Courtesy of Feel State

After David Melnick and his business partners lost out on the first round of Missouri’s medical cannabis dispensary licenses in early 2020, the team still felt a certain calling. They had a vision for a brand that could thrive in the newly legalized landscape, so they began networking with those individuals and teams that did pick up a license. Perhaps there would be a chance to work together.

“We kept building relationships with groups in Missouri and beyond just to kind of bring this partnership model to the table,” Melnick said. “There are multi-state operators, and we want to be a multi-state partner. We help the people that have the dispensary licenses in the various communities where they operate to provide some level of branding and marketing and operational support to put them on a similar level as those big players out there.”

After reaching out to license winners, Melnick and his team began working with two entrepreneurs who had landed a retail stake in the St. Louis area—in nearby Florissant, to be precise. It was a new concept, this dispensary partnership model, but one that ultimately became attractive to the operations team on the ground. Feel State, Melnick's company, was a brand that was ready to hit the road and engage with the growing patient base in Missouri.

“There are so many hurdles to go through—both from the construction side and the regulatory side,” Melnick said. “We just want to be a resource and help get you to market.”

He added that it’s a collaborative relationship. And while each partner might look at the business differently, Melnick and his team are able to adapt to specific goals and provide a consistent backdrop for the retail side of things.

One of the major points that Melnick underscored as part of the Feel State brand is an education-first approach to patient interactions. Even outside the dispensary, there’s an element of outreach that Feel State has included in its plans: A certain stigma very much remains in play in Missouri and elsewhere, and brand ambassadors from a Feel State retail location can help explain to the broader neighborhood just what exactly medical cannabis involves.

From store to store, Melnick said he hopes to keep that message clear and consistent.

The St. Louis location opened in early June, then celebrated with a community event June 18. That’s another key to laying a good foundation with the local neighborhood: visibility and engagement.

“It was trying to help build awareness and say, ‘Hey, here's who we are. Here's what's going on. How can we make sure we're doing this the right way?’” Melnick said.

Next up for the brand: a second location in Kansas City, Mo., where Melnick and the team are honing the brand to fit the operations team’s particular visions for that community.

He added that he hopes to see the Feel State brand cross state lines. As more and more people consider getting into the cannabis space, particularly on the growing retail side, the franchise model might be a helpful option. The brand is growing, and Melnick said he hopes to see more entrepreneurs embracing this cohering vision.

“There are a lot of entrepreneurs that want to get into the industry and may not know where to start or have the resources of larger groups to do a full brand buildout or have the back-end level of support that some of these larger groups have,” he said. “[For us,] it’s ‘Let's work together. Let's figure out what works best for everyone based on the given situation.’ Cannabis is still very much an emerging market. There's a lot of fluidity to what's going on. What might be best today may not be best tomorrow. So, it's just having that that flexibility to really go out and be able to mold a business to the changing market conditions.”

Hemp has thousands of uses, many of which proponents believe have long-lasting environmental benefits. Harnessing hemp to make biofuels is one such path toward a greener future, though growers interested in entering this space might have to wait a little while longer.

“There’s not a market right now," says Dr. Robert Pearce, Ph.D., who’s leading a University of Kentucky (UK) study on hemp cultivars as a potential catalyst for biofuel and other bioproducts. “Right now it’s more of a research question as to how efficient we can be in the process.”

In a process called cellulolysis, harvested hemp plant material is shredded and chemically heated to release cellulose, Pearce says. Enzymes are used to break the cellulose into sugars, which in turn are fermented into ethanol. Finally, the ethanol is purified and distilled into viable biofuel products like biodiesel, which could be utilized to fuel an engine or even a biomass power plant.

Photo courtesy of UK Agricultural Communications

Hempseed, fiber, leaves and any other above-ground part of the plant have potential to be sources of biofuel, according to UK and University of Connecticut (UConn) researchers. But to capitalize on this, North American hemp growers would benefit from a national biofuel-creation push that includes new regional infrastructure and an embrace of innovative technologies, say industry observers interviewed by Hemp Grower.

Pearce, extension professor in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment at UK, says having a biofuel ecosystem in place would be an enormous step forward for farmers seeking entry into the marketplace.

“You need that infrastructure in place, because you’re dealing with bulky biomass material,” Pearce says. “Transportation is going to eat farmers up if they have to bring that material very far. We need regional centers where farms have a short distance to go for processing.”

A Plant with Possibilities

In a lab setting, at least, hemp biofuel has shown promise: A decade ago, researchers at UConn found that industrial hempseeds can be used to create a sustainable diesel fuel.

Comprised primarily of hempseed oil, hemp biodiesel could theoretically power any conventional diesel engine. In the UConn study, 97% of the hemp oil was converted to biodiesel, proving it has “high efficiency of conversion,” according to UConn.

At UK, scientists recently studied dual-purpose cultivars with the best biofuel potential based on hempseed oil and fiber profiles. The cultivars included six that produced fiber only and five that generated both fiber and grain. Dual-purpose cultivars are thought to have higher projected economic returns than the fiber-only cultivars, with Bialobrzeskie from Poland and Colorado’s NWG 331—both dual-purpose—deemed the top-performing varieties for biofuel. 

Dr. Jian Shi, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering at UK who is another leader on the study with Pearce, says Bialobrzeskie had estimated returns from grain sales and biofuel production of $1,564 per hectare. Meanwhile, NWG 331 had projected returns of $1,482 per hectare, along with the highest biomass yield and second highest grain yield of all cultivars.

In a previous study, Shi’s team learned that, for a given amount of biomass, hemp has biofuel-producing

Photo courtesy of UK Agricultural Communications

potential comparable to other bioenergy crops such as kenaf, switchgrass and sorghum. Where the plant shines is in its higher yield per hectare—agronomy data suggest the per-hectare yield of hemp stems alone is at the same level as entire switchgrass and sorghum crops.

