Illustrations by Britt Spencer

The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (the 2018 Farm Bill) might have legalized hemp nationwide, but the law had an ulterior motive. One of Congress’ motivations was to help farmers across the United States cash in on the skyrocketing global demand for cannabidiol, or CBD—one of the naturally occurring chemical compounds that can be extracted from the tall, fibrous hemp crop.

Hemp is a variety of the Cannabis sativa L. plant that has been used for thousands of years to produce everything from clothing to building materials. While hemp can still be a viable cash crop for all these purposes, the real money-maker for many U.S. farmers today is CBD.

CBD is reported to offer many of the same natural health benefits as the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) found in cannabis, just without the mind-altering effects. (In other words: THC gets you high; CBD doesn’t.) Because of this, products that contain CBD are popping up everywhere—in oils, lotions, bath salts, beverages, pet food and more. Restaurants are now even selling meals prepared with CBD.

But the law, while decidedly pro-CBD, does not make profiting from CBD an easy proposition. If the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s interim final rule implementing the 2018 Farm Bill goes into effect as drafted, farmers with hemp that contains more than 0.3% THC in state-administered tests must pay to destroy their crops in addition to losing the potential commercial value of the plants.

Unfortunately for the nascent U.S. hemp industry, failed tests are fast becoming the norm. From Florida to Washington state, farmers who had intended to grow hemp with high concentrations of CBD are actually inadvertently growing what the federal government classifies as illegal marijuana (plants containing more than 0.3% THC)—or, to the hemp industry, “hot hemp.”

In Hawaii, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported in August 2019 that 18 crops—more than half of the hemp crops cultivated for the state’s pilot program—were unusable due to high THC levels.

In the here and now, crops are testing hot—and the rush to grow CBD-rich hemp may be causing the problem.

Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) said about 12% of hemp field tests came back hot for the 2019 growing season. The percentage of hot hemp didn’t change from 2018 to 2019 even though the number of registered growers increased tenfold. The regional newspaper Isthmus also reported that two Wisconsin growers anticipated a complete loss of about $40,000 on a crop of 70 hemp plants that tested at 0.5% THC content.

All told, Vote Hemp estimates that only about 50% to 60% of the hemp planted in 2019 will be harvested because of “crop failure, non-compliant crops and other factors.”

Why is this happening?

For one thing, scientific research methods, seed-certification processes and regional farming know-how are all still developing. In time, a hot crop will likely be a statistical outlier as the industry figures out how to perfect the low THC/high CBD balance, experts tell Hemp Grower. But in the here and now, crops are testing hot—and the rush to grow CBD-rich hemp may be causing the problem.

“The biggest factor contributing to the issue of hot hemp is probably the genetics that growers are sourcing,” says Bob Pearce, Ph.D., a professor of agronomy at the University of Kentucky who helps lead the school’s hemp research program. “Cultivars that produce predominantly CBD also produce small amounts of THC, typically in a pretty consistent ratio for that cultivar. So, as CBD increases, so does THC. Then you throw in environmental stress and management on top of a marginally compliant cultivar, and you start to see problems with hot hemp.”

Hemp experts have offered their top three recommendations for growers looking to seize the CBD future while preventing their crops from running hot.

“A lot of growers are going to struggle to reach 10% or higher CBD and 0.3% THC if they continue with current strains and practices.” — Jeanine Davis, professor, Department of Horticultural Science, North Carolina State University

1. Choose Known Cultivars.

Hemp growers should select known cultivars that have consistently tested well below 0.3% THC in their local areas, Pearce says. In most cases, the reason hemp tests hot is because of bad genetics. Farmers in Kentucky, for instance, might be using seeds bred for West Coast soil and climate when what they really need are cultivars developed specifically for Kentucky.

