MAINE MORNING STAR • November 12, 2025
For 35 years, Charles and Linda Gill have run a family farm in Bowdoinham. While initially focused on cut flowers and herbs, they shifted to growing hemp after regulated production was legalized. “We are not in the business of these intoxicating hemp products on the market, which are the ones that are screwing it up for everybody,” Charles Gill said. “They’re abusing the system.” Charles Gill is referring to companies exploiting a loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill that legalized hemp production, which he thinks should be closed, as do many other hemp farmers in Maine. But they say the way the federal government has proposed to do so would would decimate the industry. A provision tucked into the deal to reopen the federal government would drastically lower the allowable threshold for legal THC products. After passing the U.S. Senate on Monday, it awaits the approval of the U.S. House of Representatives. President Donald Trump supports the language.