USA
December 9, 2022

If you had asked me five years ago, when the Hemp Feed Coalition (HFC) had just been born, how long it would take for hemp as animal feed to gain Federal approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), my response would have been three to four years. 
 
We finally have something to celebrate, thanks to Kentucky. While not a Federal approval, news this week out of the Bluegrass State is a giant step forward with an acceptance of Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) from the University of Kentucky; to feed hempseed meal and hempseed oil to horses and chickens. 
 
To be clear, there are two different GRAS approvals, and they are very different. The first for horses represents a dossier with limited research but extensive evidence of common use with no reported toxic or adverse events in horses. The other represents the review and scrutiny of over a hundred documents from research done worldwide over the last three decades for chickens throughout their life cycle.
 
With no objections to these self-affirmed GRAS determinations, hempseed meal can be used as ingredients in Kentucky in the diets of layer, broiler, and breeder chickens at no more than 30 percent of the diet and in growing, maintenance, broodmare, and performance horse diets at no more than 20 percent of the diet.
 
The same can be said for hemp seed oil, which can be used as an ingredient in the diets of layer, broiler, and breeder chickens at no more than 12 percent of the diet and in layer, broiler, and breeder chicken rations at no more than 12 percent.
 
Each dossier is the product of not only passionate researchers but also an emerging industry that has been willing to work together, share data and information, and be patient as we create the scientific evidence that will open the animal feed market for Kentucky farmers and create a path for other states and Federal approval. It is also important to note that this GRAS notice is usable by anyone who produces hempseed meal and hempseed oil in the state. Without the leadership and support of element6 Dynamics, no one in the industry would have this opportunity, and I couldn’t be prouder of my company for its support in this endeavor. It’s truly a game changer, and with their support, hemp as an animal feed ingredient finally had its first-ever successful milestone that hopefully will help Kentucky farmers struggling with the rising costs of animal feed and consumers throughout the state, many of whom are seeing their grocery bills rising.
 
This pathway requires agency partnerships willing to consider and review a GRAS submission. A GRAS notice for hemp-fed laying hens paved the way for Chiques Creek eggs in Pennsylvania. The HFC hempseed meal for laying hens’ application was submitted at the end of 2020 and is still being considered by the FDA-CVM. What we accomplished here was to utilize the current FDA GRAS notice to create a defensible scientific review that addressed relevant concerns, set inclusion rates, and provided regulatory oversight for a new ingredient with definitions and labels that were reviewed by both the State regulator and the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) Ingredient Investigators. There were no shortcuts taken or topics avoided, including cannabinoids.
 
The creation of a GRAS notice, let alone two, represents years of research and an intense commitment from my small team to get it done and submitted in months. I would never have been able to accomplish this without my colleague Jessica Scott (a familiar name in the hemp space in the Midwest and my fearless assistant Caitlin Denman). Nothing truly great is ever done alone. And this relates to why my update appears in the NIHC newsletter. My thanks to NIHC and their support of my letter requesting AAFCO work with industry to host a webinar this last August that was historical in nature. NIHC’s commitment to working with AAFCO to bring that webinar to fruition and now to help me share the message that we have made two great strides but have many more steps ahead of us to win the final approval of hemp for animal feed. 
 
This is not the only endeavor for approval that my team and I are working on, and I hope to celebrate more news with you very soon. But, while we celebrate this small victory, we still need validation from traditional agriculture and animal feed industry leaders to support the research that is still required and fund partnerships with like-minded companies to continue submitting applications to gain the necessary FDA-CVM approvals and secure a national marketplace for hemp feed ingredients and hemp fed animal by-products. 
 
Then we can say that we finished the work that began in 2018 without the passing of another year.
 
By Hunter Buffington.
Hunter Buffington is the Vice President of Policy for element6 Dynamics (formerly Sante Fe Farms) and the former Executive Director of the Hemp Feed Coalition, where, under her leadership, HFC submitted the first-ever GRAS application to the FDA for using hemp animal feed for laying hens. She is an active member of the NIHC Government Affairs Committee and represents element6 Dynamics and NIHC on the Board of the Federation of International Hemp Organizations (FIHO).

Website: https://hempindustrial.com/

Published: December 9, 2022