Hemp Industry Grew In 2024 Despite State And Federal Push For Bans On Consumable Products Like Delta-8 THC, USDA Report Finds

Even as more states and some congressional lawmakers pursued bans on consumable hemp products, the industry saw significant growth in 2024, according to a newly released survey from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The National Hemp Report, which USDA conducts annually to assess the economic health of the market, showed that hemp farmers cultivated 45,294 acres of the crop last year, up 64 percent from 2023. And the industry’s value jumped about 40 percent, increasing to $445 million.

As has been the case since hemp was federally legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill, farmers primarily grew for flower, which represented 93 percent of production. While flower can be sold raw, it’s largely used for extraction purposes to manufacture consumable cannabinoid products such as CBD.

From 11,827 acres of floral hemp, farmers yielded 20.8 million pounds in 2024, a 159 percent increase from the 8 million that was produced in 2023.

In 2024, the value of #hemp production in the open and under protection for the US totaled $445 million, up 40% from 2023. See more #AgStats in the National Hemp Report ➡️https://t.co/xZyOr0tj5x

— National Agricultural Statistics Service (@usda_nass) April 17, 2025

That puts the market is a precarious position, with so much value concentrated in a sector of the hemp economy that’s increasingly under threat at the state and federal level as lawmakers seek to curb unregulated consumables—particularly intoxicating cannabinoids such as delta-8 THC that have grown in popularity.

Meanwhile, farmers produced 18,855 acres of hemp for fiber last year, a 56 percent increase. But yields from those plants fell by 21 percent, dropping to 3,205 pounds per acre. Coupled with declining prices, the value of hemp fiber hit $11.2 million, down 2 percent from 2023.

Hemp production for grain rose 22 percent to 4,863 acres, with farmers yielding 3.4 million pounds of grain in 2024. The value of hemp grain grew by 13 percent to $2.6 million.

Farmers who cultivated the cannabis crop for seed saw substantial growth last year, the USDA survey showed. With 2,160 acres of hemp for seed in 2024, that marked a 61 percent increase from the prior year. And the overall value of the hemp seed market jumped 482 percent to $16.9 million.

USDA launched its first annual survey in 2021, and it updated the questionnaire in 2022 before distributing it to farmers and releasing a report with findings that showed significant declines in the value and production of the crop in 2022. It followed up with another survey last year.

As the fate of the consumable hemp market remains murky amid legislative pushback, a congressional committee held a hearing on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier this month—with a hemp industry expert explaining how the market is “begging” for federal regulations around cannabis products.

Lawmakers have consistently raised concerns about FDA’s refusal to establish rules allowing for the marketing of federally legal hemp as a food item or dietary supplement.

One potential legislative solution that U.S. Hemp Roundtable’s Jonathan Miller noted to the committee is a bipartisan bill Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) filed last year that would create a federal regulatory framework for hemp-derived cannabinoids.

The legislation would empower states to set their own rules for products such as CBD while also empowering FDA to ensure that certain safety standards are met in the marketplace.

In the absence of FDA rules, states from California to Florida have pushed for sweeping changes to their own laws around consumable hemp products. While much of the focus has been on intoxicating products, federally legal CBD businesses have also found themselves increasingly in the crosshairs.

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Meanwhile, as lawmakers prepare to once again take up large-scale agriculture legislation this session, congressional researchers in January provided an overview of the policy landscape around hemp—emphasizing the divides around various cannabis-related proposals among legislators, stakeholders and advocates.

Senate Democrats released the long-awaited draft of 2024 Farm Bill last year that contained several proposed changes to federal hemp laws—including provisions to amend how the legal limit of THC is measured and reducing regulatory barriers for farmers who grow the crop for grain or fiber. But certain stakeholders had expressed concern that part of the intent of the legislation was to “eliminate a whole range of products” that are now sold in the market.

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Photo courtesy of Kimzy Nanney.

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