A U.S. flag made of hemp textiles was flown this week at the Denver Capitol building to celebrate Colorado Hemp Week. Photo courtesy of Samantha Walsh
By Jean Lotus
Two handmade hemp flags sewn in Colorado flew over the state Capitol building this week for Colorado Hemp Week, June 6-12.
A U.S. flag and the Colorado flag, both hand sewn from hemp textile material, were displayed Monday at the request of Gov. Jared Polis, Colorado’s pro-hemp governor who flew a hemp flag over the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, for July 4, 2013. A hemp flag flew over the Capitol in Denver last year as well.
The hemp flags were hand-sewn by seamstress Margaret Eversol of Colburn, CO.
Colorado Hemp Week, the second week of June, was started by the Colorado Hemp Association, founded in 2015. Colorado Hemp Week continues this week to celebrate the hemp industry and Colorado’s leading role in hemp production and jobs created from the crop.
“We work really hard as an association to ensure this industry stays successful and full of promise for our farmers,” said Bethleen McCall, the association’s president, in a statement. “It’s great that we can recognize our farmers and all the benefits this crop has provided to Colorado. Flying the hemp flag over the Capitol has become a tradition that says, ‘We’re here as an industry and we’re sticking around,’” McCall added.
Polis mentioned the hemp flag when he spoke at Denver’s NoCo Hemp Expo in March, praising the hemp industry in Colorado.
“That red, white and blue hemp flag that went up for Colorado Hemp Week on the west side of Colorado’s golden Capitol dome, a proud banner made from legalized industrial hemp,” Polis said during the expo event. “Thank you for making history so we could fly our flag to honor it,” he added.
Polis has been a strong supporter of hemp in the state, said cannabis/hemp lobbyist Samantha Walsh.
“It’s always great to have a champion in the governor’s office,” Walsh told Let’s Talk Hemp. “He understands the value of hemp as a crop and the possibilities for a new era of agriculture. He’s done a good job with a lot of working groups to explore opportunities, particularly with water conservation,” she added.
Polis’s hemp proclamation pointed out the state’s pioneering history with hemp legalization and praised the industrial hemp industry’s farmers, employers and entrepreneurs.
“Colorado has been a national leader in developing public policies that support hemp production, protect farmers and consumers, and treat hemp as an important agricultural product and not a controlled substance,” the proclamation said.
“Colorado has long recognized the strong economic potential that hemp production offers our agricultural sector as a food, fiber, and cannabinoid producer and the increasing consumer demand for hemp products.”
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Jean Lotus is a Colorado-based award-winning journalist and hempreneur who writes about the American West and sustainable food and technologies.
