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
2018 farm bill
(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
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
It’s been two years since low-THC cannabis known as hemp became legal after decades of prohibition in the United States. On Dec. 20, 2018, President Donald Trump signed the 2018 Farm Bill, an $867 billion measure that included seven little words that would forever change the entire cannabis industry: “The term ‘marihuana’ does not include
(Editor’s note: This story is part of a recurring series of commentaries from professionals connected to the hemp industry. Shawn Hauser is an attorney who leads the Hemp and Cannabinoids Department at Vicente Sederberg law firm in Denver.) The legalization of hemp in 2018 was a historic step forward after decades of full prohibition of
The U.S. Small Business Administration is asking federal agriculture officials to listen to farmers on five crucial elements of the proposed interim final rule for hemp production. In its formal comments to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service during the extended comment period that ended last week, the Office of Advocacy of the
Hemp face masks are “one of the best” ways to battle the spread of Covid-19, according to U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell held up a black facial covering made of hemp Monday while touring an Ecofibre hemp factory in Georgetown, Kentucky. McConnell recommended masks and social distancing as the best tools to slow
U.S. farmers are planting less hemp than they did last year due to regulatory uncertainty, a surplus of hemp flower and biomass held over from 2019 and continuously falling wholesale prices. As of Thursday, licensed total hemp acreage to date has reached 465,787 acres for the 2020 production season, with 47 state departments of agriculture
A U.S. territory and four American Indian tribes have received approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for their 2020 hemp production plans, just as hemp planting season is about to officially begin across most of the country. The U.S. Virgin Islands is the first U.S. territory to receive USDA approval for hemp production under
Hemp plants in a hurry? There’s a hack for that. Hemp can get off to a stronger and faster start in farmers’ fields if it’s been properly germinated or rooted as young plants, greenhouse operators say. Growers can choose from a number of young plant inputs, based on their farms’ needs, and there is no
Federal agriculture officials have released new loan guidance for direct and guaranteed loans for hemp producers and to ensure the new commodity is recognized as legal through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency. “While it’s understood that this new commodity will likely produce some servicing challenges because of state and federal regulations, it
(This is an abridged version of a story that appears in the April issue of Marijuana Business Magazine.) Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention. Just ask Carla Boyd, who first started cooking with hemp ingredients to manage food allergies and eventually launched a company built around her recipes. A lot has changed since
More states have declared that they’re going to stick with their own rules for the 2020 hemp production season, rather than follow federal guidelines on the new crop. To date, 20 states have said they will follow the 2014 pilot rules this growing season, outnumbering the 12 that have so far received U.S. Department of
California instituted a 10-year ban on drug felons growing hemp, a move state authorities say is required by the federal law that legalized the crop. The ban, issued by California’s Department of Food and Agriculture, makes people convicted of drug felonies ineligible to receive state hemp-cultivation licenses for a decade. The emergency rule was issued along
Hemp farmers are about to get some help protecting their crop from natural disasters, but any hope that the proposed federal production rules will change in time for the 2020 growing season should be put aside for now, officials say. Top officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture have revealed new details for two hemp
As the U.S. hemp industry waits to see what happens next with the federal hemp production program, more state-run programs have decided to keep the status quo for another year. Less than a week after the U.S. Department of Agriculture closed a public comment period on its hemp rules, five more states announced they will