However, choosing a proven low-THC cultivar has its drawbacks. Pearce says some cultivars that have tested below 0.3% THC also produce less CBD—roughly 2% to 5% by his estimates. Most growers are aiming for 10% CBD. Pearce acknowledges the trade-off but says it’s better to have a legal plant with less CBD than a destroyed crop.

The most important thing, he stresses, is to obtain seeds and plants from reputable sources so growers have “some assurance they are getting what was advertised.” One problem, though, Pearce warns, is that seed and plant certification programs for hemp are currently in their “infancy at best and non-existent at worst.”

While many states have approved lists of hemp seeds, these are far from sure bets—at least not yet. Leeann Duwe, a spokeswoman for the Wisconsin DATCP, says the state of Wisconsin precertifies hemp seeds through a lab analysis of the variety. The DATCP looks for the total THC or the ability to calculate the total THC. If the THC is below 0.3%, then the variety is approved. However, the state’s approval of a seed variety does not guarantee a plant will pass a preharvest test for THC levels, Duwe tells Hemp Grower.

In Canada, where the industrial hemp market is more established (since legalization under the Cannabis Act in 1998), the Industrial Hemp Licensing Unit of Health Canada publishes a list of approved cultivars for each growing season. (At press time, the 2020 list was not available, but the 2019 list can be found here: http://bit.ly/Canada-approved-cultivars.)

Jeanine Davis, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Horticultural Science at North Carolina State University, says she expects to see more self-testing take place over the next year as a result of the Farm Bill and hot tests. Farmers want to do what they can to make sure they avoid a hot test.

“A lot of growers are going to struggle to reach 10% or higher CBD and 0.3% THC if they continue with current strains and practices,” she says. “What I saw in the western part of North Carolina in 2018 and 2019 is growers selecting strains that would produce the highest CBD possible and that would test at 0.3% total THC for the official test. If THC went above 0.3% at harvest, they weren’t too concerned because ... they had buyers.” Even though they had buyers, however, possession of hemp that exceeds the 0.3% threshold at any point is considered illegal. (For more on CBD to THC ratios, read "Cornell University Breaks Ground on Hemp Research.")

The new proposed federal rules push the time for official testing at a lab registered by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) 15 days prior to anticipated harvest time, which makes a big difference in THC levels. “So same rules, just new time frame for when the official testing needs to take place,” Davis says.

“With the publishing of the interim federal hemp rule, we will see a big change in the strains growers choose to grow,” Davis says. “Many of the strains produced now will not test out at 0.3%15 days before harvest.”

The good news is that the hot hemp problem is spurring research and development in new cultivars. In one example, the Spanish company Hemp Trading and the Spanish university UPV claim they have developed the first entirely THC-free hemp variety with high cannabigerol (CBG), a cannabinoid that can be extracted from both cannabis and hemp plants for medical use. (CBG can be found early during a hemp plant’s growth and is later converted into different chemical structures. CBD and THC start as CBG.)

This is promising, to be sure, but there are multiple variables during the growing process that can impact THC levels—even if you choose the right seeds.

All told, Vote Hemp estimates that only about 50% to 60% of the hemp planted in 2019 will be harvested because of “crop failure, non-compliant crops and other factors.”

2. Pay Attention to the Soil.

Preventing hot hemp is not only about selecting the right plant and the botany of that plant; it’s also about the biology of the soil and the enzymes converting the CBG to CBD, says Michael Goodenough, a managing partner of D&G Agtek, the parent company of sweetheal.com, a hemp and CBD producer in Connecticut.

“When the cannabis plant has been grown naturally in healthy living soils without stress, the CBG converts to CBD,” Goodenough says. “Living soils...naturally convert the sand, silt, clay and organic matter into nutrients that the plant can control and uptake as it desires. By allowing the plant to control this process, we see increases in all the sought-after cannabinoids and terpenes, including the minor ones we have yet to fully understand. This also helps prevent the undesired production of THC, increases the plant’s own natural defenses, creates less work for the farmer and, in turn, makes it less risky to grow.”

