USDA Monday published its final rule to be the framework for the U.S. hemp industry. The 301-page package includes some changes from an October 2019 interim final rule that provided initial guidelines to implement the 2018 Farm Bill which removed hemp from the Controlled Substances Act and set a legal definition for hemp as 0.3 delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) on a dry weight basis.
The finished regulations come after 5,900 public comments and letters from members of Congress. The final rule package takes effect March 22 and provides steps for USDA to review and approve plans submitted by state, territorial and tribal governments for regulating hemp production.
The rules also lay out how the department will regulate farmers in states or tribal lands that have not outlawed hemp but also have not submitted plans. Under the final rule, farmers will not be labeled as negligent if test samples of their hemp crop register at 0.5% (THC) on a dry weight basis. The regulation would put the negligent threshold at 1% THC. Being declared negligent three out of five years could result in a farmer being barred from hemp production for five years.
The hemp industry argued that given the volatile nature of THC in hemp plants that a farmer who followed all the rules could still exceed the 0.5% threshold. The rule also would allow farmers with crops that test above 0.3% THC level to continue to dispose of so-called hot plants by plowing the plants under to amend the soil, cutting and blending the plants with manure or other material to make compost and burning the plants.
The options allow farmers to get some use out of the plants or avoid more costly methods of destruction.