Last week, a LinkedIn post by cannabis economist Beau Whitney caught my eye, because Beau said something pretty amazing. He said: “licensed acres in hemp are at pre-farm bill levels.”
Could that be true? Before the 2018 Farm Bill, only a few states ran limited “research” pilot programs for hemp. I did my best to confirm Beau’s statement and was reminded of how challenging it has always been to aggregate data in this space. But, take a look:
The USDA 2022 National Hemp Report, at page 1, indicates that all industrial hemp “in the open” totaled 28,314 acres. This includes hemp grown for flower/CBD, grain, fiber or seed. The report mentions another 105 acres (my math) grown “under protection.” This USDA study, figure 2, page 4, shows states reporting nearly 30,000 total hemp acres “licensed or approved” for cultivation in 2017. It doesn’t appear that much of this was greenhouse acreage, and I presume it includes hemp cultivated for all uses.
The study with 2017 data contains a disclaimer that “not all States reported data on the same basis.” Also, the 2017 data includes acreage for “approved” and not exclusively “cultivated”, hemp. I could note a few other
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