PORT WASHINGTON, New York, July 1, 2021 - PRESS RELEASE - The Hawthorne Gardening Company, a house of brands that provides an array of tools for a multitude of gardening needs to help people live happier, healthier lives through gardening, announced a 5-year exclusive partnership between owned brand Max-Fan and German-based fan manufacturer Ruck Ventilatoren. The agreement is the latest in Hawthorne’s landmark efforts to join forces with leaders in the indoor cultivation industry, and will enhance product availability and innovation for growers of all kinds.

As a pioneer in indoor air filtration products, Max-Fan has worked with Ruck for more than 10 years. Together, the companies have engineered fans and filters designed to help encourage plant growth and help keep indoor facilities compliant with environmental impact regulations. This new exclusive partnership marks a significant milestone in the two brands’ relationship by empowering Hawthorne and Max-Fan to meet the skyrocketing demands of the indoor cultivation industry with high-quality, custom-designed products more quickly and consistently than ever.

“Max-Fan and Ruck are truly better together. Hawthorne is continuously forming elite partnerships to bring the best fans and filters to the North American market, and Ruck is no exception. We’re ready to push the limits of innovation,” said John Feather, manager, Max-Fan and Can-Filters at The Hawthorne Gardening Company. 

In the third episode of Cannabis Conference's new podcast series Beyond the Show, CEO of Aster Farms Julia Jacobson talks with Digital Editor Eric Sandy about what it’s like to run a cannabis company in Lake County, Calif.—one of the driest areas in the U.S.

Jacobson shares the many upsides to growing in a dry climate (longer growing season, fewer problems with mold and rain, as just two examples); however, Jacobson’s outdoor operation is susceptible to weather events. In 2018, Aster Farms was at the center of the largest wildfire in California history: the Mendocino Complex Fire. Jacobson describes what it was like to lose both her crop and farm animals and explains how the farm has altered its techniques and practices to ensure that it’s better prepared for possible future environmental setbacks.  

Jacobson gives a sneak peek at what she will speak about during her session “Outdoor Cultivation Strategies for Environmental Variables & Disaster Preparedness” at Cannabis Conference 2021, including: 

• What drew her to starting a career in the cannabis industry; 

• How climate events have affected the way she goes about business and her personal life; 

• How a business can mitigate water access year-to-year; and  

• Why it’s important for cannabis businesses to conduct yearly sustainability reports. 
  

If you’re interested in hearing more from Jacobson about best practices to protect your crop from temperature swings, harsh weather elements and pests, register for Cannabis Conference 2021 (Aug. 24-26 at Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino). Her session, “Outdoor Cultivation Strategies for Environmental Variables & Disaster Preparedness” will be held Aug. 24 from 11:20 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. PT. Register before regular registration rates expire July 31, 2021. 

Be sure to stay up to date with Beyond the Show, and tune in on Spotify, Google Play, iTunes or CannabisBusinessTimes.com. New episodes air every Friday.   

Courtesy of Ag Marvels

Since early 2019, as the hemp industry took off around the U.S., Mike Klumpp and his family watched the market positively explode from their vantage point in central Michigan. They run Ag Marvels, a sprawling farm that got into the hemp business as soon as it was possible in the state.

As they got up and running, the team soon saw a need for processing infrastructure. Biomass was booming, and farmers needed a place to dry, store and extract. At Ag Marvels, equipment streamed in and buildings went up. The past few years have been an exciting dash through the nascent hemp business, and the underlying theme has been one of scale. How big does a business need to be to accommodate the twists and turns of hemp?

And how does a business team know if it’s on the right path?

We spoke with Klumpp about the ongoing work at Ag Marvels to get a sense of how R&D and market analysis turns into day-to-day business.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length, style and clarity.

Eric Sandy: How long has your farm been in the hemp game?

