Can small hemp farms and CBD producers compete in an increasingly regulated and competitive market?
In this episode, Matt talks about more novel coronavirus fraud as some companies prey on people’s worst fears with misinformation about CBD and COVID19. Then Matt sits down with Seth Hersh, founder of Catskills Comfrey for a discussion about a smaller purveyor trying to compete in the evergrowing hemp industry.
Update April 10, 2020: After this episode aired, Seth reached out to let us know that New York denied his 2020 hemp growing license. As touched on in this episode, he ran afoul of New York’s regulations because he planned to directly process his hemp into CBD for his topicals, without using a New York-state licensed processor. And New York won’t issue any new hemp processing licenses, making it all but impossible for him to create “seed to shelf” style products.
Seth stressed he still has a lot of hemp left from his last crop, and so he’s still making and selling his great CBD-infused topical ointments. -KO
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Catskills Comfrey is a small farm in New York, producing topical ointments from hemp and comfrey which they grow. (Photo: Composite of images by Catskills Comfrey)
Below you’ll find the complete episode transcript:
Matt Baum:
I’m Matt Baum and this is the Ministry of Hemp podcast brought to you by ministryofhemp.com, America’s leading advocate for him and hemp education.
Matt Baum:
Hi, it’s Matt Baum and this is the Ministry of Hemp podcast and today on the show we’re going to be talking to a small CBD topical producer that also works with an herb called Comfrey. His name is Seth Hersch. He has a small farm in the Catskills where he literally grows the hemp, mashes it up and makes ointment out of it, start to finish. He’s controlling every step of the process and documenting those steps and the government is giving him some trouble and we’re going to talk about that today.
Matt Baum:
But first, before we get into that, I don’t want to repeat myself here, but we need to talk about CBD and the Coronavirus again.
Matt Baum:
There currently is no cure for the coronavirus. I can’t say that any other way. There is currently no cure for the coronavirus and anyone that tells you that there is, whether it’s a toothpaste, whether it’s CBD, whether it’s an herb, a spice or even Western medicine. There is no cure out there, but there are a lot of companies that are trying to make money on your paranoia. They are trying to take advantage of you right now.
Matt Baum:
The magazine Forbes just reported on a major spam campaign that hit hundreds of thousands of cell phones with a fake Fox news article that said that one mom has found the solution to fight back against the coronavirus outbreak and it was wait for it, CBD. Of course this is completely false and it is geared to separate the terrified paranoid public from their money and that’s all it is and you have to recognize this stuff for what it is.
Matt Baum:
There’s another company that was selling CBD infused hand sanitizer. Does it sanitize your hands? Probably, but is the CBD doing anything? No, and it’s certainly not fighting the coronavirus. With a global pandemic like this of course there is a huge movement to boost your immune system and there are a million herbal and nutritional supplement companies out there saying that they can boost, strengthen your immune system or balance your immune system or whatever clever word they’re using to make your immune system superhuman and lots of them have CBD included as well.
Matt Baum:
The hard news is there is no good way to boost your immunity system. Your best defense right now is to wash your hands and stay quarantined. That is it. There’s no real good news here. This will pass. It’s going to, but CBD, herbal and nutritional supplements are not the answer. Do not waste your money and do not spread this kind of misinformation because it does nothing. It does nothing but scare people and make them spend money on what is essentially snake oil. I’m going to say this one more time, and this is coming from a podcast that is here to educate and promote the benefits of hemp and CBD. It does not cure the coronavirus and there is no easy answer to this right now, and anyone that tells you differently is a liar.
Matt Baum:
One of the things CBD can do is help with pain and we’ve talked about it extensively on this show. Today I’m talking with Seth Hersh of Catskills Comfrey. As you’ll hear in the interview Comfrey’s an herb that helps with pain and cellular regeneration and it only seemed natural for him to start mixing CBD with that as well after he discovered that it relieved him and his wife of the pain that they had been living with. He’s the founder and head farmer as well.
