Items Tagged with 'cannabis'

A father-son team that skirted Washington state’s marijuana production regulations for years have been sentenced to 30 months apiece for selling pot on the black market.

Partially motivated by funding concerns, two prominent hemp-growing states recently decided to let the U.S. Department of Agriculture regulate hemp within their borders, and others are still in the process of deciding whether to hand over authority to USDA as the pilot programs authorized under the 2014 farm bill expire at the end of this year.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow says she’s “very optimistic” that substantial new funding for farm bill conservation programs will be included in the $3.5 trillion spending agreement that Democrats have announced. Stabenow has been seeking $50 billion in new conservation funding to promote climate-friendly farming practices.

In January 2020, California Organic CEO Kelly Damewood outlined her organization’s plans to push for more organic acres in California and offered her take on Gov. Gavin Newsom. A pandemic and two legislative sessions later, organic demand is high and more farmers are looking into the potential transition.

Too much product, some high-profile bankruptcies and continued regulatory uncertainty contributed to making 2019 a tough year for hemp growers, but proponents of the versatile plant say it’s still viable in the long term for uses including CBD (short for cannabidiol), food and fiber.

State agriculture departments and a broad cross-section of the hemp industry are telling USDA its rule governing domestic production will hurt the nascent industry by imposing sampling and testing requirements that are virtually impossible to meet.

Nearly a year after the 2018 farm bill legalized industrial hemp production, the business community continues to seek answers to questions about testing and marketing of products derived from the crop, the commercial potential of which has sparked interest throughout the country.

USDA’s new hemp rule was generally well received by industry and states, but one longtime advocate is raising concerns that its testing requirements could create a logjam at harvest time.