A flyer at a Grateful Dead concert in 1990 started Joy Beckerman on her life's journey in Hemp. In Part One of this two part interview Joy speaks to Dan Humiston about her over a quarter century career in hemp. Her fascinating experiences and unique insight make her one of the most respected people in the hemp industry today. Produced by PodCONX https://podconx.com/guests/joy-beckerman
A flyer at a Grateful Dead concert in 1990 started Joy Beckerman on her life's journey in Hemp. In Part One of this two part interview Joy speaks to Dan Humiston about her over a quarter century career in hemp. Her fascinating experiences and unique insight make her one of the most respected people in the hemp industry today.
https://podconx.com/guests/joy-beckerman
Dan Humiston: [00:00:01] Welcome to Hemp Baron's. I'm Dan Humiston. And on today's show we have one of my favorite people Joy Beckerman drops in to talk about her lifelong career in health. Joyce had such a colorful life that it was impossible for us to edit the show without cutting out a lot of really good stuff. So we're gonna do it. Two parts to do part one today and we'll do part two next Tuesday. I know you're really gonna enjoy this show so let's get it going and join my conversation with joy Beckerman.
Dan Humiston: [00:00:53] Hi Joy. Welcome to the show.
Joy Beckerman: [00:00:55] It's so wonderful to be here again and to be connected with you again. This is great.
Dan Humiston: [00:01:00] Well for our listeners I first met Joy back in 2017. I don't know if you remember this but we were both at a Christmas party in New York City and joy was asked to say a few words about him and I fell in love. Seriously.
Joy Beckerman: [00:01:16] I remember it like it was yesterday and I remember it like it did.
Dan Humiston: [00:01:20] As soon as you started speaking I said I have to meet this woman. I have very seldom heard anyone not just knowing as much about a product but being as comfortable with the audience. It was like we were just everybody was just sucked in in this small room. This literally just the passion which is losing you. And it was like Oh my God we I have to meet this person. So for our listeners you be ready strap in lock yourself in. This is going to be the best show and thank you right back.
Joy Beckerman: [00:01:50] Brother it's just my passion my total passion.
Dan Humiston: [00:01:53] Well let's jump into it. You've been in the industry for most your life. Just give us a quick overview your career. Talk about how international. Just give us the whole story.
Joy Beckerman: [00:02:03] Yay. Well I was first introduced to HeMP in 1990 at the age just 20 years old at a Grateful Dead show. There was a book that was written by Jack Harrer may he rest in peace and order made by Chris Conrad an amazing advocate who is still with us called The Emperor Wears No Clothes. Keep in mind that the United States government didn't just want to remove the plant from our conscious that they wanted to remove all knowledge of the hemp plant from our consciousness. So in the mid 80s Jack and Chris got together and said we have got to be able to prove the United States history here. They knew that there had been a film in nineteen forty one or forty two that the USDA had put out called Hemp for Victory because they needed us farmers to grow a ton of hemp for the war effort for the Navy effort. They knew that we had this incredibly rich history but it wasn't in our museums and they scoured the National Archives in Washington D.C. and multiple other libraries and they published all of these documents to prove to us the reality and called the thing The Emperor Wears No Clothes. It's now probably in its 15th or 16th addition now but that book really was the start of the cannabis movements and all of it more daunting information would get distributed through the Grateful Dead choice.
Joy Beckerman: [00:03:23] This information was spread throughout the United States and the world through these concerts we you know anywhere from 20000 people to 60000 people and I got a flyer with some excerpts from the book The Emperor Wears No clothing at a Foxborough Massachusetts Dead show in the spring of 1990 when I got that flyer. It affected me on a cellular level and truly altered the trajectory of my life. It brought together to me a convergence really of a sense of planetary healing with a strong sense of justice because what this single page flier told me was can do all these things it can do paper textiles building materials bio composite fuel energy industrial sequencing coatings it can do with human and animal food nutrition body care general wellness and now we know nanotechnology. So with said here it can do all of these things. It's a fast growing carbon sequestering plant when treated correctly. It can heal and build the soil. Guess what. It be legal it's safe. It's helpful and it's a criminal act in the United States of America to grow and even I sit here and say those words to you now. Twenty nine years later I get chills because it blows my mind brother and it blew my mind dear and it really affected me and set my life on a course that is so cool the idea or the movement began at festivals essentially.
Dan Humiston: [00:04:54] And they got people like you and other people inspired enough to join the movement to push it.
Joy Beckerman: [00:05:00] And finally like you said since goose bumps that we are where we are today where we are today right and then the 1990s and following the Grateful Dead for a little while longer and then 1994 comes along and I open up a store in Woodstock in fact the first time during the State of the oil Lane in wood. Now we had Chuck Nice. Yes of course. Of course on cannery Brook Road called Heaven on Earth. We need a whole nother show and we can certainly have one another time for me to tell you about the hilarious going gone there and the fact that I got this season just to order from the U.S. Secret Service in Albany to stop mutilating U.S. currency because we were stamping. I grew heart bubbles coming out of George Washington's mouth on every dollar bill that was going in and out. And then what happened was because of that. This this letter and the tremendous amount of recognition and press coverage that it got there was a lot of paranoia. And the folks that were supporting the store in the Woodstock community didn't dare to be seen going into the store anymore at that point the first inaugural health bill passed in Vermont in nineteen ninety six. And I was appointed to serve as secretary of the Vermont Health Council.
