Want to know the best time to plant hemp in the Midwest? Or what cultivar consistently produces a crop below 0.3% THC? Researchers in the Midwest have successfully pooled that information despite the pandemic, creating a database designed to give farmers an idea of what to expect from their hemp cultivars in 2021 and beyond.
Hemp Cultivation, Processing & Extraction News
Hemp farmers getting federal pandemic assistance will see those payments frozen because of the changed administration. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that payments under the latest round of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program are on hold “until further notice” — though interested farmers can continue applying through Feb. 26. The latest round of coronavirus
The Senate Agriculture Committee talks to an experienced hemp regulator Tuesday when it considers the confirmation of Tom Vilsack for Secretary of Agriculture. Vilsack, an Iowan, is President Joe Biden’s nominee and served in the same role for all eight years of the Obama administration. He oversaw the USDA during passage and implementation of the
(Editor’s note: This comes from Hemp Industry Daily‘s free updated USDA Final Hemp Rule report, available for download here.) The mishmash of U.S. hemp rules is on its way out. More than two years after Congress made hemp a legal agricultural commodity, farmers finally have one national set of rules for growing it – instead of a confusing,
A top official with the U.S. Department of Agriculture praised the agency’s work on hemp this week, putting into doubt any plans to make additional changes. Sonia Jimenez, deputy administrator for the Specialty Crops Program in the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, talked up the rules in a newsletter the agency sends to farmers. “The work
Federal regulators that go after companies for false advertising recently weighed on sanctions against CBD companies, with one urging the agency to focus on opioid manufacturers and another warning against a chilling effect on legitimate cannabis research. Rohit Chopra and Christine S. Wilson, two of five members on the Federal Trade Commission, recently published statements
Thailand’s public health minister has approved regulations legalizing hemp production beginning Friday. The new rules allows hemp cultivation for commercial, medicinal, and research purposes, the Bangkok Post reported. Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul approved the rules Thursday. The regulations will allow both exports and imports and the plant can be cultivated for extracts, beverages, cosmetics,
Jon Iverson, a 34-year-old grower whose family farm grows industrial hemp and other crops, has been elected to serve as chair of the American Farm Bureau’s Young Farmers & Ranchers Committee. The third-generation farmer and graduate of Oregon State will act as spokesman for the YF&R program and will sit on the American Farm Bureau
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit from the Hemp Industries Association over an extraction rule that meany fear will wrongly criminalize temporary byproducts of the plant during production. The DEA says in a filing Tuesday that HIA is challenging “a hypothetical regulation or policy concerning manufacturing byproduct”
Hemp advocates say the plant’s carbon-gobbling properties position the crop to play an important role in plans outlined by President Joe Biden to tackle the climate crisis. Biden created the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy Wednesday and signed a series of executive orders aimed at tackling the climate crisis. After signing an order
Nationwide hemp rules released in the closing days of the Trump Administration aren’t on hold, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But the agency will be reviewing all programs implemented by the previous administration, as is common when there is a new president. USDA spokesman Matt Herrick told Hemp Industry Daily in an emailed
(This is the second part of a two-part story from Hemp Industry Daily examining the developing hemp markets on tribal lands in the United States. Read the first installment here. For more detail about tribes growing hemp, check out Hemp Industry Daily’s Hemp & CBD Factbook, available for purchase here.) Hemp and CBD companies have been working with
(This is the first in a series of stories from Hemp Industry Daily examining the developing hemp markets on tribal lands in the United States. For more detail about tribes growing hemp, check out Hemp Industry Daily’s Hemp & CBD Factbook, available for purchase here.) It’s been more than two years since nationwide hemp legalization offered
Farmers still making sense of long-delayed nationwide rules for growing hemp in 2021 and beyond got another wrinkle Wednesday when the incoming administration of President Joe Biden ordered a “freeze” on new regulations. The memo instructed federal agencies — including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees hemp production — to consider additional 30-day comment
This story first appreared at Marijuana Business Daily. As cannabis vaping pens grew in popularity in late 2019, concerns grew about the safety of the products, spurred by reports of <a href=”https://mjbizdaily.com/vaping-crisis/”>illness, and even deaths</a>, of tobacco vape users. Vape manufacturers rushed to assure regulators and consumers their products were safe, despite having no clear
Joseph Ramahi (Editor’s note: This story is part of a recurring series of commentaries from professionals connected to the hemp industry. Joseph Ramahi, PhD, is chief science officer for Cultivaris Hemp, a young-plant producer in Encinitas, California. ) Over and over again I meet hemp growers who are not yet aware of a widespread disease
Indiana regulators are warning hemp farmers to watch out for predatory hemp seed vendors that are currently active within the state. Along with a growing number of hemp growers are more reports of faulty seed and untrustworthy vendors, said Donald Robison, seed administrator at the Office of Indiana State Chemist. Robison said some farmers are
Federal agriculture rulemakers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture released final hemp production rules on Friday, in the final days of the Trump Administration. Changes to the final rule were based on public comments from farmers and industry members about interim hemp rules released in 2019 and are set to take effect on March 22.
