USDA Set To Launch Latest National Survey Of Hemp Farmers To Better Understand Industry Trends

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is set to launch its latest annual survey to hemp farmers across the country this month in an effort to better understand the state of the industry.

The department said the surveys are meant to “collect information on the total planted and harvested area, yield, production, and value of hemp in the United States in 2024.”

USDA launched its first annual survey in 2021, and it updated the questionnaire in 2022 before distributing it to farmers and releasing a report with findings that showed significant declines in the value and production of the crop in 2022. It followed up with another survey last year.

Results from that 2023 survey found that the total value of hemp production reached an estimated $291 million—an 18 percent increase over 2022. About 27,680 acres of hemp were planted for all purposes last year.

“The Hemp Production and Disposition Inquiry will provide critical data about the hemp industry to assist producers, regulatory agencies, state governments, processors, and other key industry entities,” Rodger Ott director of USDA’s Mountain Regional Field Office, said in a press release about the forthcoming edition of the survey.

In general, the department has historically asked questions about plans for outdoor hemp production, acreage for operations, primary and secondary uses for the crop and what kinds of prices producers are able to bring in.

The questionnaire has listed preparations such as smokeable hemp, extracts like CBD, grain for human consumption, fiber and seeds as areas the department is interested in learning more about.

Hemp stakeholders who receive the latest surveys this month are being asked to respond by January 30. Results are set to be published on April 17.

Meanwhile, as the nation’s hemp industry continues to mature, USDA is making what it calls “improvements” to a federal hemp crop insurance program. The changes, which take effect next year, ease certain crop-rotation requirements and remove smoke damage as a cause of covered loss.

USDA has been working to bolster the hemp industry, including by appointing a number of industry stakeholders this summer to a federal trade advisory committee meant to support efforts to promote U.S.-grown cannabis around the world.

Meanwhile, the department recently announced it is delaying enforcement of a rule requiring hemp growers to test their crops exclusively at labs registered with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), citing “setbacks” at the agency that have led to “inadequate” access to such facilities.

This is the third year in a row that USDA has delayed enforcement of the lab testing policy for hemp required under the 2018 Farm Bill that federally legalized the crop.

In August, USDA also advised stakeholders of a policy change in China to impose tighter regulations on hemp-derived CBD, though it said the new rules were expected to benefit the industry.

Two years after hemp and its derivatives were federally legalized in the U.S. under the 2018 Farm Bill, China agreed to a trade deal that required it to buy significantly more of the non-intoxicating cannabis crop from U.S. sources. That agreement expired in 2022, however.

USDA also awarded $745,000 to the National Industrial Hemp Council (NIHC) to support efforts to promote the industry internationally in emerging markets across the world. In 2020, USDA awarded NIHC $200,000 as part of a different grant program.

The latest grant round was distributed during a precarious time for the hemp industry. While a USDA report found that the market started to rebound in 2023 after suffering significant losses the prior year, it’s still facing uncertainties as congressional lawmakers have advanced bills that would effectively ban most consumable hemp-based cannabinoid products—a major sector of the cannabis economy.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) said in a report in June that hemp provisions included in one spending bill that moved through committee could also “create confusion” for the industry due to a lack of clarity around the type of allowable products.

Senate Democrats recently released the long-awaited draft of 2024 Farm Bill that contained several proposed changes to federal hemp laws—including provisions to amend how the legal limit of THC is measured and reducing regulatory barriers for farmers who grow the crop for grain or fiber. But certain stakeholders are concerned that part of the intent of the legislation is to “eliminate a whole range of products” that are now sold in the market.

One key component of the legislation concerns the definition of hemp. As currently enacted, a crop is considered federally legal hemp if it contains no more than 0.3 percent delta-9 THC by dry weight. That would be revised under the new bill, making it so hemp would have to be tested for “total THC” content, including cannabinoids such as delta-8 THC and THC-A, and not just delta-9.

That could theoretically lead to a significant upheaval of the hemp industry as it has evolved since the crop was federally legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill, restricting not only the varieties of plants that could be cultivated but also the products that would be permitted in the marketplace. Lawmakers have been increasingly targeting intoxicating cannabinoid products that have proliferated in recent years.

The new draft bill would also create a specific definition for “industrial hemp,” which includes fiber, stalks, grain, oil, seeds and other components of the plant that “will not be used in the manufacturing or synthesis of natural or synthetic cannabinoid products.”

USDA is also reportedly revoking hemp licenses for farmers who are simultaneously growing marijuana under state-approved programs, underscoring yet another policy conflict stemming from the ongoing federal prohibition of some forms of the cannabis plant.

For the time being, the hemp industry continues to face unique regulatory hurdles that stakeholders blame for the crop’s value plummeting in the short years since its legalization. Despite the economic conditions, however, a recent report found that the hemp market in 2022 was larger than all state marijuana markets, and it roughly equaled sales for craft beer nationally.

Meanwhile, internally at USDA, food safety workers are being encouraged to exercise caution and avoid cannabis products, including federally legal CBD, as the agency observes an “uptick” in positive THC tests amid “confusion” as more states enact legalization.

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Photo courtesy of Brendan Cleak.