Original Articles

The lack of interest among the industry in low-hanging hemp product (hence acreages) strategies proven to work for decades is stunning. It’s like everyone thinks none of this existed for decades already by many of the same people actually still doing it today, just 2019 or whenever it is they got into hemp. The other … Continue reading "Hemp’s Low-Hanging Fruit" ...

FDA is proposing a new “healthy” claim on the labels of foods, in order to socially engineer consumers to eat “better.” It is also considering an official “FDA Healthy” logo to be used on labels, a first for the agency. Here’s what hemp food companies should know Read more at: https://the-hfa.org/new-fda-healthy-label-claim/ ...

Library of Congress released a compendium of many nations’ hemp laws. 137 pages. Regulation of HempAustralia • Brazil • Canada • China • Colombia • Ecuador • European Union • Great Britain • India • Israel • Italy • Japan • Mexico • New Zealand • Russian FederationAppendix: Table on Legalization of Hemp Production November … Continue reading "Global Regulation of Hemp Guide" ...

If FDA really wanted to hurt CBD, it could do it tomorrow using the Exclusionary Rule. All of it, save Epidiolex. Food too. Instead, the medicine experts are punting the issue to a clueless, impotent, and paralyzed Congress, obviously in order to get new legislation. But what will that legislation look like, with a zillion … Continue reading "CBD Confounds FDA, Torn Between “Do The Right Thing” and “Working for Big Pharma”" ...

What is Branding? Branding targets the heart, marketing efforts target the mind. Branding is nothing more than a person’s emotional connection to your company, product, service, or idea. Marketing is the things you do to make that connection. Executing your Branding is the single most important objective of the marketing process. This is from “The … Continue reading "The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding" ...

A Modest Proposal: Let’s Regulate Alcohol Like Marijuana           Amendment 64 was Colorado’s “Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol” initiative, which passed with 55% of the vote in 2012, getting 60,038 more votes than Obama. Part of the measure reads “effectively regulating cannabis in a manner similar to alcohol.”           However, seven months into it, Regulating Marijuana … Continue reading "A Modest Proposal: Let’s Regulate Alcohol Like Marijuana" ...

Food from the seed is the hemp industry’s first billion-dollar segment and what has driven the planting of vast acreages in Canada and elsewhere; hemp food sales have been the bulk of the industry for decades. Totally legal to FDA and other food and drug agencies, it’s the one hemp product already with millions of … Continue reading "Hemp’s Biggest Segment Needs Washington DC Help" ...

THC dysphoria (too uncomfortably high) is a common problem for those using edibles or oil. I’ve used Citicoline (CDP Choline) to substantially reduce the high in 20 minutes for those obviously way too baked. If state marijuana regulators actually cared, they would mandate giving two pills for every edible sold. Citicoline could also be used … Continue reading "Reduce THC Dysphoria With Citicoline" ...

Written in 2014 (with a few edits now), when the GOP still pretended to be the party of our grandpas and the working man: Cannabis Policy Reform has GOP Written All Over It Democrats gave us the Marihuana Tax Act 1937 and the Controlled Substances Act 1970 (with Nixon’s help) and Minimum Mandatories and crime … Continue reading "Cannabis Policy Reform has GOP Written All Over It" ...

We all know the robust nutrition of hempseed, but what about the technical aspects relevant to a food product developer? The following are highlights from “Uncovering the secrets of industrial hemp in food and nutrition: The trends, challenges, and new-age perspectives” in the Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition (2022). “ABSTRACTHemp is a valuable … Continue reading "Uncovering the Secrets of Industrial Hemp in Food and Nutrition" ...

This year is the 30th anniversary of my company, Sharon’s Finest, being #281 on the Inc. 500 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. It was an unlikely honor: 1) an unemployable neurodivergent; 2) selling a very-hard-to-scale product (perishable food); 3) namely “America’s most-hated food” (tofu) in the Reagan ’80s; 4) while also … Continue reading "Inc 500, 30 Years On" ...

Per USDA rules every state hemp program has THC test samples in a solid chain of custody, with random protocol collection performed by state employees or law enforcement agents, transported sealed to DEA-certified state labs for pre-harvest compliance analysis. Use of LEO and DEA registered labs for the chain of custody is due to the … Continue reading "Regulate Hemp Like Marijuana" ...

In 2014 esteemed Cannabis physician Dr Lester Grinspoon suggested the NFL use cannabinoids to treat concussion. He was ignored, so the good doctor published this open letter: https://www-vice-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.vice.com/amp/en/article/ae3gqe/the-nfl-should-combat-concussions-with-cannabis ...

From the Hemp Food Association: “Colorado not only pioneered the CBD industry in 2014, but it has also long been active in making hemp foods. Its historical importance to the hemp food movement helped create the first billion-dollar and widest-diffused segment, 90% of Canadian hemp, the seed for food use. Since becoming “legal” to the … Continue reading "Colorado: Hemp Food Hotbed" ...

The “Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act” was written by a Prohibitionist group funded by opioid sellers (Project SAM). It passed last week and some of the clueless on our side celebrated it. The oxymoronically-titled bill actually criminalizes CBD and erects obstacles to research. Read more at: https://open.substack.com/pub/ondrugs/p/turning-water-into-weed-and-other ...

