Last month, under a new Oregon law to stop state regulators from issuing new licenses to grow hemp in their counties. State lawmakers passed last summer to tighten testing regulations on the hemp industry and boost enforcement activity against marijuana being grown illegally on licensed hemp farms.
The heightened scrutiny of their industry has made some legitimate hemp farmers concerned about the future of hemp in Oregon.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a pretty deep chill in the market right now,鈥� said Mason Walker, the CEO and co-owner of East Fork Cultivars, which grows nine acres of hemp and one acre of marijuana in Josephine County.
鈥淲e shrunk from about 60,000 acres in Oregon planted in 2019 to about 7,000 last year, so it鈥檚 been a pretty precipitous fall,鈥� he added.
The glut of production has also had a negative effect on the price farmers can demand for hemp on the agricultural commodities market, according to Walker.
Paul Murdoch, a hemp farmer and the CEO of Horn Creek Hemp, a 17-acre hemp farm in Jackson County, has also witnessed the effects of a Gold Rush-like mentality take hold in Southern Oregon among novice growers.
鈥淭here were countless farms coming in, amazingly enough, without any agricultural experience,鈥� Murdoch said. 鈥淭hey were overly optimistic, thinking they would grow 50 or 100 or 500 acres,鈥� he added. 鈥淭hose folks had a hard reality check.鈥�
Although hemp can be used for an array of commercial applications, including textiles, food products and biofuels, it is primarily being grown in Oregon to produce CBD extract.
CBD is a compound extracted from hemp flowers that is being added to topical creams, beverages and other products marketed to consumers despite a lack of approval by the .
Regulatory uncertainty at both the state and federal level concerns entrepreneurs like Walker and Murdoch who are keen to expand into .
鈥淯ncertainty is really difficult for businesses and we have a lot of uncertainty in this market still, even though we鈥檙e five years into the federally legal market for hemp,鈥� Walker said.
To hear more from Think Out Loud鈥檚 conversation with Mason Walker and Paul Murdoch, click the 鈥減lay鈥� button at the top of the page.
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