No rain, no rainbows - No farmers, no food, no future. Gail Byrne Baber joins Justin Benton to talk about Hawaii Royal Hemp the company that she and her husband Cab Baber, a 35+ year Hawaii organic farmer run. She also talks about her work with Hawai'i Farmers Union Foundation (HFUF) to support the sovereign right of farmers. Produced by podCONX www.themiracleplant.org https://themiracleplant.org/the-miracle-plant-free-ebook-offer/
No rain, no rainbows - No farmers, no food, no future.
Gail Byrne Baber joins Justin Benton to talk about Hawaii Royal Hemp the company that she and her husband Cab Baber, a 35+ year Hawaii organic farmer run. She also talks about her work with Hawai'i Farmers Union Foundation (HFUF) to support the sovereign right of farmers.
https://themiracleplant.org/the-miracle-plant-free-ebook-offer/
[00:00:00] Welcome to the miracle plant podcast, where we explain this misunderstood plan with so many different names.
Today, we have a great guest that I've met on this incredible platform. Clubhouse she's been growing hemp cannabis for decades with her husband. We met on clubhouse and her spirit and her energy is just won me over immediately. And I'm so happy to have with us. Gail Baber from Hawaii, Dale, welcome to the miracle plant podcast.
How are you doing Aloha or doing well? Thank you so very much. Yeah, and I want to say that my husband has been the primary grower for 40 years out here. Food and cannabis in Hawaii. So but I've definitely been around for a big part of the journey. That's awesome.
And I'm certain you've gotten your hands dirty too, out there in the field. Yeah, I do. By default, I often manage more the Paula [00:01:00] Paula site, as we say over here and the paperwork side of things, but yeah, definitely. Lend a hand for sure. Awesome. And so tell us your story, your journey. How did were you introduced to this plant?
And I, we just love hearing how you came into contact with the miracle plan. Well, you know, it's interesting because I'm just thinking it was actually for Jack her's book as well in, well, obviously, you know, in college when you're a young adult, you're, you're trying cannabis, but I think in terms of seriously understanding it and wanting to understand it it was that book and I'm, I'm saying that because at the same time, my husband was giving away thousands of copies of that book in the eighties here.
In Hawaii, he actually spoke, I think I was sharing that he spoke on the phone checker in 79 or 78 when he was out here. When my husband was here in Hawaii and Jack was on the mainland and they were talking about how soon they thought the prohibition on hemp and cannabis would be lifted. And they both thought just a few years, but you know, that was what.
30 40 years ago. So but I have a [00:02:00] background in civil engineering and natural resource management and I, I think camp has fascinated me. Well, absolutely. It's fascinating for a long, long time because of the sustainability aspect. I just was raised for whatever reason within an environmental ethic, and I've been very aware of the dance and the balance we have on this planet.
And so I think for. It's been more from that perspective that I've embraced and had a relationship with a client and my husband. Has had a relationship with the plant for a long time. He is dyslexic and was also an engineering student in the seventies. And even before then he realized that it.
Helped him navigate the world a little bit more aligned with what people's expectations were with guard, with how you should think, you know, dyslexics brains are amazing, you know, they're kind of genius. And so that plant helped kinda helps him moderate that. And especially I think he tells a story of, he was already going to examine as his [00:03:00] second year of engineering school and He had some test anxiety and he was having trouble recalling and he took a little cannabis and he recalled everything.
So I'm not promoting that out there to college students necessarily to do that. But for his particular brain in your transmitters, it was a perfect match. So we and he's been farming his whole life. My Mom the farm on my mom's side for, you know, generations and generations as well. So he's had an interest, I think from probably, you know, unconsciously, the brain driven side.
And then also from the cultivation and growing side. That's incredible. I mean, I know in college I was definitely partaking in the cannabis on the recreational side and I, it, it wasn't helping me with my studies. It was helping me with my good time. And that's for sure, but that's, it's incredible how this plant can interact, you know, interact with everyone's endocannabinoid systems and receptors and our CB one and CB two receptors.
