Ways Cannabis Can Be a Gateway to a Career in Horticulture
April 22, 2021 Many college students may have never considered a career path in plant science, but a new course at Penn State University could potentially lead them in that direction.
For the fall 2021 semester, Penn State will offer a course centered around the cannabis plant and the hemp industry as a whole.
The course will be a special topics course from the Department of Plant Science called PLANT297, or Hemp Production, centered around the production of hemp, laws regarding hemp production, and business aspects of hemp production.
According to Louis Bengyella, an Assistant Research Professor in the department and the course instructor, PLANT297 will prepare anyone for the industry.
“It’s really all that you need to start hemp production,” Bengyella says.
John Kaminski, a Professor and Associate Head of the Department of Plant Science, says a course could not be centered around cannabis in the past because it was deemed illegal.
However, with the 2018 Farm Bill being passed, hemp became legal. Kaminski says this is what allowed the university to start researching the hemp plant.
“Our farmers and those getting involved in hemp production, whether it be for CBD or fiber, there’s not a lot of information out there on how to do it,” Kaminski says. “This seemed like a logical solution to meet the needs of both the students and the growers in the field.”
Learn more here.
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