Goodenough notes that hemp in the U.S. is often grown on land that used to grow other crops, and the soil may have been neglected for years, especially if the farm went bankrupt.

Through his work, Goodenough has helped develop remediation processes that he says could take hemp with high THC content and then convert it into other cannabinoids like CBD.

3. Harvest Early.

In addition to paying attention to the soil, Goodenough says growers should also rethink taking their plants to full term. Cannabinoids increase with time in the plant, which is why growers should consider employing an in-house testing protocol and be prepared to harvest before the THC levels exceed 0.3%, even though harvesting early results in lower CBD levels as well.

“One thing farmers need to start thinking about is the ideal harvest time to maximize what they’re growing for but also to minimize risk,” says Kyle Sosebee, J.D., a hemp and cannabis lawyer based in Massachusetts. “We know that THC spikes at the very end of the growing season along with a lot of the other cannabinoids. What we may end up seeing is farmers harvesting earlier than they otherwise would just so they have a bigger safety margin and avoid that end-of-the-season spike in THC.

"That may become part of the growing strategy for farmers: They’re going to short themselves on CBD, but it’s going to be better than a total crop loss if your entire crop goes hot.”

Since the passing of the Farm Bill (formally called the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018), much of the world has focused on opportunities created for hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD). Some traditional hemp farmers have expressed concerns over CBD’s inclusion in the same category as hemp; they feel it could jeopardize hemp’s newly legal status and that CBD should be regulated as a drug. Aside from that, the Farm Bill has significant ramifications far beyond CBD for a crop that has been federally illegal to cultivate (aside from several recent research and pilot programs) for 82 years—a crop that many believe can change, and heal, the world.

To gain insights into the Farm Bill’s full impact across all types of hemp farming and end uses, as well as into the contention between CBD and other hemp industries, Hemp Grower spoke with Joy Beckerman, principal of Hemp Ace International, which provides professional hemp consulting, legal support and expert services. Beckerman, whose hemp career spans more than a quarter century, is also the president of the Hemp Industries Association (HIA), executive vice president of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable (an advocacy organization for hemp CBD and hemp food companies), as well as the regulatory officer and industry liaison for global hemp CBD company Elixinol. She also is part owner of Colorado Hemp Works, a hemp grain processing facility, and is a member of Hemp Grower’s Editorial Advisory Board.

Noelle Skodzinski: The media has largely focused on the Farm Bill’s impact on hemp grown for CBD, and we’re seeing the boom in that market. I have heard from non-CBD hemp farmers who are not thrilled about CBD’s association with traditional hemp. Can you comment on that?

Joy Beckerman: The focus on CBD and the obsession with it can be frustrating to those of us who have either been in the movement for grain and fiber purposes or are engaged in the grain and fiber industries. There has been contention within the whole hemp community.

In 2014, we had already started to see the beginning of hemp CBD. It was often smuggled in from other countries, and it was starting to show up in the illicit market. And then the 2014 Farm Bill came along, and farmers started to grow for extract under these research and agricultural pilot programs. The HIA had to decide: Are we going to embrace the resin of the plant? Because we’re in a sticky situation here, no pun intended. Some thought we should not be in dietary CBD or the plant’s resins: It goes against the original mission statement.

We did decide to embrace it, and the HIA has adopted a policy for its members: If you’re making these products, you’re subject to federal and state safety and quality assurance laws and you damn well better be operating in compliance with those federal and state laws because your business is governed.

NS: Do you see CBD’s extreme popularity as a good or bad thing for hemp in general?

JB: I’m shouting from the rooftops about how we can heal the land and the world and make better products and better textiles on your skin and for your baby, and people can be—and are—moved by that. But, when they have a shoulder pain or anxiety or they can’t sleep at night, and they take hemp CBD and that shoulder pain is gone, and that sleep is healed, and that anxiety is relieved, that changes people. It solves an immediate need. And now people are really paying attention. They want to know more about this plant. So the awareness of CBD is wonderful for the grain—oil, seed—and fiber.

