The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is requesting permission from the White House to conduct a survey of about 20,000 farmers to collect data on hemp production.<\/p>\n
In a notice published in the Federal Register on Thursday, the department said it wants to launch an annual \u201cHemp Acreage and Production Survey,\u201d and it\u2019s soliciting public comment on whether the effort would be useful and how to most effectively administer it to minimize the burden on respondents.<\/p>\n
This appears to be a follow up to a February notice USDA posted<\/a> on its intent to request the survey from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB).<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear at this point what information USDA would specifically be requesting about hemp, but the title\u2014\u201dHemp Acreage and Production Survey\u201d\u2014indicates that it would help inform issues related to cultivation that the department oversees since the crop was federally legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill.<\/p>\n The notice<\/a> explains that cannabis containing no more than 0.3 percent THC is federally legalized and hemp is \u201ca commodity that can be used for numerous industrial and horticultural purposes including fabric, paper, construction materials, food products, cosmetics, production of cannabinoids (such as cannabidiol or CBD), and other products.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn determining the type of data that would need to be collected and the frequency of the data collections, [USDA\u2019s National Agricultural Statistics Service] management attended a joint meeting with representatives from the USDA\u2019s Economic Research Service (ERS), Farm Service Agency (FSA), Risk Management Agency (RMA), Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), and the Office of the Secretary,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n Hemp businesses, including farms, would be involved in the survey, the notice states. It also estimates that the collective time that would be taken to complete the surveys would be 7,531 hours.<\/p>\n Last year, USDA announced plans to distribute a\u00a0separate national survey to gain insights from thousands of hemp businesses<\/a>\u00a0that could inform its approach to regulating the industry.<\/p>\n That survey is being completed in partnership with National Association of State Departments of Agriculture and the University of Kentucky. The department said it wanted to learn about \u201ccurrent production costs, production practices, and marketing practices\u201d for hemp.<\/p>\n This latest request for a new survey, for which public comments are due by August 16, comes months after USDA released its final rule on hemp.<\/p>\n There\u2019s still much to learn about the burgeoning market, even as USDA continues to approve state regulatory plans<\/a> for the crop. And while the final rule took effect on March 22, it is evidently still interested in gathering information to further inform its regulatory approach.<\/p>\n Industry stakeholders says the release of the final rule is a positive step forward that will provide businesses with needed guidance, but they\u2019ve also pointed to a number of policies that they hope to revise as the market matures such as USDA\u2019s hemp testing requirements.<\/p>\n The federal Small Business Administration\u2019s Office of Advocacy\u00a0expressed a similar sentiment in a blog post<\/a> in February, writing that it is \u201cpleased with some of the changes that [USDA] has made to the rule, as they offer more certainty and are less burdensome to small farmers,\u201d but \u201csome concerns remained unaddressed in the final rule.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, representatives of the USDA under President Joe Biden\u2019s administration held their first meeting with hemp industry stakeholders<\/a>\u00a0in January to learn about the market\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n The talk \u201cwent extremely well,\u201d National Industrial Hemp Council board chair Patrick Atagi, who was appointed by USDA and the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) in February to serve on a federal trade advisory committee<\/a>, told Marijuana Moment at the time.<\/p>\n USDA announced in April that it is teaming up with a chemical manufacturing company<\/a> on a two-year project that could significantly expand the hemp-based cosmetics market.<\/p>\n Here Are The Full Details Of The New Federal Marijuana Legalization Bill From Chuck Schumer And Senate Colleagues<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Brendan Cleak.<\/em><\/p>\n The post USDA Seeks White House Permission For National Hemp Survey<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is requesting permission from the White House to conduct a survey of about 20,000 farmers to collect data on hemp production. In a notice published in the Federal Register on Thursday, the department said it wants to launch an annual \u201cHemp Acreage and ProductionContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48873"}],"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\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48873"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48874,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48873\/revisions\/48874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: USDA Seeks White House Permission For National Hemp Survey<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"