Back in March, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue warned American hemp farmers that hemp might not be the miracle moneymaker they were hoping for. “What is the market potential of industrial hemp? Those are staggering numbers compared to 2018, when states issued 3,546 licenses for people to grow hemp and U.S. farmers harvested 78,176 acres of hemp. Throw in the fact that the hemp industry has the blessings of the federal government and that many consumers don’t seem to care if their CBD comes from hemp or cannabis, and you’ve got the setting for some potential competition between hemp farmers and cannabis farmers. Currently, no state has regulations that make sure all of 2019’s new hemp farmers know what they’re doing with their male plants. There, cannabis cultivators are reporting that some reckless hemp farmers are using “open pollination” methods, where they leave male plants outside near female plants.
In the first year since hemp has been legal for commercial cultivation on the federal level, people across the United States are jumping at the opportunity to try their hand growing the legendary plant.
According to new numbers from the hemp advocacy group Vote Hemp, this year, 16,877 farmers received a license from their state to grow hemp (defined as cannabis with less than 0.3% THC) — for a total of...
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