By Stephanie Smith, VT Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets 
The Hemp Program has a calendar year registration cycle. A hemp grower or processor application submitted and registration issued in 2019 expires on December 31, 2019.
The 2020 registration cycle begins in mid-November 2019. A person must register if their intent is to grow, cultivate or process hemp in the state of Vermont. Hemp “means the plant Cannabis sativa L. and any part of the plant, including the seeds and all derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids, acids, salts, isomers, and salts of isomers, whether growing or not, with the federally defined tetrahydrocannabinol concentration level of hemp.
Growing includes planting, cultivating, harvesting, or drying hemp; and selling, storing, and transporting hemp grown by the grower. Processing is when a person offers services for storing, drying and the person is not the grower of the crop, or a person is trimming (including bucking), handling, compounding, or converting a hemp crop for a single grower or multiple growers into hemp products or hemp-infused products. “Process” includes transporting, aggregating, or packaging hemp from a single grower or multiple growers.
The cost of registration to cultivate hemp for personal use remains $25.00 in the 2020 registration year regardless of the end use of the crop or whether it is cultivated under lights or in the field. There is no requirement to register as a processor if processing for personal use. No hemp crops, products or infused products could enter the commercial marketplace under a personal use registration. All other registration fees to grow and process hemp are increasing for the 2020 registration year and can be found in 6 V.S.A. § 570.
The cost of registration for commercial production of seed for food oil production or as a grain crop, or fiber is $100 regardless of the number of acres being grown.
- Less than 0.5 acres or less than 500 pounds $ 100
- 0.5 to 9.9 acres or less than 10,000 pounds $ 500
- 10 to 50 acres or less than 50,000 pounds $1,000
- Greater than 50 acres or greater than 50,000 pounds $3,000
An application to operate exclusively indoors (bringing plants to flower under lights) for commercial production of floral material, viable seed, or cannabinoids and processing of that harvest is based on the size of the indoor facility. Registering a facility with an area of 500 square feet or less costs $1,00 0; and a facility with an area greater than 500 square feet is $2,000.
While the Agency has not yet established its laboratory certification program, beginning in 2020 the cost to become a certified lab is $1,500.00. Certification enables a laboratory to conduct testing of hemp and hemp products and produce results for purposes of showing compliance with the state and federal definition of hemp and to conduct contaminant testing as part of the Agency’s cannabis quality control program.