Wisconsin Hemp Flower owner Luke Heidt has been growing hemp on an old dairy farm outside Eau Claire since the state legalized the crop in 2017.
Now, like many hemp farmers across Wisconsin, Heidt is planting less as he prepares to go out of business this November. That's when a federal law changing the legal definition of hemp goes into effect. "I have sustained myself entirely through hemp, as a hemp farmer, and the government put me out of business," Heidt said.
He says he's "terrified" and "sad" for the future of Wisconsin's bustling hemp industry, calling it a "100 percent disaster for hemp farmers" across the nation.
Recreational and medicinal marijuana are both illegal in Wisconsin. But, stores selling THC and CBD products, and the farms distributing them, have been working under a federal loophole. It allows the sale of these products as long as they are hemp-derived and contain no more than 0.3 percent of delta-9 THC.
Read more at Wisconsin Public Radio
