Photo courtesy of Hemp 4 Heroes
While serving in the U.S. Army from 1996 through 2016, Will Nething had 11 surgeries, including bilateral knee surgery. “That takes a toll on the human body,” he affirms. When a health care professional suggested that Nething try cannabidiol (CBD) as an alternative to painkillers, he found that it helped.
During his transition to civilian life in Green Bay, Nething decided to start a CBD business dedicated to employing veterans and making CBD available to them so there would be less reliance on opiates. The result is Hemp 4 Heroes, which specializes in the growing, harvesting, post-harvesting and processing of hemp products, as well as hemp consulting services. Their Apothecary line of CBD products, available online and at select retail outlets, includes tinctures, muscle rub, gummies, capsules and chewable tablets. Nething hires veterans to work in many facets of production.
Nething visited Colorado to learn the ins and outs of the hemp business. During his first growing season in 2018, indoor and outdoor grow operations yielded nearly 25,000 plants. Yet he pulls no punches while discussing the impacts of CBD and the difficulties of hemp farming. He’s quick to acknowledge that CBD is not a miracle drug that helps everybody. As a farm kid who grew up in rural Wisconsin, he’s also not okay with the empty promises made to farmers about hemp being a “savior” crop.
“I talked to a lot of farmers. After looking at their crop, I had to tell them it had seeded, or it was garbage and they won’t be able to sell it,” he says. He has a criminal justice degree from Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, as well as a bachelor’s degree in business administration from UW-Green Bay, so he points out some factors that led to the current hemp market collapse.
“In American economics, when a market opens up for anyone to enter, as hemp did after the 2018 farm bill, your supply increases well past the demand, so the supply-demand curve never mirrors the way it would for normal consumption. It takes a couple of years for the scale to regulate itself,” he explains.
Veteran Employment and Consulting
Due to lopsided supply and demand for hemp this season, Nething says Hemp 4 Heroes has scaled back its operations for now. He anticipates a slight uptick in the market later in summer due to people using up hemp they grew the year before. This season, Hemp 4 Heroes is growing in 7,000 square feet of rented greenhouses throughout Green Bay.
Nething says 80% of his staff last season were veterans. He notes that some found working in a greenhouse peaceful and therapeutic. The number of employees is down his season, but veterans that want to get involved with Hemp 4 Heroes can email Nething, and if there is a need for hemp-related work in the veteran’s area, he will try to coordinate an opportunity.
While Nething and his staff give crop advice to farmers via phone, they also work with municipal police departments, and they’ve given tours to law enforcement, University of Wisconsin educators and politicians to teach about the plant. He notes that just decriminalizing marijuana will help our economy while freeing up law enforcement.
“With Wisconsin being a dry island between Illinois and Michigan, it’s hard on our law enforcement,” he says. “When Wisconsin residents cross the state line to buy marijuana in Illinois, that’s income being lost. When they come back across the state line and get stopped by a state patrol, now the state patrol has to put the marijuana into evidence, issue a citation, there’s a mandatory court appearance—it costs our system about $1,500 minimum just to process that marijuana charge. Now we lost money because it left the state, and now we’re spending tax dollars on money that we already lost. I’d say that’s foolish. I’m not hugely pro-cannabis, but let’s decriminalize it, at a minimum, so that way, a cop can just confiscate it and send the person on their way.”
For more information, visit h4hwi.com.
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