when Onda Wellness Founder Stephen Smith chose hemp as the topic of his 1999 high school thesis, most people didn’t see much of a difference between hemp and cannabis. And the people in his rural North Carolina area didn’t exactly look at it with much enthusiasm.
The thesis was Smith’s stab at stirring the pot.
But what he calls his “shameless research work” eventually turned into a lifelong passion. Writing the diary, he says, “made me angry.”
“Why don’t we use this amazing, bountiful and dynamic crop?” he says he wondered while drafting the paper. “I found that it was used as rope, for building materials. Its history runs deep in America.”
Now, decades after Smith made his first homemade hemp oil, mixed it with tea and discovered it soothed him, his Oregon company’s line of hemp oil is the first in the world to win Land on the market verification: confirming that the practices used to grow the crop produce a net positive effect on soil vitality.
Livestock serve as vital partners in soil regeneration, also known as regenerative agriculture. In Onda’s case, a combination of chickens, turkeys and pigs help keep the land where the hemp is grown healthy, Married Family Farms in Madras, Oregon, where hemp is grown.
Land To Market Verification represents one of several relatively new consumer labels tackling the broad concept of regenerative agriculture, which has become more widely known thanks to films like Kiss the Ground, extensive media coverage, and various consumer-oriented labels. consumer In addition to Land To Market, stamps include Regenerative Organic Certification of the Regenerative Organic Alliance and Certified regenerator for a greener world. Regenerative agriculture is designed to improve soil and ecosystem health; Farms and companies that invest in these practices aim to enrich the soil through livestock grazing and organic practices, which result in greater biodiversity.
Smith sought Land To Market verification instead of other stamps, the program looks at results and doesn’t prescribe a specific process to follow.
“A certification type might say you have to do X, Y, and Z and we’ll give you the stamp of approval,” says Smith. “But Land To Market says, first let’s see where you are now and how can we help you achieve a more biodiverse landscape? It’s outcomes-based.”
The end product, Onda’s hemp oil derived from the CBD-rich Lifter hemp strain, is of “higher quality without having to use synthetic or commercial inputs,” he says. “No fish emulsion, no boosters. It’s a combination of animals and a variety of crops, including hemp, that rotate to build soil vitality.”
While Smith works to increase awareness and establish retail relationships for Onda, with California-based natural grocer Erewhon as a retail partner, the CBD market is struggling. Based on Poland hemp today, U.S. hemp acreage today is only 20% of what it was during its peak in 2019. The desire for the hemp cannabinoid CBD among supplement brands fueled heavy hemp planting across the country. But demand could not meet what became a flooded supply, and prices soared. During 2020, when supplement sales soared due to COVID, CBD supplement sales declined by 6%.
Smith says the volatility of the wild CBD market doesn’t give him pause.
“We’re just riding the wave, waiting for the used car salesmen and people who aren’t passionate about hemp to come out. We’re excited for the rest, after the dust settles,” he says. “The most effective analogy we use regarding Onda is that we are freshly squeezed orange juice, with natural vitamin C,” says Smith. “Others are just things with added CBD.”
Today, select health grocers such as Erewhon and New Seasons in Oregon, Washington and California carry Onda, and the online store is a busy market, Smith says. Onda offers tinctures, topicals, capsules, and herbal blends, and the Onda team makes them all with Land To Market verified hemp from Casad Family Farms.
Smith believes Onda’s commitment to regenerative farming practices will help propel the company forward, despite the faltering CBD market. Where most hemp oils are clear or golden, Onda’s are dark green in color and aromatic with hemp. He plans to create a wide range of products that include Onda hemp oil and other botanicals grown using regenerative practices.
“Hemp is a herb, a plant medicine like ashwagandha or turmeric,” he says. “The integration of hemp into these herbal formulas is a big part of our future. It’s a little more difficult for farmers to grow purely regeneratively or biodynamically (a series of farming protocols that also focus on the soil) , but I can’t imagine doing it any other way. We have a lot of dreams.”