South Carolina Opens Hemp Licensing Period

The state department of agriculture will accept applications until Feb. 28.

January 7, 2021

The South Carolina Department of Agriculture (SCDA) opened up hemp cultivation licensing for the 2021 growing season Jan. 1. The licensing period runs until Feb. 28.

South Carolina has come a long way from its first year of hemp cultivation in 2018 when the state licensed 20 growers (its max that year per state law). In 2020, the SCDA licensed 265 farmers who grew nearly 5,300 acres of hemp outdoors and nearly 100 additional indoor acres, says a SCDA spokesperson.

The ag department pointed out in a press release that the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved South Carolina’s hemp plan in April 2020, reining in “a new period of regulatory stability, one that SCDA expects to continue in 2021.” South Carolina’s hemp plan now aligns with the 2018 Farm Bill.

Allison Justice, Ph.D., the owner of The Hemp Mine LLC, told Hemp Grower that regulatory uncertainty was a major hang-up for farmers in the state last year.

“In states like South Carolina, we feel like we’re going backwards,” Justice says in the March/April cover story of Hemp Grower. “... I can name a handful of farmers that have made the decision not to grow hemp or not to grow it again because there were already such difficulties in joining this industry that it’s just kind of the last straw. It’s just not worth it.”

The SCDA also noted that it now has six full-time staffers devoted to hemp regulation.

Hemp licenses in South Carolina cost $1,000, plus a $100 nonrefundable application fee. Getting a license also requires attending an SCDA orientation and signing a Hemp Farming Agreement before possessing any form of hemp.

Permits are valid for one year.

All farmers must apply online at agriculture.sc.gov/hemp.

WeedMD Consolidates Medical Distribution Activities and Closes Facility to Maximize Production Efficiencies

The company will exit its Bowmanville facility in 2021 as it implements strategic initiatives and centralizes all cultivation, production and distribution at its London-Area flagship facilities.

January 7, 2021

Posted by Melissa Schiller

Grower/Agriculture Canada Distribution

TORONTO, Jan. 07, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PRESS RELEASE -- WeedMD Inc., a federally licensed producer and distributor of medical-grade cannabis, has announced it has reallocated all medical packaging, labelling and distribution activities from its Bowmanville, Ontario site to its Aylmer, Ontario facility which also houses the company’s extraction hub. These strategic steps are part of WeedMD's ongoing plan to maximize the utilization of its facilities, improve operational efficiencies and further align its cost structure while focusing on growth, following the successful integration of WeedMD and Starseed Holdings Inc.

These structural changes, completed in January 2021, now centralize production activities at WeedMD’s flagship London-area sites, which also includes the company’s cultivation center of excellence in Strathroy, Ontario. With the exiting of its Bowmanville facility, which served as WeedMD’s medical distribution hub, the company has offered relocation and severance packages, where applicable, to about 20 employees.

“Following an internal assessment of our entire organization, we took the decisive action to close our Bowmanville operations in order to optimize our production, reduce costs and accelerate our profitability goals,” said George Scorsis, executive chairman and interim CEO of WeedMD. “We are now centralizing and fully utilizing our cannabis production sites and our talent to their fullest potential. While our Aylmer site will focus on product distribution, processing and extraction activities, our Strathroy facility will continue to be the center of excellence for quality cultivation, biomass production and dried flower processing. For 2021, we are establishing enterprise-wide targets as part of our focus on maximizing margins and increasing revenues. We thank all our dedicated employees for their commitment to their craft as we continue to produce and supply cannabis Canada with our premier Color, Saturday and Starseed Medicinal products.”

WeedMD confirms that all Starseed Medicinal patient orders began shipping from the company’s Aylmer facility, commencing Jan. 4, 2021. Visit Starseed here for more information about its medical product offerings.

Improved THC Testing Could Be Ready by the End of 2021

The federal government is developing more accurate methods to assess THC levels in a move expected to benefit both hemp growers and law enforcement.

January 6, 2021

Stephen Langel

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is developing more reliable methods to distinguish hemp from its legal counterpart in the state-licensed cannabis market and aims to have these methods fully developed or evaluated by the end of the year. This effort is one part of NIST’s cannabis program, which includes a Cannabis Quality Assurance Program to help, in part, assess cannabidiol levels in CBD products and to develop reference materials.

NIST researchers are working to establish new analytical methods to determine tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) levels in hemp, NIST research chemist Brent Wilson told Hemp Grower. The research will focus on the development of isotope dilution, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry methods, extraction protocols, a single laboratory validation study, and evaluations of benchtop and portable infrared spectrometers used lab and in the field.

These new methods are meant to address concerns of both hemp growers and law enforcement agencies raised during stakeholder meetings about the limited accuracy of current testing methods, Wilson said. Such precision is essential as, under the 2018 Farm Bill, hemp that exceeds the current 0.3% THC threshold is destroyed, which can be financially devastating for a grower.

According to Joy Beckerman, principal and founder of Hemp Ace International, a hemp consulting firm, the study is the first of its kind by the federal government. Such research is “absolutely critical” for the hemp industry, she said.

Better, more accurate testing leads to more certainty surrounding hemp crops, which Beckerman said will “create jobs, stimulate the economy and invigorate Rural America and the American farmer.” Better testing also prevents the inappropriate seizure of crops and potential arrests based on inaccurate data regarding THC levels, she added.