After wildfires ravaged the West Coast in 2020, scorching millions of acres of land and damaging businesses and crops, including countless farms and businesses in the cannabis industry, the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Interior will lead a new Interagency Wildland Fire Subcabinet, focused on wildfire management. According to the USDA, the Executive Order on
Hemp producers will have more breathing room under newly released rules on the federally mandated THC levels before they are declared criminally negligent, with the margin of error increasing from a total of 0.5% to 1% THC. Hemp farmers and testing agents will also have more time to harvest plants after testing, with the harvest
Hemp plants in Groveland, Illinois. Photo courtesy Simple Livin’ Farms. The number of hemp processors in Illinois doubled over the last year as the new industry tries to establish itself in a state that’s already an agricultural powerhouse. Row crops are nothing new to growers in Illinois – one of the top corn-producing states in
With just a few days left before changing oversight, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved the hemp-regulation plans of Rhode Island and the Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians in southern California. Rhode Island will charge interested hemp producers: $250 application fees. $2,250 license fees, with a license valid for two years. Rhode Island doesn’t limit
For all the growth that the hemp and CBD industry has seen as a nascent industry in recent years, last year farmers took a step back and devoted fewer resources to the crop – the enthusiasm of previous years tempered by oversupply, supply-chain issues and a lack of infrastructure. Licensed hemp acreage decreased in 2020
Dallas-based Generation Hemp Inc. has acquired a processing company in Kentucky with a 48,000-square-foot facility for $5.1 million. The acquisition of Halcyon Thruput LLC will be payable in $2.5 million of restricted common stock, $1.75 million in cash and a $870,000 promissory note, Generation Hemp said Tuesday. Generation Hemp will also take over $1 million
Some $13 billion in additional agricultural aid for pandemic-impacted farmers should start going out by end of month. Agriculture Undersecretary Bill Northey says the funds could go out even before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on Jan. 20. “We certainly have some things we would like to be able to get out very quickly,”
A federal judge in California has tapped the brakes on a lawsuit from a hemp grower who saw the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife bulldoze 500 acres of his plants. Apothio LLC is suing the state and also Kern County authorities for $1 billion after the plants were razed in 2019. Apothio argues that
Daniel Fernandez is hoping for a hemp renaissance in Spain this year with the launch of a new Spanish industry association. But first, the Galicia native says federal authorities need to be educated on the economic possibilities of the crop so that Spain can tap underlying potential for collaboration on hemp projects with Portugal, Eastern
California lawmakers will be faced again with the long-debated question of whether to allow hemp extracts in food and beverages in the state when the legislative session opens Monday, but this time the proposal comes with a twist: The measure would also ban smokable hemp flower – an increasingly popular and unregulated segment of the industry.
Wildfire smoke makes the sky eerily orange near East Fork Cultivars in Takilma, Oregon on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020 (Photo courtesy Nathan Howard) A version of this story first appeared at Marijuana Business Daily. Preliminary data out of Oregon suggests that industrial hemp crops may have been spared major damage from the West Coast wildfires
Vermont will be conducting contactless inspections of hemp operators to limit person-to-person contact during the pandemic. The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets says the inspections will begin with a phone call, followed by an email and an online form to gather information about number of harvested lots, yields, and results of contaminant testing,