PREBLE COUNTY, Ohio – Lane Osswald is a fifth generation farmer in Eldorado. 

  • Some farmers want to see what market develops if hemp is legalized
  • Hemp may be a starter crop for small or new farmers
  • Ohio Senate Bill 57 still moving through Ohio House Committee

His farm is about 30 miles west of Dayton in northern Preble County—responsible for about 1,500 acres Osswald farms corn, soybeans, wheat, and vegetables. 

He's also a member of the board of trustees for the Ohio Farm Bureau. 

He knows industrial hemp could be legal in Ohio in the not-so-distant-future. 

“I think Ohio farmers are open to the opportunity and they're waiting to see what that opportunity actually is,” Osswald told Spectrum News 1 during an interview at his farm. 

Osswald, for now, isn't interested in starting a new crop. 

“It requires a lot of additional labor. It requires a lot of additional management,” said Osswald. “But most of all it requires a market and without a market I'm not ready to dive into it without someone asking me to produce it or providing me a place to sell it.”

That market, which would come about if hemp is legalized, would allow farmers and processors to legally grow and manufacture hemp products. The most popular, CBD, is already a multi-million dollar industry in the U.S. But hemp can also be used for making textiles, construction materials, paper, and rope. 

But Ohio is one of only nine states who have yet to legalize hemp following the 2018 Farm Bill that removed it from the list of controlled substances. 

Recent trade disputes and tariffs have put the pinch on farmers. 

“Economic times in agriculture aren't great right now. And farmers are looking for every way to make an extra dollar, ways to cut costs, ways to sell their product at a better price,” said Osswald.

Osswald thinks initially smaller acreage farmers or even new farmers will jump into the industrial hemp crop. But for him, it's a wait-and-see approach.

“Any time you can produce a crop that will create an income that is not dependent upon the markets of your other crops. Golden bullet is probably a little strong, but I think it can certainly be a buffer against economic times,” Osswald said.

Top-grade industrial hemp can fetch five to ten times the amount than traditional crops, like corn or soybeans. But unless a market for hemp materializes in Ohio, it won't matter. 

Senate Bill 57, which would legalize industrial hemp in Ohio, passed the Ohio Senate in March. It's currently in the Ohio House Agriculture and Natural Resource Committee. It is expected to pass the House and be signed into law, but it would not go into effect until March 2020. 

Growing and processing hemp still wouldn't be permitted until the USDA signed off on a plan created by the Ohio Department of Agriculture.