Matt Baum:
Seth is a small purveyor out of the Catskills in New York trying to make his way in this new gigantic business and I hope you enjoy the conversation we had about growing hemp, producing his ointment and the difficulties of trying to follow the law and just find someone that will process your credit card payments.
Matt Baum:
So Seth, give me a little background on you first. How did you get into this business?
Seth Hersh:
I got into it through a practical matter. I have trigger finger. Trigger finger, if you’re not familiar with where your finger is locked. It’s a common problem often with musicians where you have repetitive motion. And I have been seeking a solution, literally a solution, like people were suggesting [inaudible 00:05:17] from aquariums and things like this. Nothing worked.
Seth Hersh:
And I read about Comfrey and overnight, I mean the impact on my trigger finger, loosening up of the fingers, the duration, the intensity, discomfort was an herbal remedy. And it was very impactful. It was very obvious. And I said, “Boy, a lot of people must be suffering from this. Let me make an ointment.”
Seth Hersh:
My wife too had sprained her pelvis, which is very painful.
Matt Baum:
Yeah, Wow.
Seth Hersh:
And she couldn’t sleep and this is actually the initial account. She was a herbologist and we got some Comfrey and that night she did a poultice and that night she was able to sleep again. So it was obvious to us, I mean, you had to go to the [inaudible 00:06:04] there was some benefit here. And that’s how I started growing.
Seth Hersh:
We have a small farm up here about eight acres in the Catskills, and it’s ideal for growing [inaudible 00:06:13]. We’ve probably got 400 plants around now, plus some other medicinals were growing on a calendula and last year at least I started with hemp.
Matt Baum:
So let me ask you, we talk mainly hemp on this show, but what is Comfrey? I’ve never heard of it until I bumped into you.
Seth Hersh:
Comfrey is a plant. If you are into cosmetology and you look on the ingredient list of many cosmetics, you will see an active ingredient called Allantoin. Allantoin is associated often in conversations with collagen anti-aging benefits.
Matt Baum:
Okay.
Seth Hersh:
The demand by the cosmetic injury is so huge that they manufacture Allantoin synthetically. The Comfrey plant is a natural source of Allantoin. It’s called meat bone. It’s a cell proliferate actually. The active ingredient in Allantoin is known to be a cell proliferative, it encourages cell growth.
Seth Hersh:
So there’s many, many skin conditions in bones. For example, if they’re broken, what do you need to mend them? You need new cells.
Matt Baum:
Sure.
Seth Hersh:
And in Comfrey enhances the body’s ability to create new cells.
Matt Baum:
A little audio glitch there, but Seth was saying that Comfrey has been shown to help the body in new cell growth. So where did the idea come from to start growing hemp and mixing that with the Comfrey? That’s got to be relatively new.
Seth Hersh:
I mean, around New York state or a couple of years ago selling my ointments, the three originals that are non CBD, I kept running into these stores, these wellness stores. It was saying… And I would see the sign for CBB and some people were saying, “Hey, you ought to do a CBD thing.” So I started looking into it and I saw the benefits complemented what Comfrey offers.
Seth Hersh:
Comfrey’s an anti-inflammatory, CBD’s an anti-inflammatory.
Matt Baum:
Sure.
Seth Hersh:
Comfrey is great for sore muscles and joint pain. CBD is good for relieving muscle and joint pain. It’s supposedly good for rashes. Comfrey is great for rashes because it helps create new cells where the cells have died on the surface of the skin.
Seth Hersh:
So it became a kind of, “Hey, let’s do this.” And I started looking around for a source of CBD. So to mix in with the ointments that I’m making, the Comfrey, the [inaudible 00:08:37], the collegial coming up with various formulations. So that was the impetus. It’s worked out pretty good.
Matt Baum:
So what’s the growing season like on hemp? Is it the same as Comfrey? I mean hemp is a great big giant plant. And on your site it looks like Comfrey’s kind of a cute little green guy.
Seth Hersh:
Well there’s a lot of… You drive the Comfrey leaves… The main source of what I do for the ointments is I recover the Allantoin from the large leads of the Comfrey plant. Yes the plan is small. They actually grow quite large after a few years. In fact they had told me to do two foot spacing or two and a half foot spacing and I didn’t listen to people [crosstalk 00:09:19]-
Matt Baum:
That’s a tomato plant spacing. It’s pretty big.
