Young farmers are turning to hemp to build up their agriculture businesses

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As other cultivation options dry up, farmers are banking on cannabis crops

It’s no secret that the US agriculture sector generally averages a reasonably high age. However, according to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, this statistic may be slowly changing as the legalization of hemp is beginning to excite the younger generation to work in agriculture today.

The senator, who seeks to defend cannabis tooth and nail, said that’s the real driver, and that he “knew this would be a huge bonanza for Oregon agriculture,” when the crop was legalized at the federal level under the 2018 Farm Bill. Still, he has said there is an immense need for reforms for this industry to begin to see adequate growth, and recently, legislation seeking to do so has been officially introduced.

“We’ve seen a lot of young farmers become very interested in hemp. At a time when the era of farmers in the U.S. keeps going up and up and up, to have all these young farmers interested and coming back to the farm because they see so much potential here” shows that “we’re on the right side of history,” Wyden explains. The legislator is currently working with the Senate Majority Leader on a bill to legalize marijuana at the federal level.

One of the main issues is the lack of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rules for hemp-derived CBD to receive the green light and begin to be marketed as a food or dietary supplement, something that should have been in place by now. Being able to attract fresh blood to an important sector of the cannabis industry could certainly help its respective growth. If all these measures come to fruition at some point, the momentum will be even better.