Hemp in animal feed in the USA ? It might seem unusual at first glance. Why? Because we're used to encountering or using hemp (or CBD) products for humans. For example, CBD.FR offers a wide range of CBD food for men. Following this trend, the United States could incorporate hemp into animal nutrition. More details on this topic below.
The summary
- Hemp in animal feed: a focus on the context in the USA
- The twists and turns of the process
- The forms of hemp chosen and their safety
- The underlying challenges
- What's next?
Hemp in animal feed: a focus on the context in the USA
Indeed, before delving into the initiative to incorporate feed animal in the USA, it's important to focus on the context. In fact, at the time of writing, hemp is already legal in 16 states. For more information on the relevant regulations, you can read our article on cannabis legislation in the USA. While cannabis is legal in some parts of the country, feeding hemp-based feed to animals remains illegal. Similarly, American citizens cannot legally consume meat or eggs from animals that have eaten hemp.
This is what prompted the Hemp Feed Coalition (HFC) to take action. This non-profit organization, based in Fort Collins, Colorado, is seeking federal approval for hemp and its byproducts as a commercial animal feed and nutrition source. To this end, it has submitted an application to the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) and the Center for Veterinary Medicine of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This application is currently under review.
The twists and turns of the process
Indeed, submitting an application for hemp approval as animal feed in the USA was no easy feat. In fact, the HFC had to work hard to ensure its case was well-prepared. This submission is the culmination of a two-year effort, which included an investigation into the ingredients of hemp meal and hemp meal, as well as a clinical trial to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of hemp as feed for laying hens. In this regard, Hunter Buffington, Executive Director of the HFC, stated the following at the 2021 World Agricultural Show.
"One of the great opportunities for us as an industry, and one of the best ways to support our farmers in these ancillary markets, as well as our livestock farmers, is to transform into commodities these highly nutritious and valuable by-products that come from the production and processing of hemp."
The forms of hemp chosen and their safety
Indeed, discussing hemp as animal feed in the US is one thing. Requesting its legalization from the relevant authorities is quite another. Why? Because the benefits of this choice must be clearly demonstrated. Similarly, the chosen forms of hemp must be safe for animals. Therefore, to address this other aspect of the issue, the HFC has provided further arguments.
On the one hand, regarding the forms, the organization opts for hemp seed flour and seed cake. It estimates that there are tons of unused material in farmers' warehouses as a by-product of the human food segment; which stimulates the production of hemp seeds to be ground foroil.
On the other hand, to meet the FDA-CVM's rigorous safety and efficacy standards, hemp industry members across the United States have submitted certificates of analysis for their crops. This demonstrates that hemp meal and flour can be consistently grown and processed. Buffington then spoke out.
"It will really require a concerted effort not only to understand the ingredient profile, to answer all the questions that the FDA-CVM has about the ingredient itself, but we also need to conduct clinical trials on food to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of these products as well.".
Further on, she added…
"To add to that, we have an additional challenge: only hemp grown and processed in the United States, fed to animals in US research institutes, can be used to present our case for FDA-CVM approval, so you can see why we really needed a coalition of people to meet this challenge."
The underlying challenges
Indeed, aside from the safety aspect mentioned above, there are underlying challenges. One is ensuring that hemp will be on the same page as the products currently used for animal feed in the US. These include, among others, corn and soy. In this regard, it might be worth asking: hemp used in US animal feed have the same nutritional value as these other feeds? Similarly, is it possible to bring prices down to those of competing products? On this last point, Scott Propheter, a farmer and director of CBD in North Carolina, shares his thoughts.
"If you want (hemp) products to compete globally with these products, they must be sold at competitive prices."
On the other hand, it will also be a matter of ensuring the success of the new market that will be created. Not in the short term, but in the long term. Indeed, this could open up a new financial niche. Along these lines, according to projections by Grand View Research, a market research and consulting firm based in San Francisco, the animal feed market is expected to exceed $415 billion by 2023, compared to $336 billion in 2017. Similarly, the industrial hemp seed and grain segment is expected to grow by nearly 20% by 2027, and the animal care segment of the industry is expected to grow by nearly 10%, according to the HFC. Furthermore, 190 million tons of animal feed are produced in the United States each year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
What's next?
Naturally, the next step in this process is to wait for the relevant institutions to approve the application. In fact, the approval process for animal feed ingredients typically takes up to four years. However, the AAFCO and FDA-CVM authorities have promised to expedite it, which could reduce the wait to 18 to 24 months, Mosher told Hemp Industry Daily .
Meanwhile, some farmers are not waiting for federal regulatory approval to sell hemp-fed chicken eggs. In this regard, Kreider Farms, an egg and dairy producer in central Pennsylvania, reportedly added a line of cage-free hemp eggs to its Chicks Creek brand last December.
While awaiting feedback from regulators, the HFC is turning its attention to research on other hemp by-products, including oil, sediments, hulls, pulp, and sieves. The aim is to examine their potential as food ingredients. Furthermore, the group plans to bring together researchers, members of the hemp and animal feed industries, and coalition advisors to explore additional applications.
References
- https://hempindustrydaily.com/hemp-in-animal-feed-is-closer-to-becoming-reality/?mc_cid=17255e3ec8&mc_eid=35711c3bd8
Co-founder of CBD.fr
Julien Cordobes is the editor of CBD.fr. Born in 1978 in the Paris region, he first trained in e-commerce before turning to natural health approaches, a dual perspective that now structures his way of writing about cannabidiol: reading the scientific literature as it is, without hardening the conclusions, and presenting it in a language that everyone understands.
He discovered CBD at a time when the French market was developing faster than the information available to it. He acquired CBD.fr in 2022 and then took on editorial responsibility for the blog. Since then, he has published numerous articles covering the daily use of CBD, the interpretation of laboratory analyses, the evolution of the legal framework, and precautions for use.
