On 19 acres of farmland, Cody Callarman began growing hemp in a small shed. With the weeks-old puppy he'd found on the land by his side, he prepared the crop before eventually planting the seedlings in the ground.
That was four years ago. Today, much of the land that once held Callarman's crop sits unused. Deer eat at the weeds. Hazel is no longer a puppy.
"It was a green rush, everyone thought this was a cash crop," Callarman said. The Marine veteran owns Zitro Farms and Carolina Dream, a hemp-based product company on Edisto Island.
He was one of many farmers across South Carolina to jump at the opportunity to plant the crop after the federal 2018 Farm Bill made it legal for farmers to grow hemp. Hemp is derived from the same plant as marijuana, cannabis sativa, but contains little of the psychoactive compound known as THC. It tends to contain more CBD, the non-psychoactive compound typically used in products like edibles, seltzers, and oils.
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