The latest Farm Bill, officially known as the 2018 Agriculture and Nutrition Act, has been approved by both the United States Senate and House of Representatives and is currently awaiting signature by the president.

Within that legislation, which has been praised by farmers and industry specialists across the country, are radical changes to the regulations regarding the farming of industrial hemp.

Specifically, the Farm Bill removes hemp – defined in the bill as all parts of the marijuana plant with less than .3 percent THC, including derivatives, extracts and cannabinoids – from classification as a Schedule I drug, separate from its psychoactive counterpart.

The plant is now deemed an agriculture commodity and no longer considered a controlled substance, according to a press release from the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries (ADAI).

Though hemp is not yet legal to grow or process in Alabama – that will require a plan to be developed by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, as well as in-depth information on all farmers across the nation to be submitted to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) – many groups are already celebrating the new legislation and cautiously looking ahead for its possibilities in Alabama.

“I am happy that hemp production was addressed at the federal level,” said ADAI Commissioner John McMillan in the press release. “In 2016 we were tasked with administering the Alabama Industrial Hemp Research Program Act by the state legislature. The process has been complicated, but with the Farm Bill amendment we can move forward with a more unified plan.”

McMillan’s office “will work in consultation with the Governor’s office, the Attorney General’s office and law enforcement agencies to create a plan of action regarding statewide regulation” and, once the plan is approved by the USDA, the department will administer permits to eligible farmers.

The new guidelines regarding hemp are wide-reaching but, once approved on a state-by-state basis, will allow for the cultivation and production of hemp for industrial purposes, such as building materials and textiles, as well as medicinal uses, such as cannabidiol (CBD).

Eric Mulford, an industrial hemp advocate and member of the Hemp Industries Association, believes the new industry opens many doors for Alabama and the Black Belt region of the state specifically.

Mulford is a Baptist preacher in north Alabama and has been a hemp advocate for more than two decades. Mulford has seen the effects of medical hemp first hand – disabled for a time, Mulford began using CBD and is now able to function normally in his daily life.

“How it’s all going to shake out, we’re not really sure,” Mulford said, noting the hurdles that still need be cleared before farmers can begin growing hemp in the state. “Alabama would be an excellent state for hemp.”

Mulford recalled his days growing up in Kansas and working on small farms there and noted that agriculture creates micro-economies, which can be a boon for statewide economic outcomes.

“Agriculture puts a lot of people to work,” Mulford said. “Hemp has the potential to restore those agricultural communities. Twenty acres [of hemp] can put a person in business. Twenty acres of beans just can’t do that.”

While Mulford noted that farmers have to do careful research and planning before jumping into what is, at least for Alabama, a very new industry, he is enthusiastic about the crop’s potential benefits to Dallas County and the Black Belt region.

“I can’t think of anything that has the potential to help the Black Belt more than hemp,” Mulford said.

Mulford believes industrial hemp for use as concrete and building material would be optimal for Dallas County, as the area already maintains the industrial infrastructure for both growing and processing the crop.

“It becomes a solution to the housing issue,” Mulford said. This is the perfect building material for Alabama and it’s a brand-new thing for the state.”

Cory Sharp, CEO of HempLogic, a consulting firm based out of Washington dedicated to industrial hemp, specifically the issues surrounding the cultivation and harvest of hemp to be used for CBD, isn’t quite as enthusiastic.

Sharp noted that the hemp business brought in $10 billion in 2018 and expects for that to increase over the next year, but noted that many small farmers are being negatively impacted by the dynamic rise of the industry.

“These contracts are garbage,” Sharp said, noting how large corporations are signing contracts with small farmers across the nation. “If we can get farmers to just slow, figure it out and learn how to do it, there’s a lot of opportunity there.”

Sharp said his firm has seen a lot of “mom and pop” operations diving head first into the cultivation of hemp with no real idea of what it takes to cultivate or harvest the product, as well as no firm grasp of the genetic researched necessary to maintain a successful farm.

Sharp noted that growing for textiles and building materials is different than trying to grow for CBD purposes, but both are completely different from growing traditional crops.

“You’ve got to be super careful,” Sharp said. “The industry is almost going to collapse on itself and people are going to lose a lot of money. It’s ripe with fraud, it’s ripe with people doing unethical things, and the small farmer is being caught in the middle of it.”

Sharp urges people interested in cultivating hemp to do in-depth research, start small and focus on “genetics, cultivation and harvest.”

“It looks really easy on paper and that’s kind of the biggest problem,” Sharp said. “It’s a very confusing industry.”

Rudy Yates, Agronomist and Regional Extension Agent for the Dallas County Extension Office, is taking more of a “wait and see” approach to the topic.

According to Yates, no one has expressed an interest in the hemp industry yet and there are still a lot of loose ends as far as what the industry will look like once it’s taken on by the ADAI.

“It’s still up in the air,” Yates said. “There’s a lot more to it.”

For his part, Yates is concerned that potential growers would have to wait for the proper infrastructure to be put into place and would be without a market for selling their product.

“As far as the industry, we have infrastructure already in place for cotton,” Yates said. “As far as I know, there’s no real infrastructure for hemp.”