As one of the United States first exclusive cannabis law firms, the Hoban Law Group has been instrumental in assisting with global cannabis policy making. Bob Hoban joins Joy Beckerman to talk about his hemp career and his firm's rapid global expansion. Throughout the show they explore both hemp's challenges and unlimited potential. Produced by PodCONX https://podconx.com/guests/bob-hoban
As one of the United States first exclusive cannabis law firms, the Hoban Law Group has been instrumental in assisting with global cannabis policy making. Bob Hoban joins Joy Beckerman to talk about his hemp career and his firm's rapid global expansion. Throughout the show they explore both hemp's challenges and unlimited potential.
https://podconx.com/guests/bob-hoban
Announcer: [00:00:08] Welcome to another episode of Hemp Barons. On today's show, Joy speaks with a man whose efforts have shaped and continue to shape Hemp globally. Starting in Denver as one of the nation's first exclusive Cannabis law firms, his firm now works with clients and lawmakers throughout the United States and the world. Let's join Joy's conversation with Bob Hoban law. from the Hoban law. Group.
Joy Beckerman: [00:00:41] Well, the little Bob, thank you so much for being with us on Hemp Barons today.
Bob Hoban: [00:00:45] Hey, now, it's good to be here. Thanks for having me. How are you today?
Joy Beckerman: [00:00:48] Doing so well, even under these Corona virus circumstances, especially to have you on the show, Bob. I have been, you know, a friend, a colleague. But most importantly, a sister and a fan for a number of years now. And I remember when I first started to recognize Hoban law. group coming on soon into the Hemp world. And for me, I started to recognize it around two thousand and fourteen or so, starting to get these emails from from Bob Hope in in the Hoban law. group and most recognized Hoban law. as one of the first, if not the first premier firm in the United States to really get involved with Hemp on a deep issue, not a where haphazardly adding Hemp into our new Cannabis practice group. But no, we're taking on Hemp from a lobbying legislative policy and and to commanding effort and perspective. And and I just want to quickly say, I know we're going to go right into all that you are and all that you're doing. But I remember when I finally got to meet you in person and it was at noko Hemp Expo, our favorite Hemp trade show. And I had had an expert witness gig. And because I'm I do that type of work.
Joy Beckerman: [00:02:05] And I remember it involved a supply going to Alaska from the state of Colorado. And the folks in Alaska wanted me to be able to attest that the Colorado Agricultural Pilot Program, or Hemp program was, in fact, in accordance with the 2014 Farm Bill. And I remember saying, well, I can attest that the vast majority of personnel at the Colorado Department of Agriculture consider their Hemp program to be an agricultural pilot program, but that I didn't feel comfortable at the time stating definitively that it was in compliance or in accordance with that program. And I shared that story with you, that dynamic, tall, handsome attorney. And I remember you looking at me and saying, well, you know, Joy, research hasn't actually been defined and it hasn't been tested in the courts. I mean, who's to say that collecting the names, addresses and G.P.S. coordinates of the farmers who are applying for the Hemp licenses? Art isn't research. And I thought, oh, I love this man. I love the way he seems. He is a hero for Hemp. So that's when so many that that's when you won me over big time was was in that response that day. And it was just it was just such a bright light.
Bob Hoban: [00:03:21] First of all, thank you for your kind words. But but also that just brings you back to the good old days. Holy smokes. It wasn't that long ago, but figured out what a farm bill pilot program was or should be versus the so called clarity we had today, which is all but clear. It's it's it's going back to a to a different point. That's for sure.
Joy Beckerman: [00:03:44] And indeed, it is. And and I also learned from you because, of course, you were the heroic firm and lead attorney on a litigation against the Drug Enforcement Administration back in 2017 that was filed when they finalized their mock marijuana extract rule and included Hemp in that definition, completely ignoring the, you know, earthquake or as you say, the seismic shift in Cannabis policy, which was that definition, that early definition of industrial hemp in the 2014 farm bill. In that day of those oral arguments, you told me a story about the development of Hoban law. group. And you mentioned that you were actually thinking about being a judge and a trajectory changed. Can you tell us that story a little bit?
