GEOFF BENNETT: Tucked into legislation that ended the longest government shutdown in U.S.

history last fall was a provision to change the definition of hemp.

It was a small tweak involving minute measurements, but one that could have a huge impact on the booming market for hemp products.

Jeffrey Brown reports now from Kentucky.

JEFFREY BROWN: Inside a 25,000-square-foot facility in Louisville, adult-use gummies are being churned out at Cornbread Hemp.

Supplements with flavors like blueberry and blood orange have CBD, a compound that advocates sight for its therapeutic benefits, including combating anxiety, insomnia and inflammation.

But they also include THC, which has an intoxicating effect.

Though popular confusion abounds, they're not made from marijuana, but from another variety of the same plant, hemp.

And they're fully legal, for now.

JIM HIGDON, Co-Founder, Cornbread Hemp: This is the first step.

This is a super sack of our hemp produced, grown here in Kentucky.

JEFFREY BROWN: Jim Higdon is co-founder of Cornbread Hemp.

JIM HIGDON: Then here's our certificate from the Kentucky Department of Agriculture that certifies that the THC content is well below that 0.3 percent standard, that we need to make sure that this remains a federally legal product.

JEFFREY BROWN: The 2018 farm bill legalized hemp after decades of prohibition because of its connection to marijuana.

In fact, the plant has been cultivated in Kentucky since the 18th century.

NARRATOR: Hemp grows so luxuriously in Kentucky that harvesting is sometimes difficult.

JEFFREY BROWN: Including during World War II, when the fibers from the plant were crucial to the war effort, turned into rope, textiles and even parachute webbing.

NARRATOR: As for the United States Navy, every battleship requires 34,000 feet of rope.

JEFFREY BROWN: It was these types of industrial uses that advocates like then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell cited in supporting hemp legalization seven years ago.

But that also brought unexpected consequences, as the popularity of CBD grew and entrepreneurs created products that extract the small amount of THC in hemp, bringing a boom in products like gummies and beverages that can get you high.

JIM HIGDON: It's a surprising marketplace that people didn't realize existed.

We have recently expanded and built out our gummy production facilities because of the popularity and the projections of continued popularity of these products.

We have invested considerably in this facility here in Louisville.

JEFFREY BROWN: The seven-year-old company employs more than 100 people and today legally ships its products to almost every state in the country.

But that legal future is now in jeopardy.

SEN.

MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Unfortunately, companies have exploited a loophole in the 2018 legislation by taking legal amounts of THC from hemp and turning it into intoxicating substances.

JEFFREY BROWN: The senator who championed the legalization of hemp led the recent effort to change the definition of it, citing how products like gummies have been too accessible to children.

Starting in November, hemp will no longer be defined by just the amount of THC by weight in the dry hemp plant.

Instead, federal law will limit all synthetic cannabinoids and the amount of THC in the final product being sold, the goal, to get intoxicating hemp products off the shelf.

What will the impact be on your company of this change?

JIM HIGDON: If we can't diversify into products that do not contain any hemp, then it will mean the end of the company.

It will certainly mean the end of every product that we currently make.

JEFFREY BROWN: The industry does have its supporters in Washington, including Kentucky's other senator.

SEN.

RAND PAUL (R-KY): The numbers put forward in this bill will eliminate 100 percent of the hemp products in our country.

JEFFREY BROWN: But not all parts of the hemp industry are convinced this rule change is a death sentence.

CHAD ROSEN, Founder, Victory Hemp Foods: We have been operating in this facility since 2018.

JEFFREY BROWN: Chad Rosen is founder of Victory Hemp in Northern Kentucky, which turns hemp seeds into nonintoxicating protein powder and oil, another of the many uses of hemp.

CHAD ROSEN: This is not a ban on the entire hemp industry.

It clearly defines that products from industrial hemp, as defined by those grown for the grain and the fiber, are not getting banned in any fashion.

And we're not celebrating the cannabinoid sector potentially phasing extinction,but we are happy that industrial hemp has gotten some real regulatory definition.

JEFFREY BROWN: He sees a huge potential for products like his, as well as other innovative uses of industrial hemp, like using the fiber for building materials and even as a sustainable lightweight alternative to plastic in auto manufacturing.

CHAD ROSEN: There's a lot of assumptions that come along with hemp, and part of half of what we do is just navigating the true story.

We're constantly trying to impress on people that it's different genetics, different agronomy, different processing, different products, different consumer experience.

And so, for that, the regulatory framework needs to be considered very different.

BRIAN FURNISH, Hemp Farmer: We have grown a little bit of everything in the past.

JEFFREY BROWN: Eighth-generation farmer Brian Furnish, who grows tobacco and many other crops on his Kentucky farm, sees hemp as incredibly valuable.

BRIAN FURNISH: I have said, if I was stranded on an island, what plant would I want with me?

And I would want hemp.

JEFFREY BROWN: Yes?

BRIAN FURNISH: There's so many dynamic uses of it.

Get the food from it and get the fiber from it.

You can get what I call the dietary supplement, medicinal side out of the oils.

JEFFREY BROWN: And he grows hemp for many uses, straddling different sides of the market, including supplying raw material to Victory Hemp, while also growing for the cannabinoid market.

That part of his operation is now in flux, well before the new law goes into effect.

BRIAN FURNISH: There's just so much uncertainty right now.

I'm not even sure when I can ship this product.

And even if I ship it, my price has already fallen 40 percent.

JEFFREY BROWN: Furnish's family operation is currently sitting on 600,000 pounds of harvested hemp piled in barns like this and bagged with nowhere to send it.

BRIAN FURNISH: On our farm alone, current prices, we will lose about $450,000 on this product so far.

And I don't see the prices coming back.

I just hope we can ship it and get rid of it.

JEFFREY BROWN: Could you survive with just the industrial hemp market?

BRIAN FURNISH: No.

JEFFREY BROWN: Furnish is open to regulation, but thinks the new rule change will cripple an industry that was just starting to mature.

BRIAN FURNISH: I agree with the principle of what they were trying to accomplish, and that is trying to keep high-THC products out of children's hands.

But the new law that passed, the THC per container is so low that we can't meet that, even the naturally occurring in the plant.

But hemp's not going away.

Even the cannabinoids are not going away.

The issue is, where does the consumer get the product?

DEE DEE TAYLOR, Founder, 502 Hemp: My fear is that it will drive a lot of people to go back underground to get product from their street dealers.

JEFFREY BROWN: Dee Dee Taylor runs a consumer hemp shop in Louisville.

She's also president of the Kentucky Hemp Association.

In 2023, the group worked with state legislators to address concerns about the products, to restrict sales to those under 21 and mandate lab testing, rules that will now be superseded by the new federal rule change.

CHARLES WEMPE, Hemp Product Customer: And I don't take any pain medicine.

JEFFREY BROWN: She worries for her customers like Charles Wempe.

CHARLES WEMPE: When I go home, I'm going to be able to relax.

I'm going to be able to maintain.

I'm going to be able to play with my grandkids, all because of this.

JEFFREY BROWN: Wempe is a Republican who voted for Mitch McConnell, but says he's disappointed in how Congress has changed the rules.

CHARLES WEMPE: Until they sit in somebody's seat, they will never realize.

And I'm going to tear up because this helps.

And people do not realize it.

It's a shame.

JEFFREY BROWN: Is a compromise possible?

Recently, President Trump asked Congress to reconsider the recent hemp rule change.

And legislation has been introduced that would accomplish that, while also adding age restrictions nationwide.

But with the planting season right around the corner, the timeline for farmers here and around the country is very tight.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Jeffrey Brown in Kentucky.