RALEIGH — Legislation designed to bolster North Carolina’s fast-growing hemp industry, increase agritourism and make overhauling open-air waste storage systems easier for industrial-scale hog farms passed the state Senate on Monday.

The legislature’s wide-ranging annual Farm Act, also called Senate Bill 315, passed 31-14 and now goes to the House.

“This evening, the NC Senate voted to pass the 2019 North Carolina Farm Act. This bill will continue to support our state’s number one industry and allow for it to grow,” the bill’s primary sponsor Sen. Brent Jackson (R-Sampson) stated in a Facebook post following the vote. “Thank you to my colleagues and staff for their hard work on behalf of our agricultural community.”

The bill officially authorizes and regulates statewide hemp farming, among other things. Hemp is being eyed as a potential new cash crop at a time when tobacco prices in the traditional tobacco-farming state have dropped.

Specifically, SB 315 expands a state pilot program by modifying the N.C. Hemp Commission to become a regulatory body. The bill sets guidelines for licensing, and defines criminal and civil penalties for people who break the law. It also requires retailers to get a license before selling cannabinoid (CBD) products — including oils, lotions and edibles.

Nobody is trying to legalize marijuana, said Jackson. Hemp has multiple uses that stretch beyond CBD oil, including in paper, rope and cloth.

“Agriculture and our hard-working farmers have always been the driving force of North Carolina’s economy and this ensures that will continue to be the case in the future,” said Jackson in a press release after the floor vote. “Hemp production is a potential boom industry and the Farm Act of 2019 gives North Carolina the opportunity to be a pioneer in that industry.”

The bill establishes a task force of law enforcers and regulators who will meet quarterly to work out policing concerns. Currently, there is no field test on the market that can discern whether a product is marijuana or legal hemp, but Jackson has said that he thinks one will be sold soon.

If one becomes available, the senator noted, lawmakers would probably revisit the issue.

The bill’s proposed ban on smokable hemp in December 2020 received a lot of attention during committee debates. Smokable hemp is a new product that came on the scene after hemp was removed from the federal Controlled Substances Act in 2018 and has quickly become a lucrative market for farmers, leaving lawmakers playing catch-up to regulate it.

Although smokable hemp doesn’t produce a high, the dried hemp flowers that are smoked look and smell a lot like marijuana, which law enforcement has said is a problem. Farmers opposed to the ban say smokable hemp can sell for as much as $1,000 per pound.

“We tried to craft this in a way that we can best put some parameters around this industry and make it a viable industry for this state,” Jackson said when explaining the bill on the Senate floor.

Environmental activists have criticized the bill’s proposed hog farm changes, which would allow new state permits for open-air waste pits and modifications to capture biogas from these pits to be used for energy production. The permits would be allowed if they don’t result in expanded hog production at the farms or if facilities meet high environmental performance standards.

The bill also would make some hog farm records confidential, which environmental advocates worry would undermine transparency and environmental protections. Jackson has said that these changes would merely mirror federal law.

During floor debate, Senate Republicans used a parliamentary maneuver to prevent a vote on an amendment introduced by Democratic Sen. Harper Peterson of New Hanover County that would have prohibited construction of dry litter poultry facilities in the 100-year flood plain.

Some lawmakers, such as Democratic Sen. Mike Woodard of Durham County, were unhappy with the comprehensive nature of the bill. Woodard said that although he agreed with some sections of the bill, others gave him “some heartburn.”

“The needs of the myriad parts of our agriculture industry are incredibly diverse. … to put all these into one bill and ask for one up-down vote, I think is unfair to us; it’s unfair to our farmers and to our agriculture community,” he said.

Lawmakers did not debate or change the bill’s hog farm regulations Monday.

SB 315 is scheduled for discussion in the House Agriculture Committee on Wednesday.

Senate Bill 315 expands a 2014 hemp pilot project, turning it into a statewide program. Here, the bill’s primary sponsor, Sen. Brent Jackson, R-Sampson, demonstrates a potential field test that could help law enforcement officers discern whether a substance is hemp or marijuana. The bill passed the Senate on Monday.
https://www.clintonnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/web1_Hemp.jpgSenate Bill 315 expands a 2014 hemp pilot project, turning it into a statewide program. Here, the bill’s primary sponsor, Sen. Brent Jackson, R-Sampson, demonstrates a potential field test that could help law enforcement officers discern whether a substance is hemp or marijuana. The bill passed the Senate on Monday. AP File Photo

Jackson
https://www.clintonnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/web1_Senator-Jackson-Updated-Picture-1.jpgJackson AP File Photo
Farm Act passes state Senate, goes to House

Staff and

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Carolina Journal and The Associated Press contributed to this article.