Investors then can take their money and move it over into creating the infrastructure for processing the most valuable biocellulose in the world (that’s the long, strong stalk that is hemp) and the most valuable superfood in the world, which is the seed and which has incredible industrial purposes as well.

NS: What has the Farm Bill’s impact been on other types of hemp products?

JB: The Farm Bill did not just open things up for CBD by making it clear that extractions of cannabinoids derived from hemp are removed from the Controlled Substances Act, it has opened the floodgates for the entire plant and all of its uses. We’re talking human and animal nutrition; human and animal body care; nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals for humans and animals; paper; textiles; biocomposites; bioresin; building materials; industrial sealants and coatings; energy; fuel; nanotechnology; biomedical applications; and more. I just described every single thing that humanity and animals need to survive and thrive.

And I think it’s also important to note that the Farm Bill did not just amend the Controlled Substances Act; it also amended the Federal Crop Insurance Act to allow for hemp. It amended the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946, which is where all legal agricultural commodities in the United States are defined.

Our definition of hemp now lives in Section 297A of the Agricultural Marketing Act as an agricultural commodity with corn, soybeans, apples and every other lawful crop. It has reclaimed its place in the broad light of day, among all other legal agricultural commodities in the United States of America. A farmer can’t obtain federal crop insurance unless the crop is defined in that act.

They amended several other acts as well—six in total—but around critical materials and supplemental crops and research.

NS: In light of that, do you think hemp now has the potential to disrupt other traditional mature markets and industries?

JB: Absolutely. Hemp is a massive disrupter if we choose to look at it that way. And I know that disruption can be a good thing, right? But we also like to think of it as the great synthesizer. We’re not looking for a mono-crop world. We’re looking to add hemp into existing rotations, which is much better for the soil and the pest cycle and integrated pest management. … So, in terms of the agricultural scheme, we’re saying not to disrupt but to add it into your rotation.

For the building materials and all these other areas of industry, we’re saying, start to add it into your formulation, whether for an industrial sealant or coating, building material or a road, concrete, or for paper. … Hemp is an amazing blender and synthesizer.

[Hemp Shield Company founder] David Seber is the first researcher in recent history who noticed when you put hemp seed oil in with volatile organic chemicals to make a wood sealer or a stain, it even makes the volatile organic chemicals work better together.

So, yes, it’s a disrupter, and it’s also going to synergize and make crops and industry better and put out superior products with the proper research and formulation. And much of it is already going on.

NS: What do you think the next five years will hold for CBD?

JB: The reality is that it’s a very long-term bureaucratic process within the [Food and Drug Administration]. They have said in congressional testimony that it’s going to take three to five years to come up with all this data and regulation, and it’s important to understand that the FDA is not exactly well staffed, and it takes resources, millions of dollars, to pay the staff and come up with a regulatory framework.

I would say that without legislation directing the FDA to follow an expedited time frame, the FDA could end up taking three to five years to figure it out.

NS: What are you most excited about as you’re looking at the future of hemp in North America and globally?

JB: I am excited about being a part of delivering on the full promise of the world’s most versatile, valuable crop. And that promise affects every single need that humanity and living beings have. It’s going to help the planet so much. Am I more excited about food than I am about hemp paper? I mean, I guess I am, but hemp is everything. Hemp lights up my life.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Noelle Skodzinski is editorial director of Hemp Grower, Cannabis Conference and sister magazines Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary.

The U.S. hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD) market is expected to reach $23.7 billion by 2023, up from the current value of $5 billion, according to CBD and cannabis research firm Brightfield Group. Thousands of farmers are ramping up production following passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized hemp at the federal level, as state industrial hemp programs expand.

