Minnesota hemp farmer suing state for revoking his license

Just as the hemp farming season gets underway, a Minnesota hemp farmer is claiming in a federal lawsuit that the state violated his constitutional rights by revoking his growing license and ordering him to destroy his crop.

Luis Hummel, who runs 5th Sun Gardens in Lanesboro, Minnesota, filed suit after the Minnesota Department of Agriculture told him last month that local law enforcement obtained product from his farm that exceeded the state’s limit for THC for industrial hemp, Minnesota Public Radio reported.

The product was confiscated when county sheriff’s officers stopped someone carrying hemp from Hummel’s farm that was meant to be sold in the Twin Cities. The individual was not arrested.

The Minnesota agency told Hummel he had been removed as a participant in Minnesota’s hemp pilot program and that he must immediately destroy his crop.

Hummel claims that officials never shared the results of testing on the products they claimed were from his farm nor offered him a chance to request a second test.

Minnesota’s industrial hemp pilot program requires crops to be sent to a lab and tested within 30 days of harvest, and the THC content must be no more than 0.3%. Businesses that fail two tests are ordered to destroy their crop.

A spokeswoman for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture declined to comment because the lawsuit is pending.

– Associated Press and Hemp Industry Daily