Bob Hoban: [00:04:38] Yeah, absolutely. So. So I like graduate law school. I worked for a federal court judge in the state court judge. I worked behind the scenes, became very close with the judges. And I worked for took on a lot of responsibility for writing orders and, you know, understanding the judicial process from the backside. That's part of the of the judicial process that most of us don't see from the public or even lawyers don't see and really understand what goes on behind the scenes. And it was really great to be a part of that. And as my practice evolved over the years, we started to take on one of the first terms you take on a lot of the marijuana industries work. And then around 2009, that pivoted towards industrial hemp and talked about that in a moment. But, you know, the most one of the most interesting things was just how opportunities kept coming during that period of time. And I go back to that situation with the two judges I worked for, one of which was a state court judge in Colorado. And he says there's three retirements coming in. For months, he says, I will support you. I will make sure that you in the top three for any of those appointments that you'd like. In Colorado, they're appointed by the governor.
Bob Hoban: [00:05:50] They're not elected judges. So I ran through the process of the first one, made it into the finals, but did not get the appointment.
Bob Hoban: [00:05:58] And then the business plan, my perspective on this industry changed dramatically. I saw both the opportunity from a business perspective to build a great law firm that does what we do today. But I also saw the fact that so many people needed help, people that needed someone that was just commonsense, approachable to help walk them through the process and be their advocate, their attorney, so forth and so on, versus just someone that was, you know, there to fight just for the sake of fighting. Fighting is good, but you have to have a reason to fight and you have to have a rationale to fight.
Bob Hoban: [00:06:33] And that's ultimately what led me away from pursuing one of those other two appointments to the bench in Colorado. Boy, would that have been a different life.
Joy Beckerman: [00:06:42] And thank goodness the universe provides. And we got you got to keep you in Hemp because you're such an important person, not only in the United States movement in North America and, of course, globally. And before we go on to those international Hemp solutions, as it were. Let's talk for a second about how many offices this Holbert have. Could you give us an overview of Hoban law. group and its tremendous expanse throughout the United States?
Bob Hoban: [00:07:11] Yes. So we ultimately started in Colorado. We expanded to the East Coast. We expanded into California, Washington, Oregon all around 2012, early 2013, whereas we sit here today. We've got attorneys in 17 states across the United States and then 10 different countries abroad. And, you know, one of the things that's interesting is we see the CBD element of the Hemp industry kind of evolve before our very eyes. Some might say it's reached its peak in minutes on the decline, although I'm not so sure that's the case. I think the idea of CBD as an ingredient, which is what it really is, it's merely an ingredient.
Bob Hoban: [00:07:54] It's not an industry in and of itself was something that took a long, long time for people to get their their mind around. And having been there since the very beginning, when I said the beginning, there are people, yourself included, that have worked so hard for decades to have social justice and criminal justice reform around this plant, whether that's the marijuana side of the industry or whether that's the industrial hemp side of the industry. So I can't take any credit for any of that hard work that went into it for decades and decades and decades.
Bob Hoban: [00:08:24] Going back to jack her even longer than that. But what happened early on was we were presented with an opportunity to opine for a company out of San Diego in 2009 about whether or not what it was selling something called CBD was legal. And they explained their process to me and we went on a deep dove, as only lawyers would do, was really sort of a nerd or geek out type project where we went in and we looked we said, here's what Congress had done and here's what their intention was. And here's the Controlled Substances Act. And we went through law that we could find all over the country. In that case, law, basically, this was pre 2014 farm bill. We created strategies for companies to sell CBD that was non psychoactive, of course, from industrial hemp and identified that it was indeed legal under the definitions found in the Controlled Substances Act. That was the very beginning of all this for us as we got into the commercial side of the industry. And once we develop these strategies in those distribution patterns, which happened to be international in scope, we in large part became a go to firm for those strategies. All of a sudden, people that were selling CBD that became big business, these companies went from selling tens of thousands of dollars, a product to millions of dollars of product quite literally within a few weeks. So very, very proud to start there and what it's evolved to today. I mean, holy smokes, nobody saw this coming except for maybe Jack her.
Joy Beckerman: [00:09:58] But that's another story for a day or a month, though. And and again, ten countries, a Hoban law. group also has offices in 10 countries in addition to 17 states. That's incredible. The amount of assistance, the amount of chopping wood, carrying water moving forward, the Hemp economy that Hoban law. group all on its own does by serving that number of clients is just a tremendous contribution to the promise of the world's most versatile and valuable plant. Let's talk now for a minute about some other businesses that that have now grown. Out of your vision and your love of this plant and bizarre international Hemp solution, let's start with those and if I'm missing some others, I know you also have a podcast. Please let's talk about them. Let let the listeners know what's going on in Bob Hope in the world.
