Interested in Growing Hemp in Pennsylvania in 2019?

 

 

The recent passage of the 2018 Farm Bill has made the cultivation of Hemp in Pennsylvania and across the country legal once again. Here you will find what interested farmers and investors need to know before they jump in with both feet!

 

The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (the 2018 Farm Bill) was signed into law on December 20, 2018. It’s an enormous piece of legislation that distributes more than $850 billion dollars to programs such as crop insurance, school lunches and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), aka food stamps.

 

Integrated into the Farm Bill is the bipartisan-supported Hemp Farming Act of 2018. The act’s inclusion is significant: industrial hemp and its derived products now are legal on a federal level, and states may choose how to move forward in this exciting new industry. The Act federally legalizes the production of industrial hemp (defined as Cannabis sativa L. plants containing less than three-tenths (0.3%) of a percent of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)). This low concentration of THC makes hemp unsuitable for marijuana production, which remains federally illegal.

 

Prior to the 2018 Farm Bill, federal law regarding industrial hemp was a patchwork of statutes, regulations and court decisions that allowed for the importation of certain hemp products, but not for the domestic production of the crop.

 

Recall: the 2014 Farm Bill created a legal regimen on the federal level that authorized individual states to establish programs for cultivating industrial hemp for research purposes. This bill allowed for the research of industrial hemp but did not authorize the legal commercialization of industrial hemp in the U.S.

 

The 2018 Farm Bill abolishes this inconsistency by removing industrial hemp from the definition of “marijuana” in the Controlled Substance Act (CSA). In addition, THC contained in industrial hemp will be removed from the purview of the CSA, making clear that industrial hemp plants can be grown domestically as well as imported. This amendment to the CSA decriminalizes the production and use of hemp and its derived products that match the definition of industrial hemp, such as seed oil, CBD oil, fibers and paper.

 

Industrial hemp will not be entirely unregulated, however. The 2018 Farm Bill moves regulatory authority from the CSA and DEA to the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 (AMA) and the Department of Agriculture. Now that the Hemp Farming Act of 2018 is law, hemp will be treated the same as any other legal crop by the Department of Agriculture, with a few caveats based on its previous status as a controlled substance and the potential for unscrupulous growers to cultivate strains with high THC levels.

 

As part of the amendment, state governments can create their own regulatory framework for industrial hemp production. Those plans must include:

Here in Pennsylvania, the PA Department of Agriculture has formulated a growing program which includes a mandatory permitting and monitoring program, but also removes much of the previous framework which growers, processors and marketers needed to navigate. To learn about Pennsylvania’s program and the permitting application visit the PDA website.

 

Hemp is a historically important plant which has a myriad of uses ranging from fiber and fiber products to human consumables such as flours, oils and meals. A new use of high interest and demand is for cannabinoids (CBDs). The plant produces over 100 different CBD compounds, loosely called CBD oil, which are reported to have wide-ranging human and animal health benefits. Much of the interest in growing hemp locally and across the U.S. is for CBD oil. In fact, PDA reports that over 100 requests for growing permits have been received with most of them intended for CBD production.

 

Farmers and investors need to know that there is a veritable frenzy of interest with a great many risks and unknowns. Questions pertaining to proper growing, harvesting and processing need to be answered. Markets are not guaranteed. There are indeed opportunities for some, but as with any new and unknown venture there is a “Wild West” type of enthusiasm and risks will be involved. We stress that you as a potential grower or investor ask appropriate questions.

We are confident that hemp will grow into an established crop here in PA, finding many uses and markets. Yet, many of these are as yet unrealized and will take time to develop. Please use appropriate caution and ask appropriate questions before jumping into the ring with “Wild Western Enthusiasm.”