The clock is ticking on hemp licenses for North Carolina farmers. N.C. farmers now are licensed under the federal government’s 2014 hemp pilot program. If the state’s 2019 Farm Act doesn’t pass in the next couple months, farmers will have to register for licenses under U.S. Department of Agriculture rules to continue legally growing hemp....
Lawmakers have reached a compromise on smokable hemp, but their agreement may not make everyone in the hemp community happy. For now. Sen. Brent Jackson, R-Sampson, and Rep. Jimmy Dixon, R-Duplin, have agreed to a June 1, 2020, smokable hemp ban, an Oct. 24 conference committee report shows. Legislators since March have debated about how...
North Carolina’s farm bill has passed the House, but it now may be frozen in the Senate. Senate Bill 315, “North Carolina Farm Act of 2019,” was approved Wednesday, Aug. 21, by a 63-48 vote, but only after House members revised the omnibus legislation to outlaw the sale and use of dried, smokable hemp flowers...
North Carolina lawmakers want farmers to grow more hemp. Senate Bill 315, the North Carolina Farm Bill of 2019, passed the Senate June 17 by a 31-14 vote. S.B. 315 officially authorizes and regulates statewide hemp farming, among other things. That’s a big deal for agriculture across the U.S., experts say. The federal government in...
Andrew Ross, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Afghanistan, in January was working private security for a cross-country delivery of hemp. Ross’s task was simple: Guard a truckload of state-approved industrial hemp, grown in Kentucky, and bound for Colorado. Ross was pulled over by police in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, after the delivery truck he was...
The Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday, Sept. 27 that it’s seeking information on how consumers use milk alternatives as a first step in potentially changing how plant-based dairy substitutes are labeled. “We are interested in learning whether consumers are aware of and understand the basic nature, essential characteristics, characterizing ingredients, and nutritional differences between...
Food handlers are in luck, but their good fortune might not help farmers who were victimized by shady operators. In the current version of Senate Bill 711, NC Farm Bill of 2018, the Senate jettisoned a plan to hit produce transport services with hefty fees. The fees were meant to protect farmers from bankrupt or...
Federal environmental regulations are battering farmers, and public policy research analyst Darren Bakst believes there is a mechanism to address the plight. It’s the next version of the federal Farm Bill, now in its early stages, said Bakst, a former John Locke Foundation researcher now with the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation. The regulatory burden is...
