Andrew Hill, who studied and farmed hemp in California earlier than it was authorized in Texas, was a keynote speaker on the state’s first-ever agricultural hemp expo in Dallas in 2019. Amid appreciable hype and pleasure that adopted the current federal legalization of hemp, Hill tried to warn farmers that the trade wasn’t as worthwhile as state officers and seed distributors have been pitching.
“There have been guys working round telling farmers they may make $2,500 to $3,000 an acre on hemp. Being an precise farmer, not making an attempt to promote seeds or clones, I couldn’t assist however burst out laughing,” Hill mentioned. “Everybody checked out me and requested what was so humorous, and so they gave me the mic and I mentioned, ‘Girls and gents, I’ll inform you proper now — I haven’t seen over $1,000 an acre since 2015.’”
Nonetheless, Texas lawmakers embraced the chance hemp introduced in 2019, legalizing hemp merchandise of the hashish plant with lower than 0.3% of THC, the psychoactive part in marijuana. Hill’s Texas Star Hemp Farms was amongst these to make the funding essential to revenue from hemp, together with proudly owning nearly all of the technique of manufacturing and gross sales and spending thousands and thousands on seeds, licenses and amenities.
Six years after that preliminary rush, industrial hemp farming in Texas stands on the brink. Senate Invoice 3, which might ban any consumable hemp merchandise that include even hint quantities of THC, might destroy what farmers like Hill have constructed.
“Now, contemplating issues like hemp hearts, hemp seed oils, salad dressings, and people well being merchandise that don’t have any cannabinoids in them to get you excessive, [they] will nonetheless be unlawful below this legislation,” Hill mentioned.
Hill is one among about 450 licensed hemp producers within the Texas Industrial Hemp Program vulnerable to dropping a bit of their livelihoods as Texas lawmakers have prioritized banning tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC merchandise. Farmers say there isn’t a means they will produce hemp with out traces of THC, even for non-consumable merchandise like clothes and paper, that means SB 3 might ship a demise blow to the trade.
The GOP-controlled Legislature licensed the sale of consumable hemp a 12 months after it was legalized nationwide to spice up Texas agriculture by permitting the commercialization of hemp containing hint quantities of non-intoxicating delta-9 THC.
What ensued was a proliferation of hemp merchandise, comparable to gummies, drinks, vapes and flower buds, bought at dispensaries and comfort shops throughout the state. Sen. Charles Perry, a Lubbock Republican who carried the 2019 hemp legalization invoice, says such makes use of exploit a authorized loophole and put youngsters at risk.
His SB 3 makes an attempt to right this by penalizing violators who knowingly possess THC merchandise with a misdemeanor that may carry as much as a 12 months in jail and a couple of to 10 years in jail for manufacturing or promoting them. The measure, which was accepted by the Senate, additionally bars advertising and marketing and gross sales of consumable hemp to minors and requires all authorized merchandise to be bought in tamper-evident and child-resistant packaging.
Like SB 3, Home Invoice 28 would ban artificial THC and merchandise like gummies and vapes. However the Home’s proposal focuses extra on tightening regulatory loopholes, permitting hemp-infused drinks and assigning the alcohol trade to control merchandise, in addition to limiting the consumption of such merchandise to these 21 years or older and implementing promoting rules.
“This regulatory construction will even keep the federal restriction on THC of not more than 0.3%, in addition to limiting the quantity an individual should buy in a single day to 10 milligrams,” mentioned state Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, sponsor of the invoice.
If the Home passes its proposal, the 2 chambers should reconcile their variations for the laws to turn into legislation. The Home hasn’t taken up both of the hemp payments for a vote.
In public hearings, lawmakers heard from mother and father whose youngsters have been sickened by merchandise containing harmful unregulated types of THC, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick mentioned he’ll transfer to drive an extra time session of the Legislature if lawmakers fail to cross the ban.
“Children are getting poisoned at present,” Patrick instructed the Senate earlier this 12 months.
A blow to farmers
Kyle Bingham describes himself as a distinct segment large farmer. Over the previous a number of years, his greater than 2,000-acre farm has been primarily devoted to cotton and grapes. 5 p.c or much less of its acreage has been devoted to hemp.