Seth Hersh:
Yeah. But they have now filled in the space. I mean the leaves touch and [inaudible 00:09:26] plants so you cannot get rid. You have to be very careful of planting Comfrey because you just can’t get rid of it, which is one of the benefits. It has a very, very deep root.
Matt Baum:
Okay.
Seth Hersh:
And it just keeps on going down and down to draw in nutrients.
Matt Baum:
It’s an annual. It comes back every year?
Seth Hersh:
Oh yeah. With much bigger, more vigor every year. So that’s good because it has minimal care. You give it a shovel full of manure every year. Horse manure, he loves it. Soil up here seems to be ideal. I’ve had no problem. Minimal care. I mean the main thing is just harvesting it, drying it, crushing it.
Matt Baum:
Right.
Seth Hersh: (inaudible 00:10:07) it, infusing it. It’s not the growing aspect. It’s pretty a minimal care for that.
Matt Baum:
I assume the process that you’re talking about is very similar for the hemp as well.
Seth Hersh:
Well, yes. I mean you have different perhaps ground requirements. My hemp grows very easily. That we were blown away with the yield last year. We were actually taken aback. We got into a [inaudible 00:10:31]. What we had done, I had secured actually a local supply of excellent hemp. A distillate. CBD distillate about an hour away from here. I’ve been searching all over the country a couple of years ago when it first started taking off. Eventually, think global act local, acted locally, found a great hemp… I [inaudible 00:10:53] extracts.
Seth Hersh:
An hour from here, they supplied me with my first batch of distillate and then I had the idea at the end of the year. “Why don’t I grow it?” So we had been getting along pretty well, [inaudible 00:11:05] and myself and they agreed to give me a plot of land and let me grow under their license.
Seth Hersh:
The New York state has rather rigorous CBD laws now. They’ve been active all along, [inaudible 00:11:18]. So he had a license. I grew under that about half an acre, which is a lot of plants for someone like myself, but I’m only growing for my own use. I’m going to use in the ointments.
Seth Hersh:
I quickly discovered last year that you don’t make money if you’re small. Find the sellings were a hemp market.
Matt Baum:
That was my next question actually. Not to poke any fun, but you’re a little guy. You’re doing smaller business, are you surviving on this? Is this a living? Are you able to survive?
Seth Hersh:
Well I am retired and I’m trying to grow the business. I mean in the curious case of obstacles along the way.
Matt Baum:
Right.
Seth Hersh:
And have the CBD ointments that I have, I have two now. One’s a, I call it CBD and then there’s a CBD premium, which is a potency one that is doing very well also. But along the way New York state decided to get involved.
Seth Hersh:
And the very day that I was applauding the New York state efforts, they advised me that, “Hey, you can’t infuse your products.” I use the infusion process to move the active ingredients from the hemp buds along with the Comfrey [inaudible 00:12:35] and the other herbs I’m using. I use the infusion process. Well, New York state didn’t recognize it in their hemp bill and they were saying, “Well that’s illegal. You can’t use that.” And that’s kind of-
Matt Baum:
Out of curiosity, what did they recognize? What would they have said was legal?
Seth Hersh:
Well, the traditional commercial-
Matt Baum:
Sure.
Seth Hersh:
… ethanol and the carbon dioxide, the extraction methods.
Matt Baum:
Right. Multimillion dollar chemistry extraction.
Seth Hersh:
Exactly.
Matt Baum:
Yeah.
Seth Hersh:
Now to be fair, the authors they had there, I’ve met with the Senator in New York state recently or talked over the phone with their office and they were very receptive to the little guys like myself, the small farmers.
Matt Baum:
That’s cool.
Seth Hersh:
They said they wanted to help the farmers. This was an Avenue, but the way the restrictions on… There’s three things. You can be a manufacturer, you can be a processor, you can be a grower. Now I’ve applied for my growers license this year. Apparently I’ll get my own independent license, but I can’t process it. They won’t sell me a processor license.