Bob Hoban: [00:10:57] Well well, actually, let me let me come on the international component for a second, because all of a sudden now everybody's talking about this global candidates industry and internationalization of their products and their product plans and distribution that's worldwide. And we've been focused on this for several years. And it all started. The international component started with those clients, those early on clients that were selling something called CBD that we realised they were sourcing it from overseas. And we began to establish the relationship. So we understood right then and there before 2014, as early as 2009, that this industry was, in fact, a global supply chain. And we began to build those relationships very, very intentionally.
Bob Hoban: [00:11:42] So then what happened was I was teaching at the University of Denver as a Cannabis policy professor, not a criminal justice professor, not a political science professor, but a public policy professor. And I picked my focus to be Cannabis policy. And the University of Denver gave me a lot of leeway. I took students all over the world on international travel courses to orig Y, to Costa Rica, to Australia, to places in Europe.
Bob Hoban: [00:12:09] And we did multiple week travel courses to study the rollout of reformed Cannabis policy all over the world. And we began writing those laws and regulations for a number of countries worldwide, Chinese FDA, believe it or not, Costa Rica and so forth and so on. The list goes to about 35 countries that we've written laws or regulations for in this space. And that's really what created the international opportunities. And of course, now everybody needs needs to diversify their distribution. You need to figure out where you fit in this global supply chain if you're going to participate and even have a chance of succeeding. So then that led us to some opportunities to perhaps create a global Cannabis supply chain. And we may have underestimated the complexity of building a global supply chain at that point in time, although it is happening in real time around us. So in 2014, when the farm bill was passed, that first included industrial hemp. And by the way, that's the first time in US history that industrial hemp was defined as something other than marijuana, and it was created as an exception to our Controlled Substances Act.
Bob Hoban: [00:13:23] So that was a landmark piece of legislation driven by some of our senators from the great state of Kentucky.
Bob Hoban: [00:13:32] But when it comes down to it, it allowed for seed importation. It required seed importation. How could you start growing hemp in the United States where hemp had been outlawed, had been banned for cultivation since the 30s and into the 40s when we had our Hemp for victory campaign. When you look back at that time frame, you had to realize that if farmers were going to grow hemp, then you had to import it from other places in commercial quantities. And that's what we began to do. So we built a company called International Hemp Solutions, i.e. just to capitalize on that. And we went out and we secured licensing agreements with some of the leading Hemp institutes in the world. And yes, there are Hemp institutes all around the world. Europe in particular that howse high quality Hemp genetics and that have grown and and replicated industrial Hemp genetics for decades and decades and decades. And the sort of star of the Hemp Institute worldwide would be the Polish Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants, by far the longest standing Hemp Institute in the world with over 100 years of service and maintaining these Hemp genetics in a government sponsored fashion. And we went right to Poland and we did made some agreements with the Polish government to obtain licensing rights for those varieties. We imported the largest quantities of commercial hemp seed from Europe than anyone in history has done on multiple occasions 30, 50, 100, 200 metric tons. When you see a DHL airplane that's completely full of pallets of industrial hemp seed, it really makes you smile.
Joy Beckerman: [00:15:12] I am smiling listening to this story. I mean, seeing the plane out, grinning from ear to ear. But man, you're already making me smile. Boy, talk about connecting the dots, the global dots as this plant reemerges and reestablishes itself as a major player agricultural commodity to an industry serving industry that we've never seen Hemp serving before because we didn't have the. Mythology, specifically nanotechnology, aerospace, supercapacitors, bio composites, bio resins, all that it can and must be is coming. And what a huge part you and international Hemp solutions have played in it.
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Joy Beckerman: [00:16:42] Talk for a moment about bija Hemp and and differentiating it from international Hemp solution.
