HEMP, Nature’s Side of Health, Changing Our Perspective Thursday, November 4, 2021

The Burris family has been farming different products for years. Andrew's parents, Allen and Linda, started a fernery in Florida way back in 1977, where they grew leatherleaf fern, plumosa, etc., used in floral arrangements in the US and Europe. Andrew became familiar with hemp when he was discussing the cannabis industry with a friend one evening, and was informed of the recent changes coming to the Farm Bill in Dec. 2018. Prior to that night, he had no idea what hemp even was. Afterwards, he spent every day learning what he could of this new, but old plant. The more he learned the more interesting it became. With the support of his family, they planted five acres (more than 10,000 plants) consisting of four varieties of hemp in Northern Utah in 2019. They all learned a lot from that experience. The majority of hemp farms had crop failures due to various reasons, but the Burris farm and one other were the only ones that had a successful harvest in Cache Valley out of eleven farms that year. Andrew has attended many seminars and visited with other growers, processors, doctors, and legislators. He was invited to see the growing operation at Utah State University and was featured in their 2020 alumni magazine Hemp article. Doing research on hemp topics, particularly the benefits of different cannabinoids, is something he has spent many hours on. He believes that hemp has many benefits within the fields of medicine, nutrition, and industry and looks forward to expanding into all of those areas in the future.