Black farmers see new opportunities in the budding industrial hemp industry

There’s a glaring disparity issue in industrial hemp production — just 6% of producers are Black. A couple in Missouri hopes to create the state’s first Black-owned hemp processing site.

Just northwest of Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks, past Mennonites in horse drawn buggies, there’s a curvy road that leads to a forgotten piece of Missouri’s Black history – Lake Placid.

The Black-owned cabin retreat thrived in the mid-1900s. P.C. Turner, a doctor from Kansas City, designed it as a place of restoration and refuge for Black families across the state during segregation. But over the decades, many of the once sought-after cabins fell into disrepair.

“We’ve got what I call dilapidation – buildings with no walls,” said Brendalyn King.