Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to participate in this listening session. I am Deputy Secretary Fred Strathmeyer with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. On behalf of Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture, Russell Redding, I offer the following comments:

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture submitted its state plan for hemp regulation to USDA on January 22, 2019 as required by Section 10113 of the 2018 Farm Bill. Using authority from Pennsylvania’s law concerning Controlled Plants and Noxious Weeds (act of October 30, 2017, P.L. 774, No. 46)(3 Pa.C.S.A § 1501 *et seq*.), the department is seeking to classify hemp as a controlled plant, which will require all growers to register and obtain a growing permit. The permit will include all information required by federal law for hemp production, while also carrying the full force of law for enforcement necessary for any violation of permit conditions.

As outlined in our state plan submission and our program parameters for the 2019 growing season, Pennsylvania will use the follow procedures to regulate hemp:

**Application Compliance:** The permit/license holder is responsible for both themselves and all individuals involved with planting, maintenance, and harvesting of the industrial hemp grown. Prior to an individual working with the cultivation of hemp, the permit/license holder must submit a statement listing the proper names and addresses of the persons to be involved with the cultivation of hemp. The permit/license holder must also provide a notarized attestation that none of the individuals working to cultivate hemp under the permit/license have any felony drug convictions within the last 10 years pursuant to the 2018 Farm Bill. Any person not listed on the permit involved with the cultivation of hemp will constitute a violation of the permit and subject the permit holder to enforcement action. This information will be available for any background checks deemed necessary, and will be provided to the state police.

**Information Maintenance:** Participants must list street addresses with a single GPS coordinate for each farm/facility location where hemp will be grown. Within 10 days of planting, participants must submit exact planting sites (field locations) within each growing location address, including acreage amounts and the locations marked by a single GPS point at the normal point of entry for the field or facility. The permittee must maintain a detailed map showing the boundaries of the hemp planting sites outlined. PDA currently submits location information to the Pennsylvania State Police and will submit to USDA as required by the 2018 Farm Bill. The method of a single GPS point per field and the grower maintaining a detailed map of field boundaries has worked well, as irregular shaped fields are difficult to describe with GPS points.

PDA does not recommend planting within three miles of a planting for CBD or for certified seed production, as doing such could lead to legal challenges from existing growers. 

***Inspection, Sampling, Testing, and Record-keeping*********

******PDA encourages USDA to quickly provide national standards for laboratory testing procedures, including plant sampling and certification of laboratories. This is imperative for interstate commerce, as well as consumer protection and confidence in hemp products. Growers are planting in multiple states and need consistency, especially when shipping product to processing facilities that may require transport across state lines. PDA’s inspection, sampling, testing, and 

record keeping provisions are outlined below and have been developed through consultation with other states.  

- During the growing season, permit/license holders will be subject to random farm/establishment inspections to verify compliance with all requirements of the permit/license issued. Inspection may include sampling by PDA inspectors for the determination of plant THC levels, pesticide testing, identification of plant pests, or any other statutorily-defined purpose.

PDA’s Bureau of Food Safety and Laboratory Services has a protocol in place for THC testing: Determination of Delta-9-THC, CBD, and CBN in hemp by Gas Chromatography with Flame Ionization Detection (GC/FID). The lab is participating in the University of Kentucky’s *Proficiency Testing Program for Hemp*, and has received results for its first two PT samples with passing values for both samples.

PDA will randomly sample at minimum 10 percent of planted fields each growing season. The department reserves the right to collect and test additional samples as needed.

- Inspections : PDA inspectors must be granted unrestricted access during normal business hours to all growing locations and adjacent areas. Inspection visits may be made with little or no notice during regular business hours. Permit/license holders or their representatives will be notified and requested to be present.

*Sampling*: Sampling of plants or plant parts for THC testing will be conducted by PDA inspectors utilizing a statistical method developed to provide an accurate representation of the growing location. If requested, the inspector will provide a duplicate sample to the permit/license holder. PDA sampling for THC will target female flowers at bloom or near the time of harvest (approximately 70 days after planting). 

