There’s no such thing as a stupid question … at least that’s what my manager told me during my first shift on the register at Wal-Mart back in the day. Sometimes though, as an interviewer, I put that adage to the test, like last week when I asked a doctor of plant sciences: How do you test the effects of drought on hemp plants?
Russell Jessup did his best to stifle his laughter. “Uh, it’s really simple …”
Before he could say “NOT WATERING THEM,” I amended my question: I mean, what methods do you use to identify heat- and drought-tolerant hemp genetics and then accentuate them?
“Plant breeders are good at growing plants, but I’m very good at torturing plants and killing plants,” explained Jessup, head of Texas A&M’s hemp breeding program. “I’m a plant eugenicist by trade. I torture plants with high lights, high temperature, high salts, I don’t water them, I put them in crappy soil. We torture the heck out of them, then see which ones are the MMA plants, and those are the ones we pick.”
Clayton Moore, a Ph.D. student in A&M’s Department of Soil & Crop Sciences who heads up its Hemp Conversion Program, interjects to give me a much-needed primer of plant biology: “Your phenotype is your genome plus your environment. So Dr. Jessup’s taking full advantage of the environmental factors that go into making a phenotype for what we’re trying to produce.”
Specifically, what these researchers have aimed to produce is a large collection of hemp strains that can flourish in hot and humid climates, thus allowing farmers in Texas to grow the plant for grain and fiber uses. After several years of research, the team is preparing to deliver its first set of germplasms to the United States Department of Agriculture, which houses the plant material (both pollen and seed) in a repository that any licensed breeder in America can pull from.
That’s unusual in an industry where breeders and private companies keep a tight grip on their genetics. Contrarily, the Hemp Conversion Program is meant to be a public asset. The program’s additions could help remedy two issues facing farmers who’d want to grow hemp: the seeds being prohibitively expensive and difficult to source. Moore says that of the roughly 100 varieties on the list of federally approved hemp genetics, currently only about 10% can be acquired.
“USDA has approved those varieties, but it doesn’t mean they have them in their germplasm bank,” he elaborates. “No one knows where to find any of the genetics except a very small fraction of that list. So what our Hemp Conversion Program’s doing is making a more diverse public germplasm of hemp varieties which [farmers] will be able to source from the USDA.”
That highlights the difference between academic research and private industry.
“The things we’re doing, [farmers] don’t have time to do – they have to make money and turn things around quickly,” Jessup says. “We can take more time and look at things and develop populations they can select from and use.”
Since our enormous state represents one of the most biodiverse regions of the U.S., it’s somewhat reductive to characterize their quest as “developing hemp genetics that will grow well in Texas.” Moore and Jessup met five years ago when Moore, then a freshman, interned with A&M’s Agrilife Extension, growing a hemp plot in Corpus Christi overseen by the professor, whose team had a grant to grow 20 strains across five locations from the Panhandle down to Weslaco.
“We found out that Texas is an awful place to grow those specific hemp varietals – except some parts of the coastal plain,” recalls Moore.
Jessup says his immediate focus has been to fill an obvious regional gap.
“The material out of Colorado, Oregon, and Europe, it does okay out in Amarillo and the Panhandle and it can do okay in Vernon, but when you get below Dallas, and especially below Austin, it just goes to hell,” he details. “If you draw the latitude map, we’ve focused on developing varietals that can take the heat and drought between 32 degrees north and 30 degrees south and fill that gap. There’s not much in the USDA for those latitudes, so if you want something that can take the heat of the southern U.S., it’s gonna be out of our collection.”
The team sources plant material with worldwide origins. For example: a grain type originating from Japan, but developed in Switzerland, mixed with a fiber type from China. They’re also working on obtaining varietals from southern India, which they say has similarities to some of Texas’ climates.
Asked who he hopes can benefit from the Hemp Conversion Program, Moore, a seventh-generation farmer, applies a broad lens.
“Well, I want to help all of America because I’m pro-American, but I want the American farmers who grow hemp to be successful,” he says. “When hemp was legalized in 2018 a lot of farmers lost money because they thought they were hopping on some money crop, but there was an issue with where all that material was gonna go. I want to produce new, diverse genetics that will yield 10 times more biomass for farmers. And I want those farmers to have access to good varieties and not have to worry about high-priced seeds.”
Revolutionizing the available genetics of industrial hemp is only part of the A&M hemp program’s concentration. Students are also conducting mutational work concerning “type V” cannabis (which is devoid of cannabinoids), providing expertise on the process of plant variety patents, and trying to develop anticancer medicines related to tumor growth – another focus for Moore. As such, their work is generating interest beyond the cannabis world.
“They’re looking for alternatives to the medicines they take, they’re curious about what grain you can feed cattle for the better fatty acids, they’re trying to see if they can grow a crop and make more money per acre than cotton, which is really difficult these days, or looking for something that is more sustainable for the earth,” Jessup offers. “So to me, people are enthusiastic because they’re looking for opportunities or alternatives that aren’t out there right now.”
An interview with Dr. Russell Jessup and Clayton Moore Read More