Hemp is re-emerging as an agricultural commodity at a time of unusual social and geopolitical unrest, driven in part by a global pandemic and the resulting economic fallout. Hemp markets are developing as a wide range of programs roll out funding to address the above issues. These financial programs, along with additional funding opportunities that incentivize sustainability, are creating abundant opportunity within developing hemp markets.
But of all the funding opportunities emerging for hemp producers, a larger focus on climate change by the Biden administration may be the most compelling. President Joe Biden and his administration are looking to mobilize billions of dollars over the next several years for climate change initiatives via agricultural policy.
In the administration’s Climate21 Transition Memo, the Biden team outlines the importance of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and, more broadly, agricultural practices in mitigating climate change: “While the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has not historically been at the center of the public conversation on federal climate policy, the Department has enormous and underappreciated discretionary financial resources and agency expertise,” the memo states.
It goes on to say these resources allow the USDA to facilitate the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHGs), bolster the resilience of farms and forests to climate change, promote bioenergy and more.
The administration is aiming to give the USDA, and agriculture, a prominent role in the campaign against climate change. In addition to increasing agency staffing and overall capacity—with a focus on cultivating agency leadership—President Joe Biden plans to roll out programs that involve promoting climate-smart practices at both farms and forests, creating incentives through existing programs like crop insurance, as well as developing a carbon bank.
Carbon Markets
In the climate priorities laid out by the executive branch for the administration’s first 100 days, establishing carbon markets is right up at the top.
As explained in Biden’s memo, a carbon bank would allow the USDA to buy carbon credits from producers and forest landowners to sell to companies that want to reduce their carbon footprint. “A USDA carbon bank would provide a guaranteed price for producers while guaranteeing the environmental integrity of carbon conservation practices,” the memo states.
The concept of carbon trading is simple—the practice, not so much. One carbon credit equals one metric ton (MT) of carbon dioxide (CO2). This system allows companies to offset their GHG emissions by paying a farmer to utilize agricultural practices that sequester CO2 in soils. Carbon sequestration can be achieved by employing farming practices that forgo tillage or incorporate cover crops, for instance.
Measuring the amount of CO2 stored by various cropping practices, however, is where carbon markets have struggled historically, as soil sampling at scale hasn’t been practical. However, the Soil Health Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving soil health, has recently been awarded a $3.25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a soil carbon measurement and monitoring system called the DeepC system. This will not only make carbon inventories more accessible, but also be indispensable for researchers looking to understand hemp’s capacity to sequester carbon.
Settling contracts for carbon thus far has been handled primarily by modeling with tools like the USDA’s COMET-Farm system. The platform incorporates granular data from farm management applications, satellite weather and field sensor data to quantify CO2. At its simplest, if modeling shows a producer has captured 2 tons of CO2, and pricing is contracted at $15 per credit, the contract would be settled at $30.
The Biden administration has discussed establishing the carbon bank by accessing funds through the USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation, which has $30 billion in borrowing capacity. Biden’s memo suggests allocating $1 billion to purchase carbon credits at $20 per ton.
Creating a carbon bank will require congressional approval, but U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack is a USDA veteran, and like other members of Biden’s cabinet, he has considerable experience in moving the levers of government.
The Potential for Farmers
The current agricultural carbon marketplace is nascent, and practice is far from widespread.
But it is poised to leap out of the gates with a government-supported program.
Existing companies like Nori and Indigo Ag have been active in buying and selling carbon credits. Indigo Ag estimates that producers will realize .3 carbon credit per acre in their first year of using existing conservation cropping practices. This doesn’t refer to hemp specifically, which may have far greater potential. Indigo Ag set a floor at $10 per credit, but pricing could reach $15 on that platform. (European credits are trending over double that in current spot markets and in European Union carbon futures markets.)
Some companies have already begun utilizing the carbon marketplace. Land O’Lakes cooperative, for example, recently announced the sale of 100,000 MT of CO2 to Microsoft at $20/MT, as reported by Bloomberg. This allows Microsoft to voluntarily offset its GHG—something that may become compulsory in the future.
For hemp farmers, the ability to complement hemp prices with the sale of carbon credits is compelling. Fiber and hempseed producers will more likely benefit from this policy, as they tend to grow on a larger scale, but cannabidiol (CBD) producers using organic mulches and cover cropping may also.