Bob Hoban: [00:16:49] Yeah, so international solutions and bija are are related. International Hemp Solutions is the parent company, the holding company if you will, and then bija the IJA which is Sanscrit for seed bija is the Hemp Seed Company and it's a full service Hemp seed company, meaning it offers varieties that it replicates itself from those European certified genetics, it develops its own genetics with its partners, Sunrise Genetics and in Pelo Bio Sciences, and it offers other third party seeds by way of brokering arrangements. And what we were able to do was professionalise the seed sale element of the industry because what we saw at that point in time, although it's gotten certainly a lot better at that point in time, it was one off deals where a guy would literally roll up in a U-Haul truck with a bunch of clones and sell the clones for anywhere from one to ten dollars per clone, saying that this was the greatest temporality that anyone's ever seen. Most of the time those plants failed, that their their rates of viability were extremely low. The fact that they were sold as feminize seed became exposed because most of those so-called feminised genetics were actually males. So it created an answer to a problem that most Hemp farmers didn't even know existed right then and there. And that was where do you get reliable, large scale industrial hemp seed that can be used to really turn this into a commodity worldwide and it embraces that tried cropping style. I've seen far too many farmers, which they wouldn't do with any other crop, but with Hemp for some reason they figured that they can just grow industrial hemp for one purpose and one purpose only CBD or non psychoactive cannabinoid production.
Bob Hoban: [00:18:39] But what happens when you grow a crop for one purpose and one purpose only? You kind of put yourself in a box, particularly when it's a volatile pricing environment with wholesale prices up high one day and you can't move the product out the door the next steaks. So what what the seed genetic platform does, coupled with the US Department of Agriculture rules that were issued in the last quarter of twenty nineteen really forces Hemp farmers forces them towards growing a multi crop style or a tribe krock style where you grow vast acreage that's densely planted of a certified genetic so you can get underwriting for crop insurance so you can get a loan to feed your family during that season. And then when it comes down to it, you harvest the top three feet of the plant. Those are your seeds. You want seeds in the Hemp plant. You wouldn't shouldn't play Hemp plant without seeds in it. It produces more seeds by botanical unit of measurement than any other plan on earth. Then you've got the fiber, then you've got the cellulose, the lignin, the sugar from the inside the plant. And then guess what your waste product is? Your waste product is cannabinoids interprets someday that'll make you rich. The next day you won't be able to move it. That's really where things are going. And exciting to be part of all of that as we see it evolve because that's been the style that's been utilised and implemented across Europe, except they haven't traditionally been allowed to use their cannabinoids, which we can use in the United States.
Joy Beckerman: [00:20:04] Absolutely. And we speak about it here all the time. And I want to make sure the listeners know that there are, of course, CVB and hence extracting varieties sown for Hemp extractor. Of course, if you've been involved with the industry, particularly in the United States in the last five years, that seems to be what all the buzz is about. And such as you say, Bob, an area of exploitation of our farmers who are being sold essentially magic beans by unscrupulous seed sellers. And what they really need are stable, unique, distinct genetics, certified, pedigreed and. What Visa has to offer. And so we're not just talking about extract varieties. We're talking about fiber varieties. We're talking about green varieties. And to your point, bringing it all together or saying one about hold a whole crop or whole plant utilization. And we often use the example of Holland, then Agro, for example, of course, the Albats out there growing his fiber Hemp. It's only got about three to four percent CBD in the leaves. There's not a whole lot of leaves there. But he's got infrastructure and he's got equipment, as is throughout Europe, to harvest that long, strong, valuable stock. And all, as you say, the cellulose Hemp, cellulose, sugars and lenience involved in it.
Joy Beckerman: [00:21:22] And of course, the nano technology and an incredible carbon aspects of Hemp that we've discovered and then takes that top part of the plant and extracts it for the cannabinoids and has the two in the two industries going for him. So he's got the animal bedding Hemp herd for Hemp Creek. He makes the pre-fab walls. He takes that fast fiber, the outer bark of the of the Hemp stock as opposed to that inner woody core, the herd and then produces non woven mats for insulation and granaz and other products from there. And you've got his CBD product. So, you know, and then when we get graining involved in it, forget about it. It is the highest digestible form of protein in the entire planet. Animal kingdom, densely nutritious. And of course, the perfect ratio of a made goes to Reason 6. And then we could even talk about the root, which of course builds tremendous organic matter in the soil. It's wonderful for building soil, the very deep, strong tappet. But also those roots contain valuable and rare try turbines that don't exist anywhere else in the plant, which even Dr In-thing Rousseau has begun in the last few years here to do presentations on the historical and current uses for the properties found in that RuPaul.
