Climate change got personal for my family in 2013, when a refugee bear fleeing a nearby wildfire scaled my goat-corral fence and killed most of the herd in front of our eyes. Milk providers, yoga partners and friends Natalie Merchant, Bette Midler and Stevie Nicks were lost that day (we name our goats after singers we like). Baby Taylor Swift survived and slept inside with my human kids for a while.

Since that day, I’ve been consciously sequestering carbon — trying to reduce carbon miles by eating and buying locally, avoiding petroleum-based plastics in favor of compostable materials and furthering both of these goals by planting hemp and milking goats. It’s my day job: farming so my grandkids have a habitable planet.

State regulators say the lottery to award licenses to operate six new medical cannabis facilities has been delayed due to an ongoing appeal of a rejected lottery applicant.

The administrative appeal first delayed the lottery in the spring and now it will not happen the first week of August either, the Providence Journal reported.

Matthew Santacroce, chief of the Office of Cannabis Regulation within the Department of Business Regulation, said Tuesday that the lottery will not be scheduled until the appeal has run its course and it remains unclear how long that could take.

The new facilities will be dispersed around the state in six regions, joining the dispensaries in Providence, Portsmouth and Warwick.

The CBD market has achieved steady growth curve even during the pandemic. CBD or cannabidiol is a natural substance derived from cannabis, found in both marijuana and the non-psychoactive hemp plant. CBD is a non-psychoactive chemical compound and may alleviate things such as anxiety and pain, which is why it is used to create wellness products, such as oils, edibles and functional beverages. The pandemic caused a shift in CBD sales to online channels. While this shift ensured that CBD products remained accessible to consumers, it did not fully compensate for the loss of education and brand awareness available at some retail stores.

ALBANY — A certification process highlighting energy-efficient cannabis cultivators and a tax credit to complement it are key sustainability proposals of an industry white paper released Tuesday by New York’s Castetter Cannabis Group. The paper also called for state regulators to develop a strategy for data collection and analysis of license holders’ operations.

Its recommendations reinforce lawmakers’ urgency to minimize harm to the the state’s fledgling industry, but suggest a divergent strategy centered on incentives rather than efficiency limits.

“We’re advocating for a performance-based approach,” said Kate Hruby, the group’s lead policy analyst and co-author of the paper.

As billionaires blast off into space to search for inhabitable planets, there are other business leaders doing their part to keep the planet we have from either burning up or being buried under all the garbage we produce. CannaCraft, a community-oriented cannabis company based in Sonoma County, has made it its mission to tackle the plastic packaging waste issue.

When the New Mexico Legislature was considering a bill that eventually became the Cannabis Regulation Act, one of the major topics of concern was water use. Ultimately, lawmakers agreed to require cannabis growers to prove they had legal access to water.

Marijuana smokers in Southern Illinois can now legally light up in a new consumption lounge. The Luna Lounge, in Sesser, Illinois, about 5 hours south of Chicago, was specifically built for marijuana smokers.

A trial carried out in Western Australia is indicating strong potential for hemp to be a good summer feed option for livestock.

There’s a lot of anecdotal evidence that hemp is a great livestock feed, but one of the challenges is regulatory – concerns about how the intoxicating cannabinoid THC may impact animal products. While THC is only present in small amounts in hemp, the fact it exists at all is the main reason it remains illegal to feed it to livestock in many jurisdictions.

While the use of cannabis dates back to the third millennium BC, the ways that humans have experienced the plant haven’t changed dramatically. With legal medicinal dispensaries being welcomed into our communities, the selection and quality of cannabis products has improved vastly - but the fundamental experience of ingestible products has stayed basically the same. At long last, that’s about to change.

Maine’s recreational marijuana market continued its eye-popping growth in June, the state has reported.

Sales of cannabis for recreational, adult use topped $6.47 million for the month, up from $5.36 million in May, according to new data from the Maine Office of Marijuana Policy. More than 86,000 purchases took place during June.

The value of June sales is the highest monthly total since Maine’s recreational marijuana market launched last October, and represents a 20.6% increase over the dollar amount in May. That’s slightly less than the 23.2% growth in May over the previous month.

To date, sales have totaled nearly $30 million, according to the OMP. June sales were roughly six times the total in the first month.

EcoCaNN, the first social media for medical cannabis patients, was launched officially in Israel this morning. The app allows patients and their families to consult and to get assistance by the best professionals in the medical cannabis field, and to get specific answers to their questions 24/7. EcoCaNN is based on a free digital platform and the information in the app is protected, anonymous, and confidential.

Delta Agriculture, the country's largest industrial producer and processor of hemp raw goods, today announced the launch of its hemp fiber line, marking a transitional growth from leader in hemp flower production into a full-scale industrial hemp supplier. The company also unveiled a new logo as part of an extensive rebrand initiative focused on its goal to make hemp the nation's leading raw good supply source, with the ultimate mission to ensure America's trajectory towards a carbon-negative future.

A new report suggests having accessible weed can add to your property value.

If you’ve been shopping around for a new home recently, you’ve probably noticed that real estate prices have increased. This is true, particularly in weed-friendly states. But with 91% of American adults who support cannabis legalization, it will only continue to spread throughout the country and there is no doubt it will have an impact on real estate prices.

London-listed marijuana business Kanabo (KNB.L) has struck a deal that it says will make it Europe's biggest publicly traded cannabis company.

Kanabo said on Monday it had agreed terms to buy the European operations of Canada's Materia, a cannabis processor and supplier. Exact terms weren't disclosed but Kanabo said the deal would be paid for through shares and subject to performance-related goals.

"The only part that we’re not involved in now in the supply chain is cultivation," Kanabo's chief executive Avihu Tamir told Yahoo Finance UK. "Our belief is that cultivation will be a commodity like other agricultural products. We believe the value is in the last mile."

https://www.benzinga.com/markets/cannabis/21/07/22112492/advocacy-coalit... York Cannabis United is calling on both the Cuomo Administration and New York State Legislators to uphold the promises made in the new law by swiftly appointing leadership to the Cannabis Control Board.

By Imani A. Dawson

The North Carolina Senate keeps advancing a bill that would legalize medical marijuana here, as the state remains one of the few holdouts in the country without such a law.

Senators in the Finance Committee passed the bill Wednesday, after a brief discussion about the taxes and other revenue it might bring to North Carolina if passed. No one had a solid estimate, but based on other states, it would likely bring in tens of millions of dollars a year.

The University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences has concluded a two-year pilot study to measure hemp cultivation possibilities in Florida. 

The project aimed to assess hemp suitability, develop management strategies and evaluate the invasion risk in Florida. The university monitored 50 different hemp varieties in outdoor and greenhouse growing environments.

Zachary Brym, an agronomy assistant professor at UF and hemp pilot project lead scientist, said that for now, the researchers were not able to identify one variety that would successfully flourish in Florida's climate.