The Colorado Department of Agriculture is seeking committee members to help steer the upcoming state Hemp Center of Excellence. Created by a 2018 bill, the CDA s Hemp Center of Excellence is intended to help direct U.S. Department of Agriculture-approved research, outreach and educational efforts in the state s hemp industry.
According to the CDA, the panel will assist the department and a third-party management contractor in the development of the organizational structure and a five-year strategic plan for the new Hemp Center. The bill establishing the Hemp Center also required that the CDA select a third party to manage the center s launch and early strategic planning. That committee ultimately chose MPG Consulting (formerly Marijuana Policy Group), which had been better known for policy work regarding state-legal marijuana than industrial hemp.
2019’s overproduction is under the bridge. The USDA has weighed in, largely but not entirely positively. The FDA’s slow walk stands in the way.
Peaks and valleys. Booms and busts. Hemp and in particular its supplement darling cannabinoid called cannabidiol, or CBD has been on a wild ride since the 2014 farm bill gave it an opening to the market.
After the next farm bill was signed in December 2018, the next year was going to be a boom year. Hemp acreage planted shot up from 77,000 acres to close to half a million. Maybe it had too much too fast, but that was far too much hemp to accommodate even the booming CBD market. Prices crashed and the industry experienced the great storage experiment.
The Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA) is moving forward with a contract to manage the creation of the Colorado Hemp Center of Excellence, despite objections from several key hemp industry players, some of whom are continuing to protest.
Intended to help direct U.S. Department of Agriculture-approved hemp research, outreach and educational efforts in the state, the Colorado Hemp Center of Excellence was established by a bill approved in 2018 by the Colorado Legislature. The bill mandated that the center s launch and early strategic planning be managed by a third party to be selected by a committee set up by the CDA. That committee ultimately chose the Marijuana Policy Group (now MPG Consulting), which had been at the forefront of policy work on state-legal marijuana and THC but was relatively new to hemp regulation.