Trees with fading leaves of early fall surrounded a wide field near Livingston at Old Mud Creek Farm, the home of Hudson Hemp. The site is one of the few legal hemp farms in the state, and may be a harbinger of what could become an agricultural economic driver in New York.

"Hemp has tremendous potential, but what it represents is a rethinking of many of our systems for industrial inputs," Benjamin Dobson, CEO of Hudson Hemp, said. "America desperately needs another commodity crop."

The market for hemp globally includes over 25,000 products over sub-markets like textiles, automotive and furniture, among others, and U.S. hemp product sales were estimated at $700 million in 2016, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service published in June.

New York in 2017 implemented the Industrial Hemp Research Pilot Program, which allowed farmers, businesses and universities to obtain a license to grow and process industrial hemp. As of April, 62 applicants had been granted permits to grow hemp in 2018.

"We're documenting everything we're doing, our yields, our crop," Dobson said. "(New York State) is letting us do business, and we're documenting that for them so they can understand the potential, financially, for us as a state."

While the research grant has allowed farmers to take the initial step toward producing hemp industrially, it did not set specific regulations for farmers to adhere to.

Karli Miller-Hornick is the CEO of Head + Heal, a hemp company based on Main Street Farms in Cortland. Along with her business partner Allen Gandelman, the two grew their first hemp crop this year on 15 acres of their 50 acre farm, but pointed to the lack of regulations as a sort of headache.

"We would love there to be real regulations that we can follow. At this point, there's no regulations about labeling, about testing," Miller-Hornick said. "We've been asking the state to release like 'what are your labeling regulations going to be? What are your processing facility regulations going to be?' And there's no clarity on that yet, hopefully it's coming soon."

Additionally, with hemp classified as a controlled substance, farmers have lamented the lack of monetary assistance that comes with growing the crop.

"We don't have access to normal credit card processing. We don't have access to a lot of financial tools, resources that we have on the farm side as a normal farm business. Like my farm bank won't loan us money to grow hemp ... no crop insurance," Gandelman said. "So because of those things, the risks are much higher, and it does raise the price a little bit."

Now, hemp farmers await the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, which is expected to exclude hemp from the statutory definition of marijuana, as well as "facilitate the possible commercial cultivation of industrial hemp in the United States," according to the Congressional Research Service.

Legalization of hemp has enjoyed broad bipartisan support, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer co-sponsoring a bill this year to lower barriers for the fledgling industry.

The bill was expected to pass by Sept. 30, but bipartisan negotiations are ongoing, and the U.S. Hemp Roundtable issued a statement ensuring growers that pilot growing programs will continue. The group said they expect the bill to pass after November's midterm elections, but before the end of the year.

"Some people are starting to grow more industrial hemp, but we lack the processing capacity. I think the state very much understands that we need to build that up," Dobson said. "There's regulatory hurdles, still. I'm very hopeful to see the USDA bipartisan bill passes."

Hemp is derived from the same plant as marijuana, but contains insignificant levels of THC, the chemical that gets users high. Hemp can be used to produce things ranging from clothing, building materials, automobiles, furniture, food and personal care products.

However, under current U.S. drug policy, all varieties of cannabis are classified under Schedule I controlled substances - the same classification as heroin and ecstasy.

But even if hemp's classification as a controlled substance is changed, the CRS report pointed out other challenges potentially facing the industry.

Because prohibition of hemp has kept it out of major markets for several decades, reestablishing supply chains is a key challenge for the industry. In addition to concerns over profitability, the report notes modernizing processing and manufacturing as another challenge, according to the report.

"It's been illegal in this area for most of a century, so no one has had time to breed cannabis plants or have plants that do well in these environments," Ben Adams, of Phylos, an agricultural genomics firm, said. "Cannabis is unique in the sense that it can grow from the 50th latitude all the way down to the equator...it's just breeding the future cannabis plants that can grow in these environments."

Hemp is grown in three main forms, fiber, grain for food and a third, CBD oil, which has similar painkilling qualities as marijuana, but without psychotropic effects.

Last summer, when Gandelman was unable to cope with pain caused by Lyme disease, he sought a new painkiller. A friend sent him some CBD oil, and he said it "worked wonders" for him within a month.

"We just realized that people need this for pain. And our customers right now, they are in immense pain. We have people who have tried every painkiller in the book and they haven't worked for them," Miller-Hornick said. "And so, those products, like the bath bombs and stuff, they're fun and they're trendy, but there are people who really need CBD for wellness and for treating pain."

The CRS report notes that projecting the potential market for hemp products under more relaxed restrictions is difficult with the lack of historical context.

"Given the absence since the 1950s of any commercial and unrestricted hemp production in the

United States, it is not possible to predict with any degree of confidence the potential market and

employment effects of relaxing current restrictions on U.S. hemp production," the report stated.

The report does, however, note the "highly dedicated and growing demand base," before concluding that "commercial hemp industry in the United States could provide opportunities as an economically viable alternative crop for some U.S. growers."

In spite of the challenges, the state pilot programs have led U.S. hemp production to increase drastically, up to 25,500 production acres in 2017 from 9,770 in 2016, according to the CRS report.

With nearly 30 countries in Europe, Asia, North and South America allowing the cultivation of hemp, Dobson says the market exists for hemp, and the U.S. is primed to become a leading producer.

"We have the single largest urban market in the United States. I think New York is particularly well-aligned to provide new inputs that are interesting and alternative for the largest market," he said. "I'm not saying hemp is the panacea. I think it's an element of the emerging new economy that we need to work towards."