Earlier this month, a board was formed for the Wyoming Hemp Association.
The association is comprised of growers, processors, academics and bankers-all the stakeholders in hemp production.
Erick Shutte, the chairman of the association's board, said the group is concentrating on four goals.
"Educate the public in general, provide awareness, provide guidance and also come at everything with an advocate standpoint," said Schutte.
He said all of this includes helping stakeholders with problem they may come across.
"Farmers, processors, retailers or anybody can come to us and present, 'hey, what about this problem.' And we got the connections to get in there and talk to people and say, 'hey this is what the stakeholders out there are saying.' Then they work with us to help solve these issues," he said.
One problem that has already been identified is cross pollination of the plant. Depending on what product the farmer is growing for, it should be only female or male. Shutte said the group is already working on creating a map of all hemp growers in order to help avoid this problem.
But Shutte said the association is still in its development stages because the state is still waiting on approval of its plan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Wyoming legislature legalized growing hemp in its last session.
Have a question about this story? Contact the reporter, Kamila Kudelska, at kkudelsk@uwyo.edu.
