Determined legislator trying to get hemp over hump

Caroline Nilsson Troy sports her zebra printed blazer and large pearls around her neck while she briefly rummages around in her office.

She talks about the new comfy slippers she just bought because of how badly her feet ache after a long day of scurrying around the Capitol building going back and forth between meetings.

After a long couple years of trying to legalize hemp in Idaho, Troy, R-Genesee, is still fighting — no matter how much her feet hurt when she goes to bed.

Before Troy introduced a bill legalizing the farming of hemp in Idaho, she was a young girl going to school in Africa.

Troy’s parents grew up in Genesee, went to University of Idaho, and became high school sweethearts. Along with Troy’s two brothers, she grew up in Genesee just like her parents. Farming was all around her, wheat fields as far as the plains would go.

Troy’s father was working for a pea plant in Lewiston when one day he looked at his wife and said that he hated his job. After that, he promptly joined the Peace Corps. That was when Troy and her siblings packed up everything from their home and traveled across the world to start a new life in Botswana, Africa, where her father was going to work for a foundation seed program.

From fourth grade to sophomore year of high school, Troy watched her father do everything there is to do with quality testing seeds in the program.

After living in a place with only 20 miles of paved road, Troy’s family came back to Idaho with a new experience under their belts — and one that would shape Troy for the years to come.

She didn’t think she would circle back to agriculture, but she believes it keeps finding its way to her somehow. Now, she is keeping the idea of farming hemp alive in the Idaho statehouse.

All the things that people in Botswana struggle with, said Troy, rural Americans also struggle with.

Troy’s main reason for wanting Idaho to legalize farming hemp is that she believes farmers are at a disadvantage. That's because in her eyes, farmers have to keep a good crop rotation to keep making money, and hemp would help the farmers’ crop system. Troy traveled to Canada to learn about a farm there which uses hemp to keep food fresh.

“Hemp is in a lot of different products — you would be shocked,” she said. “Even The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.”

Troy wholeheartedly believes that hemp would be a great commodity within Idaho since it can be put to use in thousands of products, like milk, cosmetics and even cat litter. She said she's looking to add value to the things that Idaho is already doing well. Nearly 47 states made it legal to farm and research hemp so far, but Idaho is not one of them.

“Farmers are trying to think about what other plants they can raise that will make them money because otherwise they go out of business. It doesn’t take a lot of synthetic fertilizers to grow, it doesn’t need a lot of pesticides, and it doesn’t have a lot of pests that attack it,” Troy said.

Troy has spent what seems like forever trying to convince people what she sees in the future of hemp farming in Idaho. It’s a long battle with those around her, and politics continue to play a role in the idea of hemp within the Legislature.

Troy said a lot of people tend to believe that hemp is the same as marijuana, although hemp has an extremely minimal amount of THC.

“You would have to smoke truckloads to get high, and you would just make yourself sick. It’s pretty much impossible,” she said.

In 2019, Troy started with the hemp bill and it died fast.

“I got involved with a lot of politics I was naive to,” she said.

The next year, she got a little further — the bill went to the Senate, back to the House, and died again.

“Third time’s a charm,” Troy said with a giggle.

A political problem with hemp involves the platforms of the people in government. If a person runs on an anti-drug platform, voting yes on a legalization of hemp bill could seem to others like a pro-drug vote even though Troy is more than willing to explain to anyone that hemp is not marijuana.

Typically, marijuana farmers and hemp farmers don’t farm both crops together because each could ruin the other and it's extremely ineffective and dangerous to the plant. If one cross-pollinates the other, the farmer would not be able to use the crop.

She has had legislators give her their vote, and then switch at the last second. She has been considered too left for the right and too right for the left. But, she doesn’t give up.

Even though agriculture keeps finding its way back to Troy, she finds new ways to make it better for those around her.

The bill is planned to be reintroduced this year with a couple tweaks that should comfort those who are skeptical, Troy said. This is a new year that Troy hopes will press the reset button on the past.

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Alexandra Duggan is a McClure Center legislative intern from the University of Idaho.