How Popular Will Pick-Your-Own Hemp Fields Be In The Future?
Going to a farm or orchard to pick your own fruits and vegetables has many benefits. The most obvious one is that consumers know where their food comes from. Pick-your-own crops are typically cheaper for consumers compared to stores and farmer’s markets. It’s also a fun activity that consumers enjoy doing.
Just as people can pick their own strawberries or apples, so too can they now pick their own hemp in the state of Maine. Per the Portland Press Herald:
With pruning shears in hand and a laundry hamper on her hip, Khadijah Tribble roamed rows of waist-high cannabis in search of the perfect hemp plant – robust foliage, no bugs, and enough flowers to make CBD lotions and tinctures for the elders in her church community.
The community activist made the six-hour, 300-mile round trip from her home in Salem, Massachusetts, just to visit Sheepscot General Farm in Whitefield, which on Wednesday opened the first pick-your-own hemp field in Maine. It is believed to be only the second publicly accessible hemp field in the U.S.
The price of CBD products will largely affect the popularity of pick-your-own hemp in the future. Going forward hemp will basically be treated like any other agricultural crop, albeit with crop-specific regulations, so the option for hemp farmers to allow pick-your-own offerings to consumers should be widespread.
Only time will tell if it will be more popular, less popular, or equally popular compared to other pick-your-own crops. In the immediate future demand will likely outpace supply due to the novelty of the concept. As more farms offer pick-your-own hemp across the country it should balance things out.
CBD-products can be expensive. For savvy consumers that know how to make their own balms, tinctures, and other wellness products, it’s far cheaper to pick their own hemp and process the raw hemp into something of their choosing.
If the price of CBD products drops significantly, that could result in fewer people wanting to pick their own hemp due to the convenience of making a reasonable purchase of a finished CBD product from a store. With a record amount of hemp being planted in 2019 in the U.S., prices for hemp-derived products could certainly take a dip in 2020.