by HempingtonPost | Aug 2, 2019
Industrial hemp is paramount to anyone supporting radical environmentally-tied economic measures like the Green New Deal in America to overhaul our energy sector. In fact, hemp can do most of the greenering work in terms of both addressing climate change realities and economic inequality. No, not female hemp which is being used for CBD flower extracts, but male hemp.
Introduction
Unlike the Green New Deal, recent developments with industrial hemp don’t get the PR despite the American hemp farming industry being capable of bringing us to a 100% clean, renewable energy sector by 2030…and we don’t need much government stimulus to pull this off…
Just let farmers farm hemp.
If anything, the government should be incentivizing and helping farmers plants millions of acres (like they did during the war in 1942, although at a much smaller scale for those days — 400’ish thousand acres). I know that’s what the 2018 Farm Bill was about, but should something similar to the Green New Deal be adopted, how much is going to hemp farmers, processors, and hemp biolfuel companies?
Let’s talk hemp biofuel.
While sifting through currently available info on hemp biofuel at the beginning of 2019, you continuously run into a collective ‘if only’ statement in pre-2018 Farm Bill articles:
“Industrial hemp is perfectly capable of fueling the modern world without displacing food or adding to the greenhouse effect, if only it were embraced…”
Pertaining to America, where tons of the world’s most ardent hempsters reside,
“We could easily fuel America with completely green carbon-neutral plant energy if only we had a domestic supply of hemp and it were federally legal to farm…”
The fact America could fuel herself through plants was demonstrated decades ago, hemp being the wisest of choices for a wide variety of economic, agronomic, and ecological reasons. After passage of the 2018 Farm Bill and the reclassification of industrial hemp as an agricultural crop, this if-only statement’s no longer relevant with respect to prohibition. Not only is the industrial hemp plant legal to farm on U.S. soil (now defined as a Cannabis Sativa L. plant with equal or less than 0.3% THC), but the plant’s natural compounds are also federally legal as well — which includes up to 0.3% THC with no restrictions on other naturally-occurring elements like CBD, CBN, CBG, terpenes, etc.
If you’re wondering why the recent law’s so wide open, well, the USDA said one of their goals with the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018 in regards to hemp was to give states as much room as possible to come up with their own sets of regulations regarding the crop and its compounds.
So… now what?
Going back to Henry Ford’s original Model T partly made of and and run on hemp, not to mention the original diesel engine being designed for biofuel, a mind-blowing fact remains:
“Dried biomass has a heating value of 5000–8000 Btu/lb. with virtually no ash or sulfur produced during combustion. About 6% [to now 10%] of contiguous United States land area put into cultivation for biomass could supply all current demands for oil and gas. And this production would not add any net carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.” [1]
Do you know how tempted I am to go off on how hemp fiber could turn the fashion industry completely green? Ugh…and today I was shown an article freaking out about the fact the fashion industry (apparel & footwear) accounts for closing in on 10% of human-caused global climate impacts…
Here’s a quote from an April 2019 CBS News article, “Fashion industry’s carbon impact bigger than airline industry’s”,
“Total greenhouse gas emissions related to textiles production are equal to 1.2 billion tons annually — more than those of all international flights and maritime shipping trips combined, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.”
But let’s get back to the biofuel angle which would inevitably mesh with the fashion industry in countless ways.
A biofuel-based infrastructure would create a completely decentralize power grid and no more ultra-mega power companies. Each county and state could provide its own energy using easily renewable plants. Let that seed sink into the garden of your mind…
Example: In Colorado a company called Vega Biofuels offer bio-coal — which is renewable, comparable in price to conventional coal and produced using terrefaction technology — and biochar which can sequester carbon in the soil for hundreds to thousands of years without the negative impacts. Imagine this happening on a wider scale across 5, 10, or 20 states.
Yep, biofuel’s a reality and hemp’s the ticket, backed by scientific research from multiple countries who’ve experimented with a variety of biofuels alongside hemp like Canada, Nigeria [2], across Northern Europe [3], Latvia [4], and so on.
According to some, industrial hemp biofuel performs second only to algae.
- While it can vary depending on cultivar used and where it’s growing, male hemp-cannabis yields an average of nine dry tons per acre. [5]
- This means if allowed to flourish, hemp would quickly reach a point where it’s producing greater biomass tonnage per acre annually in more regions of America than either pulpwood or kenaf.
- Hemp is 80% cellulose: both a low-moisture herbaceous and woody plant.
- Industrial hemp, in comparison to corn’s 34% energy gain because of its high cellulose content, has an estimated 540% energy gain! [6]
- According to our very own USDA (who the 2018 Farm Bill designates as the overseer of the U.S. Hemp industry along with the U.S. Attorney General), one acre planted in hemp produces as much pulp as 4.1 acres of trees. But you can harvest hemp at least 3 times a year…
That last one comes from a 1916 report where they predicted by the 1940s all paper would come from hemp and no more trees would need be cut down. But here we go again, none of this is novel information (except to a good percentage of the younger generations supporting Green New Deal-style initiatives)…it’s included in every ‘Hemp 101’ handbook.
