State will help farmers with seed availability, growing restrictions
Albany
Groups on Tuesday lauded Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed expansions to New York's emerging hemp industry, only a few years after federal regulators redefined the plant as different from marijuana.
Trade groups and lawmakers have routinely cited hemp's potential in New York's Southern Tier, where bans on hydrofracking have left large swathes of vacant land unused, and agriculture groups hope it can be used for more low-cost, high-protein feed.
In his 2018 budget proposal, Cuomo vowed to knock down some barriers for farmers in New York's well-regulated hemp pilot program, "simplify compliance with security and transportation requirements" and help farmers confront problems with seed availability and growing restrictions.
Cuomo also said he'll create a research program at the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, and convene a hemp summit in 2017.
Susie Cody, president of the New York Hemp Industries Association, said the move was integral to the state's still-young hemp program. "It's getting people thinking about what they can do to be a part of the industry," she said.
Still, she said, there's plenty ahead for the industry, which lacks academic research on growing conditions and infrastructure issues due to decades of federal regulation. Hemp, which can be used in everything from rope to food to oils, is derived from the same plant as marijuana and is still classified as a schedule 1 drug despite its low level of THC, the chemical that produces a high in its users.
The 2014 U.S. Farm Bill officially distinguished marijuana as different from hemp, leaving regulation to the states. Twenty-nine states have started hemp programs, with New York's first industrial hemp farm opening in Eaton, Madison County, after a decades-long "It's an extremely valuable crop with numerous potentials," Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, D-Binghamton, told an October meeting of potential hemp farmers in Albany. "We're trying to not build a niche crop," she said. "We're trying to embrace ... a new industrial crop with numerous potentials."
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