The globe’s sputtering supply-chain logistics are challenging for all businesses right now. But for cannabis, those challenges can be an absolute nightmare. When hemp cultivation became legal in all 50 states in 2018, under a Farm Bill that guaranteed that hemp products could cross state lines but gave no guidelines for moving them, Kevin Schultz
Hemp Fiber and Grain News
Federal agriculture regulators continue to approve hemp production plans for state and tribal programs following the Jan. 1 deadline when pilot programs were due to expire and the final rules under the 2018 Farm Bill were set to take effect. Most recently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved hemp production programs for Alaska, Arizona and
Hemp was lauded as a climate-smart commodity for its use as a construction material by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack this week as he highlighted new funding opportunities for farmers. Speaking at a university in Missouri, Vilsack pointed to hemp Monday when he announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will invest $1 billion in
No part of the global economy has escaped the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed more than 2.5 million lives around the world and sickened countless more. But few industries were in the kind of infancy the hemp industry was in when the World Health Organization declared the virus a global pandemic on March 11, 2020.
Hemp farmers are gearing up to plant their fields only two weeks after Texas froze over during Winter Storm Uri – a freak snow and ice storm that caused more than $600 million in damages to the state’s agricultural economy. According to early data from the Texas A&M Extension Service, other industries such as citrus,
Solar-powered vehicles built from hemp are being reserved from an automaker in San Diego, which expects to go into production by the end of 2021. Aptera Motors, a startup, high-efficiency vehicle manufacturer, has developed a three-wheeled vehicle that can transport two people, and uses a solar array that can be supplemented with more solar panels
Canadian Rockies Hemp Corp., a decorticator and processor near Edmonton, Alberta, says its expansion plans to become the largest hemp processing facility in North America are back on track after a $14 million (CAD$18 million) infusion from Merida Capital Holdings, a private equity cannabis investment fund. The loan will be used to help the processor
MJBizCon will return as a live, in-person event in Las Vegas this October, barring any unforeseen developments related to the coronavirus pandemic, Marijuana Business Daily announced Monday. The 10th annual cannabis trade show, the largest in the industry, is scheduled to be held at the Las Vegas Convention Center and will include an online component
Levi’s is teaming with a Danish fashion brand GANNI to offer denim jeans, jackets, dresses and tops made of cottonized hemp. The collection promotes the items as more sustainable than cotton-based denim. “The hemp used to make the fabric is all rain-fed with a proven lower footprint than conventional denim, traditionally made from cotton,” Ditte
Hemp farmers may have seen something new in their mailboxes this winter, as federal agriculture officials prepare for the 2022 Census of Agriculture, which will include hemp farmers for the first time. Over the last two months, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service sent “content tests” to a sample of 36,000 producers
Three weeks after clearing his Senate agriculture committee hearing, the full Senate voted 92-7 Tuesday to confirm Tom Vilsack as the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Vilsack, an Iowan, served in the same role for all eight years of the Obama administration, and oversaw the USDA during passage and implementation of the 2014 Farm Bill, which
In the United States currently, humans can eat foods made from hemp – yet we can’t legally eat meat or eggs from animals that have eaten hemp. But with recent action by the Hemp Feed Coalition (HFC), a Fort Collins, Colorado-based nonprofit seeking to gain federal approval for hemp and its byproducts as a source
A denim maker owned by the H&M Group has debuted a line of hemp denim dyed with avocados and red onions. Weekday, a sustainable fashion brand based in Sweden, highlighted its first items made from hemp textiles at Stockholm Fashion Week last week, Sourcing Journal reported. The garments are dyed with food waste including avocados
Pennsylvania is awarding $253,000 to organizations with projects designed to increase sales and exports of hemp products. Pennsylvania’s Department of Agriculture is accepting applications for the grants until March 5, PennWatch reported. Projects aimed at promoting consumer awareness are also eligible. “Hemp has presented a unique opportunity to build an industry from the ground up,
(This story appears in the February issue of Marijuana Business Magazine.) Partnership disputes — whether between business partners or owners and investors — continue to be an ugly feature of the marijuana and hemp industries. Such conflicts can be costly and time-consuming; plus, they can sink a cannabis company. But there are steps companies can
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is asking job applicants whether they’ve used hemp before it was legalized in 2018, saying current and past drug use is taken into account in the hiring process. The DEA posted the updated questionnaire for applicants this month, asking prospective employees to “Please include any Hemp or Cannabidiol (CBD) use,
Dionne Toombs Researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture say they’re studying ways to boost hemp production and profitability for growers, and are collecting the first national statistics on domestic hemp production to be ready by next year. But Dionne Toombs, director for USDA’s Office of the Chief Scientist, gave no indication this week at
3M’s Don Davidson uses everyday sticky notes to demostrate how hemp could become part of tomorrow’s adhesives (photo via National Hemp Symposium) Industrial conglomerate 3M Co. thinks hemp can be part of the sustainability “megatrend” and is looking at hemp components to do everything from strengthening packaging tape to helping grow human tissue and organs.
A clear majority of hemp farmers and processors support establishing a federal program to promote the crop, according to a survey by two industry groups, but not everyone supports paying for it. The National Industrial Hemp Council and the Hemp Industries Association polled their members late last year on the question of having a checkoff
A Canadian hemp producer says it has acquired the water rights necessary to pursue its plan to grow hemp in northwestern Colorado and process the hemp into construction components for affordable homes on the same land. Global Hemp Group says it has acquired control of Western Sierra Resource Corp. of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and its
Mexico is moving ahead on medical marijuana regulation — and all hemp and marijuana companies that envision doing business there in the future should start preparing now, lawyers say. The Mexican government has begun setting a regulatory structure for medical cannabis in the country, making it possible for companies to start applying for research licenses
The U.S. Department of Agriculture kicked off 2021 with the release of federal regulations that will govern hemp production going forward. Find out the key elements of the new rules with a free webinar with leading industry professionals who will provide an overview of what hemp operators need to succeed. There is still time to
(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,
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,
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
Qairos Energies, a startup with aspirations of using agricultural biomass to produce methane and hydrogen in northwestern France, has raised nearly €18.8 million ($23 million) to build and launch a facility that will use local hemp to make fuel for buses, trains and France’s chief natural gas distributor. The eight-figure support for the project, reported
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.
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
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
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,