Produced by Anna Casey and Dana Cronin

Demarkius Medley stands in front of where his hemp crop grew last year.

Demarkius Medley grows hemp on a small farm in Galesburg. Like many farmers, this was his first year growing the crop after it was legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill. The growing was going relatively smoothly, until he started to notice some crops were disappearing.

"We started to notice some of the hemp branches were missing from the plants," he said on The 21st show. "We thought maybe a deer was going after it."

Upon setting up a camera, Medley determined it was people, not deer, sneaking onto his property and stealing the hemp plants. He said he thinks they mistook it for marijuana.

Guests: Dana Cronin is agriculture reporter for Illinois Newsroom and Harvest Public Media. Demarkius Medley is a farmer for Greenlords Inc. in Galesburg.