Matt Baum:
Why? What are they afraid of? I don’t understand. So you can grow it, you can process it, but you can’t grow it and process it. That’s the issue.
Seth Hersh:
Yeah. Well, they’re not issuing any more processor license they say. They didn’t give me much of a reason. Apparently 50 or 60 had been let, and my resource was telling me behind the scenes and saying, there’s really only four companies that have all those 60 license. So it’s a case of the big boys controlling the market and precluding small people like myself from just infusing small batches and doing these niche products.
Matt Baum:
Is it cost-prohibitive? What’s the licenses like? A grower’s license, let’s start there.
Seth Hersh:
No, they’re rather fair, it’s $500.
Matt Baum:
Oh, that’s nothing.
Seth Hersh:
Right, exactly. That’s good for an acre or 100 acres. So they’ve been fair about that. And the processor license also at that rate. But it’s the restrictions and the regulations and all this just preclude the practical ability of somebody like myself to secure one.
Matt Baum:
So I just saw on your site, like very recently, you also had Stripe who was processing your credit card sales just dropped you. Did they give you a reason? Any reason why?
Seth Hersh:
Well of course, yeah. It was kind of abrupt. I got an email at 9:00 in the morning and I was out and my [inaudible 00:14:57] has disconnected my credit card processing account. They just said we… I complained because I say, “Hey, you been processing my account for six months.” I’ve been making sales and they gave no reason. One email and said [inaudible 00:15:12] here, thank you David [inaudible 00:15:15].
Matt Baum:
That’s sweet of them.
Seth Hersh:
You’re out of here and you’re on your own. And I literally was. [inaudible 00:15:24] is now my process so which is okay, I’m not crazy about it. They caused a similar restriction but right now they haven’t discovered me.
Matt Baum:
We’ll keep it quiet on our side. I won’t tell him anything.
Seth Hersh:
You can delete that out.
Matt Baum:
No problem.
Seth Hersh:
I’m trying to secure but that becomes a major task because rather than my templates, Squarespace, I have a Squarespace template to run the website. They make it, they don’t even allow us there. They have Stripe and they have a square and PayPal. Forget trying to put somebody else in there. So I’m having to rebuild the site around that problem.
Matt Baum:
They have contracts with them is what they have basically. So they say.
Seth Hersh:
Was that it?
Matt Baum:
You play in our yard, you play with these people basically.
Seth Hersh:
Yeah, exactly. So that’s been frustrating to kind of get back up and smoothly running.
Matt Baum:
Sure, sure.
Seth Hersh:
It’s a constant challenge when you’re small, you don’t have the basis, the benefits to scale. You may be able to see them. I’m retired, but we started this business back up. I’m 70 plus years old and last year we had the 500 plants. That was way more than I could handle.
Matt Baum:
That’s amazing. Is it just you?
Seth Hersh:
Well no, I had some people come in and help.
Matt Baum:
Okay.
Seth Hersh:
So other users came in.
Matt Baum:
I’m picturing this like retirement community farm.
Seth Hersh:
Well, we didn’t do the tradition round in farming. I’m not a traditional farmer. I had worked for a farm organization five prior years before I retired as a database administrator. But as my wife and I, we’ve been growing the Comfrey. We had growing other things and that was working out. So when we jumped into the hemp, I had a little bit of experience and kind of knew what to expect.
Seth Hersh:
But when the plant started coming in and they were big and they were healthy and they had a lot of buds. and harvest, we were running out of space in our barn. At the end of the season, we had stuff hanging everywhere.
Matt Baum:
I’m sure.
Seth Hersh:
Inside the barns. So it was a good learning experience. But yes, it is very, very labor intensive. And now I’m cutting way back. The market is flooded up here.
Matt Baum:
Right. Everywhere.
Seth Hersh:
There’s no way… I’m sure everywhere. So I’m just kind of literally focusing on this year cutting way back on the number plants to about 80 plants and really grow in some monster plants with great yield and quality of ’80s so I could focus on them. That will reduce my labor costs, keeps me outdoors, which I enjoy.
