of your company’s logo and official name so that we can add you to the growing list of industry supporters. Help us urge USDA to approve this important proposal that supports hemp as a climate-smart commodity and promotes justice and equality in the hemp industry.

We want to endorse this proposal!

Endorsed By Industry Leaders