“We’ve executed the whole lot from peanuts to sesame seeds to garbanzo beans and blue corn, so rotating hemp into our course of was fairly pure,” Bingham mentioned.
Bingham mentioned his first hemp crop introduced a actuality examine that curbed the early hype and enthusiasm.
“Once we obtained fascinated by promoting hemp biomass, it was about $3.50 a pound. We assumed the worth would drop by the point we obtained to market to beneath $2 a pound. However in actuality, it dropped to about 80 cents a pound. There was an enormous oversupply problem,” Bingham mentioned.
Texas was years too late for farmers to see income from the preliminary hemp increase, and an oversaturated market with little revenue has remained.
The state initiatives SB 3’s monetary influence can be a $19.3 million lack of basic revenue-related funds, lower than 1% of the state’s income over the biennium, together with an annual lack of $450,000 for counties and $610,000 for transit authorities by 2027. The first income loss might be as a result of closure of THC companies, resulting in a decline in taxable gross sales income. Cities are projected to lose $2.1 million a 12 months by 2030.
“We’re urging the Texas Home to rigorously think about the results of SB 3 and HB 28 on the tens of hundreds of small companies, farmers, and shoppers who depend on the hemp trade,” mentioned Cynthia Cabrera, president of the Texas Hemp Enterprise Council and chief technique officer at Hometown Hero.
No state evaluation addresses HB 28’s or SB 3’s monetary potential hit to Texas farmers if they have to abandon manufacturing below a complete THC ban, because the Senate invoice proposes.
“There may be not a single fiber of hemp that meets this” THC-free standards, Hill mentioned.
Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller mentioned the Texas hemp program had round 1,200 farmers fascinated by 2019. Of the roughly 450 licensed hemp producers at present, 166 utilized for a allow to develop hemp in the course of the previous 12 months.
After his early enthusiastic assist of hemp — calling it “probably the most thrilling new prospects for Texas farmers in a very long time” in an introductory video — Miller now speaks with the good thing about hindsight.
“We planted an excessive amount of and had means an excessive amount of product and no place to promote it,” Miller mentioned.
Miller mentioned the cratering hemp market in Texas is the explanation why he believes the proposed ban on THC merchandise can have little impact on farmers: Most of them have already given up anyway.
“Farmers will not be . This isn’t an advanced problem,” Miller mentioned.
Zach Gauger, director of gross sales for Caprock Household Farms, one of many largest hemp producers within the state, instructed lawmakers final week that regardless of the early struggles, the trade is now valued within the billions, placing it among the many state’s prime commodities as a result of funding of those that caught round.
“The hemp trade is sitting simply behind the cattle trade … and this invoice will make it not possible to develop hemp instead crop to be worthwhile,” Gauger mentioned. “I’ve seen farmers throughout our space present curiosity in rising this plant, however they’re apprehensive about failing a take a look at, or the way to promote it, or not having the amenities to ship it to be processed.”
Gauger mentioned analysis has proven that after the Ogallala Aquifer, which the Nice Plains of Texas depends on, runs dry in 20 to 25 years, the funding in hemp might be seen as a selection of survival for farmers.
“The time to diversify is now,” Gauger mentioned. “Hemp extraction and consumption give us a means out of this cycle, not fiber.”
If totally unleashed, hemp is among the extra versatile crops for farmers. It may be used for industrial fibers and to supply CBD, which doesn’t induce a excessive like THC however has been studied for doable therapeutic results. The grain may also be used for animal feed and to make hemp seed oils, clothes, biodegradable plastics and extra.
Profitable hemp farmers, primarily small natural operations that develop hemp for CBD manufacturing, could make $500 to $800 an acre, resulting in hundreds in month-to-month income in the event that they do fast harvests and promote to processors. Farmers like Hill, who management each the manufacturing and gross sales facet of hemp byproducts, could make greater than $10,000 a month.
Nevertheless, it could possibly take years of reinvesting small income into shopping for the cleansing and processing tools wanted to make the bigger income. The Texas hemp trade is simply now beginning to see some stability resulting from these efforts, however the state is now threatening all of this.