Matt Baum:
Sure.
Seth Hersh:
And so it should work out to the better this year as you learn and you play better.
Matt Baum:
Yeah. And I’m sure you’ve looked into this and I’m just spit balling here. I’m not trying to solve your problem, but like at the end of the year when you have all this hemp hanging and there’s a glut in the market, there’s literally nowhere you can go with it? You can’t sell it to anyone else? You can’t give it to the processors and be like, “Take this off my hands?”
Seth Hersh:
Well I did get contact some processors to say, “What can I do with this [inaudible 00:18:34] I’ve got?” And yes, they would have taken it, but the rate converting it was high.
Matt Baum:
I’m sure.
Seth Hersh:
So then you have the processing fee, which by the time I turned again to a couple of kilos of distillate, I’ve added a significant amount of costs. My whole marketing plan now is I’m trying to build up demand of course and add value to the product. That’s the only only viable route for me is to, I do my ointment, let’s add some CBD to it. I make a good product and hope that somehow gods of marketing will shine upon me and increase my throughput of the CBD and that would make it viable and then I see a route to using when I’m producing.
Seth Hersh:
Until that happens, there’s really… You lose money. Last year I went out into the market. I checked the market and see what can I get for this stuff and I wouldn’t even cover the fence I had put in last year to guard the half arce. It was just a realistic thing. I went into this with eyes wide open and realize in between my buddy in high falls and myself talking to the price was going to drop. We knew that. But still it was kind of a shock to see that I wouldn’t even be able to recover some basic expenses trying to sell into a farmer’s market.
Matt Baum:
So you said you’ve been talking to legislatures in New York and they have been listening. Is there hope here? Do you think you’re getting through to them?
Seth Hersh:
No, I think we are. There was a unbeknownst to me, another associate of mine who I work with up in another village up here has a feed store and he was complaining to them independently of me. I didn’t know this and he had a very good conversation with them as well and they do seem receptive to the idea that the little guys want to play too. That we should be allowed to participate in the benefits also and they recognize the infusion process, how it’s processed, they understood that. [crosstalk 00:20:47]-
Matt Baum:
That kind of blows my mind that they would look at the infusion process specifically, which basically no chemicals, no ethanol, no chance of anything exploding. You’re literally putting ground up leaves into oil and letting the oil take the good stuff out. Right?
Seth Hersh:
Yeah, exactly. I mean it’s a very age old, centuries old process that really promotes-
Matt Baum:
What is the problem. I don’t understand. That’s the thing. When you get into legislation like this, this is what blows my mind. I get when they were worried and they said, “Well, we don’t know what this is and there’s no proof behind it and we’re afraid it’s marijuana.” We can teach people that, but then you’re stuck with stupid legislation like this. It’s saying you can’t steep the leaves in oil. I mean that’s mind blowing.
Seth Hersh:
Yeah, they get it. When you say what do you do when you steep a teabag? If they finally get what all of it is about and become a bit more receptive and yes, it is. I told them, I said, “Look, it’s not going to get cleaner because you send it out to the ethanol people are extract it that way. I test my stuff regularly with certificates. I do it a lot and these little $50 increments of testing add for a little guy.”
Matt Baum:
Oh yeah.
Seth Hersh:
“But we do it frequently and my test is just as valid as the big boys. It’s the same process in the testing facility.” So there might be some understanding there. I’d like to think so. When I tell them about the entourage effect and the full spectrum aspect, they kind of understand the chain of integrity of being able to say, “Well, I know where my CBD comes from.” My upper pasture. They start to I understand. It may be a bit more helpful as we move forward.
Seth Hersh:
It’s a simple matter. They just didn’t address the infusion method so it might be possible to do an amendment to say the infusion process is exempted. Something like this. I don’t know what form it may take if it will take it all. But they did listen, I thought they were… We were on the phone a good while.
Matt Baum:
So he was just literally left off the page more or less?
