Anthony Sullivan is best known for his work as a pitch man for brands like Oxiclean. Now he has decided to focus his efforts on becoming a farmer, a hemp farmer. He has invested a large amount of time and effort in growing his crop and on top of that he brought an entire TV production crew along to document the entire journey.
The series is set to premiere this summer, documenting the 2019 growing season. Sullivan and his partner, Dave Christian purchased a 116-acre farm around Plainfield, VT. The farm is called Montkush and focuses on growing hemp for CBD.
Like many new farmers in the green rush, Sullivan was inspired to try hemp in large part because of a loved one. His daughter, Devon, is 9-years-old. She was born with a genetic disorder that is so rare that it doesn’t even have a name. After several surgeries in her short life, she began taking anti-seizure medication. Sullivan told the press that he was heartbroken when her normally outgoing personality changed.
Research for an alternative led him to CBD, but he was skeptical to begin with.
“At first, I remember thinking, ‘No way our 8-year-old little girl is going to be baked,’” Sullivan said. “But I thought about it—not for very long—and I’m like, OK, we’ve got horrible pharmaceutical medicine, or we could try plant-based medicine.”
CBD now helps Devon with her seizures and lets her sleep better at night. She now takes it every day.
Sullivan got the idea to start his own farm while visiting another friend who also farmed hemp.
“It occurred to me that if I did this for my daughter, it would be great to understand the whole process,” Sullivan says. “I wanted to get into the weeds and actually tried farming it myself.”
The team invested millions into the process and bought equipment to do almost every part of the process. They purchased equipment and converted onsite structures to be able to not only grow but dry, process, and store everything. Sullivan and Christian worked with five other farmers to get 75,000 plants into the ground and harvested in 2019.
“With our process, we’ve tried to go as close to Mother Nature as possible,” Sullivan says. “I think not having any experience has actually helped us. We thought we’d try something different.”
A full TV production crew followed them every step of the way. The series is intended to air as a 14-episode series. At this time the exact air date and television network has not been announced. The hopes of the show is to educate both consumers and farmers about the hemp industry.
“There seems to be a lot of confusion when the average person walks into a store and looks at the myriad of CBD products available to them. They don’t know who to trust, they don’t know what’s in it, and they’re confused. What we wanted to do is help with that confusion,” said Sullivan. “We also think with CBD, there’s going to be a big educational component. We are going to give a very, very raw look at farm life, what it’s like to grow hemp and live and work a farm and also build a brand.”
