Oversight of Michigan’s hemp program could be handed over to the USDA as soon as early next year.
In the USA, states are able to have their own industrial hemp programs, but if a state does not have a USDA-approved state plan then the standards of the USDA Hemp Producer License apply.
At this point, eleven states are operating under the USDA Hemp Producer License – or are soon to. Hawaii, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Utah, Wisconsin and Vermont already have arrangements in place, and licenses will be issued after January 1, 2025 in Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska.
Another state that may be added to the list is Michigan.
The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) will be requesting the state’s program be abolished and returned to the oversight of USDA. House Bill 5977 was introduced in October, seeking to abolish Michigan’s industrial hemp fund on February 1, 2025.
In an MDARD article published a few days on Morning Ag Clips, the Department noted the number of licensed growers in the state had dropped from 631 in 2020 to 34 in this year and the program was no longer financially sustainable. Additionally, investigating instances of farmers allegedly growing marijuana under the guise of hemp has created additional resource pressures to the program.
MDARD indicated some of the key differences between the state and USDA’s program included no licensing fee and licenses are valid for three years. But growers would need to contract with USDA-certified sampling agents and private labs for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) testing.
“This is only a proposed change, and adjustments may be made as the process moves forward,” says MDARD. “If the legislation passes, MDARD will work closely with USDA to ensure hemp growers have a smooth transition to the federal program.”
Back in 2015 then-Governor Rick Snyder signed HB 5440 into law, which excluded industrial hemp grown or cultivated for research from the definition of “marihuana”. HB 5439 was also signed off, authorising industrial hemp research. In 2018, several bills were signed into law amending the Industrial Hemp Research Act to create the new Industrial Hemp Research and Development Act. In 2019, MDARD launched a pilot program for the 2019 planting season.
Oversight of Michigan’s hemp program could be handed over to the US Department of Agriculture as soon as early next year. Read More