Colorado’s also been producing hemp paper for a couple years now. I bought a few pages just to see how it smelled and it smelled like environmental salvation…
Interested? Yeah, hemp paper posters, postcards, envelopes, flyers and much more all made from Colorado-grown male hemp stalk. Check out Tree Free Hemp. Expect to see similar options coming from many different states within a matter of years…hopefully!
The End of Hemp Farming Prohibition in America
Guess what, this means the reinforced double-sided industrial hemp door just opened after being nailed shut for nearly a century. Thankfully, today we have a MASSIVE resources ready to be transitioned into leveraging hemp as a multi-purpose crop where we can create ample (protein and fatty acid-rich) food AND biofuel. All we can hope is ‘the people’ getting behind efforts like the Green New Deal rally and really surf this 21st century agricultural revolution.
Again, the hemp farming industry by itself can accomplish most of what the Green New Deal is setting its sights on by itself if supported and allowed to flourish outside the confines of Big Ag — although we need them on board as well.
How America Will Produce Hemp Biofuel
Hemp biofuel comes from hemp seed oil — the same seed oil you can drizzle on salads, add to a smoothie or feed to livestock — and the rest of the plant can be made into either ethanol or methanol.
North America has absolutely no problem extracting oil from seed we can then use to make biofuel. Furthermore, most of the ethanol added to gasoline we currently put into our cars comes from less efficient and environmentally-friendly food crops like wheat and corn. We can use hemp to efficiently make both — ethanol/methanol and biofuel/biodiesel. University of Connecticut’s research shows hemp seed oil provides a 97% conversion rate into biodiesel [7]. America and Canada both have the infrastructure to switch to industrial hemp-based supply chains within a decade — far less with enough public and corporate involvement.
And well, according to a relatively small survey conducted early April 2019 by Morning Consult (they talked to just shy of 2,000 voters across age, education and political spectrums),
“Voters say 100% renewable electricity by 2030 is more important than other steps to fight climate change.”
For more info-nuggets we can turn to statistics from Health Canada who regulates their industrial hemp industry, showing Canadian hemp farmers planted 138,000 acres in 2017. Most of this Canadian hemp seed is processed into seed oil (as well as hemp seed protein and hearts), which oddly enough was/is sold to Americans where we already have a robust food processing infrastructure.
I hope this is coming across.
What I’m saying here is America and Canada have everything we need already in place in terms of land and plant processing equipment to create a completely human/environmentally-friendly energy system. That’s the truth. Soon, both countries will have more hemp than we’ll know what to do with and all the astounding wonders hempsters have been preaching for decades can manifest. Watch YouTube videos of ordinary people making vegetable oil-based biofuel in their backyard to drive their vehicles right this moment if you want. It’s no secret.
What’ll shock the American populace will be the tremendous amount of industrial hemp seed flowing across the country by the mid-2020s. I love the stuff and try to eat a cup of raw whole hemp seed a day.
“When cold-pressed, 8,000 pounds of hemp seed yields over 300 gallons of hemp seed oil and a byproduct of 6,000 pounds of high protein hemp flour.”[8]
A healthy, irrigated acre of seed-based hemp in Colorado in late 2018, as an example, produced 1,100–2000 pounds of seed. [9]
Let’s not even mention what Kentucky could produce on a larger scale…or Oregon…North Dakota and North Carolina…Montana, and so on. We could EASILY spread out hemp farms to collectively 6–10% of the U.S. and cover our energy needs — completely eradicating the need for fossil fuels. Idealistic sure, but what if by 2025, thanks to hemp America became 50% less dependent on conventional dirty fuels — across allsectors of our country?
When I sit back and begin to fathom the overall impacts of what that would mean worldwide…
Reclamation into Fuel Efforts
One of the core uses of planting industrial hemp across greater America between I’d say 2019–2022 could be for use in farmland reclamation — bioremediation — efforts. This is going to clean up the soil, restoring American farms to their glory with dramatically less heavy metals, petrol-based pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers, along with anything else poisoning our land. Another note in every Hemp 101 handbook is how the plant’s been used around toxic waste dumps and even radioactive events like Chernobyl to effectively absorb cadmium from the soil, etc…wow! Obviously none of this reclamation hemp should go to human or livestock consumption…but what to do?
We most definitely shouldn’t just burn or toss it. Let’s transform it into energy!