And there's [00:04:00] actually five more receptor sites. In the, in cannabinoid endocannabinoid systems. Sothat's incredible. So , the crazy thing is we are actually live recording on clubhouse, this incredible platform that there's a lot of buzz about and things it's been incredible from my standpoint to meet people like you, Gail.
And be able to collaborate and connect and educate. And what's been your experience with clubhouse and, and all the things that you're up to. The exact same. I'm I love it because it's interactive radio. And I, you know, I enjoy some other social media platforms, but I can see how myself or others can get sucked into them way.
That's maybe more you know, that is healthy, but I can feel that and then gauging my brain. I'm constantly learning the connections. The relationships of course have been very helpful, but. I love it. I prefer it to radio now it's it's fun. You can dial into specific subjects or folks that you're interested in [00:05:00] learning from.
I think too, what I've noticed in the rooms I'm in, and it may be because it's specific to Hampton cannabis. Although we jumped into a couple other subjects, there seems to be a level for the most part, not everyone, but a level. Camaraderie and respect that is so welcome, you know, right now, old school, right.
Just be polite, listen to one another. And that in itself has been super enjoyable and needed right now needed. Oh yeah. Like no other time that the old Chinese proverb is the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. And the second best time is today. And we could have used clubhouse nine months ago or 12 months ago, but.
I won't take it today. It's just been revolutionary for, you know, just collaboration and sharing of ideas and just there's because we all know there's so much misinformation. About this plant and just, I get the same questions over and over and over [00:06:00] again, you know, will CBD make me high? Will I fail a drug test?
You know, and over and over and over these people have concerns. The CBD come from marijuana. What's the difference between CBD and hemp and there's, you know, medical doctors aren't trained on the endocannabinoid system. And so they're confused about it and don't know what to say, but because of this platform, We're able to have these dialogues and have doctors on stage and discuss like with Dr.
Lakeesha, who was on last week, who was a guest and who absolutely is an expert when it comes to the endocannabinoid system and explaining all five of the receptor sites. And it's just been amazing. And we've been able to give out over 2000 products just on connections that we've made in the last 40 days on.
On clubhouse to families that are affected by things like autism, where people that are going through cancer or giving nurses, little like sampler packs and products to try for themselves or master herbalists or doctors. And that [00:07:00] was not available to me , 43 days ago before I joined, I mean, Facebook wouldn't let us advertise.
We get accounts shut down and we can't do ads even though, as you and I both know. CBD and hemp is as legal as soy beans, corn and apples. But because of the stigma and because of the powers and the forces that be behind the scenes, they've done everything they can to keep this plant down as they've done successfully for 80 years.
But now that the plant's legal due to the farm bill in 2018 and cannabis on the higher THC side above 0.3 is becoming. More and increasingly more and more legal in the 40 States out there. It's just an amazing time out here for us as well. I remember when we first met on clubhouse, the first conversation we had was about Doug fine, and about his regenerative farming.
And so I'd love to give you the floor on regenerative, farm farming and [00:08:00] sustainability and, and all the things that Doug talks about in his books. His new book out, which is American hemp farmer. Yeah, absolutely. Hemp has a huge role to play in that for sure. And I hope we've walked our talk out here in Hawaii.
I know my husband has, he's been regenerative farming. I mean almost his entire life. And he grew up going out to his aunt to B's farm when he was younger and he got to see some practices that he felt were not. Sustainable. And even as a young man, he was looking for alternatives. And so for sure, I can tell you, he started going organic in the seventies and eighties and regenerative farming, including like no till, and then 30 years ago really started researching, understanding these some microorganisms in store oil and creating inoculants and has been creating a.
Product as long for at least 25 years, probably given more of his products away than he's ever sold. It made money on, I mean, [00:09:00] drives me crazy, but, but he's an, he's an activist in many ways at heart. So yeah, and I, you know, when you look at the big picture of things and where we need to move towards it is absolutely a regenerative farming model and yeah.
