“American hemp farmers deserve to know their seed supply is not about to become collateral damage in a fight that was never about them.”
By Jessica Wasserman, American Seed and Innovation & Growth Alliance
On November 12, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) could become the primary regulator of America’s hemp seed supply. Not because Congress debated and decided it should be, but because of a single sentence, tucked into last December’s FY2026 appropriations bill.
If Section 781 of that legislation takes effect as written for seed, it will pull DEA into the regulation of hemp seed, reclassifying it as a potential Schedule I substance subject to destruction. Farmers and research institutions that simply hold seed in inventory, as they do every single season, in barns, coolers and university breeding programs, will suddenly find themselves in possession of a federally controlled substance.
The American Seed and Innovation & Growth Alliance (ASIGA) has spent months meeting with dozens of members of Congress and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials educating them about this issue.
Lawmakers across the spectrum agree the provision is misguided. The trouble is that the broader, more contentious fight over intoxicating hemp products has swallowed the oxygen in the
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