What hemp industry leaders hope to see in the 2023 Farm Bill

You might remember 2018 as the year of Harry and Meghan’s wedding or A Star Is Born memes. For the hemp industry, the passage of that year’s Farm Bill was the standout moment.

The bill removed hemp from the definition of marijuana in the Controlled Substances Act, legalizing industrial hemp as a crop. That meant farmers and producers in all 50 states could grow hemp—which the USDA defines as cannabis and cannabis derivatives that have no more than 0.3% THC—for commercial use, and import and export it across state lines.

The 2018 Farm Bill was a “great accomplishment” for the hemp industry, Jonathan Miller, general counsel at the US Hemp Roundtable (USHR), a hemp business advocacy organization, told Retail Brew. But some challenges quickly sprouted up.

• The FDA has yet to establish a regulatory framework for hemp extracts like CBD in food and dietary supplements, despite pledging to do so, leaving this up to individual states instead.
• This delay in regulation also led to an oversupply, as farmers planted hemp crops without buyers for them.

Earlier this year, the USHR joined forces with two other industry groups to establish policy priorities ahead of the 2023 Farm Bill. The policy document, published last month, has since been signed by 31 nonprofit hemp organizations. It aims to “right those wrongs” since the 2018 bill, Miller said, by pushing the FDA to establish clear directives for CBD while also loosening hemp regulations.

Ground rules: In January, the FDA said it hadn’t found “adequate evidence” that CBD was safe for inclusion in foods or supplements, and called on Congress to create rules to regulate it.

Since 2018, many CBD food, beverage, and supplements brands and the retailers that wanted to sell them have been in limbo as they comply with a patchwork of individual states’ laws. Cannabis beverage maker Cann, a USHR member, has been navigating the state-by-state regulatory framework since its 2019 debut. Cann co-founder Jake Bullock said in the Farm Bill, Cann would like to see movement in THC (which the FDA still defines as a controlled substance) in terms of legalizing interstate commerce, as well as regulating synthetically derived THC and CBD. But when it comes to strictly hemp legislation, Bullock said Cann would be okay with policies similar to 2018, which would maintain “business as usual for us.”

“If anything, hopefully they step in to provide more clarity to the industry, and not to restrict it,” Bullock said.

• He added some industry members are pushing for THC to be regulated by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), rather than the FDA, so it would no longer be included in the Farm Bill at all.

Miller said the industry is “pretty frustrated” with the FDA, and would be open to FDA sticking to drug regulation while another organization oversees food and dietary supplements. Right now, as long as it’s still in the FDA’s hands, “we think they should take action,” he said.

Cropping up: Other Farm Bill priorities include additional funding for the USDA Hemp Program and designating hemp as a specialty crop, making it eligible for funding for programs like the USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant, which promotes competitiveness for crops used for food, medicine, or aesthetic gratification.” (You may remember that agriculture groups are pushing for more $$ for public ag R&D to support specialty crops, too).

A number of priorities also address challenges in crop testing. The USDA currently limits hemp crops to containing up to 0.3% THC, but hemp industry members aim to bump this to 1%. This would keep farmers from having to destroy their crops when they exceed that legal benchmark, which often results from changing temperature or soil moisture levels, Miller said.

• Miller said hemp organizations and USHR also support removing the USDA’s requirement for THC levels in hemp be tested only by Drug Enforcement Administration-certified labs, of which there are very few.

Life of the party: Overall, Miller said the industry is “hopeful” its priorities will be included in the 2023 Farm Bill. While there’s been confusion around what hemp and hemp extracts actually are, “over the last five years, people have really begun to understand CBD and hemp,” he said.

Miller said USHR-supported CBD regulation legislation—two bills introduced in the House by Reps. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) and Angie Craig (D-Minn.) in March promoting regulations around CBD in dietary supplements and as a food and beverage additive—have garnered support from both sides of the aisle, including from Senators Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

“This is an issue that transcends politics and transcends partisanship,” he noted.