Marijuana Business Magazine - January 2017

for growers than seed and fiber. So the hemp industry is pushing for extraction to be expressly per- mitted in all states. Agronomists say that three high-CBD hemp plants destined for extraction can produce as much profit as a whole acre of corn. And giving hemp growers permission to extract CBD in any state – via the 2018 Farm Bill – could unleash thousands more acres for hemp-based CBD production and change market dynamics for all. 2. Water Help: Expect Congress to look at including water rights in the 2018 Farm Bill. The 2014 ver- sion applied only to agriculture officials, not other federal agencies that control watershed rights across much of the Ameri- can West. The oversight led one Montana hemp farmer to lose her entire crop last year, when the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said the Farm Bill didn’t author- ize it to allow her to access federal water. A group of western senators tried to solve the problem with a bill about hemp and water, but the attempt didn’t work. Expect the water debate to resurface in the 2018 Farm Bill. 3. Subsidy Guarantees: There’s no free market in American agricul- ture. The federal government uses farmer subsidies to control com- modity prices for everything from wheat to rice to peanuts. Farm subsidies protect farmers from ruin in case of drought or flood, and farmers are therefore leery of endangering them. There’s little talk of using farm subsidies to sta- bilize the hemp market. But expect farmers to push for language in the 2018 Farm Bill guaranteeing that they won’t endanger other subsidy payments by devoting some of their land to hemp. 4. Seed Action: Sounds crazy, but the 2014 Farm Bill allowed states to import viable seeds from other countries, but not each other. That’s right. A Vermonter can buy live hemp seed from Poland, but not from neighboring New York. Expect language in the 2018 Farm Bill to change that. Stay Tuned In short, the 2018 Farm Bill could change everything, opening the mar- ket to thousands more farmers and increasing competition. Some warn that hemp prices could bottom out if traditional farmers enter the market in greater numbers. As one economist grimly quipped last year at a hemp conference in Kentucky, “American farmers are so good, they can grow the money right out of anything.” Lucky for you, you’ve got Marijuana Business Magazine and Marijuana Business Daily watching every devel- opment that could impact the hemp industry, from new laws to business deals to notable market trends. Which takes us to the $64,000 question: Is hemp going to change the world? We’ll see. But no matter what happens, we’ve got you covered. ◆ Kristen Nichols covers hemp for Mari- juana Business Magazine. She can be reached at kristenn@mjbizdaily.com . January 2018 • Marijuana Business Magazine • 33

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