Considerable research is still needed to fully understand the potential for hemp to sequester carbon in various soils. But hemp producers and researchers are developing agronomic practices for hemp concurrent with the emergence of carbon banks, which is enabling carbon offsets to shape production practices.
Ultimately, the development of carbon markets has potential to not only impact hemp agronomic practices, but also help hemp growers improve their soils while generating an additional revenue source.
Chase Hubbard is a senior hemp analyst at The Jacobsen, a commodity price reporting and price forecasting agency.
4 Tips for Successfully Transplanting Hemp in the Greenhouse
Departments - Smart Start: Quick Tips
Here are some ways growers can work to reduce grow issues once seeds or clones have been planted.
Hunter Cobb, Carolina Greenhouses’ outside operations manager, in the business’s hemp crop.
Photos courtesy of Carolina Greenhouses
Growing hemp in a greenhouse can offer numerous benefits, such as light and climate control, year-round grows, and security, just to name a few. Below are four tips that can help reduce grow issues once seeds or clones have been planted.
1. Ventilate, ventilate and ventilate.
Whether you are producing transplants or a finished crop in your greenhouse, you must have ample ventilation. Many areas in the U.S. deal with high humidity. You need enough mechanical ventilation to remove moisture in the greenhouse and facilitate CO2 exchange. If you do not have enough air movement across the plant canopy, you may run into issues such as powdery mildew and botrytis. For houses less than 150 feet long, fans located in one end wall with the appropriate square footage of louvres (wall shutters) at the opposite end seem to work. However, when houses are 150 feet or longer, we have found it better to place large fans on a sidewall at the midway point and pull outside air from each end-wall shutter. Our rule of thumb is that every plant in the greenhouse should be “dancing” (moving or swaying) constantly from air circulation.
2. Maintain proper pH and EC.
Choosing a quality growing medium is crucial since it will impact the plant throughout its entire growth cycle. Carolina Greenhouses uses soilless mixes with a pH between 6.3-6.5, good draining ability, high air porosity and effective water retention. Many good mixes have an assortment of bacteria and fungi that support plant growth. For our plant production, we use a mix that has a 65:35 peat-to-perlite ratio; this has given us our best yields to date.
You should always know what the pH of your media is during the entire growth cycle. Use proper PourThru techniques to check pH, and electrical conductivity (EC) readings. Ideal EC readings depend on what growth stage the plant is in, but proper EC and PH are both critical for a happy plant. (Editor’s note: Read more information about the PourThru method). We always make sure our solution tanks, where we mix nutrients with source water, have the proper pH and EC readings before we pump the water through the irrigation system. Every time we water or feed, we do this—not occasionally, but always! Hemp does not like to be overwatered nor overfertilized.
3. Do not skimp on genetics.
Start with good genetics. Whether you use seed or clones, genetics combined with proper nutrition have a huge impact on the quality of hemp grown in your greenhouse. Purchase clones from a reputable company that is willing to be open about its cloning process and mother plants. The same goes for seed. Make sure the company has proven genetics and is able to provide data on testing and the history of the variety.
4. Provide adequate plant spacing.
One of the biggest mistakes we have seen other hemp growers make is packing too many plants in a greenhouse. Hemp plants do not like to be overcrowded. This can cause various issues, such as pest infestations and yellowing underneath the canopy. Too many plants can also hurt yields. It’s better to err on the lower side than it is to overfill the greenhouse with plants that you cannot get to and properly care for.
Lisa Cobb is president of Carolina Greenhouses, a company that has grown agricultural crops such as tobacco for 30 years and incorporated hemp production when the 2018 Farm Bill passed.
Your Guide to the USDA’s Final Rule
Features - Feature
The newest set of regulations allows more flexibility to states in creating their hemp programs.
On Jan. 15, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) released a final rule on hemp based on its previous set of regulations that drew public comments from nearly 6,000 people.
The latest set of regulations makes several highly requested changes to the interim final rule (IFR) that are seen as favorable to both hemp producers and regulators.
Still, contentious aspects of the IFR remain, but some industry members are hopeful there is still time to amend them.
“Overall, the final rule’s contents in some ways show progress and demonstrate the USDA has looked into the industry as part of its public comment process,” Garrett Graff, managing partner of Denver-based Hoban Law Group, tells Hemp Grower. “In another way, the final rule remains stagnant.”
