Legislation to allow South Dakota farmers to grow and market industrial hemp has now passed the State House and the Senate Agriculture Committee and is on the calendar to be voted on by the full Senate Monday afternoon. South Dakota Farm Bureau Lobbyist Mike Held says his group hasn’t taken a position or testified on the measure.
He says farmers in some of the other states that have legalized the crop aren’t having a lot of success in selling industrial hemp.
Held says a lot of questions still need to be answered before the state allows industrial hemp to be grown and sold.
Governor Kristi Noem has come out against the hemp legislation saying South Dakota isn’t ready for it and expressing concerns about it opening the door to marijuana. On Friday she mentioned a possible amendment to the bill but did not elaborate.
