Alright, so, first question really
easy. You guys just want to say both
of your names and pronounce it for
the camera.
I'm Joni Sayers.
I'm Jeff Sayers.
Alright, and would
your title be, like,
owners of Hemhaven Farms?
Owner.
Yeah. Correct.
All right, so
first question.
Why would you, why did you guys
start this business?
Why did you start growing?
Wow. Well, we had
a farmer friend growing
corn, soybeans, corn, soybeans,
and we thought that is really bad
for the environment.
What can we do?
But we really didn't know because we
weren't farmers.
And then in January
of 2018, we saw on the news
that hemp was legal to grow again.
So we thought, well, that would
be great. A small farm,
sustainable crop, that would be
a great to grow.
And then we started learning
about the properties
that, so for pain
management,
anxiety, and we became
super interested, so we started, we
just dove in and
grew that year for the first time.
And so the band, what was your
reaction to it once you heard about
it?
Devastated, right?
I mean, it was just
had the wind knocked out of us for
a minute.
But our first thought was,
well, we live, eat and
breathe hemp, this is our life,
right.
The other, the other side
of it is the consumer, we were
really or are worried
about people that
use...
Any cannabinoid for
mental or physical health.
I mean, the list of people
that trust us to
ask for advice,
kind of divulge what they're dealing
with.
And we've, you know, depression,
insomnia, pain,
fibromyalgia, cancer
symptoms,
ALS, MS, Parkinson's,
dementia, I don't know.
Thank you.
It's unbelievable, so it really will
affect a lot of people with
anxiety too, it will
really affect so many people.
And I know you guys,
you do, a lot of your products have
TH unit, but some of them don't.
How does that affect those products
as well, this band?
That's a good question because
so the You
know as the just in
the last year things progressed that
I'd say I don't know three-fourths
of our products have some THC,
but in smaller amounts, you know
and And of course we have
different recipes that we
have made for you know
people for different anxiety or
sleep or whatever it might be but
I'm not sure if
the next step,
you know, having to reduce
to these new minimums
are going to give us much chance
to do anything with anything
other than just straight
CBD.
Right.
Because one line of the new bill is
0.4 milligrams per
package.
So that's a 10 pack.
In there.
And really people
do much better
and can take less if they
have more cannabinoids.
So say there's a little bit of THC
or there's CBG in it,
your body can absorb
it better and use it better if
there are more cannabinoids.
It's called the Entourage Effect.
End of.
Did you have any inkling that this
band was going to come when it
did, or were you?
No.
We didn't.
I heard some inklings, but
we thought, no, that won't happen,
but not in a, not on this federal
level. No.
And we also didn't
have any idea that it was something
that they were going to attach to
this, you know, reopening and
funding the government bill.
Here it is.
And I don't know if you guys,
you guys go to the farmer's market
and that's where you sell a lot of
your product, right?
Have you heard anything from
customers? Have you been to the
farmers market?
Actually, tomorrow's our first
in-person farmers market.
So we hopefully will be able to
talk to people and
share with them what we know so
far.
And actually, a big part of what we
do is education, too.
We love to educate people about what
our products can do for them.
But I'll tell you,
I had about three times
the online orders this week than I
normally do.
People are panicking, I'm sure.
And you were telling me earlier
that neither of you were farmers
before this.
And so obviously, you made
a massive move to becoming
hemp farmers.
How does that feel, knowing that
this is now your life and that your
life is going to be changed?
Going to be changed.
Exactly.
It's devastating.
We're kind of scrambling,
should we do something
else or do we wait until January
30th when it might, you
know, change?
Yeah, we're.
It's really so fresh, I guess,
right now. We're just kind of.
Talking about a few things, but
like.
Yeah, so we've this
morning I left a message and
talked with someone at Tammy
Baldwin's office and
we and then our local
representative is
Melissa Radcliffe and we left a
message and talk with them trying
to find out you know what it is that
we can do or
or you know get some help with
because this
this dropping to the
level that they proposed it.
You know, late in
the night of the
11th, early morning of the
12th, when all this happened,
has changed, you know for
us, like you say, it's been kind
of like, trying
to figure out how can we
help changes,
supposedly the next
funding is
January 30th of 2026.
So at that point maybe they'll
make some changes, you know.
Yeah, yeah, and
before this band got in place,
did you, what was your plans for
next year in the future, where you
wanted to take M Haven?
We were still planning on
growing, we were actually already
making adjustments for
next year and getting excited
about what we would do for
the coming year,
which varieties we were going to
grow for sure, so
excited about the future.
Yeah, so we upgraded
two more new greenhouses last
year and we were debating whether we
should do it this year, but I think
everything at this point will
probably be on hold for a few
months.
Yeah, yeah.
And I know for a lot of opponents
for legalized weed, they think
there's, with this loophole,
they said that it allowed people to
self-underage people,
that weed is pathway for addiction.
What are your thoughts on safety
concerns surrounding legalized
marijuana?
If it's legalized you're saying.
If marijuana is legalized,
concerns.
Yeah, under the loophole, you could
sell to underage people, and some
people think it's a gateway for
addiction.
What are your responses?
So we are opposed
to a ban, obviously.
Regulation is good, right?
There should be an age restriction.
There should truth and
accuracy and labeling.
There should,
what was one of the other things?
Well, there.
Well, the synthetic
compounds
that were made, for example, Delta
8, Delta 10,
and that loophole, we
were glad it was closed.
We've been against Delta
8 for the last
ever since they introduced
it,
synthetic THCs.
But I want to say that the
other...
The fact that we would be able to
do, I'm not
sure if it.
