A stack of rotting hemp bales still not picked up for processing from the 2022 harvest.
(Devan Ridgway/WTIU)
The 2018 Farm Bill redefined hemp as an agricultural commodity, allowing it to be grown across the nation. After an initial boom of farmers tried their hand at the newly legalized crop, many were left with unsold harvests when the limited number of processing plants were backed up with product.
The versatile crop, long revered for its many unique uses, saw a massive decrease in area harvested; in 2021, 210 acres of hemp were harvested in the state. In 2022 and 2023, the number of acres harvested didn’t even register on the USDA’s National Hemp Report.
Many point to a lack of local processors as the culprit. Jason Stonecipher, a farmer in Covington, has the stack of rotting hemp bales to prove it.
“It hasn't really worked out the way we originally planned,” he said. “We're actually still sitting on our 2022 crop, because of that change in processing and the whole logistics of shipping that out, literally, across the nation.”
Jason Stonecipher, a farmer who elected not to grow hemp this year due to being unable to sell previous harvests. (Devan Ridgway/WTIU)
Stonecipher planted 47 acres of hemp in 2022. He signed a contract with a hemp processor based in Idaho, who paid him in full for his harvest, but to this day has only made one pickup from the stack. He barely broke even on that crop.
He’s also sitting on his harvest from 2023. Stonecipher hasn’t been paid yet for that lot of bales. Because of this, he’s elected not to grow hemp in 2024.
“Unfortunately, here we are with just a corn and soybean rotation, no hemp in that rotation because the market’s not there yet,” he said. “So that's a pretty big bummer to me. But yeah, my plans are to get back into it as soon as we can.”
To grow hemp in Indiana, farmers need to pass an FBI background check and get approval from the state chemist who inspects the THC content of the plant.
“We let our local law enforcement know where we were raising our first crop because it looks like marijuana,” he said. “And you know, you never want any sort of misinformation.”
By all other accounts, Stonecipher praised hemp as a crop. It’s easy to grow, it’s organic, and it doesn’t require any new or special equipment.
And according to Marguerite Bolt, the Hemp Extension Specialist with Purdue University, hemp can become a number of useful things, such as rope for clothing, bio plastics, building materials, food products, and in one case being researched in Texas, batteries.
“In the literature, you can find people saying there are 25,000 different applications, 10,000 different applications, like thousands and thousands,” she said. “And really, what it means is the plant is really versatile, and it could go into products where we're using other plants or synthetic materials.”
A hemp plant that managed to grow out of the rotting stack of bales. (Devan Ridgway/WTIU)
Historically, hemp was viewed as a wonder plant even outside of its uses as a psychoactive substance. In the late 1930’s, Popular Mechanics magazine published a piece on hemp and its applications, which led to a resurgence of the crop during World War II.
“After World War II, we had production dwindle, and then we had the passing of the Controlled Substance Act and this war on drugs and hemp got lumped in with cannabis as an umbrella term,” she said.
Now that it’s legal to grow low THC content hemp, Bolt said there are a lot of uncertainties that farmers have had to contend with, including the issue of available processors and the general knowledge about growing at a large scale.
“We don't know what we don't know,” she said. “And we're trying really hard as researchers to answer these questions and really understand the plant to make it a viable option for farmers. But it's going to take time. And sometimes I think that can be challenging for people to hear.”
According to the Midwest Hemp Council, the United States is behind globally on the hemp industry. Farmers are competing against countries that have been growing hemp efficiently for decades. and have managed to get the price down significantly.
“I will tell you right now that FlexForm up in northern Indiana can buy their hemp fiber from France, get it shipped here and into their facility ready to use for much less than what we can do it,” said Jamie Petty, Vice President of Industry and Government Relations with Whitefield Hemp Processing based out of Illinois.
From the National Hemp Report, the 'D' in the chart means 'Withheld to avoid disclosing data for individual operations.' (Courtesy of the USDA)
As it exists today, there is little profit to be made off of growing hemp. Petty said there are too many costs to justify transporting the crop to an out-of-state processor.
“There's no point in growing if we can't get them the pricing that they need, you know, and yet still have everyone make a profit as we go,” she said. “So we're working really hard to bring that facility here.”
Having a processing plant close by would alleviate many of the problems faced by the hemp industry in Indiana. But these facilities don’t come cheap, and because there’s so few in the country, they often get backed up with orders.
“Even if one of us landed a contract, we would have to partner with another facility to generate the feedstock that they need.”
In a time where farmers are looking to diversify their incomes, hemp is in a position to fill that gap. But with just one processor in Indiana, producers need more places to sell their harvest.
“Our senators and our congressmen are always talking about bringing business to the state,” said Stonecipher. “My advice to them is, let's bring some hemp processing into the state. I think there's a bright future for it with all the construction materials that are being looked at and experimented with.”
Another hurdle may be on the horizon; the current House version of this year’s farm bill includes a provision that could actually ban the growth of hemp nationwide. The Midwest Hemp Council is optimistic that the bill will be changed before becoming law sometime later this year.
