guys are. All right so first question really easy. You guys just want to say
both of your names and pronounce it for the camera. Okay. I'm Joni Sayers. I'm
Jeff Sayers. All right and would your title be like owners of
prepaid and farm owners? Yeah. Correct. So first question. Yeah. 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 it's
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 in 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 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. Yeah. And so the bank what was your reaction to it once you heard about it?
Devastated. All 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. 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, you know 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 had to
teaching it but some of them don't. How does that affect those products as well as
them? 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 if the the next step you know having
to reduce to these new minimums are gonna give us much chance to do anything with
anything other than just straight CBD you know. Because one line of the new
bill is 0.4 milligrams per package so that's a 10 pack that's like nothing in
there so and 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.
And did you have any inkling that this band was gonna come when it did? 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. 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 but here it is and I don't know if you guys you
guys go to the farmers market and that's where you sell a lot of your product.
Have you heard anything from customers? Have you been to the farmers market about it?
Actually tomorrow is our first in-person farmers market so we hopefully will be
able to talk to people and you know 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 what our products can do for them but I'll tell you I had about three
three times the online orders this week than I normally do. People are panicking I'm sure.
And you were telling me earlier that you neither you were farmers before this and
so honestly like made this massive move to becoming head farmers. How does that
feel knowing that this is now your life and that your life that that's 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 it's really so fresh I guess right now we're just kind of
talking about a few things but like
Yeah so we 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
talked with them trying to find out you know what it is that we can do or
you know get some help with because this dropping to the level that they
proposed you know late in the night of the 11th really morning of the 12th when all this happened
has changed you know for us like you said kind of like
I'm trying to figure out how 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 and before this band got in place did you what was your plans for next year in the future
where you wanted to take and David
We're still we were still planning on growing we were actually already making
plate adjustments for next year and getting excited about what we would do for the coming year
which varieties you were going to grow for sure so excited about the future
Yeah so we upgraded to more new greenhouses last year and we were debating whether we
should do it this year but I think everything at this point I'll probably be at home for a few
months yeah yeah and then Noah for a lot of opponents for legalized weed they think there's
but this loophole they said that it was allowed people to self-underage people that it could
that weed is a pathway for addiction what are you thoughts on safety concerns
so we're rounding legalized marijuana well that fits right if it's legalized you're saying
if if if marijuana is legalized concerns okay you could sell to underage people and some people
think it's of daily prediction what are your responses so we are opposed to a ban obviously
regulation is is is good right there should be an age restriction there should be truth and
labeling accuracy and labeling there should be the synthetic compounds that were made for
example delta 8 delta 10 and you know that loophole we were glad that was closed we've been against
delta 8 you know for the last ever synthetic introduced it synthetic THC but I want to say
that the other you know the fact that we would be able to do I'm not sure if you know
take the the other loophole was 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 know and still are I guess they have for another 51
weeks of being able to sell the the high THCA which technically a decarved 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 of like overdoses significant so
so kind of moving on to the end of this there's about a one-year waiting period
before the focal ban takes effect what is your biggest help for what happens in this next year
you know 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
yeah no I think she covered that so I guess that my second question to that would be what
happens if nothing changes the ban does go through what happens to you guys the worst case scenario
we sell our farm I don't know at this point I'm gonna go back to what I was considering myself
semi-retired though obviously I take myself out of retirement to go back into building in home
you know remodeling it's terrible do you have any plans between now and then to help to prepare
for whatever you got what I mean what I mean it's like I said if it's been so fast just kind of
scrambling we will continue to sell and and continue to educate people
yeah when we're waiting for some responses you know I like I said I've 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 so 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's just silly it seems like they need to have more knowledge under their belt
before they write these laws that are affecting so many people yeah 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 US
and $28.4 billion you know annually so you know we're just the small piece of the pie here right
nothing comes in mind i think you guys did a good job anything else that you feel like you
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 um and they make THC infused drinks is there a truth that maybe some like
bigger corporations see this as a potential income revenue stream and they're trying to kind of
get rid of those small you kind of wonder about that we do and we didn't we didn't we didn't know
if we should discuss anything you know like on that political side or you know no no okay because
the first message that we got from other people was that big pharma came in and 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 i think what you're
saying is true the one thing that was it's kind of like i put it down here opinion because it's kind
of if if it's 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 unregulated you know i i don't know if it
related to that one question but if um Wisconsin jumped in uh with recreational and or medicinal
you know do 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 the the hemp which is anything below
0.3 percent but we're anxious to talk with the right people and find out um you know how they're
gonna recognize us i guess would you guys consider moving out of state if this no we've been in
medicine i go about of the country just to be close to our own kids off off the way okay our
daughter and her husband that we just visited in seattle they're moving to spain oh wow mostly
because of gun violence um a little bit because of trump um partly because they can enjoy a year
with their daughter they're just gonna live very frugally like it get a little apartment and so
hmm be nice of grandma grandpa we're on uh huh right so i mean that is in the back of my head i
i don't know it's so we just found out when we were on vacation we just got back
yesterday or yeah wednesday night yeah you know so i filled like i said so many orders in the last
two days it's crazy people are i had i did have a few people you know say like oh no what's gonna
happen or you know but like i said we'll we'll be talking to more people tomorrow
um and see what their thoughts are or suggestions too maybe they have some ideas but
um i think you know reaching out to legislators and trying to educate them
it's probably the best thing we can do right now yeah i just you guys being here i think is
great exposure for our industry for as small as it might be in in gain county for per se but
in wisconsin in general it's it's you know substantial um but
seven i saw i think i was telling you it's all in wisconsin state general it's like seven hundred
million dollars in wisconsin alone wow yeah yeah so there's revenue that won't be coming
yeah you know and even Melissa agard was really um she was part of the original
hemp committee that wrote the rules and um you know we got um asked to educate them
and we suggested why don't you speak with some of the scientists were a little biased me in the
farmer you know oh so back in 2018 right 2019 or 2020 because it was it was at 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 um how it's processed and all these things that make such a huge difference you know down
to the end product you know but well i got um thank you guys both yeah