Trying to bite my tongue and not be disparaging of other farming practices. I mean, I even have farmers in my own family, you know, they're not organic by long shot. Although we were all organic a hundred years ago. So much of this is about scale. And you know, I think there's a And this misconception out there that you can't scale regenerative, what are, it's a little bit more intensive, obviously in terms of labor and costs, but it all comes down to, well, what's, what's the alternative, obviously there's there's trade offs.
And so we either internalize our costs upfront and into our farming, and we do it in a manner that sustains and rebuilds the earth and supports our health. Or we schlep it off on the next generation. ? Well, I, I'm very confident that my husband is we've always internalized our costs.
We [00:10:00] mulch everything, you know, we compost and we build eight inches of soil year. And the great thing about the, and we poly crop, you know we're not quite a permaculture farm, but, but it's similar. Because it's more efficient that way you end up with more we're more plant species. You have more homes for, for microbes.
You end up with greater resiliency in your system, and then you have less troubles when it comes to PEs or are other things like that. So It in the long run it's cost-effective when we have obviously have agricultural models that are subsidized and for, for practices that aren't, it's kind of hard to compete, but bun and a variety of nonprofits around the world has studied it and said, really, you know, what's going to make sense in the long run is smaller regenerative farms, and I believe we can do it on the large, on a large scale.
As well. So yeah, Doug's a great advocate. For regenerative farming and for small farmers in particular, he's been out here to Hawaii and [00:11:00] really have appreciated his help and providing a voice for small family farms. Although he says, and I agree with him, the hemp hemp is big and we welcome everyone at this time.
Absolutely. That's incredible. Have you written a book yet? Are you going to write a book deal? Oh, yeah. You know, it's so funny. My mom is she's, she's an amazing farmer herself actually. And even though I grew up in the military and my, we moved all over, my mom would have these incredible garden farms, wherever we went.
And I appreciate her so much more now as we. Tend to do as we age and lucky enough to still have our parents back, or we reflect on them. She started CSS in the eighties community supported agriculture projects. Now, to me, that was just like old school because I grew up with that knowledge and understood it.
But now I'm recognizing that she was really on the forefront of some of the things she did. And she started them in odd places like Northern Nevada, where it's hard to farm and started one at a correction facilities for young men to get them [00:12:00] involved. So I. You know what I'm going to get off this podcast and call her again and tell her how much I appreciate and what she's done.
But so the long story is I've grown up with someone who has a great green thumb way that in me and way before I met my husband. And when she met my husband, she's like, you gotta write a book. So so I, you know, I actually have a pretty good technical writer. I don't know that I could write a book that would be You know, maybe engaging to people, but he has so much knowledge and, and depth to understand it.
Just like, you know, anyone that's been in their craft for a long time. But I think in particular, because my background is engineering and kind of applied science, but he, and he says, well, but he went off into agriculture, you know, he came out here on summer break from university to surf waves.
And well that was the end of that. He could farm me around and surf. That was the seventies and never looked back. But he, so I think what I was going to say was all farmers are incredible scientists. And they to, to be [00:13:00] successful at the growing aspect over time, you have to be incredibly observant.
You have to be running experiments in your mind. You know, he has journals that go back decades, documenting things. And so just as. Oftentimes happens in relationships. You see each other with filters that you don't always, you know? But whenever I hear him speak publicly about something I'm still, I'm blown away, you know, I'm like, Holy cow, your depth of understanding about microbes, your depth of understanding about soil, building your depth of understanding about the relationship of the plants here is just really amazing.
So. Yeah, someone should write a book about my husband and him farming out here and Hawaii. And certainly all the adventures that folks had out here in the early days with regard to cannabis is something else. And it obviously was much more widely grown, the high THC seaside in Hawaii than other places on the mainland for decades.
And it was really a huge part of the economy here. And [00:14:00] I was speaking with. A colleague of mine. Who's a, let's see, I think her, her degree is in PhD from Harvard in sociology and when our sugar cane. Plantation started shutting down and, you know, well that, that happened over a period of, you know, so decades, but when the last few were shutting down and the war on drugs started, she said she did a mini study with some colleagues and she's like, we're going to see.