Sampling
The final rule made several changes to sampling procedures that should reduce burdens on both growers and regulators.
First, the rule increased the sampling window, which is currently 15 days. Samples for testing now need to be taken up to 30 days before a farmer plans to harvest, giving regulators more time to get into fields. Many stated in public comments that 15 days was far too little time to collect an appropriate amount of samples from each producer in the state.
The rule also slightly modified from where on the plant samples need to be taken. While the IFR required collecting a sample from the top third portion of the plant, the final rule now states samples should be taken “approximately five to eight inches from the ‘main stem’ (that includes the leaves and flowers), ‘terminal bud’ (that occurs at the end of a stem), or ‘central cola’ (cut stem that could develop into a bud) of the flowering top of the plant.”
Andrea Hope J. Steel, the director at Coats Rose P.C. and co-leader of the law firm’s Cannabis Business Law group, tells Hemp Grower this provision will allow sampling agents to collect more stem and leaf material than previously allowed.
“That will help reduce instances of hot crops,” Steel says. Stems and leaves typically contain lower levels of cannabinoids—and specific to this issue, of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)—than the flowers.
However, Graff says the final rule still requires sampling from primarily floral material despite comments on the IFR that requested switching to a whole-plant sampling approach.
The final rule dedicates a significant portion of its 300 pages to addressing and responding to the most highly requested comments, including those on sampling.
“Even though many commenters felt that whole plant sampling should be allowed, AMS is of the opinion that since THC is concentrated in the flower material of the plant, the flower material is more appropriate to test than the entire plant,” the final rule states.
Perhaps most significantly, the final rule has changed sampling protocols from collecting a “representative sample of every lot [growers] plan to harvest” using specific methodology, according to the IFR, to allowing states and tribes to implement a more “performance-based” method of sampling.
The AMS says these performance-based sampling protocols may take into account:
seed certification processes (or other processes that identify varieties that have consistently produced compliant hemp plants);
whether the producer is conducting research on hemp at an institution of higher learning or that is funded by a federal, state or tribal government;
whether a producer has consistently produced compliant hemp plants over an extended period of time;
whether a producer is growing “immature” hemp, such as seedlings, clones, microgreens or other non-flowering cannabis, that does not reach the flowering stage;
other similar factors.
Ultimately, the amendments provide greater flexibility, especially for producers and varieties with a history of compliance.
“Flexibilities afforded to States and Indian Tribes developing their own hemp production plans will allow them to incorporate best practices, as those change and develop over time. For example, States and Indian Tribes can adapt field-walking patterns to various sized and shaped hemp grower operations,” the final rule states. “AMS believes that a national standard would be difficult to consistently apply given the various grower operations and that standard ‘zig-zag,’ or letters ‘M’ or ‘Z’ walk patterns may not be feasible for sample collection of micro-acreage producers, very large scale producers or those with polygonal hemp lots.”
States will need to include details of their performance-based sampling methods in their hemp plans, which the USDA must approve. (Visit this site for the AMS's updated guide on sampling.)
On Jan. 15, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) released a final rule on hemp based on its previous set of regulations that drew public comments from nearly 6,000 people.
The latest set of regulations makes several highly requested changes to the interim final rule (IFR) that are seen as favorable to both hemp producers and regulators.
Still, contentious aspects of the IFR remain, but some industry members are hopeful there is still time to amend them.
“Overall, the final rule’s contents in some ways show progress and demonstrate the USDA has looked into the industry as part of its public comment process,” Garrett Graff, managing partner of Denver-based Hoban Law Group, tells Hemp Grower. “In another way, the final rule remains stagnant.”
Testing
While the final rule implemented generally positive sampling changes for the industry, THC testing will, for the most part, remain burdensome.
The final rule retains that hemp must remain below 0.3% total THC on a dry-weight basis. Total THC is defined as the sum of delta-9-THC and tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA). On its own, THCA does not produce psychoactive effects like delta-9-THC, but it can be converted to THC through decarboxylation.
While increasing that limit was one of the most highly requested changes in public comments, the USDA was unable to do so, as that limit was written into law in the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (the 2018 Farm Bill) and would require an act of Congress to change.
However, legislation has been introduced in both Kentucky and at the federal level by Sen. Rand Paul to amend that limit to 1%.
The final rule also retained “one of the most hated provisions,” Graff says—its requirement for labs testing hemp to be registered with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), despite numerous public comments opposing it.