Seth Hersh:
Yeah. I mean the bill was probably written by some big boys and they said this is the main processes as if you’re doing 100 acres and 10 acres of stuff. You need a commercial process. My process in a sense, is commercial on a small scale. It’s not commercial across the United States. It doesn’t scale. I can’t do 100 pounds at a time. [crosstalk 00:23:21].
Matt Baum:
It just seems like there’s farmers in your same area that are pasteurizing goat milk and making cheese and producing food that could kill people if you do it wrong and you’re making an ointment. You know what I mean?
Seth Hersh:
Well, curiously, I wonder how curious it is, but the FDA has never in all my readings specifically come out and referenced topical applications, which is what an ointment is. They leave it unsaid, unmentioned in all these discussions. They’ll talk about ingestible. They’ll Talk about oil. Anything that’s going into your body they want to address and as do all the other health organizations.
Seth Hersh:
But topicals are pretty much left off to the side and on their own. So I’m optimistic that, that is the case, that they will remain that way without… Burdensome regulations are just a killer for people [crosstalk 00:24:17]. I mean, it’s not like we’re trying to make a lousy product or skirt the rules or anything. But the scale of what we do limits the practicals, application of all these things that the big boys have to go through.
Matt Baum:
Sure, sure. So do you regret it at all? Is there a part of you that says, “Man, everything was fine. We were growing comfrey. It was kicking ass and now I get into this hemp crap and you have got to be kidding me.”
Seth Hersh:
Well, no. That’s a good question but it’s never crossed my mind. It’s actually fun. I’ve enjoyed growing the plants and seeing these things. I know what a healthy plant looks like. It has been a real challenge. One of my blogs is about the challenge we got into last year for while undertaking this.
Seth Hersh:
I was going to say that we’re not a traditional farm. You come to my place, you’ve got eight acres. It used to be a dairy farm here. Back in the day this could support people nowadays, eight acres won’t do it in terms of dairy. But there was no trackers on this property. I went in and augured out each of the 500 holes with a big auger, an 18 inch augured hole. Refilled and plant the holes with improved soil.
Seth Hersh:
Although the soil was quite good and you have to add very much. I had it assayed it was excellent soil for growing hemp anyway. But still, that intensive labor or work… The first year I invested a lot since irrigation, getting holes prepared and harvesting 500 plants was a bit of a load. But no, I don’t think I’ve ever regretted. I’m getting great stories. I meet lots of people. And it keeps me out in the street. And it keeps me healthy. And these specific times, we’re talking right in the midst of the coronavirus issue.
Matt Baum:
Yeah. Not a bad idea to get outside and get a little exercise. I mean, keep your distance from others, but you know…
Seth Hersh:
Well, the thing that I laugh about, okay it’s not a laughing matter by any means, but I say my lifestyle is barely changed. We live in a very rural area. I’ve got some neighbors on the other side of my rock wall a quarter mile away. There was nobody around. So we were out the other day working on the beds, working on the fields. So no self isolation or shelter in place is kind no different to me than I was two months ago.
Matt Baum:
You were socially distant before it was cool.
Seth Hersh:
Yeah, great.
Matt Baum:
So you keep saying this is non traditional farm and you went out and you augured all these holes on your own. Seth, why? Why do you choose to do it this way?
Seth Hersh:
Well, I mean the area we had was small. I mean you a half acre is small to a farmer. Why did I… I just didn’t want to get involved ripping up that pasture up at the top. I looked at it and said, “Hey, my associate was putting soil into these big pots.” I forget how big these pots and growing these monster implants used to produce these clones.
Seth Hersh:
And I said to myself, “Man, if he could put the hemp plants inside these big pots, these giant pots, I could put it in the and grow it.” So that was the impetus and that was how I approached it. I think it was a good decision. It keeps it on a scale. It’s manageable. This year I’m really going to be able to focus on watering. I have a natural water or spring that comes down from our half a mile. I left the side of the mountain here.
Matt Baum:
It sounds like you live in Hobbiton. It sounds beautiful.
Seth Hersh:
Well it’s nice. I mean the Catskills is really a… I’m very blessed here. We’ve got water, flowing water in addition to our 500 foot well, it’s some of the best water I’ve ever drunk in my life. So the fact that we had the running water and it allows us to run the gardens was a real blessing. And I focus that directly on the 500 plants and I’m not convinced I was really getting the pressure I needed even though I have a good head on it.
