You may recall that in January, we launched a CrowdFarming Campaign to Support Regenerative Hemp Agriculture Production. We’re excited to announce that we hit 100% of our debt goal of $170,000 with 61 lenders in just 36 days!

We’d like to thank our lenders for their commitment to finance regenerative hemp grain production. Lenders in this CrowdFarming campaign will receive 6% interest for putting their capital at risk, and supporting us as we bring better alternatives to the market. Because of their support Vollmar Family Farms will be able to prepare for their 2021 planting season without delay. 

Over the last five years, we have raised over $5M of debt and equity from over 350 mission-aligned lenders and investors that understand that the impact we’re driving is critical to a broad consortium of stakeholders. From the State of Kentucky to Fair Foods Fund, our lenders and investors have risen to the opportunity to participate in supporting systemic change. 

We’ll continue to utilize the Steward CrowdFarming platform and other platforms in the future, so if you weren’t able to lend this time around, there will be opportunities to get involved with our next project. Keep an eye out at stwd.farm/victory!

This was our first experience utilizing Steward, and one of the questions that came up from participating lenders throughout the campaign was around the definition and verification of regenerative farming practices. The Regenerative Organic Certification (ROC) was established to provide transparency and clarification. This summer, Vollmar Family Farms plans to take their commitment to sustainable farming further and receive Silver Level Regenerative Organic Certification (ROC) on their farm. Some of ROC-Silver criteria is listed below:

• Maintains year-round vegetative cover on 50-75% of all cultivated land
• Minimum of four crops rotated through the same area 
• Four additional regenerative practices are used in operation (these additional practices include Mulching, Perennial Planting, Grassed Waterways, Vegetative Barriers, Water Conservation and/or Wetland Restoration, and more)

To read more about the ROC and the full requirements for the Silver level, click here.

Can we get more of our supply from acreage that is managed under these principles? That’s Victory Hemp’s goal; seed by seed, acre by acre, year by year.

Thanks for embarking on this journey with us,

Chad, The Victory Hemp Team, and Vollmar Family Farms