Joy Beckerman: [00:06:17] So I relocated the family to Burlington Vermont and stayed in that role and helped to run an assistant manage three Vermont emporium which were hemp stores in Vermont that also make manufacturing some of their own products like died hemp twine and some sun dresses and things and then my children got a little older and and I was a single mother at the time and so I then relocated to Seattle Washington. Oh wow. Yes. Where. Give cost of living and the quality of life and the opportunities for me as a single mother particularly somebody who is very skilled in legal support could really make a life to begin a dual career in complex civil litigation and compliance along with him throughout raising the kids and did that for 20 years in Washington about 20 years in compliance and complex civil litigation with some of the really the finest attorneys on the West Coast and some very high profile cases that I was lead paralegal to everything leads to where we find ourselves now. Dan I know you don't agree to that as long as you know he's always does all of those experiences. They literally hold me and press the oil out of me and trained me and really made it so that I can do the jobs that I'm doing now.
Dan Humiston: [00:07:37] This leads us right into hempace international and all the other irons you have in the fire. Jump in. Let's talk about hempace international start there.
Joy Beckerman: [00:07:46] Yes great. So in 2014 I formed this International which is an expert witness and legal support and consulting firm specific to him. I serve clients all over the globe. A lot of my clients are attorneys because marijuana law or adult use in medical cannabis law is fairly cut and dry because it's like it's either what's going on in this state but how law and policy gets a bit more confusing because we have federal law. The feds haven't even acknowledged right on many levels at all medical or adult use cannabis but they certainly have acknowledged that. So there's this constant inter holding of local state and federal. And so I service a lot of attorneys. However I did a lot of help extract consulting and now as of January 1 I also had the role and as a regulatory officer and industry legal liaison to listen oh my gosh yes.
Dan Humiston: [00:08:47] was huge.
Joy Beckerman: [00:08:48] It's huge. We're currently in 43 countries with hemp extract and arguably the fifth largest one in the world.
Dan Humiston: [00:08:55] And those guys are great guys. they exhibitors at our show every year. Super good people. That's a great one here. No. Good to hear.
Joy Beckerman: [00:09:05] Thank you so much. And between that and obviously the purity and potency and transparency of Alex the novel and the standards that they uphold they put so much money into the non-profit arena and into lobbying efforts and advocacy efforts. That's a company that really puts its money where its mouth is and that's what gave the opportunity for me to really get to know it because we were just we continue but have been just doing some very important nonprofit work not just on the state level but at the federal level and global levels.
Joy Beckerman: [00:09:35] They really engage in properly I commend them for doing it though because it's not as easy as. But he shouldn't do that. They need to give back and that's I'm not surprised at all that Alex and I is right at the front of that pack they are right at the front of that pack.
Joy Beckerman: [00:09:48] I have to also state because it's so near and dear to my heart because of the nutrient dense hemp seed it is the highest digestible form of protein on the planet between plant and animal kingdoms it of course is the perfect ratio of omega 3s and thick gluten free it's non gmo it's the superfood that really requires a super Henson case and so I'm also very proud to be a co-founder and senior advisor to Colorado hemp works in Longmont Colorado and that's our nation's first post prohibition grain processing facility we helped seed oil and the whole hemp things and may help protein powder hemp protein powder. So very proud of that in Colorado. You said Longmont Colorado Colorado hemp works but moving on to the nonprofit work which is where my true joy. I mean I love working in hemp is a dream come true to work in hemp and of course I still say to this day but if I could just make a million dollars just educating on hemp I would just tell the story of them all the time. Definitely my my favorite thing to do. The nonprofit world. That's where my love and my heart is and I probably do about 30 hours a week. Pro bono for the Health Industry Association which I am the president of. And the HIPAA was founded in 1994. So it's really our nation's premier trade association or has been really our nation's brain trust and access to the global expert community. We have sued the DEA four times since 2000 and. Yeah we have won three and a half out of four times though. Not that a whole nother show there.
Joy Beckerman: [00:11:27] And I also form since moving back to New York I from the Washington State chapter when I lived there we have gone the New York State chapter of which I'm currently president of as well and we have a very robust as you know program for hand in New York State I'm so so thrilled to be I call it the Empire State although I always called it the Empire State and people told me I was crazy. Well now and then the other nonprofit that I work with is the U.S. health authority and I'm very proud to be the president of the U.S. Health Authority which is a newer organization that has created the first CGM pain which are current good manufacturing practices and GMP which are good agricultural practices for him. And we we're certifying dietary supplements food and cosmetics that are made with hemp right now. It's a very important piece of the industry because while we love and need to continue to preserve and protect cottage industry we do have to understand that we're especially when it comes to hemp extractor hemp is derived CBD product and anything that is for human or animal consumption or to put on our bodies. How is the customer going to know when they go on the shelf with all of these products. How do I know well we've got the U.S. hemp authority certified seal now so they can at least understand this is think this is quality assured and it also tells law enforcement this resource from legal hemp which is so important because a couple missteps at this point could set things back.
Joy Beckerman: [00:12:59] We don't need that. So just to make sure that it's put that stamp of approval on there it's necessary. Other industries are used to doing. I think that's great.
Dan Humiston: [00:13:15] Thanks for listening to today's show. And don't forget to tune in next Tuesday for part two of my interview with Joy Beckerman.
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