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search Permit Application form. These links can be found at agricultural.pa.gov/Plants_Land_Water/hemp/Pages.

To learn more about the latest grants and programs being offered to farmers interested in developing a plan to grow hemp visit www.agriculture.pa.gov.

Other useful resources for hemp education: https://www.lancasterfarming.com/farming-news/ hemp/podcast/ https://alltogethernowpa.org/regional-economies/ industrial-hemp/

The All Together Now Pennsylvania website using the link to Industrial hemp.

The Pennsylvania Hemp Industry Council https://www.pahic.org/

PA Hemp Steering Committee https://www.pa-hemp-steering-committee.org/ Penn State Extension how we think about everything,” Hurlock added that there is a lot of positive energy and passion to do just that in the hemp space.

Whether a crop farm operation is large or small, industrial hemp production could eventually be a viable option for farmers. But there is a vast array of hoops a farmer must be willing to jump through at this point if they want to start experimenting with hemp.

Hurlock said, “farmers have to get fingerprinted and background checks and pay all of these permitting fees and then testing fees throughout the growing season.” Farmers are left feeling like criminals being forced to get background checks and fingerprinted, when they don’t need to do that for any other industrial crop. At this point Hurlock added, “the regulations are really restrictive and put so much burden on the farmer.”

According to Hurlock Europe is well ahead of us in hemp production, and places like Russia, China and Ukraine never stopped producing hemp.

If you’re thinking about growing hemp you should try it but don’t go all in just yet. Hurlock added that a farmer that has corn and soy operations could start small, such as a half-acre plot and give it a try. But a farmer does not want to waste a lot of time, money or space on it until they have a buyer. Besides the regulations, the other thing keeping the hemp industry from taking off in PA and other states is the lack of processing capacity.

Although there are not any processing facilities here in PA yet there are several that are close to launching. Once they do, the doors for hemp to become an everyday crop in addition to farms will start to open.

Experts in the field of hemp are projecting a 3–5year window of development that needs to happen before the industry can really start to get off the ground.

Reviving the hemp industry in PA will be a delicate balancing act by producers, harvesters and processing facilities but it can be done. It holds great potential to be a profitable crop for farmers and manufacturers. Hemp could also be a cleaner and greener option for the environment and the economy in industrial materials, textiles, and food.