A lot of poverty and a lot more domestic violence because folks are not going to have access. First of all, they're going to be stressed financially cause plantations, which were primary jobs is shutting down. And then the secondary avenues in which people were able to put, you know, shoes on baby or tires on the car was becoming more and more difficult and wiped out the war on drugs.
And I know for a fact for folks that that grew out of cannabis out here in Hawaii were everyday mom and pop folks. I mean, there's a little bit of folklore on a lot of the Kona coffee folks. There were, you know, older [00:15:00] immigrants that had integrated that into their economic model. As, as well as just it was, it was more commonplace for, for better, for worse.
So but I think for the most part for better, because it provided this kind of network economy and you interrupt me at any time, but I, that is something that I know the folks that worked really hard to bring the hemp industry to Hawaii, you know, the low THC seed side of thing for folks that are listening.
We're. Really hoping to bring back was more of that cottage industry model, where more people could participate in this, because obviously this is, this is kind of an agricultural revolution in terms of the market share out there. And of course the products that can be done, who I does have large agricultural landscape.
But we have a lot, most of our farms are very small. I think like two thirds of them are less than 40 acres, something like that. We're a lot of small family farms and we import 95% of our food. So so folks who are working on the hemp legislation, especially my husband who worked on this for, for decades started the why [00:16:00] hemp council in 1990 had an understanding and a vision that we could integrate hemp into it.
Food crops, even if you don't poly crop, you could grow a crop now. And then, and if we had who he is, we say out here kind of a cooperative model with farmer owned infrastructure, farmers could make a little bump once a year, every couple of years to subsidize the clean farming, because we subsidized food farming most, any farmer who is out here, farming Hawaii, subsidizes it.
So it kind of brings it back to. The plants, some of its roots, you know, if you trace the sociological roots of this plant in other Island, you know, nations in the Caribbean and even back to the continents it, it was very important in terms of uplifting communities economically. And that is a long answer to, should we write a book about my husband and the answer's?
Yes. I'm sure. Every listener right now is shaking their head up and down. Yes. Gail, you should write a book. So. There has been some interesting [00:17:00] hacks, I guess, if you could call it that on clubhouse that I've learned is so basically people will take even this podcast when we're done, you can take this podcast that would, will be on, you know, MJ bowls and pod.
Con ex that Dan's out here producing and recording and you can listen to it on that platform or Apple or wherever you find your podcast. And you can literally download the podcast and put it in either Google docs or there's a couple other platforms like designer with two RS, and it will literally transcribe all of the.
Even from video content, but from audio content, and it'll just transcribe everything in there and then you can clean it up with Grammarly and you can, I mean, I don't think you would need any help with an editor based on the way that you communicate. But if you wanted to, you could find an inexpensive editor on places, even like Fiverr.
And they would be able to edit it down and help make everything real clean and simple. And you can upload it on places like Amazon. Real simply. And I watched all this happen. The [00:18:00] first couple of nights I was on clubhouse. I met Robbie Cornelius and Joe Ingram. And he literally showed her how you could do this.
And you would have a book up and running completely published. And he actually got it on the first on best a top selling bestseller on Amazon in 48 hours. So the game has changed with technology and you obviously have such incredible insight and content and you already know Doug. So there's the traditional way, which certainly has its advantages.
And. What have you, but if there's anything I can do to help with that, I would love to help. And you certainly have a book or two or three in you. And when you start thinking about it in that concept of literally you can make seven chapters based on seven topics that you want to talk about, or you have passionate about, and then you just start talking or you have a podcast like this, and then you download all of that content and then you upload it.
Like I was saying, and then that's a chapter and then next chapter, and then before, you know, [00:19:00] it, people are literally writing books from start to finish complete two, 300 page books in less than two or three weeks. So it's not as hard as it thinks. And it's just to kind of give you a little nugget to.
They're so beautiful, really up to learning more, and that feels so that kind of democratization and access to tools. So you know, we can just get more good work out there and people can participate more in whatever level they want to. It's almost a reflection of what we're seeing in clubhouse as well, too.