I’m no chemist, but my bet’s that the plant can successfully be used as energy without causing more of a mess. Hemp’s astounding ability in this respect will finally be able to be heavily studied. Because myself and many others would like to know what happens within the plant to these toxins. Are they still there when the plant’s harvested? Or, does it somehow convert a good percentage to clean energy within itself? Can it be successfully transformed into hemp biofuel? If so, let’s use all that reclamation hemp while cleaning up our toxic soil.
A Note on Pyrolysis
From my own amateur research, it seems like Pyrolysis is going to be the most efficient process for hemp biomass conversion — capable of competing against initially, and then potentially becoming a replacement for fossil fuels.
“Pyrolysis is the thermochemical process that converts organic materials into usable fuels. Pyrolysis produces energy fuels with high fuel-to-feed ratios, making it the most efficient process for biomass conversion…the technique of applying high heat to organic matter (lignocellulosic materials) in the absence of air or in reduced air. The process can produce charcoal, condensable organic liquids (pyrolytic fuel oil), non-condensable gasses, acetic acid, acetone, and methanol. The process can be adjusted to favor charcoal, pyrolytic oil, gas, or methanol production with a 95.5% fuel-to-feed efficiency” [10]
The people of this world need our Hemp Billionaires and Zillionaires to step up. We need people with capital and the government to get behind and support these types of industrial hemp farming initiatives. We need to fund research and do things by the book. We need farmers to start hemp growing for biofuel along with the ultra-lucrative hemp-derived CBD concentrates/extracts. And textiles!
We need energy companies to start converting from using other less efficient sources of biofuel to hemp. It’s going to be a wild ride…but I’m alive so I have a ticket.
Originally published on www.DarbyHemp.com
References
[1] Environmental Chemistry, Stanley E. Manahan. Willard Grant Press, 1984.
[2] “Biomass resources and biolfuels potential for the production of transportation fuels in Nigeria” Juliet Ben-Iwo, Vasilije Manovic, PhilipLonghurst, ScienceDirect.
[3] “Biomass and energy yield of industrial hemp grown for biogas and solid fuel” ThomasPrade, Sven-ErikSvensson, et al, ScienceDirect.
[4] “Industrial hemp for biomass production” Rudite Sausserde, Aleksandris Adamovics, ResearchGate, 09/2013.
[5]Lyster H. Dewey, Jason L. Merrill, Hemp Hurds As Papermaking Material, U.S.D.A. Bulletin №404, 1916.
[6]“The Legalization of Industrial Hemp and What It Could Mean for Indiana’s Biofuel Industry”, Nicole M. Keller, Indiana University — Purdue University Indianapolis, pg. 24.
[7] “Hemp Produces Viable Biodiesel, UConn Study Finds” Christine Buckley, UConn Today, 10/06/2010.
[8] “Hemp is the ultimate cash crop, producing more fiber, food and oil than any other plant on the planet” Wm. Conde, Fiber Alternatives PDF.
[9] “Myth-Busting: Hemp Needs More Water than Many Think”, Hemp Industry Daily, May 7, 2018.
[10] “Biomass Resources for Energy and Industry” Lynn and Judy Osburn, 1993.
[7] “Hemp Biodiesel: When the Smoke Clears”, Biodiesel Magazine, Holly Jessen, January 24, 2007.
by Canna Biz National | Jul 28, 2019
Cannabis Biz – National
Different Perspective – We have regularly stated the chaos in California’s cannabis industry was predictable and inevitable. Our usual focus is on a specific issue. When we focus on a problem we invariably suggest solutions.
This article takes a different tack. In this article, we will review some recent history and look at the causes of the chaos from a distance. We are hopeful a broad perspective will provide a framework for solving specific problems. Far too frequently seeking and finding a solution to a specific problem without examining the particular problem in a broad perspective merely substitutes a new problem for the first one.
California’s cannabis industry grew and evolved fairly steadily from the mid-‘60s to the mid-‘90s. The industry grew and prospered as an outlaw industry. California’s cannabis landscape dramatically changed in 1996 with the passage of Proposition 215. [See Keeping Proposition 215’s Promise] ] Proposition 215 amended California’s Constitution to legalize personal possession and use of medical marijuana. For the next fifteen years, medical marijuana was legal in California with vague parameters. Of course, possession and use of marijuana remain criminal under federal law.
California’s marijuana industry continued to grow and prosper as a quasi-legal, largely covert, criminal industry. California passed SB 420 in 2003 in order to provide some guidance regarding Proposition 215. [See California Cannabis Cultivation – Qualification as Farming ] Then-Attorney General Jerry Brown issued a memorandum addressing the use of cooperatives and collectives in 2008 for the cultivation and distribution of medical marijuana. [See Background – California Cannabis Regulation] Some local jurisdictions encouraged medical marijuana activity. Most communities tolerated or actively discouraged such activity.
