PARROTSVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- Tennessee farmers are frustrated. About 50 signed up for a permit to grow industrial hemp, but after several weeks, they still have no seeds and they don't know when they'll get them.
Industrial hemp can be used for oil, food, textiles and even construction.
When the opportunity to grow it became available, Chuck Mason jumped at it, hoping to be on the ground floor of a very lucrative industry.
Mason set aside 60 acres of his cattle farm for the hemp, and his father got a state permit to grow. The two are part of a pilot program to see what type of hemp grows best in Tennessee and if an industry can build around it.
But the Drug Enforcement Administration is standing in the way. The federal government considers hemp a cousin of marijuana since it contains THC.
"It doesn't make a lot of sense, actually," Mason said. "Hemp grows wild everywhere. God invented it. And I think you should be able to grow stuff that God grows on the Earth."
Mason said the THC in the product he'd grow would be below 0.03 percent, and he'd need to get it tested to be sure.
Next week would be an ideal time to start planting the hemp seed, according to Mason, but he doesn't have any seeds. In fact, the state can't order the seed until the DEA gives the OK.
"As a department, we're still optimistic we will get approval for this in time for farmers to go ahead and plant," said Corinne Gould, deputy director of public affairs for the Tennessee Department of Agriculture.
That seed needs to be ordered from Canada, according to Gould. They're not sure how long that turnaround will take.
"We are ready to place the order for the seed the moment we get the approval from the DEA. So we're not gonna be dragging our feet from this end," she added.
The latest Mason can get it in the ground is the first week of June. Otherwise, he'll have to use the land as hay for his cattle in the winter.
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