There's access, you know, people of all different levels of industry are able to access folks at all different levels and what you just download with regard to being able to publish a book feels very synonymous to that. That actually gives me so much hope about humans and the proper use of technology.
Thank you. You bet. Well, again, once again, it comes down to this platform. Clubhouse. I learned that here. You know, five weeks ago and I've saw it [00:20:00] happen in progress. And so it helped to me, it's just this amazing community that, you know, and you, you basically, you find your tribe, if you will. And you find the people that, that make sense to you and you follow them.
And w we've had some late night conversations, you know, two or three in the morning, which is a huge advantage for us West coasters because we're on the West coast. And then we, everyone on the East coast, when we're up till two, they're up til five. And you guys are what, one or two hours behind us in California, right?
Yeah. We're two hours right now. And when you folks go to daylight, time will be three hours behind Pacific. Yeah, exactly. I have the ultimate advantage that you can just stay up and be like, everyone's barely hanging on. And you're like, well, it's midnight. It's not that bad, but no, that's incredible. So a lot, a lot of great information sharing on clubhouse and that's how we met.
And you definitely have some books in you and. I will be a cheerleader for you and support you any way that I can. I would be remiss not to mention what you're going through right now with the Hawaii and to get your platform out [00:21:00] there so others can understand what you're going through and how we can support you.
And what's going on. That's funny because the technology that you were just describing in terms of being able to quickly translate and get things out there, either video or written was I was thinking, boy, that that would be really helpful in the why hemp farmers in industry just in general in terms of information sharing, but obviously specifically We is in other States we have our Hawaii state legislature's in session.
And the Y association, which is actually an industry association here, it includes manufacturers and processors as well. Had. Gotten together with representative Bronco. He's a newer representative here in Hawaii and replaced representative feelin Laura Thielen, who had been out here for a long time advocating for him.
Goodness, God bless her. And we're hoping to move that bill through. We thought we. Done a lot, a bit of fighting. I don't say fighting, but hard work the last week years and lifting and kind of getting things legal and, you know, fine tuning, but not perfect, but that wasn't [00:22:00] the case. And there are a couple of bills that would just be very decimating to the hemp industry.
So we've been working hard on that and I'm grateful to clubhouse once again, because I've been able to make some acquaintances. That have been able to inform my conversations when I'm speaking with members of the legislature. And then I'm hoping to bring in a couple of experts based on relationships I made in clubhouse to speak to at least one member legislature.
That's very open the author of one of the bills. It's very. Difficult out here. So yeah, we are unique. Why is almost, I want to say triple regulated, over regulated with regard to hemp at the state and federal level, we're one of the few States that decided to put their growers under USDA. And then the state still retained some authority under over farmers.
So we still have to check in with them on certain things and paperwork and whatnot, and And then of course, when you move over to the manufacturing processing side, there's whole other layers of government permitting that are being [00:23:00] developed. But you know, I, if I had to put it in a nutshell, because there are specifics we could talk about I would just say that why is often.
You know, almost the thought leader in terms of things, and certainly has been in terms of cannabis. There was a brief, I think that came out of the legislature in the seventies in supportive cannabis for a variety of reasons. And then we had a an approve project here in 2000 for growing hemp way ahead of the curve.
And And of course, lots of activists. And then we were one of the earlier pilot programs to be approved by our legislature. But we just shot ourselves in the foot, made a bunch of whole, whole bunch of rules that are overly complex and draconian. And you know, just, we couldn't even import seed from the mainland for a long time or it was, it was just really couldn't move anything off our farms.
Just a lot of fear-based rulemaking. So , it's been really challenging out here in Hawaii, but we're, we're not done by do have to say that the farmers that have been in on this, a number of them have gone out of business. [00:24:00] And those of us that are still standing that have been here for awhile are you know, kind of.
Barely hanging on which opens the door for folks that aren't from Hawaii to come in and perhaps, you know, do some good work. But, you know, obviously we are hoping for, it was a model in which we could, you know give a farmer, a dollar and they recirculate at least seven times in the economy. So that's kind of broad overview.
