This story first appeared at Marijuana Business Daily. The development of new genetic-editing technology offers cannabis companies a cost-effective way to make specific changes to marijuana and hemp plants – such as more disease resistance – without creating a genetically modified organism. The technology, known as Crispr-Cas9, will allow... Read more
Three weeks after clearing his Senate agriculture committee hearing, the full Senate voted 92-7 Tuesday to confirm Tom Vilsack as the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Vilsack, an Iowan, served in the same role for all eight years of the Obama administration, and oversaw the USDA during passage and implementation... Read more
High-CBD plants inherit approximately 90% of their genes from marijuana, according to a new cannabis genomics study by the University of Minnesota and hemp breeding company Sunrise Genetics. The collaborators assembled a complete genome from a new cannabis variety and also examined several different cannabis varieties. They found that... Read more
In the United States currently, humans can eat foods made from hemp – yet we can’t legally eat meat or eggs from animals that have eaten hemp. But with recent action by the Hemp Feed Coalition (HFC), a Fort Collins, Colorado-based nonprofit seeking to gain federal approval for hemp... Read more
Levi’s is teaming with a Danish fashion brand, GANNI, to offer denim jeans, jackets, dresses and tops made of cottonized hemp. The collection promotes the items as more sustainable than cotton-based denim. “The hemp used to make the fabric is all rain-fed with a proven lower footprint than conventional... Read more
The Indiana state House has overwhelmingly voted to reverse a smokable hemp ban being challenged in federal court. A bill approved 69-28 last week would remove references to “smokable hemp” from the state’s 2019 law setting up hemp regulations. Those regulations banned the production and sale of hemp flower... Read more
Oregon has uncovered water violations by 33% of hemp growers last year in an audit reviewing operations in the southwestern region of the state. The state’s Water Resources Department reviewed 187 of the 1,000 hemp farms in the region, which represents about half of the hemp operations in the... Read more
This story first appeared at Marijuana Business Daily. The development and extensive marketing of cosmetics containing cannabinoids—primarily CBD—has occurred in the absence of solid scientific evidence of their efficacy. Can cannabinoids even be absorbed into skin and, if so, can they have beneficial health effects? A recently published study... Read more
(This opinion column appears in the February issue of Marijuana Business Magazine.) Everyone in the hemp industry knows the story of Charlotte’s Web: A group of well-meaning brothers working under Colorado’s medical marijuana system developed a cannabis strain that worked miracles on a sick little girl named Charlotte. Word... Read more
Montana is considering a new requirement that medical marijuana growers keep their operations confined to indoor environments, leaving the outdoors for hemp production only. A state Senate committee Thursday heard from hemp and marijuana growers on the bill that aims to prevent cross-pollination between hemp and marijuana, the (Helena)... Read more