“Registration is necessary because laboratories could potentially handle cannabis that tests above 0.3 percent THC on a dry weight basis, which is, by definition, marijuana and a Schedule 1 controlled substance,” the final rule states.
In 2020, the USDA announced the delay of some requirements outlined in the IFR, including the requirement for labs to be registered by the DEA. That delay has been further extended until December 2022.
Jeff Greene, co-founder and director of business development of The Florida Hemp Council, sees that delay as a good sign—especially if the Biden administration chooses to reexamine and amend the final rule.
“There’s still some work to be done, but [the USDA] acknowledged that by pushing off the DEA lab requirement until 2022, so they acknowledged they don’t necessarily have it right,” Greene says. “I think if the industry can show the USDA that [the DEA lab requirement] is not necessary over the next year, I believe it will be lifted.”
The final rule did make one positive change on the testing front. It raised the negligence threshold from 0.5% to 1%, which means if hemp tests above 0.3% but below 1%, it will not be considered a negligent violation (however, it will still need to be disposed of or remediated). Those with crops testing at or above 1% THC will receive a Notice of Violation from the USDA, which will include a corrective action plan that producers are required to follow by a certain date and report progress on to the USDA. Producers with more than three negligent violations within a five-year period will be ineligible to participate in the licensed hemp program for the next five years.
However, producers are only subject to a maximum of one negligent violation per year, even if their hemp from multiple lots tests up to 1% THC.
“I think it has taken a lot of the bite out of criminality,” Greene says about the increased negligence limit.
Options for Hot Hemp
If hemp does test “hot” above the 0.3% THC limit, the final rule has given producers additional options for disposal beyond the total destruction written into the IFR.
States now have several options for more productive and less wasteful methods of disposal that can result in useful soil amendments.
Those include:
plowing under
mulching/composting the hemp
disking
shredding the biomass with a bush mower or chopper.
Producers may also bury or burn their hot hemp. (The AMS implemented these additional options in early 2020, but they were not written into the IFR.)
The final rule also implements a brand-new option for hot hemp crops: remediation.
The rule states producers can remediate their material by “removing and destroying flower material, while retaining stalk, stems, leaf material, and seeds.” Producers may also shred the entire plant to create a “biomass-like material” and then retest it for compliance.
Producers also no longer need to use a DEA-registered distributor or law enforcement to dispose of hot hemp.
“Through both forms of remediation, producers may be able to minimize losses, and in some cases produce a return on investment while ensuring that non-compliant material does not enter commerce,” the final rule states. (Go here for more information from the AMS about crop disposal and remediation.)
Other Changes and a Potential for Future Amendments
The final rule makes several other changes, including clarifying authorities tribes have over hemp production.
“The IFR did not specifically address whether a tribe with an approved USDA plan could exercise primary regulatory authority over the production of hemp across all its territory or only lands over which it has inherent jurisdiction,” AMS says on its website. “The final rule provides that a tribe may exercise jurisdiction and therefore regulatory authority over the production of hemp throughout its territory regardless of the extent of its inherent regulatory authority.”
The AMS also makes clear in the new regulations that the final rule only pertains to hemp cultivation. Any production that takes place afterward is under purview of the DEA and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“What happens after growth is not under the purview of the USDA,” Steel says.
While these regulations are the so-called “final rule” on hemp, they may not be so final. Several industry sources say that President Joe Biden’s administration may call for a freeze on the rule, which is due to take effect March 22, and make amendments to it. As of press time, the USDA said its final rule was “under review,” but not withdrawn.
Ultimately, many say the final rule is a step in the right direction for the hemp industry. Still, improvements can be made.
Greene predicts the USDA will learn from how states implement their performance-based sampling procedures and eventually standardize the most successful programs on a federal level.
“The DEA lab requirement and how [hemp is sampled] are two things that will be finalized during the Biden administration,” Greene says, adding that Sen. Rand Paul’s bill to increase the THC limit to 1% would be the trifecta of amendments for the industry. “If we hit those pitches out of the park, then we win the game.”
Theresa Bennett is editor of Hemp Grower.
Small Business Administration Considers 97% of Hemp Producers "Small"
Departments - Smart Start: And Counting
Meanwhile, the USDA estimates that 22,000 U.S. hemp producer licenses will be issued in 2021.
