[PRESS RELEASE] – OMAHA, Neb., Aug. 7, 2025 – The Hemp Feed Coalition (HFC) announced that hemp seed meal (HSM) for laying hens was published in the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) Official Publication. This milestone comes almost two years after AAFCO’s Ingredient Definition Committee voted to approve hemp seed meal for this use, marking a hard-earned victory for hemp and poultry producers nationwide.
Despite this achievement, HFC and its members stress that the regulatory path to market for hemp feed remains riddled with bureaucratic obstacles. Because AAFCO’s approval alone does not grant automatic state-level acceptance, companies serving the feed market have been forced to navigate a cumbersome, state-by-state registration process.
“Even after the approval vote in January 2024, many state regulators denied or stalled applications for hemp feed until it appeared in the Official Publication,” IND HEMP CEO Morgan Tweet said. “Some states went even further—refusing approval until the publication is publicly available in print for a full year (2027), simply because the first year’s edition must be purchased. These delays have nothing to do with science or safety; they’re pure bureaucracy standing in the way of market access.”
In 2024, AAFCO, in conjunction with FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), decided not to renew its years-long Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Instead, the two have proposed their own regulatory approval pathways in an effort to streamline the process: FDA-CVM with an Ingredient Definition pathway, and AAFCO with a science advisory panel from Kansas State University. HFC remains cautious about this change and whether these two pathways will move products to market faster.
“While the Kansas State University framework is being marketed as a step forward, the timeline for launching the new working group has already slipped past its original targets,” HFC President Andrew Bish said. “That’s frustrating—but what matters most is that progress like this moves hemp closer to functioning as a real agricultural commodity. Every new approval, like HSM for poultry, opens doors for farmers to access new markets and diversify their operations. We’ll continue working with AAFCO and FDA-CVM to make sure future approvals happen faster, because farmers can’t afford to wait”.
HFC is prepping its next application: hemp seed meal for ruminants.
“Applications take scientific rigor, a relationship with the regulators, as well as dollars to pay our science reviewers and writers. If you’d like to support advancing hemp as a feed ingredient, please join HFC now,” Andrew said.
For more information about the Hemp Feed Coalition and its work to expand hemp feed approvals, visit https://hempfeedcoalition.org.