Political pressure for comprehensive regulation of cannabis, formerly known in California as marijuana, grew in fits and starts in the 20 years following the passage of Proposition 215. California’s cannabis industry also grew steadily. Beginning six or eight years ago, the rate of growth began to increase as did the pressure for state-wide regulation of cannabis in California.
Different Perspective
In 2015 the Legislature passed the Medical Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (“MCRSA”). MCRSA was “Too little, too late.” A second amendment to California’s Constitution, Proposition 64, passed in 2016 [See Implementing Proposition 64] Proposition 64 legalized adult-use of cannabis in California. Proposition 64, unfortunately, did not stop with the legalization of adult-use of cannabis. Proposition 64 also attempted to create the foundation for a comprehensive regulatory structure for California’s cannabis industry.
Proposition 64 has one outstanding feature in addition to its legalization and decriminalization of adult-use of cannabis. Proposition 64 preserved the rights granted California citizens under Proposition 215. The preservation of the rights granted to California citizens under Proposition 215 in the long-term will prove to be one of the most significant features of Proposition 64. In this regard, it is of critical importance to never forget that both Proposition 215 and Proposition 64 were amendments to the California Constitution.
Proposition 64 was ill-conceived and poorly drafted. Proposition 64 passed through the support of a combination of otherwise irreconcilable political forces. Proposition 64 left ultimate control of adult-use cannabis in the hands of local jurisdictions – a feature that is not present in Proposition 215. Proposition 64 allows for legislative modifications that cannot be made with respect to Proposition 215. The drafters of Proposition 64 appear to have given little thought to the impact of the implementation of Proposition 64 on the rights of California citizens under Proposition 215.
Different Perspective
One example of the differences between Proposition 215 and Proposition 64 will quickly become apparent as the litigation over local control of the delivery of cannabis wends its way through California courts. Even if the delivery of adult-use cannabis can be banned by local jurisdictions based on the authority preserved for local jurisdictions in Proposition 64, the delivery of medical cannabis into a local jurisdiction from another local jurisdiction cannot be prohibited. The issues relating to the delivery of cannabis is one of several reasons we have mentioned on multiple occasions that medical cannabis will provide a solution to a some of the issues that have arisen in California’s regulation of its cannabis industry.
A confluence of a number of political forces produced the passage of Proposition 64. Perhaps the most significant force was the promise of a new source of tax revenue. Who could oppose the regulation of a problem that would pay for the cost of regulation and provide additional tax revenue for other purposes? The promise of tax revenue that would be willingly paid by others was no doubt the tipping point for Proposition 64. Proposition 64 imposed two new taxes on cannabis – Cannabis Cultivation Tax (“CCT”) and Cannabis Excise Tax (“CET”). The collection of these taxes has, however, proved to be a challenge.
There were a number of other significant political forces that resulted in the passage of Proposition 64. The social injustice produced by decades of irrational drug policies was one. The hundreds of thousands of Californians that have a family member who believes in the medical benefits of cannabis was another force. Another driving force was the conflict between libertarian attitudes and the increasing intrusion of the government into daily life. The always-present tension between the “Haves” and Have-Nots” and the opportunity for financial success that many believed existed in a legalized cannabis industry were also forces in the passage of Proposition 64.
The Legislature acted to reconcile Proposition 64 and Proposition 215. The Legislature cobbled together Medical and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (“MAUCRSA”) to establish a single integrated regulatory framework for medical and adult-use cannabis. In view of the conflicting pressures, MAUCRSA is not the disaster it could have been. MAUCRSA established a workable regulatory structure for California’s medical and adult-use cannabis industry. The devil, of course, is in the details. It is in the implementation of the details that California has fallen on its face.
Different Perspective
It is not MAUCRSA, but the administrative agencies tasked with the implementation of MAUCRSA that have brought chaos to California’s cannabis industry. The Bureau of Cannabis Control (“BCC”) is responsible. BCC is the lead agency, although CalCannabis, which is a Division of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, as agencies, have caused far more direct damage. [See [California Crushing Cannabis Industry, California Cannabis Regulation Blunders, CalCannabis Licensing Debacle?, A TROJAN HORSE!, Reasonable Rules?, and Colossal Cannabis Fiasco] BCC failed to provide the leadership required to more effectively transition California into regulation.
All is not lost. California’s cannabis industry will continue to evolve toward a more stable state-wide situation in which cannabis is a readily available, easily accessible regulated commodity. How long it will take and how it will proceed can be influenced by positive leadership from BCC. We would give BCC a “D” at this time. Foresight, judgment and forceful leadership over the next six months could turn BCC’s grade into a “B” by 2020.
