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Eager to cash in on the popularity of CBD products, Vermont farmers this fall are harvesting more hemp than ever before.The state agency of agriculture says 900 farmers registered a total of 9,000 acres of land for hemp production this year (which compares to about 90,000 acres planted with corn.)Hemp is a form of cannabis that contains almost none of the THC found in marijuana and will not get you high. Though hemp farming dates back to the Middle Ages it was banned under federal law because it looks and smells just like marijuana.John Satz, a vegetable farmer in Brandon who planted 30 acres of fields with hemp, said he’s had to educate a few trespassers.”They were real disappointed. They thought it looked like (marijuana) and smelled like it. When I told them it wasn’t they were kind of bummed,” he said. Satz said this year’s harvest has gone well. He has purchased dryers for his crop and lined up a buyer for processing. Hemp flowers can be used to make cannabinoid oil, or CBD, along with fragrant terpenes. Its leaves and fibrous stalks can be turned into a range of textiles. CBD products have soared in popularity with consumers eager for relief of muscle pain or anxiety, but they are not yet regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.While hemp production has been legal in Vermont for years, it took the 2018 federal farm bill to allow production nationwide and transportation of hemp across state lines.State agriculture leaders say it’s too soon to tell how much potential the crop may have for struggling Vermont farmers.But some Vermont processors say there is already a huge oversupply of hemp and insufficient processing capacity to extract the high-value oil from the plant. “I’d say in Vermont, a lot of us are apprehensive about saying this is the ‘next big thing,'” said Alyson Eastman, Vermont’s deputy secretary of agriculture. “But I think there is a lot of opportunity here. A lot revolves around what FDA decides to do — whether they allow (hemp) to be (classified) as a nutraceutical or pharmaceutical.”For now, she says, Vermont’s got a head start, with farmer here producing far more hemp than other Northeast states. In part two, the industry bottleneck: too much hemp and not enough processing facilities.
Eager to cash in on the popularity of CBD products, Vermont farmers this fall are harvesting more hemp than ever before.
The state agency of agriculture says 900 farmers registered a total of 9,000 acres of land for hemp production this year (which compares to about 90,000 acres planted with corn.)
Hemp is a form of cannabis that contains almost none of the THC found in marijuana and will not get you high.
Though hemp farming dates back to the Middle Ages it was banned under federal law because it looks and smells just like marijuana.
John Satz, a vegetable farmer in Brandon who planted 30 acres of fields with hemp, said he’s had to educate a few trespassers.
“They were real disappointed. They thought it looked like (marijuana) and smelled like it. When I told them it wasn’t they were kind of bummed,” he said.
Satz said this year’s harvest has gone well. He has purchased dryers for his crop and lined up a buyer for processing.
Hemp flowers can be used to make cannabinoid oil, or CBD, along with fragrant terpenes. Its leaves and fibrous stalks can be turned into a range of textiles.
CBD products have soared in popularity with consumers eager for relief of muscle pain or anxiety, but they are not yet regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.
While hemp production has been legal in Vermont for years, it took the 2018 federal farm bill to allow production nationwide and transportation of hemp across state lines.
State agriculture leaders say it’s too soon to tell how much potential the crop may have for struggling Vermont farmers.
But some Vermont processors say there is already a huge oversupply of hemp and insufficient processing capacity to extract the high-value oil from the plant.
“I’d say in Vermont, a lot of us are apprehensive about saying this is the ‘next big thing,'” said Alyson Eastman, Vermont’s deputy secretary of agriculture. “But I think there is a lot of opportunity here. A lot revolves around what FDA decides to do — whether they allow (hemp) to be (classified) as a nutraceutical or pharmaceutical.”
For now, she says, Vermont’s got a head start, with farmer here producing far more hemp than other Northeast states.
In part two, the industry bottleneck: too much hemp and not enough processing facilities.
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