A half mile north of Kemin Industries’ $40 million global headquarters in Des Moines is the manufacturing facility for Bud & Mary’s, a small cannabis company aiming to apply the same scientific rigor to medical marijana as Kemin does to its specialty ingredients.
Kemin was started in 1964 by R.W. “Bud” Nelson and his wife, Mary Nelson. The company began as an animal feed business that incorporated mold inhibitors to help keep livestock healthy. Over time, they were able to isolate specific enzymes that could be used to improve products. The Nelson family built what is now a $1 billion company that uses plant science to produce 500 specialty ingredients found in a range of products, from pet food to clothing.
Chris Nelson, son of R.W. and Mary, is now president and CEO of Kemin. He began looking several years ago at the business viability of cannabis. In 2014, Iowa legalized the medical use of a small amount of cannabidiol oil for a small set of epilepsy patients. Then in 2017, the legislature opened cannabis use to include several medical conditions, including chronic pain, cancer, Parkinson’s disease and more. The expanded law was signed in May 2017 and the Nelson family had its cannabis company MedPharm, now Bud & Mary’s, up and running by December…