The 2018 Farm Bill and its implications for the HEMP industry.
Hemp farmers nationwide are preparing for harvest, but they’re also keeping a close eye on Washington DC. Congress is beginning final negotiations on the 2018 Farm Bill, which could either remove HEMP from the Controlled Substances Act or revive a prohibition on growing it.
56 lawmakers will start work Wednesday (of this week) to hammer out differences between the bills that passed the House and Senate (two different bills with very different requirements).
The 2014 Farm Bill – which ushered in the modern hemp industry by allowing states to experiment with pilot projects in HEMP production – expires Sept. 30 (at the end of this month).
Congress must either pass a new Farm Bill or extend the current one – or the bill expires. However, the outright expiration of the Farm Bill is extremely unlikely because the 2018 Farm Bill includes authorization for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and a list of other programs important to American agriculture.
Forty-one states have already authorized hemp production, and the stakes are high for the entire HEMP industry.
Adopting the Senate language concerning HEMP will remove the plant from the Controlled Substances Act along with any requirement that HEMP can only be grown as part of a pilot project. In contrast, the House version says nothing about expanding or even continuing the HEMP experiment.
What to look for:
Will there be anything in the 2018 Farm Bill that would differentiate CBD from the rest of the plant, or saying we’re going to allow hemp for fiber but not CBD, that type of language would be devastating to the industry. Also, what changes are going to come into play if the USDA has jurisdiction over HEMP.
Will there be any language differentiating CBD from other supplements or whether it has to go through pharmaceutical channels. Going through pharmaceutical channels will have significant implications for the HEMP market overall.
There are likely other important issues that may also arise during the reconciliation process, but these are some important points that I feel must to be addressed in this bill, and we as investors must watch for.
As one can see, changes are happening right in front of our eyes, and legalization may be closer than nearly everyone thinks.
Hemp farmers nationwide are preparing for harvest, but they’re also keeping a close eye on Washington DC. Congress is beginning final negotiations on the 2018 Farm Bill, which could either remove HEMP from the Controlled Substances Act or revive a prohibition on growing it.
56 lawmakers will start work Wednesday (of this week) to hammer out differences between the bills that passed the House and Senate (two different bills with very different requirements).
The 2014 Farm Bill – which ushered in the modern hemp industry by allowing states to experiment with pilot projects in HEMP production – expires Sept. 30 (at the end of this month).
Congress must either pass a new Farm Bill or extend the current one – or the bill expires. However, the outright expiration of the Farm Bill is extremely unlikely because the 2018 Farm Bill includes authorization for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and a list of other programs important to American agriculture.
Forty-one states have already authorized hemp production, and the stakes are high for the entire HEMP industry.
Adopting the Senate language concerning HEMP will remove the plant from the Controlled Substances Act along with any requirement that HEMP can only be grown as part of a pilot project. In contrast, the House version says nothing about expanding or even continuing the HEMP experiment.
What to look for:
Will there be anything in the 2018 Farm Bill that would differentiate CBD from the rest of the plant, or saying we’re going to allow hemp for fiber but not CBD, that type of language would be devastating to the industry. Also, what changes are going to come into play if the USDA has jurisdiction over HEMP.
Will there be any language differentiating CBD from other supplements or whether it has to go through pharmaceutical channels. Going through pharmaceutical channels will have significant implications for the HEMP market overall.
There are likely other important issues that may also arise during the reconciliation process, but these are some important points that I feel must to be addressed in this bill, and we as investors must watch for.
As one can see, changes are happening right in front of our eyes, and legalization may be closer than nearly everyone thinks.
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