Joy Beckerman: [00:22:45] It's everything, and that's definitely the message. And just so grateful for Baeza International Hemp Solutions, again, as it were, to really help connect those dots and make those genetics available to folks. And in my presentations that, you know, when we discuss the obvious overproduction of extract varieties of Hemp in the United States and the fact that we add several hundred fifty five gallon drums, it's not more spread across the United States of Hemp extract from the 2018 crop as we were harvesting the 2019 crop. We say pivot, please. Farmers learn to pivot into grain, into fiber and into utilising that whole plant. The infrastructure is coming. Clearly, we don't want farmers growing just for fiber when they don't have a fiber processing facility anywhere near them. And let's hear what you have to say, Bob. You know, I think what we're really looking for are processing plants and processing facilities, lest we get confused here, processing facilities within every 50 to 100 square miles of the biomass feedstock. And then it will probably be regional in terms of what that processing is. What are your thoughts on that?
Bob Hoban: [00:24:02] Well, just one thing before we get to the processing part of it, which is really fascinating. But but just to think about, have we learned our lesson as an industry when. To your point, these barrels of oil, these piles of biomass wrapped up in those sort of plastic wraps, they called marshmallows left out in the field because nobody can move that biomass for for extraction, which, by the way, is parentheses. Everybody should be making it the crude oil at a minimum, because at least that'll stay longer. That's the only way that you're gonna be able to get through all of this. But that's neither here nor there right now. When you think about the fact that all of a sudden the USDA comes out with rules that basically says the former high CBD varieties, if you bring a plant to full maturity and a possible 0.3%, that's not Hemp and you're not supposed to plant unstable genetics anymore. It's not fair. It's not fair to the farmers. What's the buzz word this year, CVG? Let's go out and play CBG varieties. Pay me three dollars a seed for that. It just doesn't make sense. JOYCE And we're going down this road all over again thinking that we're going to get rich on CBD, smokeable, Hemp or CBG with a reality. You have to look at a plant to service multiple verticals. If you don't, then you put yourself in a box that is not fair to the farmers, but it is it goes back to the farmers. To your point, why would or why should or could a farmer plant Hemp plant that produces something other than extraction capability, you know, can Avenue production when it doesn't have the infrastructure nearby? We've advised clients over the last three years that come in.
Bob Hoban: [00:25:39] With large pools of money and say we want to invest in extraction, our first thing out of my mouth is extraction is saturated. You don't see it yet because they're not all online, but do not waste your money on investment in the extraction industry. We said that over and over and over again. Well, what should we do? Mr. Hoban law., the answer is always, well, you should look at other infrastructure. You should look at cultivation equipment. You should look at de-clawed occasion. You should look at seed conditioning equipment. You should look at counter current technologies that can remove the cellulose, the league and all the good stuff from the inside of the plant. You should look at pelota using a microbe toe's pellet technologies that allow for this to be used in building materials and pellets. And instead, the vast majority, 60 or 65 percent of those co-leads still went out, invested in the extraction infrastructure. Now they all call and say, we're sorry we didn't listen to you. What can we do now? So now it comes full circle back to where it was technically three years ago. Just nobody seems to be following where the puck is going. They were looking at where the puck is. And by the time we get there, it's not there anymore. That's the mistake that people made over and over and over again. So how do you get those types of technologies to process near farms? So you go to parts of the country that are traditionally well steeped in grain production. If you go to a green production region like parts of the Midwest and Montana, USA in particular, Montana is grain country.
Bob Hoban: [00:27:12] The Montana farmers were burned early by large scale promises from so-called CBD companies that couldn't raise money. And the farmers grew a bunch of high CBD varieties, never got paid. Some of those some of that biomass is still sitting in fields in Montana. To this day, three years later. But now those folks are realizing that they have to focus on seed production. They have to focus on green. And this is particularly salient in this point in time with this Cobbett virus, with the Corona virus impacting the world from a pandemic perspective, all of a sudden you're looking at the need for natural products. This will reveal that there is a broken structure in our global food pipeline and that there are protein deficiencies around the world. What FILDES Protein deficiencies so easily between their seeds and the oil crust from the seeds industrial Hemp what provides omega 3s in omega 6s for well-balanced diets around the world? Industrial hemp seeds. So you're starting to see that all come back around to the point where if you use the right genetics, you can gross that fifteen hundred dollars per acre. That's almost three times what any farmer has ever made in its entire life per acre selling chickpeas or corn or alfalfa. And yet somehow the promise of making, you know, a billion dollars per acre selling CBG is what people fall into the trap. I don't understand that. But hopefully its outlets like this where we can talk about things real with no B.S. that people will take some lessons away and not fall for those get rich quick schemes.
