Tag: hemp

Going to a farm or orchard to pick your own fruits and vegetables has many benefits. The most obvious one is that consumers know where their food comes from. Pick-your-own crops are typically cheaper for consumers compared to stores and farmer’s markets. It’s also a fun activity that consumers enjoy doing.

Just as people can pick their own strawberries or apples, so too can they now pick their own hemp in the state of Maine. Per the Portland Press Herald:

With pruning shears in hand and a laundry hamper on her hip, Khadijah Tribble roamed rows of waist-high cannabis in search of the perfect hemp plant – robust foliage, no bugs, and enough flowers to make CBD lotions and tinctures for the elders in her church community.

The community activist made the six-hour, 300-mile round trip from her home in Salem, Massachusetts,  just to visit Sheepscot General Farm in Whitefield, which on Wednesday opened the first pick-your-own hemp field in Maine. It is believed to be only the second publicly accessible hemp field in the U.S.

The price of CBD products will largely affect the popularity of pick-your-own hemp in the future. Going forward hemp will basically be treated like any other agricultural crop, albeit with crop-specific regulations, so the option for hemp farmers to allow pick-your-own offerings to consumers should be widespread.

Only time will tell if it will be more popular, less popular, or equally popular compared to other pick-your-own crops. In the immediate future demand will likely outpace supply due to the novelty of the concept. As more farms offer pick-your-own hemp across the country it should balance things out.

CBD-products can be expensive. For savvy consumers that know how to make their own balms, tinctures, and other wellness products, it’s far cheaper to pick their own hemp and process the raw hemp into something of their choosing.

If the price of CBD products drops significantly, that could result in fewer people wanting to pick their own hemp due to the convenience of making a reasonable purchase of a finished CBD product from a store. With a record amount of hemp being planted in 2019 in the U.S., prices for hemp-derived products could certainly take a dip in 2020.

Hemp is making a comeback in the United States in a major way. Favorable reform provisions in the 2014 Farm Bill paved the way for farmers in a number of states to take advantage of research and pilot programs. Since that time the U.S. hemp cultivation industry has grown exponentially, as demonstrated by statistics.

In 2016 U.S. farmers grew 9,770 acres of hemp. By 2017 that number increased to 25,713 acres of hemp. Some hemp opponents claimed at the time that the dramatic year-over-year increase was due to states just starting their programs and that growth would level off quickly. Time has proven those naysayers to be completely wrong.

Farmers in the United States grew an astonishing 78,176 acres of hemp in 2018 – more than triple the number of acres from the previous year. The 2018 Farm Bill included significant reforms specifically for hemp farmers.

Hemp industry observers have been waiting to see statistics for 2019’s licenses to see what impact the 2018 Farm Bill would have. According to a recently released report, the U.S. hemp industry is growing faster than ever. Per Vote Hemp:

Since the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, hemp cultivation in the U.S. has grown rapidly. The number of acres of hemp licensed across 34 states totaled 511,442 in 2019—more than quadruple the number of acres licensed from the previous year. State licenses to cultivate hemp were issued to 16,877 farmers and researchers, a 476% increase over 2018.

The hemp plant would have likely been a popular crop for U.S. farmers to cultivate regardless of CBD because of the hemp plant’s versatility. However, the explosion in CBD’s popularity in recent years among consumers has definitely contributed to the exponential growth of hemp cultivation in the United States.

It’s worth noting that just because acreage is licensed to cultivate hemp by a state’s Agriculture Department does not mean that the acreage will successfully produce a harvest and make it to the marketplace. A number of factors could prevent the harvest from occurring.

However, no one can deny that the hemp industry in the United States is experiencing significant growth and that there’s no end to that growth in sight currently. It will be very interesting to see what acreage numbers look like a year from now, five years from now, and beyond.

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About the International Cannabis Business Conference

International Cannabis Business Conference events are the premier cannabis events for entrepreneurs across the globe. With events in Canada, the United States, Switzerland, Spain, and Germany the International Cannabis Business Conference is where the world meets cannabis. Find out more at InternationalCBC.com and on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently published a report containing the agency’s assessment of Canada’s hemp industry. The report illustrates ongoing regulatory hurdles that hemp farmers are facing in Canada, some of which are similar hurdles that hemp farmers are experiencing in the U.S and others being unique.

Federal legislation in Canada resulted in the re-introduction of hemp cultivation in 1998. Canada’s current hemp laws come from the 2018 Cannabis Act. According to the report, 77,800 acres of industrial hemp were planted in Canada in 2018. To put that figure into perspective, 78,176 were planted in the U.S. in the same year.

Major takeaways from the USDA report about Canada’s hemp industry include:

• Hemp varieties will continue to be strictly controlled by the federal government and producers may only plant varieties from the official List of Approved Cultivars
• Producers are not allowed to keep hemp seeds for planting, and every growing season producers must purchase government certified seeds
• High-CBD varieties have yet to be registered for use in Canada
• All cannabinoids in the cannabis plant, including CBD and THC, are regulated in the same way
• Currently, the sale of natural health products (NHPs) containing any cannabinoid (including CBD) in Canada is prohibited

As you can see from the list above, Canada’s hemp regulations are not as favorable in some ways compared to the United States. As such, the CBD-industry in the United States is creating better opportunities than in Canada.

That is reflected in the exponential growth found in the data for hemp acres planted in the United States this year. As previously mentioned, last year 78,176 acres of hemp were planted in the U.S. In 2019, Oregon farmers alone have planted over 50,000 acres. Other U.S. states are experiencing similar growth.

Hopefully, Canadian regulators and lawmakers pass measures soon to improve the parameters which hemp farmers and entrepreneurs are bound by. CBD is in huge demand right now and that demand is increasing with every passing day. Hemp is an agricultural crop and should be regulated accordingly in Canada, and everywhere else.

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About the International Cannabis Business Conference

International Cannabis Business Conference events are the premier cannabis events for entrepreneurs across the globe. With events in Canada, the United States, Switzerland, Spain, and Germany the International Cannabis Business Conference is where the world meets cannabis. Find out more at InternationalCBC.com and on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.