For generations, the Powell family has farmed Virginia tobacco fields in Greensville County near the North Carolina state line. Up until recently, their biggest challenge was keeping the farm up and running while tobacco sales declined.

Kenny Powell and other tobacco farmers had to switch gears to survive. Now, the 52-year-old farmer is growing hemp used to make CBD oil.

“This hemp market is going to get me back on my feet,” Powell told CBS 6 senior reporter Wayne Covil. “[It will help] keep [me] from losing everything I’ve worked for all my life and what my daddy left me.”

But with the new crop has come a new, and dangerous, challenge — armed thieves.

Powell’s sons sleep in their hemp fields to prevent thieves from driving off with plants that can easily be mistaken for marijuana.

Read more: http://via.wtvr.com/Une3b

source