Different Perspective
https://abizinaboxcannabis.com/category/cannabis-biz/
by HempingtonRePost | Jul 27, 2019
Cannabis Business Reality – Conference Agenda Mismatch
Cannabis Business Reality – Conference Agenda Mismatch – For those of you who read our post regularly, it is no surprise that we have been “beating a drum” over problems within the cannabis industry in California that focus on licensing and the underground market. Unfortunately, they are the real problems and may not seem much like “news”. We thought it would be a worthwhile break to take a moment to note developments on other fronts. [We have written extensively in connection with our speculation about changes in the law at the Federal level [See Federal Legalization Then What? ] and we have commented “ad nauseam” regarding our views on the problems that California created for itself with licensing.
We have made some observations relating to how some of these problems might be corrected – most recently yesterday in Cannabis Lawyer – Dangerous? And previously in Carrot and Stick! Rather than restate today’s news we will quote from two CNBC articles describing broad-based developments which is a practice we usually avoid.
“U.S. lawmakers weighed reforming pot laws in what advocates called a “historic” hearing Wednesday, with numerous members of Congress saying they wanted to loosen federal laws, even legalize marijuana.
“Marijuana decriminalization may be one of the very few issues upon which bipartisan agreement can still be reached in this session,” said Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., adding “it ought to be crystal clear to everyone that our laws have not accomplished their goals.”
Eleven states have legalized adult recreational use and a majority of Americans support legalization. A number of bills are on the table that would reform federal marijuana laws. The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security sought input on how to reform federal laws in a hearing Wednesday titled “Marijuana Laws in America: Racial Justice and the Need for Reform.
“There is a growing consensus in this country that current marijuana laws are not appropriate and we must consider reform,” said Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif. “Today’s hearing is the first step in that process.”
Despite the optimism, lawmakers did not appear to have a clear consensus on the best approach, such as whether to give states the right to legalize on their own, remove marijuana from schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act, legalize it or include promote social and racial equity in marijuana laws.
The STATES Act is among the most popular cannabis bills. It would amend the Controlled Substances Act and exempts state-approved marijuana activity from federal enforcement.
Proponents say the legislation would eliminate federal concerns in states where marijuana is legal. Yet some say the bill does not go far enough because it does not address any racial or social concerns.”
Source: US lawmakers look to legalize pot in ‘historic’ marijuana reform hearing
Cannabis Business Reality – Conference Agenda Mismatch
“There is a bright spot in cannabis revenue growth in Colorado. On Jan. 1, 2014, Colorado launched what many considered a controversial experiment: It became the first state in the country to legalize recreational cannabis. No one was sure how things would play out. Would new entrepreneurs enter the market? Would people stop buying from the black market? Would crime rates fall? Now, more than five years after the first pot shops opened their doors in Colorado, it’s clear the experiment has been a success.
On June 12 the state announced that it surpassed $1 billion in total cannabis-related revenue, the first state in the country to hit that milestone. Companies also have made more than $6.5 billion in sales over the last five years, with April and May of this year the highest-grossing months since legalization.
Per-person sales are also highest in Colorado, with people buying, on average, $280 worth of cannabis per year compared to $220 and $130 for Washington and Oregon, respectively, the second and third states to legalize weed, according to Scott Willis, head of research at Grizzle, a New York-based investment research company.
Much of the legal marijuana market revenue, which accounts for about 3% of the state’s $30 billion budget, goes toward education, health care, literacy services, and drug prevention programs.
In California, a state that should have swiftly raised millions in revenue, considering the size of its population, cannabis legalization has mostly been a dud. Cannabis consumers can’t purchase pot in 75% of the state’s city and counties, while high taxes are impeding legal growth and allowing the black market to expand.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent state budget plan slashed cannabis tax-revenue projections by $223 million. In the first half of 2018, revenue was $101 million below what was expected. According to reports, California charges a 45% tax on legal cannabis businesses when all taxes are taken into account, a finding that led to calls for a major tax rethink to better compete with the black market.
In Colorado, growers have to pay a 15% excise tax when their product is transferred from cultivation facility to retail store, while consumers have to pay a 15% sales tax on the purchase of cannabis. That’s mostly in line with other states, though Washington has a 37% sales tax.”
Source: Colorado grows annual cannabis sales to $1 billion as other states struggle to gain a market foothold
Cannabis Business Reality – Conference Agenda Mismatch
We note that the National Cannabis Industry Association [“NCIA”] is holding its annual Cannabis Business Summit and Expo in San Jose, California on July 22 – 24. We have read the list of speakers [it includes most of the “luminaries” that appear at just about every event on the “cannabis tradeshow circuit” and the descriptions of keynote speeches, seminars, and panels.
We were stunned at the lack of substantive sessions that address the Federal legalization issues [thankfully, the Cannabis Trade Federation has stepped in as the adults dealing with Federal policy and legislative action].