Luis Vega of ¡WEPA! Farms' Road From Cannabis Consumer to Hemp Business Owner
Features - Cover Story
Puerto Rican farmer Luis Vega has used his passion for cannabis to found a Connecticut-based farm-to-store hemp business, ¡WEPA! Farms, that partners with growers across three states.
Luis Vega, founder and CEO of ¡WEPA Farms!, says it was a pair of jeans that helped him fully understand hemp’s potential.
Luis Vega, founder and CEO of ¡WEPA! Farms, says it was a pair of jeans that helped him fully understand hemp’s potential.
“When I was first getting interested in the industry, I bought a pair of hemp jeans. This pair of pants is now about 16 years old, and they still look like they’re brand new. They’re relatively comfortable, too,” Vega says.
Today, Vega is playing a role in helping hemp reach that potential. He now runs or manages 270 acres of hemp farmland, primarily in rural Shelton, Conn., about an hour north of New York City. ¡WEPA! Farms works with multiple cultivars of hemp, contracts with agricultural businesses across three states—Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut—and sells everything from hemp face masks to cannabidiol (CBD) coffee online.
While the technical and entrepreneurial achievements he’s made with ¡WEPA! so far are impressive, he’s eager to realize the future he sees for hemp: a return to its widespread status as not just a therapeutic product, but also a multifunctional textile, building material, and source of income for others in agriculture.
“As a farmer, it has started to become more socially acceptable to integrate hemp into your crop rotations. ... I want other agricultural providers to understand that integrating hemp is a viable option—for everybody,” Vega says.
Founding ¡WEPA!
While his experiences with hemp came a bit later in life, Vega became acquainted with cannabis as a teenager. Growing up in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, he was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis—a tough hand to be dealt at a young age.
“They removed my large intestine—the entire thing,” Vega says. “I was given an ostomy bag in my teenage years. ... I found cannabis at 16 years old, and it gave me back my quality of life. I knew then that it was my plant for the rest of my life.”
He went on to study finance at the University of New Haven, earned a postgraduate degree in business, and began working in corporate contract facility management. But his passion for cannabis never wavered, and he spent evenings and weekends doing anything and everything possible to get involved in the industry.
“I started doing some sales for a CBD company on the West Coast that a buddy in college had started ... so while I was working my regular job, I was doing CBD sales, I was traveling out to farms [in states where hemp production was legal], I was really starting to get engulfed in the agricultural side of hemp and the possibilities it had,” Vega says.
When Connecticut legalized hemp production in 2019, the local farms Vega had already been working with decided to add hemp into their crop rotations.
Soon after, Vega says he decided to cash out his 401(k) and “invest in myself.” He purchased some land, got his hemp license, purchased seed and began growing it himself.
Vega was part of the Connecticut Department of Agriculture’s hemp pilot program, which launched in May 2019 (just a week after it was legalized). He was one of 109 growers awarded a license to cultivate hemp in Connecticut that year.
“Our first year we grew 5 acres. ... The land had already come with strawberries, blueberries and a couple other crops, so we added hemp as part of our agricultural rotation,” he says.
Vega was also adamant that he and his team would oversee the processing of the plant to maintain better control over the final product.
“We also got ourselves a processing license, which allowed us to harvest and process our own materials, so we didn’t have to go out and look for a processor,” Vega says. “I like to believe that’s something that contributed to our success.”
Since that first year, things have been a bit of an up-and-down ride. After going through the months-long process of applying for and obtaining its license, the ¡WEPA! team was able to process its harvest throughout the winter of 2019.
Courtesy of Luis Vega
¡WEPA! Farms’ Cherry Wine cultivar pre-rolls
Courtesy of Luis Vega
Vega shows off a bud of his White CBG variety.
Courtesy of Luis Vega
Vega admires his 2020 hemp harvest.
Courtesy of Luis Vega
Where They Are Now
Today, ¡WEPA! Farms manages, contracts or operates nearly 300 acres of farmland. After Vega obtained his hemp license, neighboring farms, including O’Hara’s Nursery and Stone Garden Farms, wanted to get in on the new cash crop as well, providing ¡WEPA! with an easy path to new partnerships.
“We manage their program for them, so we get their seeds, we help them manage [integrated pest management], we do crop schedules, we do planting schedules, we do harvesting schedules with them, and we work it all out. ... It’s their license, while we manage their program so that they can continue doing things in their day-to-day,” Vega says.