Mike Klumpp: We've been farming here for a little over 20 years. We farm around 3,000 acres here, the bulk of which is [USDA] organic-certified, mostly corn and soybeans—and some dry beans in the past. We got involved in hemp two and a half years ago now, when it became legal here in Michigan. As entrepreneurs, we own several other businesses in Michigan, most of them relating to ag in some way, shape or form. We jumped on the hemp train, if you will, and started planting hemp on our own farm—all organic-certified. Then, seeing the need for a drying facility, we put up a biomass dryer and then shortly after started building the processing facility here in Michigan to extract CBD and things—just looking at what that need was.

Courtesy of Ag Marvels

ES: What was the learning curve like with hemp?

MK: We're still in the learning curve here, two and a half years later, so we're still learning stuff every day. But, yeah, it's a different crop to grow. We grow it mostly on a large ag scale. We’ve tried growing it at a smaller scale with plastic and drip line and those kinds of things, like smaller cultivators might be used to. We probably got sidetracked a little bit from advice that we had out there from a lot of people from the marijuana industry coming over into the hemp and giving us their advice on how to caretake these plants. A lot of those things don't cross over. They don't work in large-scale ag, you know?

ES: With the decision to get into drying and processing, how did you plan for the scale that you were going to be working with in terms of biomass that was coming in?

MK: We ramped up our farm operation and planted more hemp here on our farm. And then we did do some contracts with some farmers a year ago. We supplied seeds and starts for farmers. We'd raise starts in the greenhouse, supply [farmers] with those, and put people in a contract where we would process their material back for them. This year now, we’ve only had a couple of contracts this year, but there's so much material on the marketplace right now. We've just been able to buy material on the open market to feed what we need at this point.

ES: How did you dial in your drying technique?

Courtesy of Ag Marvels

MK: There's 100 different ways to skin this cat, as they say. It really just some air and some heat. It doesn't have to be anything over-the-top crazy. You want to try to dry it with as a little heat as possible, to maintain the integrity of the plant. We try not to dry anything over about 120 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s about the warmest that we dry at. That’s sufficient enough to dry the plant, but we've used all sorts of different things—different kinds of biomass dryers. We've done the hang-drying biomass belt conveyors. There are cylinder tube dryers. We’ve tried some aeriation floors. We’ve done a lot of R&D around here to try to figure out the best ways and methods at which to do this, especially when you get to scale. It’s different to dry 500 plants than if you're going to dry 100 acres. It’s different equipment that you're looking at.

ES: And for 2021, how many acres are you working with—at least on your property there?

MK: In 2021, we've scaled down considerably here on our farm, because we were able to purchase a lot of biomass out there. All together, we have a couple of different plots: 60, 70 acres, something like that.

ES: Could you talk a bit about the Great Lakes region’s humidity and whether that plays a significant role in the drying process here?

MK: We're a lot different than drying out West, you know? We’ve talked to some people we work with out in, say, Oklahoma. I mean, they can literally chop their plants down and let them dry in the field because the climate out there is so air-dry. They get the wind. Here in Michigan, that doesn't work. We have a lot of moisture. We have wet falls, where it rains every other day in the fall. So, we really have to keep an eye on that here. The minute we harvest these plants, we have to be getting them inside some sort of drying process and get them stored and put away correctly—or you're going to have problems.

ES: In terms of that drying R&D that you've been doing over the last couple of years, how are you evaluating that? Of course, yield is one thing, but how did you know what was working best for you?

MK: Well, we look at it from a lot of different angles. We look at it from just a massive throughput: How fast can we dry? Obviously, [we look at] the quality that comes out the other end. Probably the very best way to dry these plants would be to hang-dry them and hand-buck them—if you wanted to keep the utmost quality of the plant. But when you [try] that at scale, you can't do it. So, it's the sacrifice of quality versus quantity. That’s what we've been trying to figure out: How bulk can you go and still maintain the integrity that you feel needs to be there, and yet do this at a scale that makes commercial sense?

ES: On that commercial side, obviously CBD is still a marquee item, but are you pulling off different isolates for other products? What are some of the different end games that you're working toward after you've processed your hemp?