I can speak specifically if you want or ask me questions. Well, , I don't want to get too far in the weeds, but just so people will kind of be like, Oh, that's confusing. If there's anything we can do to support you. I know we talked about. A couple of different options out here, and we'll continue to go down with perhaps Chris Conrad or even my mom and Dr.
Lakeesha and some wonderful people to help you with that. But I also wanted to give you some time to talk about, you know, your company, Hawaii, Royal HAMP, and what it's all about. And, and I'd love to learn more about that. Oh, thank you so much. Yeah, that's a company founded by my husband and I, and it's basically on the back of the food farming [00:25:00] and cows farming he's been doing out here for four years.
He's had other companies, Islanders he had for a long, long time, but decided to kind of rebrand into put hemp in the name Y Royal hemp and We got the first temp license on our state pilot program. And then also got the first USDA license out here in Hawaii to grow hemp. And that's primarily because I can just wait through paperwork, I guess.
I don't know that first is of any significance other than usually that means someone knows how to wait through paper, but and we grow regenerativity we're we're small scale and we're growing the way that my husband always has, although he's. Just like any grid, farmer, scientists, constant learning and improving.
And we poly crop. We don't till remold almost every everything's by hand. So it's, it's pretty intensive, but I think we see the, the result is very high quality and we give away food to our community because we Integrate food into what we're doing with hemp. Just because it makes better food, it makes a [00:26:00] better hemp.
And then also, you know, we get the pleasure of eating our own food. We have a you know, small value added line farmer processed and maiden. You can order it online if you want, but it's tinctures and honey and SAB. And so we're Very much about regenerative farming and bringing our local community with us as we go through this journey.
That's awesome. I'd love to learn more about the honey. Yeah. We've had hives on our, our land and, you know, bees love hemp flowers. They absolutely love it. And we also have which is an introduced species to why, but we have something here. I, I don't know the last name, but it's Christmas Berry and it can take over old land pretty quickly, but it is it's a lovely windbreak, but it is also very similar to That the honey that comes from Christmas berries, very similar to menuca.
So it's very medicinal. So that's the honey we have on our land. That is amazing. And I know that our, is it raw hunting as well that you [00:27:00] sell? Yeah. And of course you don't ever want to give raw honey to children or infants. But yeah, it's yeah, it's really good stuff. Yeah. And we're all about the raw, so that's beautiful.
I love it. Well I it's just been an absolute pleasure. How do people reach you? Gail, especially if they could help out with the Hawaiian legislation or if they want to try your products or just. Talk to you about being a big book publisher. How do they find you? That's so sweet. Yeah, we have Instagram and Facebook and website and I think they're all FOI Royal.
Why Royal hemp. So why are hemp.com? Instagram is why Royal hemp. And if you go, why Royal hemp on Facebook? You can find us as well and just message me and I'm happy to help serve any way we can. Awesome. , and find you on clubhouse as well, right? Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Maybe too much, but yeah, right there.
Yeah. So thank you so much for coming on. You, just an amazing guest with so [00:28:00] many incredible insights. I know I'll be listening to this podcast over and over again. And like I said, I'll have both Palm pounds in each hand here in you for that first, second or third book. And if there's anything I can do to help, like I said, so thank you for coming on.
Thank you everyone for tuning in and listening to the miracle plant podcast. If this story struck you, or if you think someone should hear it, please share this podcast out. Whether you texted or forward and on and makes her other people could hear it. The best thing you can do for us. So more people can hear these incredible stories and guests like Gale is to review the podcast on Apple.
And just give us a quick little couple minutes of what you thought of the podcast and some of your key takeaways. And we read those reviews on the podcast as well. So thank you everybody for swinging by the miracle plant podcast. If you want to be a guest, you can reach out to us as well. Either@infoatthemiracleplant.org or go find me on Instagram.
I'm Justin, [00:29:00] the number for him, or you can always find me on clubhouse about 10 to 15 hours. So once again, thank you Gail for coming on and thank you everybody for tuning into the miracle plant podcast. We will see you all next week. Take care everybody.