News Release For Immediate Release, pictures available Hemp Food Association Reboots The Hemp Food Association has announced its reboot. Started in 1998 by hemp food pioneer Richard Rose, it is the only association dedicated to only foods made from the hempseed, and is the second-oldest hemp trade association in the world. The HFA website is … Continue reading "Hemp Food Association Reboots" ...

Moving a certified cultivar just one degree south can change the characteristics it was certified to express. Now imagine a Polish variety in Texas, 10° south Harbin in the north is the hemp growing region of China: ...

The term “Marijuana” has been in the Mexican Pharmacopeia since at least 1846, including its variations “Mariguana” and “Marihuana”, referring to the genus Cannabis in a language in which both J and G are pronounced as H, as well as “Rosa Maria” for Cannabis Indica. Could “Red Mary” refer to the reddish tint of some … Continue reading "“Mariguana” and “Rosa Maria” in the 1846 Mexican Pharmacopeia" ...

USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, Global Agricultural Information Network released a report in August on hemp in the E.U. “Hemp demand and production is growing worldwide. This report reviews the regulatory framework and major consumption trends for hemp in the European Union.” Download the report at: https://apps.fas.usda.gov/newgainapi/api/Report/DownloadReportByFileName?fileName=Market%20Trends%20and%20Regulations%20for%20Industrial%20Hemp%20in%20the%20European%20Union_Brussels%20USEU_European%20Union_E42022-0052.pdf (might have to first Right-click the link then Save … Continue reading "Market Trends and Regulations for Industrial Hemp in the European Union" ...

Hemp stalk contains lignin: “Lignin could hold the answer to achieving a complete bio-based jet fuel. Researchers at NREL, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Washington State University have reported success in using #lignin as a path toward a drop-in 100% sustainable aviation fuel (#SAF). Lignin makes up the rigid parts of the cell walls of … Continue reading "Jet Fuel From Hemp Stalk?" ...

Considering exporting hemp to China? Although it’s a bit like “coals to Newcastle,” here’s what you need to know. This report was prepared by USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, Global Agricultural Information Network last year: Date:  September 22, 2021Report Number: CH2021-0113Report Name: China’s Hemp and Hemp Products Import Policies Report Highlights:While hemp has been grown in … Continue reading "China Hemp Import Requirements" ...

The following are some useful links to 11 very good resources for Hemp companies. Some are quite long and detailed, a few hundred pages. The State of Minnesota published a great manual on hemp, with quite a bit on food: Building an Industrial Hemp Industry In Minnesota“With the interest in industrial hemp growing both nationally … Continue reading "11 Useful Resources for Hemp Companies" ...

Many point to hemp’s potential as a fuel, despite it being an energy net-loss when made into diesel. I never understood the attraction to using a highly nutritious polyunsaturated oil costing as much as $60/gallon to put in peoples’ cars instead of their stomachs. But in this age of food insecurity it makes even less … Continue reading "Biofuels Starve Humans" ...

Hemp grain has a place in President Biden’s recent Executive Order to leverage biotech to create “alternative sources of food,” among other things, providing federal funding to do so. We still don’t really have the grain cultivars we need, such as those with higher yields but shorter height, high oleic acid, or higher lysine. While … Continue reading "Biden’s Biotech E.O. Could Help Hemp" ...

“Regenesis” is a new book from The Guardian reporter George Monbiot that is a damning indictment of the impact of meat-raising on land use efficiency, output per acre, wildlife, and carbon and green house gas (GHG) load. He called organic pasture-fed beef and lamb the “most damaging farm products.” It also takes regenerative meat, and … Continue reading "“Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet”" ...

Hempire, a hemp company in Ukraine, is supporting the army and supplying them with real hemp shoes. These shoes are super-light and comfortable and protect feet from sweating. To inquire about products, click: https://hempire.tech/products or call +380 50 312 3491. ...

I expect this book will become The Bible of traditional hemp textiles found in many cultures across the globe. “Git Skoglund is a Swedish textile researcher and journalist, who has studied the Cannabis plant and its many useful products since the early 1990s. Her primary focus is hemp textiles made by traditional cultures, and her … Continue reading "Most Complete Book on Hemp Textiles Ever" ...

Cannabinoids as a potential treatment for Autism (studies used 20:1 ratio of CBD:THC). Read the study at: https://www.imrpress.com/journal/FBE/14/1/10.31083/j.fbe1401001/htm#b193 ...

Before giving your prized genetics to Cornell or OSU or Phylos or USDA, get a genomic test and register it with Canopyright. Any Cannabis type, marijuana or hemp. You want to keep honest people honest but if they or their predecessor stumble, you want protection from theft of your IP. Otherwise these seed bank collections … Continue reading "Canopyright™: CYA for Breeders" ...

“AbstractThe use of hempseed flours in the animal diets may be limited by the presence of antinutritive compounds. The content of phytic acid, condensed tannins, trypsin inhibitors, cyanogenic glycosides and saponins was evaluated in hempseed meal of three italian varieties (dioecious) and three french varieties (monoecious) of Cannabis sativa L. The analysis of variance showed … Continue reading "Variability in Antinutritional compounds in Hempseed meal of Italian and French varieties" ...