Michael “Mr. Hemp” Bowmanhas spent his adult life active in rural advocacy serving as founding board member of numerous environmental and hemp advocacy organizations including the Rocky Mountain Hemp Association, Colorado Industrial Hemp Commission, the American Renewable Energy Institute and the Sustainable Biodiesel Allianceto name a few He is also a co-founder of the Colorado Farm2Cafeteria workgroup, advisor to the Savory Institute and a board member of the North American Industrial Hemp and is Founding Chair of the National Hemp Association. Michael has also helped to shape policy as Chair of Colorado’s New Energy Future, Co-Chair of Governor-elect Bill Ritter’s Energy Transition Team and author of Section 7606 of the 2014 Farm Bill, a provision that, for the first time since passage of the 1933 Farm Bill, grants farmers the right to cultivate hemp in states where hemp production is now legal. Michael is a graduate of the Colorado Agriculture and Rural Leadership program, a Next Generation Fellow in Columbia University’s American Assembly and a 2008 recipient of Gamma Sigma Delta’s Significant Achievement in Agricultural by Colorado State University.  He was member of the White House Champions of Change program in 2011 and was selected as one of twelve members of the 500-member program to meet with President Obama in April, 2012 to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the program.