Indiana members! This is it! HB 1224 will be scheduled for a hearing at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, April 5, in the Senate Committee on Commerce and Technology. We need all of you to consistently contact the committee members and ask that they vote “Yes” on HB 1224. Their contact information can be found below. This bill will not pass unless you help educate Senators on why this bill is so important to you as a farmer, business or consumer. Currently, craft hemp flower is free to move in “continuous transit” in Indiana - so long as an Indiana farmer didn’t grow it, an Indiana business didn’t sell it and an Indiana consumer didn’t possess it.

The House Committee on Commerce, Small Business and Economic Development took testimony on HB 1224 on January 25, 2021. The bill will be scheduled for a final committee vote early next week and we need your help.

• extending the harvesting window to 30 days
• improving sampling requirements
• allowing remediation
• raising the negligence threshold from .5% THC to 1% THC.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Office of Indiana State Chemist (OISC) is warning the public about predatory hemp seed vendors known to be currently active in the state.

Midwest Hemp Council’s 2021 Hemp at the Crossroads conference, originally scheduled for February 4-5, 2021, has been postponed until December 1-3, 2021.

Heartland Hemp Coop today announces the launch of its member-owned cooperative, focused on building a seed-to-shelf supply chain for hemp farmers in the Midwest. The coop will focus on the production and processing of hemp for fiber. 

Green Sense Farms is seeking an enthusiastic, tech-savvy sales person to join our hemp propagation team! Responsibilities will include generating new leads, qualifying suspects and developing hot prospects into sales. This will include, internet searches (LinkedIn, Facebook, State Hemp Associations, Farmer Co-Ops) networking, and maintaining contracts, customer files, and manage customer database for tracking communication.

After establishing the Midwest Hemp Council Animal Feed Committee and forming a partnership with the Hemp Feed Coalition, exciting progress is being made in unifying the HFC’s vision with MHC membership.

As a complement to today's podcast episode, featuring Commercial Director Ryan Bellone, KCA labs created this handy guide to reading and understanding a certificate of analysis.

U.S. seed developer New West Genetics (NWG) has released ABOUND, a line of dioecious hemp seeds for row crop farming, suggesting that conventional outdoor growing offers a path to scalability, dual-cropping of CBD and grain, and a stable supply chain.

Last week, The Office of Advocacy (Advocacy) of the U.S. Small Business Administration submitted a comment letter in response to the reopening of the public comment period for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) interim final rule. They urged AMS to extend the public comment period for a minimum of 30 additional days to allow for small businesses and their representatives to fully and meaningfully participate in this important rulemaking.

To read their letter, click here.

Agrozen Labs, an MHC member and the first non-governmental lab in Indiana to offer certified hemp testing, is offering a 10% discount to Midwest Hemp Council members! Their goal is to help farmers and formulators stay compliant with state and federal rules and regulations – so they work closely with the Office of the Indiana State Chemist and the University of Kentucky to ensure reliable and consistent results.

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Stakeholders in the U.S. state of Kentucky say they will launch a re-branded, independent hemp organization after a falling out with the national Hemp Industries Association (HIA).

The state of New York will not submit a state hemp plan to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), saying the federal program‘s requirements are too strict on growers. The announcement effectively puts on hold the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets’ hemp program.