Seth Hersh:
About 60 foot ahead by the time it got down and gets distributed into the different zones, yeah, I’m not so sure it was a really that effective getting the fertilizer out. So now with 80 plants, I can really manually do it and have a nice time, a peaceful time doing it and really making sure each plant gets all fertilizers and all the attention it needs.
Matt Baum:
Seth, I appreciate you coming on the show. This has really been great and I’m rooting for you 100%. It’s so funny because there seems like the United States right now, farmer’s markets get bigger and bigger and bigger and people are more concerned with where their food is coming from. And like you said, thinking locally and buying locally, but for some reason the government wants to get in the way of hemp and CBD doing the same thing even though guys like you are trying to do it the right way, the hard way and the right way, I might add.
Seth Hersh:
Yeah, it’s our patient. I’ve been doing this so it’s… I feel I’m on the right course. It doesn’t feel wrong. If something’s not right, it’s wrong. I think this is right and I feel that it’ll work out. I get people happy that they’re using my products and that’s a nice blessing in itself. Yeah. I certainly haven’t gotten a applause in the bank account yet, but the applause comes through with people who say thank you and nice job and appreciate you making these ointments. That’s gratifying.
Matt Baum:
Well, I’m pulling for you. I hope the money comes soon here. Okay? I mean, applause is great. Don’t get me wrong. It’s nice to have people say thank you.
Seth Hersh:
Well, it’s also nice if they say thank you with a deposit and a purchase.
Matt Baum:
Exactly. Exactly.
Matt Baum:
You heard a bleep during this interview and that’s because I didn’t want Seth to expose who was actually processing his credit cards right now in case he gets in trouble and that’s how ridiculous this business is, that’s a state that we’re in. This is completely legal. The 2018 farm bill made hemp and CBD completely legal in the United States, but it’s still very difficult for people to find credit card processing because everyone is waiting to see what happens next.
Matt Baum:
I’ve talked about it on this show before, but hopefully with new banking legislation that is coming, we will see this change so people like Seth don’t have to go through this headache for doing the job the right way. And as always, I will have links to Catskills Comfrey in the show notes for this episode.
Matt Baum:
That brings us to the end of another episode of the Ministry of Hemp podcast. I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Seth and again, you can find those links to Catskills Comfrey in the show notes along with links to an article on ministryofhemp.com about why CBD can’t cure or prevent COVID-19 and why so many hemp brands are claiming that it can.
Matt Baum:
I didn’t mean to get negative or scary, but we have to be serious about this and if we want to promote the real scientific benefits behind hemp and CBD, then we have to focus on the science and separate out the garbage. And if you believe in this message and you believe in the power of hemp to change the frigging world, and it really can, I honestly believe that, please become a patron of ministryofhemp.com and help us to spread this message.
Matt Baum:
You can go to Patrion and search ministryofhemp.com. Any amount you donate makes you a ministry of hemp insider and gets you all kinds of benefits like podcast extras. And on this week’s podcast extra, I am talking to Seth about how he actually makes his ointment from start to finish. It’s very cool and I hope you get a chance to check it out.
Matt Baum:
At the Ministry of Hemp we believe that a more accessible world is a better world. So there is a complete written transcript of this show in the show notes of every episode as well. I hope all of you are staying healthy and keeping sane during your quarantine period. I know having a podcast helps give me something to do and I hope, listening to this helps give you some normalcy in your life.
Matt Baum:
There’s a fantastic DJ on KEXP out of Seattle and his name is John and goes to the morning show and every day he says, you are not alone. And every day he does it. I get a little misty. I really do. And I hope you guys know that you’re not alone either. We’re all going through this together and we are going to get through it. We just have to be smart about it.
Matt Baum:
So let’s remember, we are all in this together. Remember to take care of yourself. Remember to take care of others and make good decisions, will you? This is Matt Baum with the Ministry of Hemp podcast, signing off.
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