Pennsylvania’s departments of agriculture and health are partnering to make the state’s six medical marijuana testing laboratories available to the agriculture industry for testing hemp for THC levels.

For the 2020 growing season, Pennsylvania has 510 farms growing approximately 3,000 acres of hemp. Every hemp lot is required to be sampled and tested to show a THC level at or below 0.3%. Anything above that level is considered marijuana.

Prior to the availability of medical marijuana laboratories, 13 in-state and out-of-state labs were available to growers for required potency testing. As growers are nearing harvest season, the Department of Health’s medical marijuana laboratories add capacity during a critical window of time.

In 2017 and 2018, the Department of Agriculture administered the Industrial Hemp Pilot Research Program, legitimized by the 2014 Farm Bill and authorized in Pennsylvania statute by the Industrial Hemp Research Act. As of 2019, the research program’s 100-acre cap was lifted for the inaugural year of the commercial program, which was made possible through the 2018 Farm Bill.

In 2019, there were 324 growers who grew just over 4,000 acres of hemp in 55 state counties.

Learn more about Pennsylvania’s Hemp Program online.

Source: Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, which is solely responsible for the information provided and is wholly owned by the source. Informa Business Media and all its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.