Individual samples may be collected for each variety and/or lot of seed planted. Larger plots may require more than one sample. 

- Record -k eeping : Records of exact planting locations including size of planting area, planting date, the varieties planted, and farm/facility map showing boundaries of planting areas must be available upon request, and maintained for at least three years from the decommissioning of the planting site.  
******Clones:** Clones/cuttings/propagules for planting are permitted, but permit holders must notify PDA within 10 days of any clone planting. Plants being shipped into the commonwealth must be accompanied by a Federal Phytosanitary certificate, a state of origin issued health certificate or certification that the plants were grown at a state licensed and inspected nursery. PDA also recommends growers obtain a producer statement that the variety has a THC content of 0.3 percent or less. Notice must include variety of clones and quantity planted. 

**Detailed Sample Collection****Protocol****:**********

********Inspections may be unannounced but prior contact with minimal notice is recommended as a program participant representative with knowledge of the varietal planting locations and ability to sign for the samples will be required.

- Prior to collection, the grower should be offered collection of a duplicate sample. If a duplicate sample is requested, both samples should be collected simultaneously and prepared in an identical manner and the grower may select which of the samples they wish to retain.

The sample will be a composite of plant flowers collected from random plants from representative quadrants of the planting for each variety or field location. Samples will consist of plant flowers and buds. For fields less than five acres, field quadrants will be determined by dividing the variety plot into 10 sections of similar size. Efforts should be made to collect a similar sized representative sample of sample material from a cross section of each quadrant. For larger plantings or locations with the same variety planted in multiple fields, the inspector has discretion to select the number of sampling points necessary to obtain a sample representative of the variety at that location. 

Samples will be place in a new paper bag. The paper bag will be labeled with the sample number using an indelible marker. The sample number will be in the following format: Permit # - inspector’s initials – Sample #- Sub #. The inspector should also date the bag and print the variety name on the bag.

The plant sample will consist of only flowers or buds clipped from the terminal points of the plant, usually one to two inches per plant with minimal stem material. Collected material should be placed directly into the sample bag when cut from the plant. An average of 50-80 flowers or buds will be required. (If duplicate samples are requested, a sample for the same plant or a neighboring plant should be collected and bagged in a second bag.) 

The total sample should contain a minimum of 4 oz. of plant material but no more than 6 oz.

Sample bags shall be closed by folding down the top with a least two folds and the inspector initialing and dating on the last fold then taping the bag closed with the tape over top of their initials securing the entire folded edge to the bag. Samples shall be placed into a cooler with ice or ice packs as soon as possible for delivery to the Food Safety Laboratory. Care must be taken to ensure the paper sample bag is protected from contact with condensation from the ice or ice packs. 

*********Disposal Procedure***

******Procedures for disposal are situation-dependent. PDA issues destruction orders but determines options for destruction based on the material to be destroyed. 

In recent conversations with Pennsylvania growers, concerns have been expressed about lost investments if hemp plants test higher than 0.3 percent THC. Given the relative infancy of hemp production in the U.S., seed varieties are still in development and varying growing conditions outside of the control of a grower could lead to a strain testing slightly higher than 0.3 percent THC. True “industrial” processing facilities could process these plants for industrial uses (building materials, clothing, manufacturing, etc), while destroying the flower material as required by law. Pennsylvania would ask that the USDA consider these alternate destruction procedures for growers in good standing who agree to process hemp found to be higher than 0.3 percent THC for industrial purposes only.

***Outstanding Question:***

************Does USDA plan to regulate hemp processors and will federal guidelines be provided to states?

Pennsylvania strongly urges USDA to work quickly to provide critical federal guidance for consistency for growers and processors. This includes working with sister agencies to assure the provisions of the 2018 Farm Bill are realized and implemented by the DEA, FDA, DOJ, federal banking entities, crop insurance providers, and others. 

Thank you for providing me the opportunity to report on behalf of Secretary Russell Redding and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. I look forward to working with our state’s growers and processors to realize this exciting new opportunity for Pennsylvania agriculture.