Take the other loophole with
the THCA, which is nothing
more than how,
you know, what the plant grows it
as. It grows it in that form,
and then it has to be
decarboxylated.
And so they had a loophole in there,
and shops were selling, you now,
and still are. I guess they have for
another 51 weeks of
being able to sell
the
high THCA.
Technically a D-curve down to
THC, you know.
So as far as like a
gateway to
harsher drugs, if you will,
that's a myth.
Actually, states that have legalized
THC have
seen a significant drop
in opioid use and
abuse. And
drug abuse, I guess, or like
overdoses, significant.
So, kind of moving on to the end
of this, there's about a one
year waiting period before
the total ban takes effect.
What is your biggest hope for
what happens in this next year?
I hope that, like we said,
it's not banned but regulated
so that we want it to be
safe. So everyone's like, as
a grower, we're regulated, the
processor is regulated.
So now where it's sold and
who it is sold to should
be regulated as well.
Yes. No.
No, I think she covered that.
So I guess then
my second question for that would be
what happens if nothing changes, if
the band does go through, what
happens to you guys in the
worst case scenario?
Mmm, we sell our farm?
At this point, I'm going to go
back to what I
was considering myself semi-retired.
Obviously, I have to take myself out
of retirement to go
back into building and home
remodeling.
That's terrible.
Do you have any plans between
now and then to help,
to prepare for whatever you got,
I mean, what are you?
Like I said, it's been so
fast,
just kind of scrambling.
We will continue to
sell and continue
to educate people.
Yeah, we're waiting for some
responses. You know, I've like
I said, I'd been in touch with
two of our, you know,
legislators already and we hope to
be in touch with more and then find
out how this whole
process works, you know.
We're kind of new into that,
what happens at the legislative side
prior to,
you know a bill getting passed
or rescinded.
One thing that would be fabulous
is to be able to
educate legislators.
So they're making these laws,
but it seems like, for example,
that 0.4 milligram, it just...
It seems like they
need to have more
knowledge under their belt before
they write these laws that are
affecting so many people.
And the numbers that we just saw in
the last few days was that there's
320,000 jobs
tied into just the hemp
industry in the U.S.
And $28.4 billion annually.
So we're just a
small piece of the pie here.
Ethan, do you have any final
questions?
Nothing comes to mind.
I think you guys did a good job.
Anything else that you feel like we
didn't cover that you want to say?
I don't think so.
Well, is there a truth, we were
talking to a guy who owns a brewery
and they make THC and fuse drinks,
is a truth that maybe some bigger
corporations see this as
a potential income revenue
stream and they're trying to kind of
get rid of the small?
You kind of wonder about that,
right? We do and we didn't
know. You kind of wonder about that right?
We do and we didn't know if we
should discuss anything you know
like on that political side or
you know. And this would be off the
record too? No no okay because the
first...
Message that we got from other
people was that Big Pharma came
in and the
tobacco and the alcohol and
tobacco industry put pressure
on for them
to get this law into place you
know but our industry doesn't have
those kind of money and lobbyists
you know But no,
I think what you're saying is...
The one thing that was, it's kind of
like, I put it down here, opinion,
because it's kind of...
If this happens,
the black market will
grow.
So that is unregulated.
So I worry about the safety
of products that might
be out there that are unregulate.
You know, I don't know if it's
related to that one question, but
if Wisconsin
jumped in with
recreational and or medicinal.
Do these other states have to deal
with the hemp industry, per se,
like we do here?
Because we're not, you know,
medicinal or recreational
THC, they're under a whole
set of rules that our
understanding is that they're not
even affected by,
quote, the which is
anything below 0.3%.
We're anxious to talk with the right
people and find out, you
know, how they're going to recognize
us, I guess.
Would you guys consider moving out
of state if this ban
goes through?
No, we've been in Madison for...
Out of the country.
Yeah
Okay,
our daughter and her husband that
we just visited in Seattle, they're
moving to Spain.
Mostly because of gun violence,
a little bit because of Trump,
partly because they can enjoy a year
with their daughter.
They're just gonna live very
frugally, like get a little
apartment.
It'd be nice if Graham and Grandpa
were around. Yeah.
Uh huh, right?
So I mean, that is in the back of my
head. I don't know.
It's so, we just found out
and we were on vacation.
We just got back yesterday
or Wednesday night, you
know? So I filled,
like I said, so many orders in
the last two days.
It's crazy.
People are, I did have a few
people, you know,
say like, oh no, what's going to
happen or, you know, but like I say,
we'll be talking to more people
tomorrow.
And see what their thoughts are,
or suggestions too.
Maybe they have some ideas,
but I think, you know, reaching out
to legislators and trying to
educate them, it's
probably the best thing we can do
right now.
Just you guys being here I think
is great exposure for our
industry, for as small as it might
be in Dane County
per se, but in
Wisconsin in general it's,
you know, substantial.
I think I
was telling you, I saw in the
Wisconsin State Journal, it was like
$700 million in Wisconsin alone.
Wow. Yeah.
So there's revenue that won't be
coming.
And even Melissa Agard
was really, she
was part of the original, the
Hemp Committee that wrote the rules.
Asked to educate them
and we suggested why don't
you speak with some of the
scientists who are a little biased,
me and the farmer, you know?
Oh, this was back in 2018,
right?
2019 or 2020
because it was it was at the
the the first program was for
two years and then after that one
started they were writing what they
at that time they called the hemp
two bill you know
and so we got connected
with them you know getting them
in touch with some scientists to
learn what she's saying about uh
you know how the plant grows and
how it's processed and all these
things that make such a huge
difference, you know, down to the
end product.
That's all I got.
Thank you guys both. Yeah.