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HARTFORD, CT – In 2019, Gov. Ned Lamont hailed hemp farming in the state as the next big driver of growth in the state’s agricultural sector. But five years later, according to the state’s data, the number of licensed Connecticut hemp producers has dropped by two-thirds.
The state Department of Agriculture and its Connecticut Hemp Program reports that there are just 57 hemp farmers operating here, down from the industry’s height in 2020 when there were 140 growers.
Connecticut hemp farmer Michael Goodenough, who is also a military veteran, said that when the announcement was made, he – like many of his farming friends – took notice.
“In the beginning, I think a lot of people were saying a farmer’s life is hard, right?” Goodenough said, suggesting that it helps to have a crop that balances out some of the loss and expenses not covered by crop insurance.
Goodenough said he has seen his share of losses from severe weather driven by climate change, and he remembered what he calls the “phenomenal” work to champion hemp by Gerald Berkowitz, a professor of horticulture at the University of Connecticut who holds a doctorate in plant physiology and a master’s in crop physiology.
“There was a massive push and a massive reform around cannabis at the time, and it was legalizing everywhere, or at least, had been legalized long enough to analyze and make determinations of the difference between hemp and cannabis,” Goodenough said.
So much so that Goodenough went all in at his Pomfret farm, converting it to 100% hemp.
“As farmers, our goal is to use the entire pig, right?” Goodenough said. “And so, we want to be able to use everything that’s there because it has medicinal values in its roots and its stem, and it has industrial value, too.”
It seemed like a win for him and for the farming community.
Hemp had finally been separated from cannabis as an illegal plant under new language in the 2018 Farm Bill that authorized the production of hemp, removing the plant and its seeds from the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) schedule of controlled substances.
Even though hemp and cannabis are the same, the new language separated them based on hemp’s lower amount of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) at less than 0.3%, meaning it was insufficient to provide the “psychoactive high” that is associated with cannabis use.
At the time in Connecticut, cannabis was still illegal for recreational use but legal for medical patients. The new definition of hemp in the Farm Bill meant it could be grown and cultivated in states where cannabis wasn’t allowed.
Connecticut had been talking about legalizing recreational cannabis in 2018, but the effort stalled in the General Assembly despite some success getting out of committee.
Talks restarted in March 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic the state government closed two weeks later and again progress stopped.
In June 2021, however, the situation changed and after years of debate the General Assembly finally voted to legalize recreational cannabis. Sales started two years later in January 2023.
It was around this point that the hemp industry in the state started to suffer major setbacks, according to Goodenough.
The number of licensed producers dropped from a high in 2020 of 140 to 98 just a year later and has continued to drop every year since.
Goodenough says that although the legalization of recreational cannabis certainly hasn’t helped the hemp farmers and the hemp industry as a whole, it was legislators’ concerns over CBD – which is the cannabidiol compound with medicinal qualities found in hemp – that began the fall of the hemp industry.
CBD in itself does not cause a high, but it can be converted into the potent psychotropic THC in a laboratory setting.
“They ended up coming after just CBD in general, right?” Goodenough said. “So, products in general – tinctures and creams as well as anything edible. So really the product lines that were here, the brands, the young brands that we were building, started to die out.”
Goodenough said that despite the Farm Bill and its hemp definitions, the state started redefining THC levels to try and stop young people from obtaining products that could be dangerous to them from unlicensed businesses like gas stations or convenience stores.
In Connecticut, that job fell to the Department of Consumer Protection, which Goodenough says helped to craft new bills for the legislature that affected the future of what was left of the hemp industry in the state.
Once momentum got going and the new lower levels of permissible THC became law in the state, Goodenough says he had to take drastic action to avoid bankruptcy.
“We’re backed by farm grants. You know, as a farmer, I have a farm loan. My farm loan was actually called in because they thought my money was coming from cannabis,” he said. “It begins to take that legitimate market and force feed it as illicit, in a federally illegal market.”
Because of the continued changes, Goodenough lost his Pomfret farm, which had been in his family for five generations, because of the loans on the property and escalating interest rates.
He says the revenue he’s lost in the last year alone is around a quarter of a million dollars. On top of that, he said, there are costs associated with rebranding and relabeling products he made as part of his wider hemp business.
But the fight isn’t over.
Goodenough points to litigation filed in November 2024 in federal court by the owners of smoke shops who previously sold hemp-derived products in their stores.
The case claims the state has violated the provisions of the 2018 Farm Bill and its interpretation of hemp in favor of its own new interpretation with lower THC limits, effectively placing hemp back in the same category as cannabis that can only be sold in the state at licensed cannabis dispensaries or licensed businesses.
Genevieve Park-Taylor, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the case against the state, said that if the litigiation is successful it will not only help her clients but could give a much-needed boost to Connecticut’s remaining hemp farmers, too.
Park-Taylor is clear about what they’re after in their legal case.
“With regard to the 2018 Farm Bill, Congress allowed individual states to regulate hemp as long as they did not change the definition of hemp … One of the main allegations in our complaint is that Connecticut violated the 2018 Farm Bill by redefining hemp,” she said.
Park-Taylor said she is also hoping that if lawmakers consider changes to the new Farm Bill, which has yet to be re-authorized, it should be joined with the separate attempt to deschedule cannabis at the federal level.
“It is, after all, one plant,” she said.
If lawmakers manage to pass proposed changes to Connecticut’s cannabis laws during the ongoing legislative session this year, it is expected to be the last time they go before the legislature before being codified.
Once codified in statute, all future matters related to the industry would be handled by the state Department of Consumer Protection.
While the legal battles continue to play out, hemp farmers like Goodenough are scaling back their hemp operations. In some cases, Goodenough said, farmers are abandoning hemp altogether in favor of returning to conventional crops they know can keep them in business.
The commissioner of the state Department of Agriculture is also lamenting the demise of the industry.
“The decline in hemp production is not exclusive to Connecticut, it’s a national concern,” Commissioner Bryan Hurlburt said. “The hemp market has not matured the way many hoped it could have due to a number of factors. One of the leading challenges has been insufficient outlets for product harvested. There are only a few processors within the state for hemp manufacturing. The legalization of cannabis, making it more readily available, has certainly been a contributing factor. We spent a lot of time and effort to stand up a program here in Connecticut to provide new avenues for producers seeking to transition from traditional crops. We share their frustrations and disappointment.”
“}]] HARTFORD, CT – In 2019, Gov. Ned Lamont hailed hemp farming in the state as the next big driver of growth in the state’s agricultural sector. But five years later, according to the state’s data, the number of licensed Connecticut hemp producers has dropped by two-thirds. Read More
