Michigan has closed its industrial hemp program, leaving farmers to function instantly below the U.S. Division of Agriculture (USDA), and signaling probably vital adjustments for hemp cultivators and processors within the state.
Below USDA guidelines, pre-harvest THC testing protocols are stricter, and all checks have to be performed at federally permitted laboratories. Farmers additionally face heightened compliance necessities, with extra detailed record-keeping and reporting obligations.
Nonetheless, Blain Becktold, President of iHemp Michigan, mentioned the change might be good for hemp growers in Michigan. That begins with prices. Michigan farmers can count on decrease charges than the $1,350 they have been paying for state hemp permits, which Becktold mentioned was “actually a hindrance to rising the business in Michigan.”
“Now that extra makes use of of business hemp merchandise within the constructing and animal feed sectors are beginning to emerge, this transfer (to USDA) could encourage farmers and processors to look once more on the potentialities that industrial hemp might present to their operations,” Becktold mentioned.
Efficient in 2025
The Michigan Division of Agriculture and Rural Growth (MDARD) will finish its hemp oversight on the shut of 2024, with USDA protocols taking impact instantly in 2025. The choice is linked to the passage of Michigan Home Invoice 5977, which abolishes the state’s industrial hemp fund and transfers oversight obligations for hemp cultivation and regulation to the USDA.
The transition might additionally have an effect on the sources and assist Michigan farmers beforehand relied upon. The state’s program had supplied localized help, together with workshops and steering tailor-made to the state’s distinctive agricultural surroundings. The transfer to a federal program could imply farmers lose entry to such providers, probably leaving some with out the identical degree of assist for navigating regulatory challenges.
On the identical time, the shift to USDA oversight brings new alternatives. Working below a uniform federal customary might simplify compliance for companies working throughout state traces and open up broader markets for Michigan hemp merchandise. Some producers in states that function below USDA say the administration is less complicated and that the federal program permits farmers direct entry to federal sources akin to crop insurance coverage, catastrophe help, and grant applications.
Fashionable historical past
Initially, the 2014 Farm Invoice approved state agricultural departments to ascertain pilot applications for hemp cultivation. The 2018 Farm Invoice legalized hemp nationally, granting the USDA authority to supervise hemp manufacturing. States might select to function their very own regulatory applications, topic to USDA approval, or defer to federal administration below the USDA’s standardized framework.
Michigan established its state industrial hemp program in 2019 below the authority of the MDARD. This system was initiated following the passage of the Michigan Industrial Hemp Analysis and Growth Act, which aligned with the 2018 Farm Invoice.
USDA permitted the state’s plan in 2020. An replace below Michigan’s Industrial Hemp Growers Act in 2021 aligned the state’s program with closing federal laws. In 2022, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer consolidated the regulation of hemp and marijuana processing, distribution, and gross sales below a newly named Hashish Regulatory Company to economize, on the time leaving licensing for hemp cultivation with MDARD.
Michigan’s hemp fortunes
Whereas, like Michigan, many states opted to implement their hemp applications, some struggled to align their regulatory frameworks with the USDA’s strict THC testing protocols, reporting necessities, and enforcement. A number of finally reverted to USDA oversight when administration turned unsustainable as a consequence of funding shortages ensuing from lower-than-expected farmer participation and diminished licensing charges.
The variety of growers in Michigan merely couldn’t assist a authorities division to supervise the hemp sector. And by taking cash from growers and processors, the state didn’t assist the business’s progress, in line with Becktold.
Michigan’s hemp fortunes have tracked these of the business nationwide, in line with figures from the USDA’s Nationwide Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). After reaching a peak of 13,225 acres (~5,351 hectares) planted in 2020 – spurred by the hype over CBD – fields dwindled to 290 acres (117 hectares) in 2022 after a large crash hit that subsector. No hemp acres have been reported to NASS for 2023.
