By O’S News Service August 7
Alex Cockburn observed that no story “achieves critical mass” in the U.S. until it has been reported in the New York Times. If that standard still applies in the Buzzfed Era, the fact that many farmers want to grow hemp —and a few are actually doing so— has penetrated the national consciousness. The Times ran a story, “Groundwork Laid, Growers Turn to Hemp in Colorado,” on page 9 of the August 5 print edition. The piece by Jack Healy focused on a clear-eyed farmer named Ryan Loflin who has planted 60 acres of non-psychoactive Cannabis on a spread where his dad once grew alfalfa. 
The article was accompanied by a four-column wide photo of Loflin amidst his not-yet-legal hemp. The law passed by Colorado voters legalizing hemp cultivation doesn’t take effect till next year. Loflin and some two dozen other small farmers have already sown crops because as Loflin told Healy of the Times, “It’s hemp. Come on, it just needs to be done.”