Bob Hoban: [00:28:52] I like the idea that you could have magic beans because that's sure as hell what it sounds like it is when you when you're hearing feminised 97 percent germination, 18 percent CBD, zero percent THC. You know, these are magic beans people. Absolutely. That's what we're hearing. And I'm very proud, of course, to be a co-founder and senior advisor to Colorado. Hemp works the nation's first post prohibition Hemp grain processing facility and can say that we can't get enough. Please, if you are out there and you have existing you're an existing grain farmer with thens with combined with all of those materials and equipment and you have irrigated USDA certified organic land, we can't enter into enough of those contracts. The demand is huge. And when we say that hemp seed is the most digestible form of protein in the entire planet, animal kingdom, we're talking about 50 percent of it in protein, very valuable, highly absorbable, rare form of protein, 60 percent Addison protein in the protein content of that seed along with no trips and inhibitors, which of course are properties that prevent the absorption of protein in their present chips and inhibitors in beef, chicken waste away way, all of those things. And of course that the full amino acid profile really that's present in in the Hemp feed. So there's just no comparison. We're talking about a real game changer.
Joy Beckerman: [00:30:21] Stop chasing rain, unicorns and rainbows and really let this plant work for your farm, work for the consumer and work for the planet before we move into some corona virus wisdom, mister. Is there anything else? You wanted to make sure the listeners know or a current message?
Joy Beckerman: [00:30:43] Well, certainly I think that we have a saying around our office these days that panic is contagious, but so is leadership. And we've always tried to to exhibit that leadership. And when you're when you're in a leadership role, you know, there's there's a lot of people that disagree with you, at least initially, and there's nothing wrong with that. But I think that one of the places that we can all agree is that right now, with the tightening of the economy, with the fact that forget about the Corona virus for a second, the fact that the industrial hemp industry was being squeezed from a financing perspective as it related to its primary cash crop, the cannabinoids, it was already being squeezed. It was already tightening up this industry to the point where you only were going to do business with people that you've already done business with, people that you knew could deliver on their promise. We're starting to see lawsuits already today that say, well, I couldn't deliver on my promises because of the Corona virus using certain legal theories to try to get out of card contracts. Well, that has nothing to do with the Corona virus. This was the environment before Kobe 90. This was the environment where people were making promises that they had no chance. Acid hitting a home run one handed with your eyes closed out of the park to go out and accomplish things that you were promising people that you were accomplishing that you could accomplish just because it created an economic opportunity for you. So the tightening up of the industry is something that I think we all could agree with was occurring and will continue to occur now. But what does that mean? It means you're only going to work with people that, you know, that have been reputable, that have done what they said they're going to do, and that if it sounds too good to be true, hopefully people realize that it is indeed too good to be true, unfortunately.
Bob Hoban: [00:32:34] Previously, a lot of that too good to be true was fueled by wealthy investors that really had no clue about the industry. So the first person that they saw that looked and talked the way they looked in top, they listened to that person as gospel. And unfortunately, it led a lot of people to financial ruin. And it created an environment where the Hemp industry needed to go back to fundamentals, back to basics. It's about creating a commodity, sizable crop that can service multiple verticals, not putting something in the ground, thinking you want to get rich on one part of that plant, meaning CBD or other cannabinoid production. And you're also kind of seeing this idea that the notion behind the sexy, the exciting element of cannabinoids, that's what makes Hemp exciting to so many people. If you talk about traditional green or ag production with people, they say that's old news. You've heard about that for decades and decades and decades and that's never really gone anywhere. Well, that may have been true, but to your point, fifteen minutes ago, at the end of the day, new technology allows us to do all of those things and do them very well. And if you're going to run a business in this industry, you have to tighten up and you have to go back to business fundamentals, which include doing things that aren't the sexiest, most exciting topics, even though you and I find green and fiber exciting. I think most investors do that in the end.
Joy Beckerman: [00:33:56] Hopefully they will, because as we've seen tech now the and others reporting a 24 percent compound annual growth rate between now and 2022 in the Hemp Green because of its vegan or vegetarian based protein source, it's being gluten free and we've got this increase in celiac and gluten intolerance.
Joy Beckerman: [00:34:13] So find it sexy investors. It's pretty sexy. Thank you so much for that. I agree with that. I agree with the soy.
