What is the Farm Bill?
Meant to be reauthorized every five years (sometimes it takes longer), Congress passes an omnibus bill covering various aspects of agriculture, such as food and nutrition programs, trade, rural development, conservation, and more.
Farm Bills get passed through the following phases:
- The House and Senate Agriculture Committees will draft and vote on their versions of the Farm Bill.
- Both the House and the Senate will debate, amend, and vote on a Farm Bill from their respective committees.
- Senate and House leaders, including committee chairs, form a conference to combine their versions of the bill
- The House and Senate will hold a final vote on the combined bill
- The bill makes its way to the White House, where it is signed into law or vetoed by the President
The 2018 Farm Bill
The
most recent Farm Bill famously legalized hemp, removing it from the list of controlled substances and defining it as:
"(1) HEMP.—The term 'hemp' means the plant Cannabis sativa L. and any part of that plant, including the seeds thereof and all derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids, isomers, acids, salts, and salts of isomers, whether growing or not, with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of not more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis."
Since then,
many states have followed suit (
such as Texas with H.B. 1325 in 2019), legalizing hemp and products containing hemp-derived cannabinoids.
However, other state governments have attempted to ban or succeeded in banning these federally legal products This typically has happened in states with full-blown marijuana programs or states with prohibitionist tendencies. Sometimes, it's due to moralistic ideologues with their feet dug into grossly outdated misinformation about cannabis. But other times, it's pressure from Big Marijuana using state governments to snuff out competition.
The 2024 Farm Bill
On May 23, 2024, during the House Committee's hearing for their version of the Farm Bill, an
amendment proposed by Illinois Rep. Mary Miller (whose home state has legalized both recreational and medicinal marijuana) was added to this version. That
amendment would ban hemp-derived Delta-9, Delta-8, HHC, and similar products on a federal level.
The amendment essentially adds exclusions that change the definition of hemp, such as:
- (ii) any hemp-derived cannabinoids products containing—
- (I) cannabinoids that are not capable of being naturally produced by a Cannabis sativa L. plan;
- (II) cannabinoids that—
- (aa) are capable of being naturally produced by a Cannabis sativa L. plant; and
- (bb) were synthesized or manufactured outside the plant;
- or
- (III) quantifiable amounts (as determined by the Secretary) of—
- (aa) tetrahydrocannabinol (including tetrahydrocannabinolic acid) or;
- (bb) any other cannabinoids that have similar effects (or marketed to have similar effects) on humans or animals as tetrahydrocannabinol
On the surface, it only seems like this amendment passed by the House Committee would ban "intoxicating cannabinoids" or "synthetic derivatives," but in reality, it would be devastating to the entire hemp industry whether someone is just producing CBD or hemp for industrial purposes.
Even more interesting is that this amendment was approved at the last minute, with House Agriculture Committee Chairman G.T. Thompson grouping it “en bloc”. This action was a
political tactic rarely employed with controversial subjects to pass an unpopular amendment by pairing it with favorable amendments and making people vote on it. This, despite Thompson and committee staff assuring
the U.S. Hemp Roundtable they would not support any effort to kill the hemp industry.
What's Next on a Federal Level?
Next, this version of the Farm Bill will move to the House floor, where representatives will vote on it. Although discouraging news, the fight to protect hemp on a federal level is far from over. Given the current political climate of both the House and Senate, along with the fact that 2024 is an election year, it is possible that lawmakers can pass this bill by the end of the year.
But you can still help.
If you want to join the fight to protect hemp-derived cannabinoids, whether because they are how you make a living or because they help make your life a bit easier,
you can visit this page to ask your representative to vote against the Farm Bill unless the Mary Miller Amendment is removed.
The Fight in Texas
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