The co-founder of the South-Central Wisconsin Hemp Producers Cooperative sees two major issues impacting growth in the hemp industry.
Steve Acheson believes the first involves FDA regulations.
“This industry kind of boomed in its first couple years, and now we’re seeing kind of a decline across the board. That’s largely because all these mid-level and large-scale value-added producers are very hesitant to get into the CBD game because they don’t know how they are going to be regulated.”
He told Brownfield Ag News another concern is the federal limit on THC rates of .3 percent. Acheson believes that number to be arbitrary and it should be raised a full percent.
“It’s really hard to produce hemp that has high CBD ratios without increasing your THC over that .3 percent threshold. So it’s really kind of putting a choke-hold on farmers.”
According to Acheson, about 14 percent of the 2019 hemp crop had to be destroyed right in the field because it couldn’t pass testing.