Items Tagged with 'THC'

An alliance of 31 nonprofit hemp organizations has agreed on a series of proposals they want included in the next farm bill or other legislation.

Four years after the farm bill legalized industrial hemp nationwide, crop acreage is falling as the industry struggles to get regulatory clarity and infrastructure for products derived from the plant’s grain and fiber.

Hemp supporters are touting the crop's myriad uses and soil-nurturing properties while pushing some ideas for increasing its viability as Congress prepares to update the 2018 farm bill that sparked a growing interest.

Partially motivated by funding concerns, two prominent hemp-growing states recently decided to let the U.S. Department of Agriculture regulate hemp within their borders, and others are still in the process of deciding whether to hand over authority to USDA as the pilot programs authorized under the 2014 farm bill expire at the end of this year.

The hemp industry has sued the Drug Enforcement Administration, saying it exceeded its authority in a rule published last month that says “cannabis-derived material” cannot contain more than 0.3% of THC by dry weight.

State agriculture departments and a broad cross-section of the hemp industry are telling USDA its rule governing domestic production will hurt the nascent industry by imposing sampling and testing requirements that are virtually impossible to meet.

USDA’s new hemp rule was generally well received by industry and states, but one longtime advocate is raising concerns that its testing requirements could create a logjam at harvest time.

The Agriculture Department released details Tuesday of a long-awaited regulatory process to guide states in the production and transportation of industrial hemp.