“If Home Invoice 28 passes, I received’t be capable of function in Texas anymore. My enterprise mannequin and each product I promote might be made unlawful in a single day, however I received’t shut down — however transfer my operations to a state the place this trade is handled with the regulatory respect it deserves,” Kallan Salganik, a hemp producer for Salganik Providers Inc. instructed lawmakers in a Home listening to earlier this month. “And with that transfer, Texas loses jobs, tax income and the financial ripple impact that comes with [lost] native enterprise exercise.”
Some Texas lawmakers keep that the ban on THC will solely damage the consumable hemp retail trade. However farmers say the plant naturally has THC that may’t merely be eliminated, that means this legislation might result in the elimination of merchandise that include hemp seeds or oils which have been available on the market for years.
“This entire debacle is a lack of knowledge of natural chemistry,” Hill mentioned.
For Texas farmers, industrial hemp is primarily an export crop. Texas lacks processing amenities for fiber or grain hemp crops, and the principles already in place restrict what they will do with the crop past CBD merchandise.
“We might go into the animal feed market with this hemp grain. It’s very nutritious and nice for chickens and cows. However there are not any guidelines for it in Texas, so we will’t contact the animal feed market,” Bingham mentioned. “We have been capable of begin making some progress on these guidelines just lately, however till we’ve that, we’re simply type of sitting right here spinning our wheels.”
Options to banning THC
Hemp planting season is upon us, however farmers are hesitant to plant as a result of SB 3 doesn’t clearly state whether or not hemp already planted might be protected if the invoice passes. Farmers might face felony fees within the fall for a crop that was authorized within the spring.
“We’re an trade that, we hope, is recovering and will present worth to the state, each from an financial influence and in addition creating jobs. We’d prefer to see all that arduous work repay, however we’re able the place I’m not risking a felony for it. I’ll stroll away earlier than risking a felony,” Bingham mentioned.
Underneath SB 3, an individual can commit a misdemeanor by buying or possessing a consumable hemp product not registered with the state of Texas. Growers who don’t pay the $500 allow utility payment and get accepted to develop hemp might face a third-degree felony.
Bingham mentioned the invoice received’t tackle what lawmakers say is the central problem: stopping hashish from moving into youngsters’s palms. Dangerous actors, he mentioned, “will nonetheless be capable of discover loopholes to proceed doing what they do, and so they’ll hold going. It received’t change something.”
As a substitute, Bingham mentioned, the THC ban will nip the trade within the bud.
“It would kill the whole lot. The grain trade, dietary supplements, oils will all be killed below this invoice as a result of individuals don’t perceive — together with the politicians who wrote this invoice — don’t perceive the chemistry of hemp.”
Perry didn’t reply to requires an interview or emailed questions concerning the invoice and protections for hemp farmers.
A number of moms instructed lawmakers final week in the course of the Committee on State Affairs that THC vape pens, which might include dangerous chemical compounds along with hemp by-products, are harmful for younger individuals.
Chandel Strickland’s son was recognized with cannabis-induced psychosis.
“He was an athlete on a full-ride scholarship and an engineering main. He seems nothing like this at present,” Strickland mentioned. “He’s now a 22-year-old fighting dependancy to THC. He needed to medically withdraw from faculty as a result of he merely didn’t have the cognitive means to proceed with faculty.”
Farmers say the reply to making sure the protection of hemp merchandise is simple: Create rules for hemp CBD merchandise much like what was executed with vapes a number of years in the past. In Texas, a person have to be at the least 21 years previous to legally purchase e-cigarettes or vape units and in 2023, lawmakers banned vape packages with photos of fruit, juice, and cartoon characters.
Bingham mentioned THC is in the identical boat.
“The lawmakers didn’t regulate it, and now they’re sad with the way it’s on the cabinets. There weren’t a variety of guidelines. They didn’t put age limits on it. They didn’t put guidelines about child-proofing or child-resistant packaging,” Bingham mentioned. “A big a part of this trade has been asking for it, and we’re not getting it.”
Texas ought to additional regulate retail gross sales of hemp, Bingham mentioned, as a substitute of banning THC and eliminating all agricultural manufacturing.
“Will we wish to surrender the whole lot we’ve inbuilt hemp? I don’t assume that’s the reply,” he mentioned.
This text initially appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/18/Texas-hemp-farmers-oppose-THC-ban/.
The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and interesting Texans on state politics and coverage. Be taught extra at texastribune.org.
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