California Hemp

California is now becoming the USA's largest hemp growing, production and consumption market.

Hemp is legal to grow in California, and in all its 58 counties. The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is the state agency responsible for hemp regulation in California. The CDFA has now issued its hemp agriculture rules and farming registration process. See: Grow Info

Hemp farmers need to register with their local County Agricultural Commissioner. County Agricultural Commission offices will share a registration fee with CDFA and information from a one-page registration form. The California hemp farming fee is $900. per year. Hemp has no special taxes. Farmers can grow as many acres as they wish on land zoned for agricultural purposes. As of mid-May there are over 2,000 acres of land on California registered to grow hemp.

Industrial hemp is a crop that is grown and processed throughout the world for paper, clothing, canvas, rope, food products and many other commercial uses. It has no psychoactive properties in any part of the plant, is cultivated as an agricultural field crop, and grows as a stalk to a height of 12 to 16 feet.

Although both are the same species, cannabis sativa, industrial hemp and marijuana are grown differently and have a different appearance. Marijuana is a tropical variety of cannabis that grows to a height of 6 feet and is carefully tended as a horticultural plant. It has been cultivated to grow as a bush with many branches and leaves to maximize the number of flowers where THC potency is the strongest.

Hemp has an appearance similar to bamboo and has few branches and leaves. Unlike marijuana, hemp leaves tend to cluster at the crown of the plant. The most important distinction is that hemp has less than three tenths of one percent THC while marijuana contains five to 25 percent THC.