While ¡WEPA!’s footprint extends across three states, Vega is especially excited about the farm he helps manage in Puerto Rico, operated by members of his extended family still living on the island. The land was acquired by his grandfather and has been in the family for over 40 years. Initially, it was used to grow common tropical crops like sugarcane and plantains. Last year was the first time the family grew hemp.
Vega, who says he travels back to the island every few months to help out with operations, wants to take things even further in the future.
“I’m gonna turn that into a full cannabis [farm]. ... That’s the goal for that,” he says, with palpable anticipation in his voice.
Courtesy of Luis Vega
White CBG variety
Despite Puerto Rico’s sometimes brutal weather—Vega’s family farm was hit by Hurricane Dorian in 2019, and Vega estimates it caused about $20,000 in damage to their crops—it’s easy to see the tantalizing potential of growing cannabis there. The legal framework for Puerto Rico’s medical cannabis program rolled out in 2017, yet it is already estimated to be a nine-figure business, according to NBC News. On the hemp side, government estimates indicate that a mature industry there could support 10,000 acres of hemp.
Back home in Shelton, Vega runs ¡WEPA! with an organic cultivation model that emphasizes protecting and preserving nature.
“We’re about 45% mineral, 5% other materials, 25% water,” Vega says of Connecticut’s soil. “We use organic methods—I’m not [USDA] certified organic, but we grow in an organic method as much as we can.”
As an example, he explains the company’s use of rye covers instead of plastic.
“We’re currently growing our rye, we’ll give it a chop, and then we will roll it to create a cover for the hemp so we don’t use plastic. ... It creates a weed barrier made of something already grown there. So through the season, as it continues to decompose, it will feed the soil itself and provide the weed barrier necessary for growing the hemp,” Vega says.
He starts his plants in a heated hoophouse adjacent to his fields. Then, he transplants them when they reach about 6 inches in height. Growing in a coastal state means Vega has the good fortune to have access to plenty of natural water sources, minimizing the need for irrigation.
“We use standard drip tape irrigation in the fields that need it. We are blessed with a water source on our property, which allows us not to have to water very often. ... We have a couple streams that run right through the fields, and we built a lot of the fields around them ...,” Vega says. “Water [sourcing] is a hard thing when it comes to growing hemp and cannabis, and most agriculture. If you have a dedicated water source right by your fields, that really goes a really long way.”
Harvest and Post Harvest
The farm grows three main varieties of hemp. For hemp flower and extracts, ¡WEPA! grows Hawaiian Haze and White CBG. Vega also grows another variety for its fiber. He compares that variety to bamboo—the plant grows tall with a narrow yet rigid center stalk, with fewer flowers at the top.
To maximize terpene preservation and create the best possible end product, Vega describes an extended harvesting and drying process for smokable hemp flower, carried out mostly by hand.
“We’ll harvest the top main colas first, and then we’ll put that into tobacco barns we converted for hemp drying. We’ll also use hemp dryers for the large biomass, ... so harvesting is done basically, by hand, over a month and a half,” he says, chuckling. “Tractors, haywagons, combines, ... it’s a long process, a beautiful dance of many people. … Scheduling and labor go a long way. ... We are blessed to receive help from local agricultural students during that time.”
Since ¡WEPA! does its own extraction and processing, the attention to detail doesn’t end after the plants are out of the ground.
“We are able to take biomass …, put it through our machinery and get a full-spectrum, high-CBD extract. With that, we also focus on some of the minor cannabinoids,” Vega says. “We currently extract CBG [cannabigerol] and CBN [cannabinol]. ... With processing, everything is time, temperature, vacuum. Everything separates out at a certain temperature for the amount of time it’s exposed to the heat and vacuum.”
When Vega talks about the extraction process, it’s easy to tell his experience with and passion for cannabis goes beyond just growing it.
“The process is subcritical ethanol extraction. ... We freeze the ethanol down to negative 78 degrees Fahrenheit, ... which strips the cannabinoids off the outside of the plant through our centrifuge,” Vega says. “From there we winterize it, and then we pass it through our rotary evaporator, which extracts all the ethanol solvent and leaves the crude CBD—or hemp oil, because it still has everything in it. That crude hemp oil is then filtered through short path distillation. From short path distillation it gets filtered again. Then, we put it through wiped film separation, and we are able to separate out terpenes and different cannabinoid profiles.”
