When Ryan Eakes surveys the sprawling farm he manages in the Uncompahgre Valley surrounding Montrose, he thinks about how he could be standing in the global epicenter of production for a natural health and wellness product.
Yet that future hangs on the same material as certain drafts of the U.S. Constitution.
Following negotiations to reopen the federal government during the shutdown in November, the U.S. Senate surprised the hemp industry when it included language in a 2026 Agriculture appropriations act that effectively bans all intoxicating hemp products within one year of President Donald Trump signing the bill on Nov. 12.
Eakes manages Typhoon Farma, the largest grower of hemp for cannabinoids in Colorado. He grows his crop on 315 acres and says he employs 13 locals year-round and as many as 40 during planting and harvest seasons, subject to contracts.
Typhoon Farma sources supplies from many local companies that generate a half-million dollars locally, Eakes said. It generates between $600,000 and $700,000 in local wages annually. The organic hemp he grows contains nonpsychoactive cannabinoids that don’t get a person “high” but may help relieve a variety of ailments including chronic pain and inflammation, epilepsy, anxiety, mood disorders, insomnia and addiction cravings.
“I feel like we’re one of the better, larger employers in the town we’re in,” he said. “I mean, obviously you have the hospital and the school system and the airport. But beyond that, we employ a lot of people. And we drive quite a bit of business to this town.”
There’s a catch in Eakes’ rosy picture, though, and it could put Typhoon Farma and dozens of other Colorado hemp growers out of business.
It’s linked to the legalization of hemp containing a tiny percentage of THC in 2018 and the creation of a $2.2 billion quasilegal market for intoxicating hemp products including THC-infused seltzers, brownies and gummies that flowed into in gas stations, farmers markets and CBD stores across the nation.
“Bad players” got into the game, however, and put the industry in jeopardy, Eakes said.
They used toxic solvents to convert CBD into THC, creating products containing harmful chemicals that made thousands of people using vapes and e-cigarettes sick. In 2020, the Centers for Disease Control linked these chemicals to 2,800 hospitalizations and as many as 68 deaths.
Hemp plants spring to life on at Typhoon Farma in Montrose. Hemp and marijuana plants are different varieties of the same species (cannabis sativa) with distinct chemical profiles and uses. The key difference is that legally defined hemp contains 0.3% or less THC, whereas pot contains higher amounts of THC and is psychoactive. Hemp is used for fiber, oils, and CBD, while pot is cultivated for its buds. (Courtesy Typhoon Farma)
Colorado was one of the first states to ban intoxicating hemp products made by chemical processing. However, legislators and regulators failed to adopt many critical regulations that other states have employed to keep hemp products off the shelves, according to an investigation by ProPublica and the Denver Gazette.
But Eakes said the way the Trump administration closed the loophole that allowed the sale of hemp containing THC was not “through a surgical adjustment,” like it should have been. “They took a sledgehammer to it.”
The new federal definition of legal hemp will change to a much stricter standard in three significant ways.
“The only thing that will survive is anything that is made with CBD isolate, which is 0% THC,” Eakes said.
“And the demand and market for those types of products is minuscule, compared to the full- or broad-spectrum products, which retain important qualities when the THC is pulled out,” he added. “They’ll still be available, but they’re harder to make, more expensive and not everybody can make them. So all the people that we sell to, to make all the shelf products, like the good ones that help veterans and athletes and moms and senior citizens, it’s gonna wipe all of that out.”
It might not be the end of the road for Typhoon Farma, though. Eakes said he’s negotiating “one large account” for which they may still be able to provide their hemp.
“It’ll be a unicorn if we get it,” he added. “If we don’t, I’m going to have to lay off 75% of my staff.”
This story previously appeared in the Colorado Sun.
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