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.
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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
Jonathan Havens (Editor’s note: This story is part of a recurring series of commentaries from professionals connected to the hemp industry. Havens co-chairs the Cannabis Law and Food, Beverage and Agribusiness Practices at Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr law firm in Washington DC.) The hemp industry has been waiting with bated breath for the release
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
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
Federal food and drug officials said Friday that they plan to fill in current CBD research gaps with “real world data” — but industry advocates are frustrated that regulators haven’t done enough to clear up the rules, which has caused supply-chain bottlenecks while leaving consumers to navigate an increasing field of unregulated products. An update
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
California’s new warning label as it appears on a La Vida Verde cannabis product. (Photo courtesy of La Vida Verde) A version of this story first appeared at Marijuana Business Daily. California’s hemp-derived CBD manufacturers are at risk of legal “whiplash,” one industry attorney says, after a new mandate requiring health warning labels for all