MK: We produce your typical CBD crude distillate and isolate. We also work with some CBG, and isolate that as well. We’ve also gotten into some cannabinoid conversions. We sell a fair share of CBN isolate out in the marketplace. We’re a bit more diverse, maybe, than some, where we do the conversions and can really put it in any form that you're looking for.

ES: How are you engaging with Michigan consumers—or even consumers outside of Michigan—to help explain what these products are?

MK: The two in-house brands that we service here are Heirloom Grove and Funny Farm. Both are fairly new brands. The Heirloom Grove brand does have probably 20 SKUs or so right now, an array of products from bath bombs to tinctures to muscle relief pain gels. It has a pretty good, wide array of products. Funny Farm just got started in the edible market. It has a few edibles out there.

The problem with the CBD market or any of these cannabinoids: It's the education piece that you have to bring and let the public know what this stuff does, what it can do for them, and then let them decide if they need it or want to try it or not.

That’s the hardest thing with marketing this stuff: You have to bring the education to the people, because most people aren't just going to reach out and do that on their own. They’re looking for somebody to pitch that to them. You might get somebody to read an article or something, and then want to try a product, but you definitely have to bring the education piece to them—especially when we get outside of the CBD realm. People are starting to get a little bit more favorable to CBD products and know a little bit about what they do, but when you ask most people about CBG or CBN or D-8 or something like that, they often have no idea what you're even talking about.

"We continue to scale, and it’s probably something people are sick of hearing out there in the industry, but you have to be on scale in this industry to make this work."

- Mike Klumpp, Ag Marvels

ES: Out of curiosity, because we've been writing about it recently, are you guys doing anything with delta-8?

MK: We used to, but we are no longer currently. Michigan has legislation right now that passed the House and is onto the Senate to essentially make D-8 illegal here in the state. I’m pretty sure it's going to pass. So, we gracefully bowed out of that game. I guess I see where they're going with that. I think D-8 does need to be regulated. It does get people high, and it’s stuff that we probably shouldn't have on a gas station shelf that any kid in the street could come buy. I 100% agree with that, but it'd be nice if they would do something to help us regulate it, instead of just say, “Hey, it's illegal. We're not going to allow it.”

As hemp processors and growers, and hemp growers around the country, that was a big market for us. I mean, that really started to help push the CBD industry forward. There is a pile of CBD isolate out in this country that is being made into D-8 products. This kind of legislation that's being crafted state by state around the country is really going to hurt us at the end of the day. I wish they would do it a little different way, and I wish, like everybody does, the FDA would get involved and we would start to put something around this whole monster to try to steer it the right direction.

ES: Looking ahead to the second half of 2021 and the back half of the season here, what are some things that you're hoping to accomplish?

MK: We’re continually scaling here. We're looking for another piece of real estate right now—another building to put up another processing facility. We’re actively looking for that. We're purchasing lots of equipment around the countryside. We have four or five different pieces being shipped in from around the country as of today. It’s a scale for us here. We continue to scale, and it’s probably something people are sick of hearing out there in the industry, but you have to be on scale in this industry to make this work. That’s really [what we are] striving for. It’s hard because you have to scale on every end: You’ll scale for biomass extraction, but then you'll be just buried in crude. So, you have to scale your distillation operation. Then, before you know it, there's a big call for CBN or something. So, then we have to scale our conversions lab. It’s a never-ending battle for us, but that's definitely a big thing for us.

We’re also teamed up with the University of Illinois in a hemp research study that they're doing out here. We’re helping them grow some different cultivars and doing some research on them, looking at some different genetics as a fun project that we have going on.

We’re also involved deeply with MDARD [the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development] out here. We’re working together a lot and helping train their inspectors. Michigan's changed up the way that they're doing their testing this year. They're actually sending an inspector to the site this year to pull samples from farmers’ fields to send in, and they've reached out and asked for some help to train their inspectors on what hemp is and what they should be looking for.