We were also stunned to see the program is DEVOID of significant substantive content addressing:
Problems with cannabis business licensing in California
Discussion of a coordinated approach to shrink California’s, Black Market
Substantive discussion of the licensing debacle in Los Angeles
Substantive discussion relating to Cannabis Cooperative Associations [“CCAs”] – which would dovetail nicely with the session – “Understanding Vertical vs. Horizontal Integration in a Changing Legal Landscape“
Finally, we were stunned to see a session entitled “Advice from the Experts on How to Work with California Regulators“. Regulators need to interact with practitioners, and our thought is that there should be a couple of experienced practitioners on that panel.
We have always been hopeful that cannabis business conferences would evolve to better address the “real world” problems faced by legal cannabis businesses. Unfortunately, the real change appears to move at a glacial pace. [See CCIA Policy Conference What’s Missing?]
Cannabis Business Reality – Conference Agenda Mismatch
https://abizinaboxcannabis.com/cannabis-business-reality/
by HempingtonPost | Jul 23, 2019
- A provision in the 2018 Farm Bill makes hemp, marijuana’s no-buzz cousin, no longer a federally illegal substance.
- It allows farmers and other cultivators to grow the leafy, lanky plant and sell its harvest to processors so they can make hemp-based products ranging from foods, beverages and cosmetics to paper, clothing and building materials.
- Twenty-four states have hemp farming.
- CareerBuilder, Indeed, ZipRecruiter and other mainstream job websites list hemp openings.
It won’t get you high, but lots of people are high on hemp. Thanks to the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill last December, hemp — marijuana’s no-buzz cousin — is no longer a federally illegal controlled substance. A provision in the bill allows farmers and other cultivators to grow the leafy, lanky plant, cannabis sativa L, and sell its harvest to processors, who in turn extract and market raw materials to producers of hemp-based products, everything from foods, beverages and cosmetics to paper, clothing and building materials.
Another by-product of legal hemp will be tens of thousands of new jobs across multiple sectors in the very near future. Besides hiring workers in agriculture, processing and manufacturing, the still-budding industry — with $1.1 billion in revenues 2018, estimated to more than double by 2022 to $2.6 billion, according to New Frontier Data — will need accountants, lawyers, compliance officers, government regulators, IT specialists, financial and insurance experts, transporters, researchers and lab technicians, marketers, CFOs, CEOs and various retail employees.
Some of those workers will be hired by existing companies, such as banks, truckers, farm equipment makers and drugstore chains, while others will employed by opportunistic start-ups.
“Job creation is going to happen in every economic bracket,” said Erica McBride Stark, executive director of the DC-based National Hemp Association. She had just returned from the 6th annual NoCo Hemp Expo in Denver, twice the size of last year’s, drawing more than 225 exhibitors and 10,000 attendees. “The hemp industry will create high-skilled management jobs, labor-type jobs and everything in between,” Stark said. “It’s going to touch all of society.”
The foundations are in place for tremendous job growth in the coming months. Indeed reported a spike in hemp-related job openings early this year, and HempStaff has seen its hemp jobs double from a year ago, now representing 16% of its recruiting business. Still, it will take at least a year to gather hard data from government and independent sources. “I expect job growth will more dramatically move in the second half of this year as more processors come online and as we approach harvest of hemp plants,” Stark said.
The marijuana economy
Of course, there’s already a separate and thriving industry for legal marijuana, to date approved for medicinal use in 34 states and recreational adult use in 10 states and D.C. Retail sales at regulated marijuana dispensaries reached around $9 billion last year, according to Marijuana Business Daily. Note, though, that pot remains a federally illegal Schedule I controlled substance, so factor in the nebulous black market and that sales figure may be as high as $52.5 billion.
It should be noted, too, that despite hemp’s new federal status, the Farm Bill stipulates that individual states can choose to establish their own agriculture and commerce programs, or not. As of February, 41 states allowed cultivation of hemp for commercial, research or pilot programs, although only 24 states had farmers actually growing hemp last year. Total hemp acreage in the U.S. was at 78,176 acres, up from 25,713 in 2017, the advocacy group Vote Hemp estimates, and the acreage should be considerably higher in the coming years.
Advocates have for years fought to liberate hemp from its taboo status, dating back to 1937 when it was lumped in with pot in the Marihuana Tax Act. Not only does today’s commercially approved industrial hemp contain a scant .03 percent of THC — the chemical in marijuana that induces its high — but the entire hemp plant has myriad everyday applications.
The overwhelming focus is on cannabidiol, or CBD, derived mostly from the flowers, or buds, and seeds of the hemp plant. (It’s stalks produce fiber for making textiles and building materials.) Non-intoxicating CBD has become a trendy ingredient, touted for a plethora of health benefits — from pain relief to sleep aid — though many are scientifically unproved.
