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USDA Hemp Handbook Receives Update To Build Hemp Information, Support Conservation Efforts
The USDA continues to expand its hemp handbook with the newest version, which aims to preserve hemp genetic diversity.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently published an updated version of its Hemp Handbook last month. The first version of the handbook was published in September 2021, followed by a second update in April 2023. This third and newest version was published online in July, called “USDA Hemp Descriptor and Phenotyping Handbook, Version 3,” expands on numerous sections including hemp pathology, agronomic evaluation, and fiber quality, and protocols for things like feral hemp collection, seed threshing, tissue culture, pollen collection, and more.
Throughout all of these versions, the handbook seeks to help researchers with a variety of objectives, from helping “breeders and researchers in identifying accessions with specific traits to facilitate germplasm selection within hemp improvement programs” to filling in gaps in the USDA hemp collection and developing ways to collect and conserve hemp varieties. “The methods and protocols are based on peer-reviewed literature and/or crowd-sourced from the hemp community,” the handbook states. “Robust, reliable, and high-dimensional data generated from these phenotyping efforts will empower conservation of hemp genetic diversity and aid selection of materials with unique trait combinations for breeding programs.”
The USDA’s phenotype results are stored both digitally and are publicly available through the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) and the Plant Genetic Resources Unit (PGRU), based in Geneva, New York. “The Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) provides information about USDA national collections of animal, microbial, and plant genetic resources (germplasm) important for food and agricultural production,” the USDA website states. “GRIN documents these collections through informational pages, searchable databases, and links to USDA-ARS projects that curate the collections.”
The GRIN NPGS (U.S. National Plant Germplasm System) doesn’t serve home or community gardeners, or home school or K-12 school education efforts, but instead was made for professional plant breeders and researchers.
The USDA explains on its website that the goal of germplasm collection at the PGRU is to preserve hemp genetic resources. “These resources will be backed-up at the ARS National Laboratory for Genetic Resources Preservation, regenerated, monitored, and maintained with best management practices, so that high quality germplasm can be distributed to researchers and breeders within the hemp community,” the website states. “Vulnerable or threatened genetic resources for hemp wild relatives and cultivars will be safeguarded so that these critical sources of genes for hemp research and breeding are widely available. In addition, new genetic resources for hemp that might be suitable for U.S agricultural systems will be introduced.”
In August, the USDA created a “high-throughput pollen collection device” that was developed to efficiently collect pollen. “Hemp is a new crop added to our seed bank in 2021 and we believe it has a lot of research potential,” said Tony Barraco in a USDA video about the device. “One objective we are exploring is the possibility of collection, long term storage, and distribution of pollen to stakeholders, like we distribute seeds.” The device was conceptualized by a former USDA post-doc Nick Genna and hemp curator Zachary Stansell, as well as hemp geneticist Tyler Gordon and technician Dan Meyers (the last three are also editors of the USDA Hemp Descriptor and Phenotyping Handbook).
The device is wearable like a backpack and includes a 100-micron mesh screen attached to a vacuum nozzle that can be carefully passed across live hemp plant material. Pollen is approximately 25 microns in size, so the vacuum can collect pollen without also collecting larger pieces of raw plant material.
The USDA continues to ramp up efforts regarding hemp, such as its “2023 Hemp Webinar Series” which includes eight videos published over the past few months.
Also last month, the USDA featured a father/son hemp cultivator team for the first time as part of its “Fridays on the Farm” spotlight column. The column covered the operations of their 200-acre hemp farm in Indiana, called Papa G’s Hemp Farm, and how the father once cultivated corn, soybeans, and hay on his property before his son convinced him to grow hemp.
In 2022, the USDA released a report that took a closer look at the growing value of the hemp industry, valuing it at approximately $824 million (considering data collected in 2021). The data was revised in a report released earlier this year, which stated that industrial hemp was only worth $238 million in value, with 2022 industrial hemp data consulted. It also shared that last year industrial hemp was cultivated on 28,314 acres, which was a 48% decrease from outdoor cultivation in 2021.
The benefits of hemp are widespread, from its versatile use as a food, textile, and agricultural good, but also as a source of pollen for pollinators. A recent study released in July explored hemp as a nutrition source for bees (primary sweat bees, but also honey bees and bumblebees as well). Researchers analyzed the chemical composition of four industrial hemp varieties (called Canda, CFX-2, Henola, and Joey). “Overall, the Joey variety was the most preferred by bees, despite expressing lower protein, amino acid, and saturated and monosaturated fatty acid content,” researchers concluded. “Based on our findings, we concluded that industrial hemp pollen provides some nutritional benefits to bees. However, it is important to understand that multiple sources of pollen are needed for sustained bee survival.”
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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