Growing up on a farm in the Mississippi Delta and seeing the industry evolve from
high-cost cotton production to the low-cost grain production we have today gives me an interesting perspective for this story. Farmers these days are businessmen and not the stereotypical uneducated "rednecks" many from outside the space have labeled them over the years. They are just the opposite, in fact, with most going beyond undergraduate school and getting MBA's, law degrees, and some PhD's.
Knowing this and having some grasp of how farming metrics have evolved over the last 3 decades points out that the farmers who evolved with the business and had the progressive thinking and foresight are the ones still around. So, what's next on the horizon for the current and future crop of farmers? One controversial product that is gaining favor throughout the US is hemp, or cannabis, with 80 percent of voting age adults approving the legalization of medical marijuana. There are 14 states that have approved the sale of marijuana for medicinal purposes with 8 more on the ballots... that's nearly half the US.
Demand is surely to increase exponentially as people gradually become more informed and educated on the positive effects of using cannabis for medicinal purposes compared to the prescription drugs available to the general public today. The only way to keep up with this demand and take advantage of this multi-billion dollar industry is to legalize the production of marijuana and offer a piece of this money-making crop to the American farmer.
Once it becomes legal, I can assure you farmers will not hesitate to jump on the bandwagon because just like any smart business person... They want to make the most profit with the resources they have available. Nothing against all the pundits and action groups providing resistance to this progressive product, but it is going to happen and looks to be much sooner than expected... NOTHING PERSONAL JUST BUSINESS