There could be money in hemp, even for people who don’t grow it. Phillip Alberti, a commercial agriculture educator for the University of Illinois Extension, says if you know where it’s growing on its own, you could get $150. He says with the plant losing its stigma and farmers wanting to grow it again for fiber, the federal government wants samples of the hemp that grows easily in this country.
As crop science matured, it studied nearly every plant people can farm. But it didn’t touch hemp because all forms of the plant were outlawed generations ago to try to keep people from using cannabis. Alberti says hemp grown for fiber typically doesn’t have enough of the compounds some people want for pain relief or getting high.
Experts will study feral hemp plant traits and create a database for breeders. Contact the U of I Extension if you can tell them where to find some and you want to collect the bounty.