Olive Harvey College

Olive-Harvey College Urban Agriculture Department to contribute important data to Midwest database.  

Olive-Harvey College (OHC) Urban Agriculture Department is pleased to announce their partnership with University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College (UIUC) of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences Cooperative Extension office, in joining the Midwestern Hemp Cultivar Check program.

This program is grant-funded through Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education, and supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture which helps Olive-Harvey’s Urban Agriculture Department perform innovative research that will allow a deeper understanding of how to produce federally compliant hemp specific to the Midwestern region of the United States.

This information will be shared with growers via the Midwestern Hemp Database to ensure optimal cultivation methods for growing and harvesting hemp that follows the legal testing limit. Researchers share the results with the public through the interactive dashboard which helps growers make better informed decisions on production practices and hemp cultivars.

“It is a rare opportunity for a community college, and Olive-Harvey is leading the way, conducting indoor cultivation trials utilizing its brand-new greenhouse to grow over ten different hemp cultivars to contribute data to Seedlinked.com, the public database supporting Midwest hemp farmers,” said Assistant Professor Akilah Easter, Interim Dean of Urban Agriculture at Olive Harvey College.

This research effort is led by Commercial Agriculture Educator Phillip Alberti of UIUC in partnership with OHC environmental biology researcher Steven Philpott Jr. Instructor

Institutions currently participating are: Michigan State University, University of Illinois, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Purdue University and Olive-Harvey College. The project also partners with private laboratories including Rock River Laboratory, Inc., Pride Analytics and Consulting, and ACT laboratories.

The Midwestern Hemp Database and Olive-Harvey College are licensed through the Illinois Department of Agriculture as both a licensed Industrial Cannabis community college vocational pilot program that empowers students to engage in various educational pursuits in the cannabis industry. Students have hands-on curriculum as well as courses to prepare individuals for the various professional careers in the cannabis industry.