Currently, the only CBD product approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is a prescription oil called Epidiolex, developed by London-based GW Pharmaceuticals, to treat two types of epilepsy. While over-the-counter CBD products are already widely available — Walgreens, CVS and Rite-Aid have joined scores of independent retailers — their legal status, as laid out in the Farm Bill, remains in flux while the FDA finalizes regulations. A public hearing is scheduled for May 31 in Washington.
Among the hundreds of CBD products on the market are dietary supplements, ingestible oils, vape cartridges, beer, candy and body lotions. “My email inbox is bombarded with pitches for everything from CBD coffee to CBD-infused toothpicks,” said Bruce Barcott, deputy editor at Leafly, a Seattle-based information resource for everything cannabis. In 2018, products containing CBD generated $390 million in U.S. sales, a figure predicted to reach $1.3 billion by 2022, per New Frontier Data.
In March, Leafly released a jobs report for the legal marijuana industry, stating that it now employs 211,000 full-time workers, 64,389 of them hired in 2018 alone. The data were compiled prior to the Farm Bill passage, however, too soon to quantify hemp-specific jobs, Barcott explained. Yet many jobs in both industries should be comparable, as should pay scales. A compliance manager that must abide by government regulations, for instance, makes between $45,000 and $149,000, according to Leafly, while a bud trimmer who manicures harvested flower for retail gets up to $14.50 an hour.
“Hemp is going to dwarf marijuana for jobs, ” predicted Joy Beckerman, president of the Hemp Industries Association, headquartered in Summerland, California. “There are so many companies looking for people right now with industry experience and talent.”
CareerBuilder, Indeed, ZipRecruiter and other mainstream job websites list hemp openings, and specialty recruiters have cropped up, too, including CannabizTeam, Viridian Staffing and HempStaff. “Ever since the Farm Bill passed, we have seen a huge increase in hemp clients coming forward, saying they need staff now or in the next few months,” said HempStaff CEO James Yagielo.
Yagielo said 80% of HempStaff’s current openings are for upper-level jobs, such as CFOs and accounting managers, but “once hemp factories get up and running to create products, they’re going to need factory line people, machinists and other types of workers.”
Whereas legal marijuana is expansively regulated — from seed to sale, as they say in the cannabis world — hemp will enjoy less stringent oversight, since its no longer classified as a drug, potentially attracting a much wider variety of established and start-up companies. Canopy Growth, a publicly traded cannabis company in Canada, which legalized recreational pot last year, wasted no time after President Donald Trump signed the Farm Bill just before last Christmas.
In January, Canopy was granted a license by New York State to process and produce hemp, the first step in the company’s plan to invest $100 million–$150 million in the state’s economically distressed Southern Tier region.
“Wow, do they need work,” remarked Bruce Linton, co-CEO and chairman of Canopy, adding that 200 people will initially be hired primarily in farming and processing. Hemp is going to create jobs where they’re needed, he opined, because growing, processing and making hemp products will be more cost-effective in depressed areas versus cities with higher real estate prices and labor costs.
That strategy was likely on the mind of Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky as he championed the Farm Bill’s hemp legalization provision, seen as a job-creating boon among the Bluegrass State’s dwindling tobacco farmers and coal workers. A major producer before hemp was outlawed in 1937, Kentucky has been cultivating hemp under a pilot program in the 2014 Farm Bill.
This year its department of agriculture approved more than 42,000 acres for hemp, based on applications from 1,035 farmers and 130 processors, with expectations that 20,000 acres will ultimately be planted this spring and summer for fall harvest. That compares to 6,700 planted acres in 2018, comprising 210 farmers and 72 processors. “It’s not uncommon to see a lot of former tobacco farmers looking at industrial hemp as an opportunity,” said Ryan Quarles, the department’s commissioner.
One of them is Joe Sisk, 45, who last planted tobacco on his farm near Hopkinsville, Kentucky, in 1998 and is now dedicating about 40 acres to hemp, alongside traditional crops. “Hemp is here to stay,” he said, adding that he hears talk of other tobacco farmers switching to hemp. “This is not some fad. Kentucky will have a very substantial hemp industry.”
This story first appeared at CNBC
by HempingtonPost | Jun 25, 2019
Hemp Industries Association has signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Natural Products Alliance (UNPA) to promote the advancement of hemp-extract product research, safety, and identity and quality standards for hemp foods and dietary products. The memorandum recognizes the cooperation between the two industry leaders to advance consumer confidence, industry standards, and compliance with state and federal laws and regulations regarding hemp-extract products.
The agreement ensures that the two organizations will work together on educational initiatives promoting the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), Good Manufacturing Practices regulation, Foreign Supplier Verification Programs, and general FDA regulatory and compliance for foods and dietary supplements, among others.
