Joseph Hickey Sr.
FIHO
Joe Hickey’s 30 year history in the hemp industry started in 1992 as the founder and Executive Director of the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative. Joe and Woody Harrelson established Tierra Madre, LLC in 1994 to focus on identifying and funding innovative technologies supporting environmental sustainability. Fueled by the idea “to know the law, you have to test the law”, Joe’s passion to leave the world a better place led him to challenging Kentucky’s hemp law by strategizing with friend and actor/environmental activist Woody Harrelson and planting of four hemp seeds in the hills of Kentucky. This action would propel the reintroduction of hemp into the agricultural landscape of the United States and solidify Joe’s role as a Hemp Pioneer. During this era, Joe reorganized the Kentucky Hemp Growers Co-op, worked with Governor Jones to established Kentucky’s Hemp Task Force and organized the first International Hemp Conference in the United States. He helped gain Kentucky’s and the National Farm Bureau’s support for hemp. Joe then in 1989, became a founding board member of Kenex, the first commercial industrial hemp operation in Canada, and was instrumental in drafting and passing Kentucky’s 2001 hemp legislation. In 2019, after more than 27 years of lobbying and research efforts, Joe Hickey became a founding member of Halcyon Technology Holdings, Inc. Hickey is on the boards of the Kentucky Hemp Association, Friends Of Hemp, Global Hemp Association, Standing Committee of Hemp Organizations, Federation of International Hemp Organizations and continues to help move the hemp industry forward with a revered passion.
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