“There was an oversupply of the market, and the prices collapsed.”
By Shaun Chornobroff, South Carolina Daily Gazette
Thomas Garrison, a multi-generation farmer in Anderson County, said he believed the hype around hemp.
Garrison, who’s farmed in Pendelton since graduating from Clemson in 1980, was among the group who pushed for a 2017 law that allowed farmers in the state to grow hemp, a plant that’s the same species as marijuana but lacks the THC that gets people high.
Despite being one of the state’s hemp pioneers, he abandoned the crop after just two seasons. He didn’t even seek a permit in 2020. Garrison told the SC Daily Gazette his venture into hemp was probably the worst in his 45 years as a farmer.
It’s a risk that Garrison estimates cost him more than $100,000 in unused crops, equipment and time spent, said the 67-year-old son of the late state Sen. T. Ed Garrison, namesake of the livestock arena at Clemson. He declined to specify how much he lost.
“It was not a very good experience,” he said.
Hemp was supposed to be the next moneymaker for South Carolina farmers. And once they were able, the farmhands flocked to the opportunity.
Many suffered similar fates to Garrison.
Farmers and lawmakers described the hemp industry as an unregulated battle for survival, where supply ultimately outweighed the demand, causing many to ditch the crop altogether.
“It was like the Wild West,” Garrison recently told the SC Daily Gazette.
From 20 to 265
After the 2017 law passed, 20 farmers received a permit to grow hemp on a maximum 20 acres each in the state’s pilot program. More than 100 applicants were denied. Among the 20 were Danny Ford, Clemson’s first national championship football coach, and former state Rep. Chip Limehouse (R).
The pilot program created by the 2017 law allowed a doubling in 2019 to 40 permits farming 40 acres each.
But in the wake of the 2018 federal Farm Bill that legalized the crop nationwide, the Legislature passed another law in March 2019 that deleted the constraints and allowed the state Department of Agriculture to issue licenses to any farmer who met the legal criteria.
The agency ended up giving 161 permits for the 2019 crop. For 2020, the number rocketed to 265.
But this year, the number of farmers with permits is down to 80.
It’s unclear how many of those 80 farmers actually grow hemp. Some of the farmers go through the process to get licensed, which costs about $600 and involves a background check. But they aren’t planting hemp. They’re just keeping their options open.
Among the factors that could have affected a desire to grow the crop was the 2019 arrest of Lowcountry farmer John Trenton Pendarvis.
Law enforcement claimed his 10 acres of hemp in Harleyville were unregistered and mowed it down the same day.
Pendarvis, the first person charged with violating the state’s hemp-growing law, filed a lawsuit against the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED), including SLED Chief Mark Keel in his official capacity, Attorney General Alan Wilson and others.
The suit led to SLED being forced to pay more than $11,000 in attorney fees to Pendarvis in 2023 for its handling of the lawsuit’s discovery process. A SLED spokesperson declined the allegations at the time.
The mess could have deterred farmers who were worried about being targeted, said state Sen. Brad Hutto, Pendarvis’ lawyer.
“I think it definitely had a chilling effect,” Hutto (D-Orangeburg) told the SC Daily Gazette. “They put a farmer in jail when he was growing a legal crop.”
The case is ongoing. Hutto doesn’t expect a resolution until at least late summer.
When South Carolina first permitted farmers to grow hemp, lawmakers and farmers thought they were getting in on the next big cash crop.
Most farmers have a primary crop that they make money on. Hemp was supposed to provide a year-round option to grow for lots of different uses, including clothing, food, textiles and even paper.
Encouraging its growth was supposed to allow farmers to continue profiting at times when their main crop could not grow, said House Majority Leader Davey Hiott, who chaired the House agriculture committee when the hemp laws passed.
“It was supposed to help them make a little bit of money,” said the Pickens Republican.