Bob Hoban: [00:34:22] And you are such a wise man, of course. We share the wisdom imparted by the one and only Grateful Dead all the time. And I love our our way of communicating. And I love listening. When you speak and others in your network and in sort of the the Hemp tribe speak when we're presenting. And I listened carefully for the Grateful Dead lyrics ever so strategically and cleverly placed in. In your major points, you make it so wonderful. And as we talk about with the know anything here to offer around Hemp, around what we're experiencing right now with this Corona virus, which I do believe we are going to come out of this, a better world, an improved world, a more unconscious world. Does my heart absolutely break over the challenges and problems and suffering that this virus is causing, particularly to those who are socioeconomically deprived? But but if we could get some goodness out of what's happening here, do you have anything to share for us as it relates to Hamper or others are the things about life on Earth?
Bob Hoban: [00:35:32] Well, I think that it's important to just set the record straight on a lot of different things. That is, it's not insensitive to talk about business and people's small business and medium sized business opportunities during this time of crisis. It is absolutely not insensitive. There are people that have given their all cashed in their ferral. One case taken their children's retirement accounts to build businesses in this brand new industry. This is all that they have and that's all that they know. And if they're not provided with some sort of the hope and insight, providing them with questions to ask and then answers to those questions about what is going to happen when we do, to your point, come out of this thing as a whole, sort of better and stronger as a world, as a society. I think it's our responsibility to talk about these things in that perspective. That doesn't mean we lose an ounce. Not even for a second of our humanity caring about people helping out when we can. But it is important for people to understand what is next and that the sun's still going to come up every single day. And that means that the world moves forward. And if you're not looking forward to how you can continue to participate and come out of this thing from a stronger business perspective, you're not really doing your job to your investors, to your partners or to your family. And that's kind of the insight that we hope the bridge brings. But the one word that really typifies for me, what's going to happen going forward, especially as it relates to our Cannabis industry as a whole and the Hemp industry included within that purview is collaboration.
Bob Hoban: [00:37:12] And it does not matter how strong you were based on your own measurements of success going into this pandemic. It doesn't matter if you were on an upward trajectory or if you had obtained investment or you were slated to make a particular financial target goal for your company and in a particular quarter or a year. You can't do those things alone any longer. Doesn't matter if you're a service provider, a farmer or a manufacturer, you will have to collaborate. So that is a place where people should be spending time focusing right now. Focus on what your network has. Who are people that you know and trust? Figure out ways, not just conceptually say how can we work together? That's a great conversation starter. But how can you create a strategic partnership, a merger, a joint venture, an acquisition? All of those things are things that you need to be advancing right now, because, again, it does not matter how strong, how much distribution you had and how much your your your balance sheet, how positive it was at the end of twenty nineteen or even a month ago, you're not going to be able to do it by yourself any longer. That's a fact. This would have happened in three years anyway, with natural market driven consolidation in an industry. But now it's the pandemic that's driving this and the sooner that we come to grips with that fact. All of us, every single business in this brand new industry, because in the big picture, we are small potatoes compared to other industries. Industries that have been around for decades and decades and decades. So we must align, we must collaborate. And then last.
Bob Hoban: [00:38:53] Be careful what you put into the ground. If you plant ice, you're going to harvest wind. If you plant CBG, you might not come out of the other side of this tunnel with any profits to show for it. So please understand that you should embrace this try crop full service model. Of course, that depends on the infrastructure nearby, but collaboration and being smart about farmers farming is really what we need to look forward to. And those are the things that are gonna get out of this, get us out of this thing without too much of a hitch in our step.
Joy Beckerman: [00:39:26] So beautiful. And of course, for the Deadheads out there, I hope you just caught if you plant ice, you're going to harvest when I'm going to wrap it up with a Hoban law. them and that is co-optation. Colloff and kitchen is a term that I believe you coined if you didn't. I always attributed to you when I use it. What you were talking about here is co-optation. Stop with this idea of competition and cooperate. The only thing that is going to save mankind is cooperation, and the only thing that is going to allow Hemp to be everything that it can be and serve all of the industries that it serve, which is basically every single need of humans and animals on the planet. It's going to be through competition. Bob, I cannot thank you enough for being on our show today.
Joy Beckerman: [00:40:12] I can't wait to have you back. Thank you for everything that you do for the reemerging, reestablishing Hemp crop.
Bob Hoban: [00:40:19] Absolutely. My pleasure. Anytime, Joe. Thanks again. Thank you.
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