Ep. 20 - Meet the Kentucky Hemp Pioneer Who Got Woody Harrelson arrested; Joseph Hickey, Founder of Kentucky Hemp Industries Assoc.

HEMP RISING

Joseph Hickey’s long history in the hemp industry started in 1992 with his discovery of the 1942 articles of incorporation for the long dormant Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative. He renewed the charter and became its founder and Executive Director in 1994. That same year, after a meeting with Mr. Hickey, Kentucky Governor Brereton Jones established the Kentucky Hemp Task Force to research hemp’s economic opportunities for rural farmers. Mr. Hickey and actor/activist Woody Harrelson established Tierra Madre in 1995, focused on creating sustainable environmental solutions, and in 1996 orchestrated Woody’s hemp planting arrest, jury trial and eventual acquittal, an incident that brought national attention to the hemp issue. Hickey organized the world’s first International Hemp Conference in 1996, and in 1998, along with The Body Shop founder, Anita Roddick, he launched Kenex Ltd., Canada’s first hemp seed and fiber processing company. In 2014, after more than 26 years of lobbying and research efforts, Mr. Hickey became a founding member of Atalo Holdings, Inc. and this year began his new venture Halcyon Holdings to continue his vision for the re-commercialization of the US hemp industry.

In addition to being a founding member of the board of the Kentucky Hemp Industries Association and the Friends of Hemp, Mr. Hickey also recently joined as a
Founding Board Member of FIHO - the Federation of International Hemp Organizations!
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