On November 14, President-elect Donald Trump named Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), a position that includes oversight of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). While Kennedy’s Senate confirmation hearing is still at least a month away, the National Hemp Association (NHA) is making sure hemp is on Kennedy’s radar.
“We’ve already advanced our ask to Robert Kennedy, assuming he will be nominated as Secretary of HHS. Specifically, as it relates to our industry and the FDA, we have asked him for four things,” NHA Chair Geoff Whaling told Cannabis Business Times.
The NHA’s four asks were:
1. Allow for hemp grain to be fed into the domestic animal market in the United States, into those domestic markets that would never go into the human food supply chain.
“I can eat hemp today, but I can’t feed it to my dogs or my fish,” Whaling noted. “So that’s the first thing, and that’s a multi-billion-dollar opportunity domestically, that would really help farmers.”
2. Increase the number of employees at FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine, the organization that approves animal feed.
“It has taken us (the hemp industry led by Hemp Feed Coalition) four years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to receive approval this past year for animal feed for egg-laying hens. We will have to do it for another 65 to 100 animal segments,” Whaling said. “How do we build an industry with not having access to that research money and it taking years to get it approved?”
3. Grandfather hemp as a commodity under FDA rules.
“We would love for them to look at the same grandfathering that allowed every other commodity when the FDA was created in 1958. We’d love them to grandfather hemp under the same rules,” Whaling said.
4. Last, but not least, move legislation and regulations forward on a framework for cannabinoids.
“[The FDA is] looking for a framework to meet the industry where we are today, and one that legislatively gives them the authority to deal with all minor cannabinoids as they’re being developed and brought to market—and there could be another 150-plus out there,” Whaling explained. “They have been asking for that for years. They have had pushback from others in the industry saying ‘No, no, this is all legal.’ I think that we need to address the FDA requirements, and I think that Robert Kennedy and his stance on dietary supplements and others will be helpful towards our cause.”
A Whole-of-Government Approach
Looking ahead to the new year and the new administration, Whaling said he is optimistic. “I might not be of the same political thinking, but it was Donald Trump that signed hemp into law in 2018 in the Farm Bill.”
While the Biden administration has been supportive, Whaling said that support has been more directed at existing programs.
“That doesn’t help an industry that has the baggage of 85 years of prohibition. We really needed a Whole-of-Government approach,” Whaling said.
“We asked the Biden administration for that on numerous occasions—because, believe it or not, FDA allows for GRAS [Generally Recognized as Safe] status for human consumption of hemp hearts, but DOD [U.S. Department of Defense] has it in their policy as being an illegal drug and doesn’t allow the military to eat anything that has hemp oil in it or hemp seed in it.”
Though Whaling is determined in his work, he said he can’t fight the DOD.
“A Whole-of-Government approach is what we were looking for. We could have really advanced the hemp industry much faster with that approach,” he said. “I think that the Trump administration, knowing that hemp has a significant role to play in biomanufacturing, will be more open to helping us move this forward.”
Jolene Hansen is an award-winning freelance writer and editor specializing in the commercial horticulture, cannabis and CEA industries. Reach her at [email protected].
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