The process to start producing industrial hemp right now is unclear, and it’s different on where you plan to grow.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture has greenlighted hemp production registration with an interested party’s local agricultural commissioners office. However, there is very little else lined out and rules are continually being updated. “Yes, sadly that’s the case,” Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner Henry Gonzales said. “Today is different to yesterday in regards to how things are being done with hemp so just stay tuned and keep abreast of the changes as they happen.”
Gonzales said to complicate it even further; regions can set there own policies on hemp production requirements, much like the situation with medical marijuana in the state a few years ago. “Each county, and even each city really, each jurisdiction has the opportunity to create their own rules on top of that,” he said. “Here in Monterey County, we see that hemp is a similar use to cannabis and so in order to grow hemp you have to follow all of the rules that apply to cannabis. That makes it much more difficult.”
Listen to the story.
About the Author
