Source:
https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article299400029.html
Sutter County has outlawed industrial hemp farming for the rest of the year, and may ban the crop permanently as supervisors narrowly voted to continue the county ban on production and processing. Sutter County supervisors on Tuesday voted 4-1 in favor of the ban, with chair Dan Flores the lone vote against, after a wave of public comments and two failed votes, including one that proposed a compromise that would have allowed some grows to continue miles away from certain facilities, such as schools and churches. Their vote did not permanently ban industrial hemp production in the county, said County Administrator Steve Smith, but supervisors may entertain a more long-term decision on the crop sometime this year before the extension expires. “It’s a very small industry and with the problems associated with it, I just don’t see how it could be worth it,” said Supervisor Jeff Stephens. “I would like to just see the whole problem go away,” he added. Faced with the option to continue the moratorium, change it based on feedback from community members and growers or let it expire resulted in confusion. The first vote to extend the ban through this year, which required four votes, failed 3-2, with Supervisor Karm Bains joining Flores in voting against it. A second vote that suggested a 3.5-mile buffer between grow sites and some facilities such as schools failed by the same margin. After a brief recess in which whispered conversations occurred between supervisors and county staff, Supervisor Mike Ziegenmeyer again proposed banning hemp, which Bains voted in favor of. Bains said after the meeting that a threat made against the county agricultural commissioner, along with comments about her made during the meeting, helped swing his decisive vote. In a letter requesting that supervisors extend the moratorium, Agricultural Commissioner Lisa Herbert said that she had received a death threat, which is believed to have been made prior to this most recent hemp-related dust-up, from someone associated with the hemp industry, a point that was underscored several times during the meeting. “A death threat to our ag commissioner? We had to have security for our ag commissioner when she received a death threat,” Ziegenmeyer said. “That’s incredible. To me, this crop scares the hell out of me.” How we got here Months of a strong hemp odor — which smells identical to marijuana — wafting through the unincorporated town of Sutter, including its local schools, prompted officials to revisit the county hemp ordinance for the second time since introducing the crop to the county in 2019.
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