INTERVIEW: Robbin Pott is co-founder and managing member of Pott Farms, L3C, a Michigan, USA-based regenerative hemp operation. Her work spans dwelling soil programs, regenerative crop manufacturing, and community-based workforce improvement. Skilled in regulation and public coverage, Pott brings a systems-level perspective to agriculture, with a deal with ecological restoration, farmer schooling and sturdy rural enterprises.
HempToday: What first drew you to regenerative farming?
Robbin Pott: Once I determined to transition into farming, I needed to make use of practices that supported each the land and the folks working it. With no farming background, I began from scratch. In 2019, our first hemp-growing yr, we leased a fallow subject and used one of the best compost accessible, reaching wonderful outcomes. That success led me to pursue making our personal high-quality compost, the place I found Dr. Elaine Ingham’s soil meals internet work and commenced a years-long deep dive into the science of wholesome, dwelling soil.
HT: How did hemp turn out to be a part of that journey?
RP: From the start, I knew I needed to be a hashish farmer. In 2015, Michigan was on the cusp of launching a business marijuana trade. As I used to be winding down my educational profession, the legislature was finalizing a invoice to make that doable, and by the point I left, it had been signed into regulation. After many months and a big funding, Pott Farms submitted an utility for a medical marijuana license. The identical month we acquired pre-approval, the state started providing hemp cultivation licenses. Inside 4 days, and for $100, I had one in hand. We determined to develop hemp whereas figuring out the main points of constructing our marijuana operation. Our first season was profitable—it was exhilarating to be a part of hemp’s return to the U.S. The prices and rules have been minimal in comparison with marijuana, and we selected to focus totally on hemp for the foreseeable future.
HT: For a number of years, CBD was a central a part of your business mannequin. The place does CBD sit at the moment inside Pott Farms’ total technique?
RP: It’s in flux proper now for us. We love rising hemp for its flower, but it surely’s unclear whether or not it’s going to stay a viable product. A near-total nationwide ban on consumable hemp is scheduled to take impact this fall if nothing modifications. In the meantime, our state is working to fold consumable hemp into its marijuana regulatory framework, however the proposed guidelines are additionally extremely restrictive. Consequently, we’ll possible focus extra closely on our CBD topicals to maintain cannabinoid manufacturing a part of our operation.
HT: You’ve hosted “Construct With Hemp” workshops — how do you see hemp constructing supplies becoming into regenerative agriculture and native economies?
RP: Hempcrete has emerged as an early pathway to marketplace for hemp farmers and is gaining consciousness and recognition. We grew pilot-scale plots of fiber hemp for analysis for a number of years however needed to destroy the crops attributable to an absence of native processing. After the third yr, I secured a Michigan Division of Agriculture grant to buy an on-farm hemp HurdMaster decorticator. As a small-scale operation, we intention to display a mannequin the place farms develop, course of, and use hemp domestically. Hemp helps regenerative farming by requiring few inputs and enhancing soil well being, however adoption is dependent upon accessible post-harvest processing. Our imaginative and prescient is to determine native, small-scale processing with the HurdMaster.
HT: Out of your perspective, what are the most important bottlenecks holding again hemp fiber manufacturing within the U.S. proper now?
RP: Processing infrastructure is a serious problem. Though extra services are progressively coming on-line, most are nonetheless removed from potential hemp farms. Growers additionally face burdensome rules in comparison with different row crops and a excessive danger of crop failure attributable to noncompliant THC take a look at outcomes. Farmers are sometimes risk-averse, sensible folks, and the present necessities current actual obstacles to increasing hemp acreage within the U.S.
HT: Pott Farms has a robust social mission, together with supportive job coaching. Why was that essential to construct into the enterprise mannequin?
RP: I really constructed the enterprise mannequin into my social mission. I’ve intensive expertise as a toddler and youth advocate. As a lawyer and public coverage researcher on the College of Michigan’s Regulation College, I led and researched initiatives that supported court-involved households and have an actual affinity for younger folks coming from these varieties of circumstances. I reached a degree the place I needed to have extra management over my life and have a extra direct affect on these younger folks by serving to them efficiently transition into maturity. I made a decision I needed to offer job coaching via an organization I owned. And, after I considered how I needed to spend my days, I knew I needed to be rising issues. I’m a long-time hashish client, Michigan was engaged on growing a business trade, and my final title is Pott, so what to develop was apparent.
HT: Your work additionally contains soil biology consulting and farmer schooling. How does the slot in together with your total enterprise mannequin?
RP: It has turn out to be a vital half. I educated to turn out to be a soil biology guide to have the credentials to guide regenerative farming internships and shortly found the broader and huge want to teach different growers on how wholesome soil actually works. The farm has a singular authorized construction the place we’re a for-profit enterprise that’s allowed to pursue social objectives. As a substitute of a standard charity that depends on donations, we fund our supportive coaching program via the earnings we generate. A number of years in the past, I made a decision to diversify our earnings and launch our Dwelling Soil Providers which embody soil biology testing, small-scale biologically-active compost, and consulting companies. I additionally train dwelling soil workshops, and invariably I discover myself introducing farmers to the life underneath their toes. The demand for these workshops is rising.
HT: Stepping again from hemp particularly, what does “regenerative” imply to you in a broader agricultural context?
RP: Soils world wide are badly degraded from many years of “standard” practices like frequent tilling and dangerous chemical inputs. We completely have to reverse course and restore heath to our land, and we all know regenerative farming does precisely that. Regenerative means to re-generate well being via practices that restore and defend the soil microbiome. Practices embody utilizing compost and mulch to introduce and feed the important helpful microbes, retaining dwelling crops within the soil year-round via cowl cropping, diminished tilling, biodiversity, and no artificial inputs.
HT: Wanting forward 5 years, what would success appear like for Pott Farms – and for regenerative hemp extra broadly?
RP: Actually, I would love Pott Farms to turn out to be a standard-bearer for the trade. Conventional hashish tradition is rooted in justice and nature, but it surely has veered off that path fairly a bit in recent times. Nevertheless, these are nonetheless early days. Hemp has the potential to remodel how folks take into consideration and develop hashish, and I’d like our farm to affect that.
