Shawn Hauser of Vicente Sederberg testifying at the Texas interim hearing on hemp
On Tuesday July 17th, the Texas House Agriculture & Livestock committee held an interim hearing on industrial hemp. I attended along with Vote Hemp board member and Hemp Road Trip founder Rick Trojan as well as Shawn Hauser of Vicente Sederberg law firm, our partner in the American Hemp Campaign. The hearing was well received and more than a half dozen advocates presented testimony including Rick and Shawn as well as Henry Valles and Coleman Hemphill of the Texas HIA.
The Austin Statesman published an article on the hearing highlighting how allowing hemp farming could benefit Texas farmers and businesses.
The committee sought to learn more about hemp before the beginning of their session in January. The members asked many good questions and seemed supportive. You can view our testimony here. We also met with the committee members and their staff and expect a new bill to be introduced in January when session begins. We look forward to working with farmers and hemp supporters from around the state to make sure that Texas is included in the booming U.S. market for hemp products.
Willie Nelson, founder of Willie’s Remedy
We are excited to be partnering on this effort with the team at Willie’s Remedy, a new hemp brand from Willie Nelson. They introduced a CBD infused coffee on the 4th of July and will be launching more cool hemp products soon. Willie has been advocating to bring back hemp on family farms for decades. Keep an eye out for them.
We will let you know when the Texas bill is introduced and will be asking for your letters of support to help get Lone Star farmers growing this important crop once again.