Heirloom Grove has got some pretty big stuff going. We’re actually redoing a property that we have and Heirloom Grove’s expanding there and looking to bring some agritourism up here. We planted a bunch of sunflowers out there and an orchard, where we’ll bring some people in to teach them about hemp and do some you-pick sunflowers and different things just try to get more people educated.

Adult-use cannabis legislation has yet to be formally introduced this year in the Pennsylvania Legislature, but the state’s medical cannabis program was expanded June 30.

Pennsylvania Governor's Office | www.governor.pa.gov

Signed by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday, House Bill 1024 allows qualified patients to legally possess up to a 90-day supply of cannabis, an increase from the previously allowed 30-day supply. It also permits patients to continue utilizing curbside dispensing services. Both changes were adopted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the new law makes those provisions permanent. 

RELATED: Pennsylvania’s Medical Marijuana Advisory Board Discusses Permanently Adopting Temporary Regulations Related to COVID-19

In addition, H.B. 1024 removes the cap that one caregiver may only support a maximum of five patients and authorizes “synchronous interaction,” or physician-patient remote consultations that occur in real time via audio or video conferencing. The law also expands the qualifying conditions for eligibility to include cancer remission therapy, as well as spinal cord or central nervous system damage with “indication of intractable spasticity and other associated neuropathies,” according to the bill’s text.

According to the governor, the new law acts on the recommendations made by the Pennsylvania Department of Health to revise the Medical Marijuana Act, which was signed into law in April 2016.

“It’s been five years since Pennsylvania legalized medical marijuana, and in that time the Department of Health has examined the program’s successes and challenges and made important recommendations on improving the law,” Wolf said in a statement Wednesday. “This legislation provides important updates to our state’s medical marijuana program to ensure that patients have improved access to medication.”

More than 340,000 Pennsylvanians participate in the state’s medical cannabis program, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

Pennsylvania’s regional organizer for NORML, Chris Goldstein, told The Associated Press that H.B. 1024, which was first considered in committee May 24, moved quickly and there were no hearings to gather input from patients nor their caregivers.

“The bill actually has a lot of provisions that are industry friendly, and most controversial is to allow remediation of mold in cannabis flowers by extracting it into new products,” Goldstein said. “I think that’s where patient voices could have been heard.”

Under the signed legislation, cannabis producers can remediate contaminants, like mold or yeast, to turn it into products that are not to be inhaled or ingested, such as topicals.

With an adequate supply, there are 125 medical cannabis dispensaries in Pennsylvania with product available as of June 30, according to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Operating eight of those dispensaries, Ethos Cannabis was one of the first retailers to open—with its Allentown location—when state-legal sales began in early 2018. 

“We are excited to see continued development and improvements to the Pennsylvania medical cannabis program,” Ethos CEO David Clapper said. “In particular, the expansion of the caregiver program is quite important to us. We have a current double-blind research project addressing the opportunity for medical marijuana to substitute for opioids for people with chronic pain conditions. The caregiver program allows us to expand our research efforts to a wider group of patients who can’t make it into a dispensary, and allows us to continue playing a role in the impact of medical marijuana in Pennsylvania.”

While the final version of the bill passed the House, 165-36, and the Senate, 47-3, in the Republican-controlled Legislature, the upper chamber voted to table Democratic Sen. Sharif Street’s amendment that aimed to allow qualifying patients 21 years and older to grow up to five plants at home for personal use. The amendment failed in a 29-21 vote.

In February, Street and Republican Sen. Dan Laughlin—who voted in favor of the home-grow amendment—teamed up to announce their collaboration on crafting an adult-use bill for this legislative session, but they have yet to formally introduce that bill.

RELATED: Talks About Adult-Use Cannabis Bills Heat Up in Pennsylvania; Introduction Does Not

Most provisions in H.B. 1024 became enacted immediately following the governor’s June 30 signing. However, the legislation gives the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture secretary 30 days to make public the list of pesticides that growers and processors can use. That list will be updated annually