The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative are expanding the representation of the hemp sector in federal trade advisory panels, which will double the number of officials that can help boost cannabis commerce.
The USDA and USTR announced on Thursday the appointment of two new hemp officials. One is a senior regulator of the crop in Oregon, and the other is a member of National Industrial Hemp Council of America. The total number of federal trade advisors for hemp now stands at four.
Eric Pike, a board member at NIHC and Founder of Root Origins, a CBD company, and Patricia Sheikh, NIHC’s Board Member, will join the Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee for Trade in Tobacco, Cotton, Peanuts and Hemp. This is one of six ATACs which provide technical advice to the government about specific agricultural products and commodities.
Since the beginning of this decade, USDA and USTR has been adding hemp representatives to committees. Kevin Latner was a former marketing director at NIHC who in 2020 became part of a ATAC focusing on processed food. In 2021, NIHC president Patrick Atagi was named to the ATAC that deals with hemp. Three of four hemp appointments have gone to NIHC members.
The number of representatives of “tobacco”, “peanuts”, “cotton”, and “hemp” organizations is the same, and the number with “hemp” as part of their name, three, is also the same.
Atagi, speaking to Marijuana Moment Thursday, said that the latest announcement “shows how committed the federal government is to hemp”. He said that Sheikh, the newest NIHC member to the committee “has extensive knowledge in agriculture and trade including a career in USDA at many levels, including USDA deputy Administrator.”
The government agencies stated that the newly appointed members will “serve until August 2027, and the committees are supplemented with additional appointments in the next four-year period.” The government agencies encourage people to “apply for committee membership anytime and applications will periodically be reviewed.”
USDA, USTR and the USTR officially renamed an ATAC in June in recognition of hemp’s growing importance in the agricultural sector. The first hemp appointees were on the ATAC, which was then known as the ATAC for Trade in Tobacco, Cotton and Peanuts.
USDA has been working to promote hemp since it was legalized by the federal government under the 2018 Farm Bill. However, the industry has seen a decline in recent years due to the fall in the value of hemp. The problem is attributed by stakeholders to the lack of FDA regulations that allow the sale of CBD derivatives in food products and dietary supplements.
While lawmakers are working to resolve this issue, USDA is supporting the hemp industry in other ways. For example, they released an informative video to encourage hemp growers. This video encouraged them to build a backpack vacuum which allows them to collect as much as 10 grams of cannabis in less than one minute. This is part of a larger effort to create a national genetic database for hemp, which will be made available to international breeders and researchers.
The USDA and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture teamed up earlier this month to host a farmers’ educational event that focused on growing cannabis in a bio-based economy.
The Department also shared the success story of a hemp farm in Indiana, highlighting how the agency provided financial and technical support to help the business maximize its output of CBD oil of high quality.
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