A Burlington woman has sued the Vermont Hemp Company and its founder, Joel Bedard, in a dispute over a hemp harvest.
Cynthea Hausman is alleging that she and Bedard entered into an agreement to grow hemp on several acres of her family farm in Addison after the two met at a conference last April. Hausman needed money to save her mother’s 166-year-old farmhouse, which is in foreclosure proceedings, she told Seven Days. According to Hausman, her ailing 80-year-old mother is hospitalized and told her daughter she hoped to die on the property.
Hausman told Bedard she needed $45,000 to pay a bank and alleged in a suit filed January 25 that Bedard assured her she’d make that much.*
“He knew I was vulnerable. He knows why I need this money. He knows about my mom,” Hausman said in an interview. “It just seems like he doesn’t care.”
Bedard and his crew gave Hausman about 55 pounds of Futura 75 hemp seeds, which she planted across seven acres in July. Her suit claims that Bedard agreed to let Hausman inspect the crop once it was ready for harvest but that Bedard’s employees came onto her property without permission in late October and harvested the plants. Since then, Hausman has repeatedly asked Bedard for her money or to be allowed to inspect the crop; she even asked him to return the hemp. One of Bedard’s employees told her the company intended to hold onto the plants until market prices rise, according to the suit.
“All they have to do is what they said they were going to do: Sell and pay me,” Hausman said. “That’s the contract, and then it’s over.”
Bedard declined to comment but said he planned to respond to the suit in court.
*Correction, February 7, 2018: A previous version of this story misstated the amount of money Hausman expected to make out of the deal.The original print version of this article was headlined “In a Huff Over Hemp”
This article appears in The Love & Marriage Issue 2018.
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Small state. Not as many farms or farmers as there was. Word gets around.
Advice for you, Mr. Bedard.
Not a good look for the Hemp Industry in Vermont!
Shame on you Mr Bedard…it’s hard enough being a VT farmer already.
What a jerk! Good grief! Vermont is way too small town to screw people over, especially the 420 folks. Pay up and save the farm, for goodness sake.
We at Hempfully Green avoid Bedard, after finding out he isn’t out for the gopd of all. He has boasted to me how his wife is an attorney, makes a lot of money…… Looks like they both don’t mind screwing people over in a rush to be Burlington’s king of the crop.
Personal experience has taught me to take Joel with a grain of salt. This is a very sad story. I hope Cynthia’s mother is able to return to her family farm. With no infrastructure in place here in Vermont for processing industrial hemp, in my opinion, people should be growing for seed.
Mia Feroleto
Producer: HEMP NY CITY
Editor: Industrial Hemp: Superhero/Savior of Humanity
Founder and Chair of the now closed Vermont Chapter of Women Grow
In England we have seen enough small farmers go to the wall over many years and what it does is to reduce the opportunities for young people to go into farming or they can’t afford to continue the family farming business or the small farm and farmer are swallowed up by a larger neighbour.