“For growers, hemp can be more profitable [than other bioenergy crops] because you have both the fiber and grain,” says Shi. “The fiber can also be used to make paper, clothing, building materials and more.”

Beyond hempseed oil, the plant has potential to produce ethanol and methanol, both forms of alcohol that can be used as fuel. Cellulolysis ferments and distills hemp biomass to extract ethanol. Methanol is generally produced from woody plant matter through the process of dry distillation.

The majority of biofuel currently comes from corn or sugarcane. Although their high sugar content is a robust source of ethanol, utilizing these plants for fuel production can cut into a farm’s food manufacturing profits, says Pearce. Conversely, the leaves and cellulose fibers from hemp are not valuable food sources.  

Only the Beginning

Researchers and industry observers alike say further investigation is needed into hemp’s agronomic practices, postharvest processing and biofuel conversion rates.

When matched with traditional fossil fuels and other sources of biofuel, converting hemp fibers into fuel is a more intensive process, Pearce notes. For instance, where fermentation is the single step needed for sugarcane, hemp material must be pre-treated before this process can take place.

“You need a technical understanding of the processes of those enzymes, and [you need] bioreactors on hand to have that happen at scale,” says Pearce. “Having small-scale processors on site would help with transportation problems, but my vision is more about regional processing centers and growers within a 50-mile radius bringing product to a center.”

Photo courtesy of the Hemp Industries Association

In an ideal scenario, farmers would be responsible for storage, as well as the same cutting and baling equipment deployed to cultivate hemp fiber, Pearce says. Plentiful plant populations are needed to create biomass on a large scale, he adds, though with hemp being a photoperiod-sensitive plant, a consistent crop would be a challenge. Development of additional cultivars adapted to specific regions would be necessary for optimization.

“With current varieties, the northern part of the Midwest is where most grain production is taking place,” Pearce says. “We need varieties better adapted to conditions in the south and southeast. The southeast would be an ideal location for biomass production, because you have a longer growing season. Enzymatic processes then have to be optimized to get the most energy production out of hemp, because we’re competing with other sources of biofuel such as corn and soybeans, and other biomass crops like native grasses. That means you have to be as efficient as possible in the extraction process.”

Early application studies at UK and UConn show the potential of hemp as a biofuel, even if little work has taken place outside the lab.

“Not using fossil fuels is in itself a huge net gain,” says Jody McGinness, executive director of the Hemp Industries Association. “Science shows that biofuel burns cleaner and is a less energy-intensive product.”

However, there’s yet to be a strong national push on hemp fiber extraction, much less on the biofuel side itself. While federal farm bill legislation protects hemp research, it hasn’t created a system where people can freely grow the crop as they would tomatoes or basil. With the science currently in its infancy, the same “agricultural backbone” enjoyed by other industries will be key to hemp biofuel’s ultimate success, notes McGinness.

“Producing and sourcing needs to be co-located,” McGinness said. “You’ve got to have a production plant with enough farms around it for growers to add hemp to their rows.”

Douglas J. Guth is a Cleveland Heights, Ohio-based freelance writer and journalist. His work has been published by Fresh Water Cleveland, Crain’s Cleveland Business and Community College Journal.

DETROIT, Michigan – July 7, 2021 – PRESS RELEASE – Today, Gage Growth Corp., a cannabis brand and operator in Michigan, announced their exclusive partnership agreement with multi-platinum-selling, GRAMMY® Award and Golden Globe® Award-nominated recording artist Wiz Khalifa’s brand, Khalifa Kush, to develop and launch a line of premium cannabis products in the state of Michigan.

Through this partnership, Gage will be the exclusive producer, processor and retailer of KK branded products in Michigan. Gage and KK will work to develop and commercialize a product lineup that includes flower, pre-rolls, extracts, and concentrates that will be sold at Gage provisioning centers.

“We are excited to partner with Gage for our first expansion into the Midwest, and to finally release KK to my fans in Michigan,” said Wiz Khalifa. “From day one of Khalifa Kush, we have only partnered with people we align with, who focus on customer and quality over everything, and Gage is one of the best.”

“Wiz is a globally-recognized cannabis connoisseur. KK has had incredible success in other U.S. cannabis markets, establishing a brand that is synonymous with ultra-premium quality,” said Fabian Monaco, CEO of Gage. “We are confident that this partnership will allow Michigan to become a unique cannabis destination in the near future.”

The arrangement includes a grant of license to certain intellectual property to produce and sell KK branded products in Michigan, and is subject to Michigan regulatory approval. KK will consult on cultivation, distribution, branding, consumer engagement and other operating responsibilities. The initial term of the license agreement is five years on an exclusive basis.

Longwood, Florida, July 06, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Branded Legacy Inc., a holding company focused on the commercial development of hemp and cannabinoid-infused beverages, along with an array of CBD topicals and tinctures, announces 15 new grocery retail accounts in Central Florida.

The company is gaining momentum as new hire introduces Elev8 Hemp CBD infused Iced Teas in two grocery chains on a trial basis in Central Florida. This is a steppingstone for the company to grow product sales and further expansion into the grocery sector. Of the two grocery chains, the CBD iced teas are available in 10 Bravo Supermarkets and five Fancy Fruit & Produce stores.

Matthew Nichols, vice president of Branded Legacy, Inc., stated, “Working with the right people is critical in any company. We are pleased to see the activity and results in such a short period of time. It’s a precursor of what’s to come.”

“We are very pleased with the recent growth,” Nichols concluded. “We are seeing sales growing on our website, social, Amazon and brick and mortar. There have been some hurdles to overcome but we now have the right team in place. We expect to see a strong influx in sales in the third and fourth quarter.”