Hemp

From getting to know your target audience to adhering to strict state regulations, Ashley Grace, founding CMO for Charlotte’s Web, outlines his top branding strategies.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has certainly put a strain on many businesses, and while the cannabis industry has fared better than most after being deemed an essential business in many states’ shutdown orders, cannabis and hemp businesses are not immune to challenges stemming from the coronavirus crisis.

The state of New York will not submit a state hemp plan to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), saying the federal program‘s requirements are too strict on growers. The announcement effectively puts on hold the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets’ hemp program.

Scaling a business is always a high-stakes endeavor, but the risks are magnified in the hemp and cannabis space, where every business is in perpetual startup mode and regulations vary from state to state, week to week.

Just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean it can’t be done.

The Polish hemp variety Białobrzeskie has the greatest economic potential among 11 hemp cultivars recently studied by a research team at the University of Kentucky (UK) in the USA. Białobrzeskie had the highest grain yield, and estimated potential returns from the sale of seed and biofuel material of $1,564 (€1,328) per hectare ($632/€536 per acre), the research found.

More evidence of an industrial hemp bust appeared this week as Great Eastern Hemp seeks to unload a Broome County building it bought last year to process CBD.

Sale of the Johnson City industrial site comes eight months after the company sealed a $2.2 million deal to acquire the property with the expectation of outfitting the former sheltered workshop for hemp processing and storage. It marks the second enterprise to drop plans to process industrial hemp in Broome County.

Researchers in the Australian state of Tasmania are studying the nutritional value of hemp for animal feed as they look to expand opportunities for farmers.

A team from the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA) has embarked on a two-year project to explore industrial hemp exclusively as a forage crop for sheep or as a dual-purpose crop – for both grazing and seed production.

How are Pennsylvania hemp growers preparing for harvest season in 2020?

They’re keeping their fingers crossed.

Starting in 2017 — the first year industrial hemp was allowed to be grown in the state on a limited basis — Pennsylvania followed the regulations established in the 2014 Farm Bill.

Today, those regulations are history in Pennsylvania, and an interim rule issued by USDA in 2019 guides the state’s hemp industry. As a result, growers are engaged in a balancing act that they hope teeters in the right direction come harvest time.

Hemp plastics will be an improvement, but are there drawbacks?

For years, the human race has followed a non-sustainable pattern of development, and now, we face the repercussions. Accumulation of greenhouse gases – one of the many effects of man’s activities – has given rise to a large number of grave events: global warming, biodiversity loss, environmental pollution, and many more.

Cannabis sales in Colorado set a new monthly record in May, reaching their highest level since broad legalization in 2014.

Dispensaries sold over $192 million worth of cannabis products that month, according to data from the state Department of Revenue’s Marijuana Enforcement Division compiled by The Denver Post. That figure is up about 29% from April and 32% from May 2019.

Regardless of where you are on your hemp farming journey, financial planning is as important as your cultivation strategy. Launching a new business comes with a significant degree of risk: About 20% of startups with employees fail within their first year and 50% fail within 5 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics. The biggest risk factor? “Running out of money …,” according to Investopedia.