“UNPA has spent a great amount of time and energy evaluating appropriate relationships within the hemp and cannabis community,” said Loren Israelsen, UNPA president. “Organizationally, we wanted to better understand the fundamentals of the hemp industry, including farming, processing and extraction systems. UNPA fully supports the movement to hemp and its many uses. The health benefits and consumer interest in hemp extracts, CBD and other cannabinoids has become an important part of our work.”
“This MOU with the Hemp Industries Association advances these interests as the dietary supplement and hemp industries become allies in the commercial sector, as well as within regulatory, farm and foreign policy areas. We hope to help the hemp industry in its efforts to be fully compliant with food and supplement regulations, and to share our expertise in good manufacturing practices and quality compliance. We think this sharing of resources and expertise will add value for both organizations and both industries.”
“On behalf of the HIA and its leadership, I am thrilled that UNPA qualifies our association for this important partnership,” said Colleen Keahey Lanier, HIA executive director. “HIA members deserve to have the best information and training available to them. We look forward to sharing more information about the hemp industries, learning from UNPA and also advancing agreed upon initiatives along the way.”
The HIA will serve as a supporting partner to help promote UNPA’s Preventive Controls for Foods, Dietary Supplements and Botanically Derived Products and Ingredients training, to be held June 26-28, 2019, in Denver. The training course will focus on dietary supplements, foods and botanically derived ingredients used in the food and dietary supplement industry, including hemp and hemp-oil products, and the requirements of the Dietary Supplement Good Manufacturing Practices regulation. After successfully completing UNPA’s training course, participants will leave with a PCQI certificate of training and an understanding of the biological, chemical and physical hazards that may occur during manufacturing and product development.
FSMA requires each facility to have a PCQI on site to establish, implement and manage the required, written, hazard analysis and food safety plans for all food products and ingredients. As part of the two organizations’ new partnership, HIA members who attend the PCQI training will be offered the UNPA member price for the course.
“We hope our members will take full advantage of this collaborative opportunity,” said Keahey Lanier. “The training offered through UNPA is increasingly valuable as the hemp industry continues to grow and hemp foods are now seen as a mainstream dietary staple, as opposed to a novelty. We must ensure that our members are fully compliant with all existing federal regulations, prepared and informed if we wish to advance the strides we’ve made as an industry.”
by HempingtonPost | Jun 13, 2019
Leave a Comment / Made with HEMP, News / By Hempearth Canada
With HEMP being legalized everywhere, hemp biofuel is set to be a key part of reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.
Fuel is everything. The world would not be the hyper-efficient economy it is today without something to power our cars, trucks, transports, planes, and jets. Air pollution from processing fossil fuels harms the troposphere and indirectly depletes ozone from our atmosphere. The price for hyper-efficiency is evident, which is why alternative fuel sources have become so important. Today we focus on a fuel source that hits close to home. That alternative is hemp biofuel.
The cannabis plant is the gift that keeps on givin’. This magic plant gives us THC oil, CBD, hemp fibers and even fuel! Researchers have made hemp into two types of biofuel: biodiesel and ethanol.
HEMP BIODISEL
Biodiesel is produced by the pressing of hemp seeds to extract their oils & fats. After the extraction, the product is then put through more steps to make it into a usable hemp biofuel for your car, truck, tractor, transport, boat and very soon thanks to HEMPEARTH Hemp Jet A Fuel who started testing bio fuels
Biodiesel when processed correctly can be put into any diesel-powered automobiles and more. It can be stored and transported like diesel, so there isn’t a need to create a new system for transportation. It even replaces the smell of traditional diesel with the smell of hemp.
USING HEMP TO MAKE ETHANOL
Ethanol is traditionally made from wheat-based crops such as corn and barley. It’s traditionally used as an additive to gasoline, which gave way to our “flex-fuel” vehicles of today. Hemp can be made into ethanol by various forms of fermentation. Using hemp as the main source of ethanol, instead of food crops like wheat & corn has clear advantages. Not using food crops as a fuel source allows more efficiency in food production, and hemp can be grown in lower quality conditions unlike corn or wheat. Hemp-derived ethanol also shares the advantages of transportation and usability as biodiesel.
HOW THE AUTO-INDUSTRY ALREADY USES HEMP
While hemp biofuel may not be a popular alternative just yet, the automotive industry already uses hemp. Automakers weave hemp plastic into a bendable material similar to fiberglass. Almost all European car makers use hemp fibers as interior door panels and trim pieces. And companies like FlexForm technologies operate as a dedicated producer of hemp-fiberglass that they sell to automotive companies to be made into car doors and exterior panels. Cars that feature hemp-based materials include the BMW i8 supercar and the Lotus Evora. The advantages that come with hemp-made materials is that they are lighter, bio-degradable, and comes from a much easier renewable resource. Hemp grows in roughly 3 months while metals take thousands of years to form.