The U.S., China and Canada lead global industrial hemp cultivation in 2019 in the number of acres planted, according to Brightfield Group’s recent “Hemp Cultivation Landscape” report. Farmers planted an estimated 288,000 acres of industrial hemp in the U.S. in 2019, up from 78,000 acres in 2018, according to the report.

In the U.S., the profit potential of CBD is driving the growth in hemp cultivation, with about 87% of the 288,000 acres expected to be used for CBD processing in 2019. On a per-acre level, hemp for CBD could potentially generate $45,203 in revenue, compared with $773 for corn.

• Difficulty obtaining certified feminized seeds and clones. Farmers looking for the highest revenue potential desire female hemp plants because CBD levels are highest in unpollinated female plants. Planting female clones ensures all female hemp plants, but the high cost and limited availability has restricted its use. With the shortage of certified feminized hemp seeds, farmers have purchased so-called feminized seeds without guarantees that they will be male-free or high in CBD.
• Labor-intensive growing. Hemp cultivation requires a lot of manual labor, especially during harvesting. Because the U.S. industrial hemp industry is new, options for hemp harvesting machinery are limited, so some farms are retrofitting their machinery to harvest hemp for floral material, where the CBD content is highest in the hemp plant.
• Required expertise. Growing hemp for CBD extraction is not a row crop like corn and soybeans. Cultivating hemp for CBD is similar to vegetables and requires more space between plants.
• Lack of traditional markets for selling hemp. The result is less price transparency and companies not honoring agreements to buy hemp from farmers.
• Risk of a “hot crop.” Industrial hemp crops can fail state agricultural department testing prior to harvest if test results show more than 0.3% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) by dry weight. The farmer is then required to destroy the crop.
• Pollen drift issues and cross-pollination risks. CBD levels are highest in unpollinated female hemp flowers, while male hemp plants produce no flower. If male hemp plants, which are grown for fiber and grain, are planted too closely to female plants being grown for CBD, the male plant can pollinate the female plants and lead to lower CBD yields as the plant expends energy for seed production rather than floral production. Similarly, the presence of male hemp plants can reduce the THC content of the female cannabis plant if pollination occurs.

Despite the risks involved with the industry, more U.S. farmers are expected to invest in hemp cultivation. American farmers can capitalize on the rising demand for U.S.-grown hemp by marketing their CBD brands as “grown in the USA” or “locally sourced.”

A version of this story appeared in the September issue of Cannabis Business Times.

Virginia Lee is CBD research manager at Brightfield Group. She develops and executes syndicated and customized research covering the U.S. and international CBD markets.

Courtesy of Morris Beagle

“It’s ironic that the FDA sends warning letters to CBD companies for allegedly making false claims or medical claims while the FDA is arguably making inaccurate, scientifically insufficient and evidence-lacking claims about CBD and its effect on human health. What the FDA has suggested lacks facts. This is the same fear-mongering approach governments have been using for 80-plus years.” 

Morris Beegle, co-founder and president of a group of hemp companies called We Are For Better Alternatives, tells Hemp Grower in response to the FDA’s revised consumer update on CBD use and marketing.

—Source: HempGrower.com

Courtesy of RJ Hopp

“While the hemp plant is known for its strength and hardiness of the fibers, the flowers are a different story. As the floral material continues to be roughly handled over time, cannabinoid-rich trichomes are being knocked off, reducing concentrations of multiple percentage points on a dry weight basis.”

RJ Hopp, director of hemp markets for PanXchange, in the November 2019 Hemp Market Update for Hemp Grower.

—Source: HempGrower.com

Courtesy of Jonathan Miller

“I cross the country praising Mitch McConnell. McConnell has been extraordinary. He went from Darth Vader to my hemp hero. McConnell is very clued in to this. He’s going to be on top of it.”

Jonathan Miller, general counsel to the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, on WholeFoods Magazine naming Mitch McConnell its “2019 Person of the Year.” (Note: The magazine has no affiliation with the Amazon owned grocery store Whole Foods Market.)

—Source: WholeFoods Magazine