Senate panel hashes hemp growing pains

Image by Niksy from Pixabay.

A Senate committee explored, again, issues with the state’s nascent hemp program. And the conclusion: There are no sure things, except that Senators are increasingly worried about the process and its variables.

One Senator asserted that “more questions than answers” remain about the program, even after multiple deliberations in committees.

The Senate Agriculture Committee on Tuesday morning discussed university pilot programs and the hemp seed certification process.

While there are hopes that crops will be in the ground early 2020, spawning what Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried believes can be a savior for the state’s agribusiness savior, that timeline is in doubt.

“The goal is to understand where we are … as how to grow hemp in Florida and what that’s going to look like,” asserted committee chairman, Sen. Ben Albritton.

Addressing the committee from the academic sector: Jerry Fankhauser, assistant director of the University of Florida’s program, who noted that difficulties abound.

“Industrial hemp can grow in the state of Florida … it can also struggle and die in the state of Florida,” Fankhauser noted.

Chinese cultivars do better than Canadian strains, for example.

“Florida has its challenges,” Fankhauser noted, including “excessive rainfall.”

An Alachua County pilot had eight inches of rain in days, and that flooded out the crop.

Weeds, generally, will prove to be “very challenging” as Florida figures out hemp.

Though “cautiously optimistic,” Fankhauser sees challenges. These include a lack of experience among growers, keeping THC levels sufficiently low, and a lack of established protocols for growing.

THC levels are higher than legal thresholds of 0.3 percent, perhaps due to Florida’s climate, and harvest times may need to be expedited to suppress that.

Pollen drift is also a concern. Pollen can drift up to three miles in Florida, leading to inadvertent pollination that can be “devastating” to crops.

“It’s a process of learning together,” Fankhauser said, noting that federal legalization made “the landscape change,” creating a “unique situation.”

“I wish I had better answers for you,” he told the committee.

Committee members agreed.

“There’s still a lot to be learned,” said Chairman Albritton.

Sen. George Gainer asserted that the more meetings there are, the “more questions than answers” emerge.

“We’re kind of rushing this,” added Sen. Doug Broxson. “You’re already a year ahead of where you want to be.”

“Are we trying to rush toward a product … why are we in such a rush,” Broxson added, “when we really don’t know what we’re doing.”

Broxson wondered how the committee could recommend a product with such uncertainty.

“That is a great question,” Albritton said, urging Senators to remain, as Fankhauser said, “cautiously optimistic.”

A number of states have head starts over Florida in ramping up its program. The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, is starting to feel pressure.

Product testing, however, will begin the first of the year, allowing some accountability for in-state products, even though they were produced elsewhere.

Variable outcomes and uncertainty, indeed, seem certain.

“Everything in life has unintended consequences,” said hemp director Holly Bell, discussing issues related to certifying seeds.

There are ten companies with certified seeds, according to Bell, and little insight as to what could work in Florida.

Bell’s comments did not mollify all members of the committee.

“We’re moving at lightning speed,” cautioned Sen. Broxson. “… seems to be counterintutive to me that we’re trying to move, but I’m not sure if it’s too fast or too slow.”