What's actually going to happen to small farms and online sales come November?
So I've been digging into this pretty deep and wanted to get the community's thoughts.
The delay bill (Hemp Planting Predictability Act) looks pretty dead at this point. It's had bipartisan support since January but has been sitting in committee for months with no hearing scheduled. They tried attaching it to the Farm Bill in March and the chairman shot it down before it even got a vote. Two doors closed in three months. I wouldn't count on a legislative rescue before November.
Here's what gives me some hope though — the Congressional Research Service literally said the FDA and DEA probably don't have the resources to broadly enforce this, and drew a direct parallel to how the feds handle weed. The biggest real threat to small farms isn't going to be a DEA raid, it's payment processors cutting them off.
My guess is the big visible online retailers shut down or pivot, but a lot of small farms just keep quietly operating — accepting the legal risk, switching to crypto or bank transfers, and serving their existing customer base under the radar.
Has anyone actually heard from the farms they buy from on what they're planning to do? Are they going dark, moving states, pivoting to something else, or just riding it out and hoping enforcement stays low priority?