The development of these tests is aided by a recent $350,000 Department of Justice grant. The grant, which was awarded last December, will provide resources to implement these new testing methods at federal, state, and local forensic laboratories throughout the country, Wilson added. NIST will work directly with these labs to implement these new methods by developing standard operating procedures, training modules, webinars, and scientific publications.

Hemp Takes a Step Forward in Financial Markets

Hemp pricing data is available for the first time on the largest commodities exchange in the world, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, in a move that could benefit a wide range of groups, including investors, growers, and processors.

January 6, 2021

Stephen Langel

At the end of last year, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) added wholesale hemp pricing data from the market analytics firm Hemp Benchmarks to its online database.

The move “solidifies hemp as a major emerging agricultural commodity,” Jonathan Rubin, the CEO of New Leaf Data Services, Hemp Benchmarks’ parent company, told Hemp Grower. He added that the new partnership with CME would aid the industry’s growth and give farmers, processors, and others the information they need to be successful.

The agreement specifically allows for the wholesale hemp pricing to be used to set “contract terms, negotiate more fairly with counterparties, and better understand the economics of their operations,” Rubin said. The data also has the benefit of “allowing farmers, processors, CPG manufacturers, investors, and other hemp market participants to manage price risk better and hedge their exposure,” he added.

However, the agreement is to distribute Hemp Benchmarks’ data, rather than a case of CME vetting and guaranteeing the information for investment or planning purposes.

Hemp Benchmarks will specifically provide pricing assessments for 21 different products, including CBD biomass, flower, seeds, and clones, crude CBD oil, and CBD distillates as part of CME’s subscription-based data platform, DataMine.

“CME Group is continually exploring new ways to help our DataMine customers make the most informed trading decisions,” Trey Berre, global head of data services at CME Group, said in a press release announcing the deal.

Flowr and Hawthorne Canada Jointly Announce the Completion of Cannabis Research and Development Facility

The research center, located in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, will advance indoor cannabis cultivation techniques and systems.

January 6, 2021

Posted by Melissa Schiller

Grower/Agriculture Canada

TORONTO and PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y., Jan. 05, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PRESS RELEASE -- North America’s first research and development facility dedicated to advancing cannabis cultivation techniques and systems has been completed by The Flowr Corporation and Hawthorne Canada Limited. Hawthorne is a subsidiary of the Hawthorne Gardening Company division of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company. Scotts Miracle-Gro is a marketer of branded consumer lawn and garden products and indoor growing solutions. Flowr cultivates and sells premium cannabis to medical and adult-use markets in Canada, Europe and Australia.

Located on Flowr’s cultivation campus in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, the R&D Center includes laboratories, indoor grow suites and training areas in a single building. Flowr will test cultivation systems and techniques using Hawthorne’s lighting, fertilization and irrigation systems, growing mediums, and research protocols. In addition, Flowr intends to focus its own research on cannabis genetics and integrated growing systems in line with its goal of delivering premium quality cannabis products through highly efficient cultivation.

“We built Hawthorne to help cultivators of all sizes grow quality plants with high levels of efficiency and consistency. Completing the industry’s only dedicated R&D facility gives us a distinct advantage. We will leverage Flowr’s cultivation expertise and our technical capabilities into real world testing and results that will make a difference to growers,” said Chris Hagedorn, SVP & General Manager of Hawthorne Gardening. “We are proud of this collaboration with Flowr, a leading international cannabis company, with extensive growing experience indoors, in greenhouses and at-scale outdoors. Flowr is also one of a few companies that have had experience growing diverse genetics in different countries. We believe this experience will benefit our companies and the growers we serve.”

“The completion of the R&D Center brings our work with Hawthorne fully to life and will help keep both companies on the leading edge of cannabis cultivation for years to come,” commented Lance Emanuel, President and Interim Chief Executive Officer of Flowr. “Operationalizing the R&D Center is a major accomplishment for our organization and strengthens our competitive advantage in cultivation. We believe the long-term success of Flowr will be rooted in our ability to maximize the cannabinoid and terpene expression of genetics without sacrificing yield. The work we will do at the R&D Center will help us build upon the success we’ve had producing high quality, premium cannabis like our award-winning, flagship-strain BC Pink Kush beloved by budtenders and consumers throughout Canada. Leveraging our work at the R&D Center will be imperative to our eventual entry into the United States once federally permissible by law.”

The R&D Center is the centerpiece of a strategic R&D partnership formed by Flowr and Hawthorne in March 2018. It brings two of the world’s leading experts together to be at the forefront of cannabis cultivation. The operations will be led by Dr. Deron Caplan, the first person in North America to earn a PhD focused on cannabis cultivation and production. Caplan was awarded his doctorate by the University of Guelph in August 2018 and is Flowr’s Director of Research and Development. The R&D Center will be staffed by Flowr’s scientists, five of whom have PhDs in various plant biology, plant genetics and plant biochemistry disciplines. Hawthorne R&D will lead the research design and methodology.

All requisite licensing from Health Canada has been obtained by Flowr and the expectation is that the R&D Center will be operating at full capacity in Spring 2021. Research has already begun conducting growing trials at scale using Hawthorne products.

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