Growing Black Wealth Through Hemp: Inside Urban Triage’s Hemp Specialty Crop Program and Less Noise Wellness

Part 2 of the Urban Triage Agriculture Series | Black-Led Community Agriculture | Dane County, Wisconsin

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Forty-seven percent of Black farmers in the United States lost their land between 1920 and 1997. Not by accident. By policy. By design. And by the quiet violence of systems that were never built to let us stay.

Urban Triage knows that history. We were built inside of it.

That’s why the Hemp Specialty Crop Program isn’t just an agriculture initiative. It’s a direct response to decades of extraction — and it’s the foundation that led us to build Less Noise, our Black-owned hemp wellness brand rooted right here in Wisconsin soil.

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Why Hemp. Why Black Communities. Why Now.

Wisconsin is one of the most agriculturally productive states in the country. The land is rich. The knowledge is deep. And for generations, Black families have been locked out of nearly all of it.

That exclusion wasn’t accidental. Discriminatory lending, racially restrictive covenants, and federal agricultural policy that systematically bypassed Black farmers — these weren’t bugs in the system. They were features.

At the same time, families across Dane County continue to navigate food insecurity at disproportionate rates. The land exists. The need exists. What’s been missing is the infrastructure that connects Black communities to both.

Hemp is emerging as one of the most promising agricultural and wellness industries in the country — a multi-billion-dollar market where Black ownership remains nearly invisible. Urban Triage intends to change that. Through our Hemp Specialty Crop Program, we are creating the entry points that have always been denied. And through Less Noise, we are turning that community knowledge into a brand that competes, sustains, and reinvests.

“We are not waiting for access. We are creating it. We are not waiting for opportunity. We are building it. This is what it looks like when community becomes the system.” — Brandi Grayson, Founder & CEO, Urban Triage

What the Hemp Specialty Crop Program Actually Does

This is a hands-on, community-based hemp cultivation and business development program designed to move participants from learning to ownership — not as a metaphor, but as a measurable outcome.

Participants gain real experience in:

•      Organic hemp cultivation practices, from seed to harvest

•      Wisconsin hemp licensing, compliance, and regulatory frameworks

•      Business development and entrepreneurship in the hemp wellness market

•      Direct pathways into an industry where Black representation is critically low

But the program doesn’t stop at education. It is designed to launch. Participants leave with skills that translate directly into income, business creation, and long-term economic stability — the kind that compounds across families, not just individuals.

And it connects directly to Less Noise. The same people learning to grow hemp in Dane County are the community behind a licensed, tested, certified organic hemp wellness brand built in Wisconsin. That’s not a coincidence. That’s the model.

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The Numbers Behind the Movement

Urban Triage’s broader agriculture program already reaches:

•      427 families served annually

•      10,000+ pounds of organic produce distributed each year

•      Dozens of program graduates who have gone on to launch agricultural businesses

The Hemp Specialty Crop Program adds a critical layer to that foundation — one that connects food sovereignty to economic sovereignty. Because access to fresh food matters. And so does the ability to build wealth from growing it.

Less Noise exists at that intersection. Every product sold represents a community member who learned about the plant, grew it, and helped shape what this brand becomes.

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From the Fields to a Brand: The Story of Less Noise

Less Noise didn’t start in a boardroom. It started with a question that came from the community itself:

What would it look like to build something that was fully ours?

Not a program that depends on who’s in office or which grants survive the next administration. Something built from within. Something that generates revenue that stays local, funds program sustainability, and expands opportunity beyond a classroom.

Less Noise is the answer.

It is a full-spectrum organic hemp wellness brand — locally grown in Wisconsin, licensed, tested, certified, and built on clean ingredients. Every product is traceable back to the community agriculture work Urban Triage has been doing for years. Every purchase is an act of economic solidarity with a Black-led organization doing the work the system was never designed to do.

We are not slapping a social justice label on a wellness product. We are building an entire economic ecosystem — from soil to shelf — and making sure the people who did the growing are the people who share in the gain.

Less Noise is not a side project. It is the proof of concept that community-owned economic infrastructure is possible — and it is already here.

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Be First to Know What’s Growing with Less Noise

Less Noise has launched products that are certified organic, full-spectrum hemp sourced from Wisconsin soil. If you believe in healing that is honest, Black-led, and rooted in something real — this is for you.

→ Subscribe to Less Noise updates at lessnoisewellness.org

→ Follow Less Noise on Instagram @lessnoisewellness

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This Is Bigger Than a Program

Urban Triage’s agriculture work — and Less Noise as its economic expression — sits at the intersection of environmental justice, food sovereignty, and community healing. It is not a charity model. It is a systems model. One where Black communities in Dane County are not just recipients of services, but architects of the infrastructure that serves them.

The Hemp Specialty Crop Program is how we grow farmers. Less Noise is how we grow wealth. And together, they are how we grow a future where thriving is the baseline — not something our people have to fight to reach.

Every seed planted here is part of something that cannot be taken away. Because we own it.

Urban Triage is a Black-led nonprofit organization serving Dane County, Wisconsin. Our agriculture program supports food sovereignty, economic empowerment, and community healing through hands-on cultivation, education, and business development. Learn more at urbantriage.org.