It’s Official!
We have made it through 2020 and I am ready for what comes next for the Hemp Feed Coalition in 2021. For the hemp industry and for our organization, 2020 did have some great news. Across the US, farmers and regulators partnered to push back on the Interim Final Rules presented by the USDA. Farmers, processors and policy makers continue to ask for a federal program based on the experience of the states which initiated hemp production and the farmers who’ve taken the risk to grow hemp for the first time in decades.
Hemp also saw more collaboration between industry groups both private and public, focused on quality and ingredient standards. Across the world industry members and experts have been sharing data, discussing action limits and forming alliances to create standards of identity that will be the basis for the recognition of hemp as a global commodity, opening new import and export opportunities and bringing hemp to the world.
The Hemp Feed Coalition spent some time in 2020 building relationships that will develop new markets for animal feed and that ensure that regulation in the US supports the creation of a national hemp supply chain that can meet the demands of a growing and evolving international consumer. One who thinks not only of food and fiber, but plastic and construction material as the future for hemp.
More specifically the Hemp Feed Coalition submitted the first application for approval of a hemp byproduct for animal feed – hemp meal for laying hens! While this is the first submission, we have convened a technical advisory group for ruminants (beef cattle, goats and lambs) and another for hemp seed oil fed horses, and have won a grant to complete the nutritional and contaminate analysis on another four byproducts. Thank you to our amazing partners who have contributed to get this done!
IND HEMP, Eurofins, Healthy Oilseeds, US Hemp Expos, Hemp Production Services, Bish Enterprises, Midwest Hemp Council, American Herbal Products Association, Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance, Texas Hemp Growers Association, PennAg Industries Association, Hempstead Project Heart
Although there were challenges in 2020, I am proud of the way that the hemp industry began to work together and I believe the hemp community of experts and industry leaders will bring that to fruition with regulation, quality controls and global standards in 2021. This will solidify hemp’s place as a US agriculture commodity and open the door for the development of the next 25,000 uses of hemp. Together we can change the world with this plant in 2021!
Hunter Buffington
Executive Director
Hemp Feed Coalition
Thank you to all HFC Members who support our work, volunteer their time and are the faces of the hemp industry!