A decade ago, Hiott was eager to see farmers capitalize on the industrial use of hemp, such as clothing. In 2017, Pickens County was home to 740 farms, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
“It started that way. It didn’t end that way,” Hiott said.
David Dewitt, an agronomist at Clemson University said, “what people really want to do is alter their state of mind.”
CBD problems
In 2014, the Legislature passed a law legalizing the sale of CBD, or cannabidiol, a hemp-derived, non-psychoactive oil used for various ailments. But that state law was very limited, authorizing it only for patients diagnosed with severe epilepsy.
After the 2018 federal law broadened what was legal, farmers saw an opportunity. And the large majority of hemp growers in the state wanted in.
And that’s when problems started, farmers told the Gazette.
James Fairey, a 50-year-old from Williamston, started growing hemp in 2020, the state’s peak for permits.
Even after others bowed out of the industry, he continued to grow. After four years of losing money, he finally turned a profit on the crop in 2024. He credits a gradually growing customer base and a willingness to learn along the way for reversing his fortunes.
The biggest difference between him and most growers, he said, is he started growing hemp because he believes in the ailment-relieving health benefits of CBD. The money was secondary.
“The only currencies that matter are health and kindness, and that’s what I provide,” Fairey said.
When hemp growers first started growing, the biomass material used for CBD could be sold for up to $60 a pound, DeWitt said. A couple of years later, farmers were offered as little as $5 per pound.
“Nobody wants to grow something they can’t sell,” DeWitt said.
If the market changes, licensed farmers who are sitting on the sidelines may jump back in.
“Some of them have planted very little, but there’s no penalty for not planting it,” Dewitt said.
Other early hemp growers included Cannalina Hemp Company, formerly known as Charleston Hemp Company.
The company started in 2018 and grew its own hemp, while operating a storefront.
In 2020, the decision was made to stop growing the crop.
“There was an oversupply of the market, and the prices collapsed,” said Lina Wu, the company’s owner.
However, there was still money to be made in selling the CBD gummies, oils, vapes, lotions and other edibles.
The Cannalina Hemp Company’s Goose Creek retail location is open and operating. It has a loyal customer base, buys from numerous South Carolina hemp growers and prides itself on carrying quality products at an affordable price, according to its Facebook profile.
However, there are “a lot cheaper products out there, especially in gas stations,” Wu said.
When asked if the business would ever return to growing its own hemp, Wu said now is not the time.
“There’s too many growers on the market,” she said.
Kurt Brower, the co-owner of Carolina Botanicals, echoed a similar sentiment after losing about $200,000 in his venture. Though the company maintains a hemp license, it doesn’t make economic sense to grow hemp right now, he said.
Brower now focuses on processing biomass for farmers into products they can sell, as well as selling their own products.
The 27-year-old said he previously bought hemp exclusively from South Carolina farmers, but as the number of producers has dropped, he’s had to start buying from farmers in neighboring Georgia and North Carolina.
“There’s no outlet of sale on the hemp side” for farmers, he said. “It put a chokehold” on growers.
What’s next
Hiott, the House majority leader, said hemp is no longer on his radar.
Eva Moore, a spokesperson with the state Department of Agriculture, said recruitment isn’t a problem, farmers are often intrigued by growing hemp. But a shift from CBD to growing hemp for fiber or grain would open up new economic opportunities.
Moore said she’s heard reports that processors are still sitting on hemp they bought in 2022.
“The market has not been great for farmers,” Moore said. “Whether you’re growing cotton, peaches or hemp, you have to be able to make a living doing it.”
This story was first published by South Carolina Daily Gazette.
Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.
“There was an oversupply of the market, and the prices collapsed.” By Shaun Chornobroff, South Carolina Daily Gazette Thomas Garrison, a multi-generation farmer in Anderson County, said he believed the hype around hemp. Garrison, who’s farmed in Pendelton since graduating from Clemson in 1980, was among the group who pushed for a 2017 law that Read More
