More than two years after Congress passed the 2018 Farm Bill, making hemp a legal agricultural commodity, farmers finally have one national set of rules for growing the crop. And they officially take effect Monday.
Market saturation for CBD hemp affected Minnesota farmers in 2019, but they adapted by shifting toward grain, fiber and CBG in 2020. https://www.hempgrower.com/article/what-is-cbd-future-in-hemp-cultivation/
No part of the global economy has escaped the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed more than 2.5 million lives around the world and sickened countless more. But few industries were in the kind of infancy the hemp industry was in when the World Health Organization declared the virus a global pandemic on March 11, 2020.
For many farmers, the 2020 hemp season added heartache to an already grim pandemic year. Excess biomass from 2019 left deteriorating in storage drove wholesale prices to new lows. But the year’s end yielded a bright spot in one market segment: smokable hemp flower. https://www.hempgrower.com/article/smokable-hemp-market-potential-flower/
While smokable hemp presents an opportunity for growers, its varying legal status across states makes the market’s long-term viability uncertain. https://www.hempgrower.com/article/smokable-hemp-market-sustainable-laws/
Industrial conglomerate 3M Co. thinks hemp can be part of the sustainability “megatrend” and is looking at hemp components to do everything from strengthening packaging tape to helping grow human tissue and organs.
Hemp advocates say the plant’s carbon-gobbling properties position the crop to play an important role in plans outlined by President Joe Biden to tackle the climate crisis.
The hemp industry may be young, but the niche crop still contributed at least $4 billion to the U.S. economy last year and could contribute nearly $16 billion by 2025.
