Last December, the headlines rang across the country: Hemp is legalized! The 2018 Farm Bill had included an amendment that legalized hemp \u2014 defined as cannabis with less than 0.3% THC \u2014 and its derivatives, including CBD, and so the hemp industry celebrated its new freedom. However, it often takes a while for the federal government\u2019s regulations to adjust to a new law, thereby slowing down the pace of change, and that has certainly been true for hemp. Without guidelines on CBD from the Food and Drug Administration or guidelines on hemp farming from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), hemp entrepreneurs have had to muddle through 2019 under their state\u2019s hemp laws.<\/p>\n
But on Tuesday, Oct. 29, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue finally\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0the establishment of the U.S. \u201cDomestic Hemp Production Program<\/a>\u201d and put forth the interim regulations to oversee it.<\/p>\n After the 10-month wait, which had resulted in litigation by impatient farmers, Secretary Perdue did his best to sound chipper.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAt USDA, we are always excited when there are new economic opportunities for our farmers, and we hope the ability to grow hemp will pave the way for new products and markets,\u201d Perdue\u00a0said. \u201cWe have had teams operating with all-hands-on-deck to develop a regulatory framework that meets Congressional intent while seeking to provide a fair, consistent and science-based process for states, tribes and individual producers who want to participate in this program.\u201d<\/p>\n Later this week, the \u201cinterim final rule<\/a>\u201d is to be published in the\u00a0Federal Register, marking the opening of a 60-day period for public comment before the \u201cinterim\u201d status is dropped. Then, the USDA will begin the process of reviewing hemp cultivation plans drawn up by states and other jurisdictions, to certify that they conform with the department\u2019s own regulations. For any jurisdictions that do not submit plans, or otherwise do not have their plans approved, the USDA regulations will be the default.<\/p>\n This regulatory regime will make hemp producers eligible for a number of agricultural programs. Provisions include requirements for maintaining information on the lands where hemp is produced, testing THC levels, disposing of plants \u201cnot meeting necessary requirements\u201d (read: containing over 0.3% THC), and protocols for licensing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Along with the interim rule, the USDA\u2019s Agricultural Marketing Service\u00a0issued guidelines<\/a>\u00a0for those critical \u201csampling and testing procedures.\u201d <\/p>\n Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who shepherded the Farm Bill through last year,\u00a0issued a statement<\/a>\u00a0hailing the USDA regulations as a step toward a thriving national hemp industry.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I joined President Trump last year as he signed the farm bill, we marked a new chapter for an historic American crop,\u201d he said. \u201cIn a victory for growers, processors, and manufacturers across the country \u2014 especially in my home state of Kentucky \u2014 my initiative for full hemp legalization became law\u2026 This new policy will help farmers around the country continue pioneering this crop into the 21st century.\u201d<\/p>\n McConnell added, in a requisite appeal to patriotism: \u201cFor generations, our growers and producers have made the Bluegrass State an agricultural powerhouse, well-positioned at the forefront of hemp\u2019s resurgence. Following the downturn in the tobacco market, it was my Tobacco Buyout legislation that helped farmers transition toward new opportunities. And a growing number are looking to this past crop \u2014 one grown by Washington, Jefferson and [Henry] Clay \u2014 as they plan for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n The Tobacco Buyout refers to the USDA\u2019s\u00a0Tobacco Transition Payment Program<\/a>, which took effect in 2004, to help farmers transition to new crops as federal subsidies for tobacco were phased out. The buyout expired in 2014, just as that year\u2019s Farm Bill allowed the first legal hemp crops, as part of a\u00a0limited pilot program<\/a> \u2014 again pushed by McConnell.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAs the Buyout payments came to an end, I secured the creation of hemp pilot programs in the 2014 Farm Bill, empowering farmers and researchers to begin a multi-year experiment with hemp\u2019s capabilities,\u201d McConnell said in his press release.<\/p>\n Ironically, the tobacco industry today has a\u00a0growing footprint<\/a>\u00a0in the cannabis sector. And with much hemp production now geared toward CBD extraction rather than traditional industrial uses, we can expect a\u00a0growing convergence of the \u201ccannabis\u201d and \u201chemp\u201d industries. Protections for independent farmers will certainly be a key concern as we enter the 60-day public comment period.<\/p>\n Another issue will be provisions for hemp cultivation on Native American reservations under the new regulations. Under a\u00a0unique legal doctrine<\/a>\u00a0dating to the 1830s, federally recognized Indian reservations are \u201cheld in trust<\/a>\u201d for the tribes directly by the United States government. The sovereignty of the tribes can only be limited by Congress \u2014 not by the states in which the reservations lie. So Native American tribes could not operate under state hemp regulations, but were effectively barred from growing until the USDA issued regulations.\u00a0<\/p>\n Non-native farmers in these states could grow hemp under state regulation, although they could not apply to participate in any USDA programs for the hemp sector until the department\u2019s regs were finalized. That means Native American farmers were disproportionately affected by the USDA\u2019s delay.<\/p>\n One tribe in South Dakota, the\u00a0Flandreau Santee Sioux, this summer\u00a0brought litigation<\/a>\u00a0against the USDA to demand its right to grow hemp. The tribe sought a court order forcing the USDA to approve its hemp cultivation plan within the usual 60-day period after submission. But a federal judge\u00a0turned down<\/a>\u00a0the request, arguing that \u201cthe 60 day window to approve or deny a plan does not begin until regulations are promulgated by the USDA.\u201d<\/p>\n Now that has finally happened, and while the Santee Sioux missed their opportunity for a 2019 hemp crop, hopefully they will be harvesting their first hemp-fields this time next year.<\/p>\n The USDA in late May\u00a0issued a memo<\/a>\u00a0establishing protocols for interstate commerce in hemp, but failed to provide any legal clarity on the question of cultivation \u2014 leaving farmers and especially Native American tribes in legal limbo.<\/p>\n That limbo is now about to come to an end. However,\u00a0legal ambiguities around hemp persist<\/a>. Most significantly, the U.S. has still\u00a0failed to promulgate regulations<\/a>\u00a0for use of legal hemp-derived CBD as an additive or ingredient.<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong> The post USDA Releases Hemp Cultivation Regulations At Last<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Last December, the headlines rang across the country: Hemp is legalized! The 2018 Farm Bill had included an amendment that legalized hemp \u2014 defined as cannabis with less than 0.3% THC \u2014 and its derivatives, including CBD, and so the hemp industry celebrated its new freedom. However, it often takesContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,1170,296,81,11701],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39247"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39247"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39248,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39247\/revisions\/39248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Will
\nSmall Farmers Be Protected?<\/strong><\/h4>\nLegal Clarity for Native Americans<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\nare you planning to grow hemp?<\/p>\n
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\nRead More: USDA Releases Hemp Cultivation Regulations At Last<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"