Approval came earlier this month, but school officials say the program must still go through any required state and accreditor reviews. The Higher Learning Commission must also sign off.<\/p>\n
Industrial hemp production was legalized in New Mexico in 2019, and federal officials just recently approved the state Department of Agriculture\u2019s hemp production regulatory plan. That allows the state to continue regulatory oversight over hemp production within its borders.<\/p>\n
Growers and state officials say New Mexico has advantages over other states due to optimal growing conditions and an abundance of relatively cheap land.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe that industrial hemp is a growth industry that can benefit the economic development of northeastern New Mexico,\u201d Highlands business professor Heath Anderson said. \u201cThe most important goal of the new certificate program is to prepare students with the professional skills needed to be successful in the burgeoning legal hemp industry. It\u2019s an opportunity to create an offering that\u2019s very relevant in the business market.\u201d<\/p>\n
The university\u2019s program will have two tracks \u2014 one for students focused on the business of industrial hemp and another for students interested in the science of plant production.<\/p>\n
Industrialized hemp can be used in many products, from textiles and bioplastics to biofuels and medicinal applications.<\/p>\n
The New Mexico Economic Development Department has predicted some 400 jobs could result from hemp-related businesses throughout the state with help from local economic development funding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Approval came earlier this month, but school officials say the program must still go through any required state and accreditor reviews. The Higher Learning Commission must also sign off. Industrial hemp production was legalized in New Mexico in 2019, and federal officials just recently approved the state Department of Agriculture\u2019s hemp production regulatory plan. That […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[815,2824,138],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-50065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-associated-press-new-mexico","tag-hemp","tag-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50065\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50065"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=50065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}