Luis Vega holds a jar of full-spectrum hemp distillate of his Hawaiian Haze hemp variety.
In fact, Vega advises all hemp farmers to process their own crops and sell finalized products directly to consumers as much as possible in order to broaden their business.
“For the grower, I believe that adding a production aspect to your scaled grows will help increase your profit margins. ... It’s the same principle if you were in dairy and started selling ice cream,” Vega says. “You can either sell the bulk [dairy] product, or be able to give out a finished product. Finished products are always more valuable across the board.”
A quick look at ¡WEPA!’s online store confirms that the business practices what Vega preaches. With CBD shatter, infused tea, hemp soap, hemp honey or hemp flower pre-rolls, there’s something for a wide range of hemp cannabinoid consumers. Vega’s shop even offers the chance to “adopt” a mature hemp plant, which comes with regular updates and photos of the plant and the option to assist with the harvesting process.
¡WEPA! is now offering products to help curb the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, too. Vega is especially excited about the new hemp face masks the business has been able to create and what they mean for the potential of hemp beyond just its oil or flower.
“We subcontract to a local company that makes [reusable] hemp masks for us,” Vega says. “We also sell disposable hemp masks, which we purchase from a company we sell the hemp fiber to. It’s a thin fiber, ... it’s not an N95, but it’s more comparable to the blue [surgical] masks. ... They’re disposable and they’re cost-effective.”
The Spirit of ¡WEPA!
Vega is acutely aware that as a 35-year-old man of Puerto Rican descent from Brooklyn, he doesn’t exactly fit the description of a typical farmer. In fact, he intentionally infused some of his own cultural identity into his business through its name: ¡Wepa! is an expression of joy or accomplishment in Puerto Rico, similar to “good job!” or “awesome!” in English.
“It’s a term of jubilation,” Vega explains. “An American cowboy might say ‘Yee-haw!’ or something. ¡Wepa! is something that’s very synonymous with Puerto Rican culture. It’s like a ‘yes!’ ... that happy feeling that you should get when you’re enjoying one of our products. It’s the happy feeling of joy, it’s the happy feeling of success. ... That’s what I was hoping to convey as I named this.”
While the company’s name is a unique testament to his ethnic heritage, Vega says he doesn’t have many colleagues of color at his level. Aside from lingering stereotypes of Latino and Hispanic people in agriculture, he also points to the lack of historic land ownership by people of color as deterrents for minorities.
“Being a minority in this space ... we just don’t start with the same deck,” Vega says. “It’s like I’ve got five playing cards, you’ve got the entire deck.
“One of the biggest roadblocks to entry in any of these spaces is land ownership. Most of the time, a lot of the land that’s farmland is generationally passed down, ... so it makes it very difficult to get land to actually [grow on]. That’s part of the barrier to entry as minorities.
“But with that comes finding out how to overcome that. In agriculture, we have community land trusts that can specifically help minorities get onto land and farm them for lifelong leases.”
Being a young farmer of color also comes with certain stereotypes in agriculture.
“The engrained ancestral racism, ... it’s hard to talk about,” Vega says. “A lot of the people that still work on farms are migrant workers. I speak Spanish, I’m Latino. I’m relatively young. When I walk into a farm, most of the time, people think I’m there as an employee. ... They’re like, ‘Yo, when’s your boss getting here?’ I’m like, ‘I dunno, let’s wait for him!’”
Vega is fortunate to have had support from the state of Connecticut as well as the Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA). ¡WEPA! received an investment of $150,000 through the i2 Accelerator Program—a partnership between the MCBA and Merida Capital Partners, a private equity fund created to invest in the cannabis industry.
“I really appreciate the i2 Accelerator. ... That was a huge thing for us,” he says. “The Minority Cannabis Business Association allowed us some representation in a very large pond, one might say. ... It allowed us to be a little bit more visible, it allowed us to share our story. I tell everyone they should go out and join these association groups, these affinity groups that have the best interests in mind for their niche. ... The i2 Accelerator has provided us some capital, some mentorship, an avenue to work with the quote, unquote big dogs of the industry.”
In the Future
Despite some setbacks and an uncertain legislative future for the industry, Vega remains optimistic about the potential of both ¡WEPA! Farms as a business and future applications of the hemp plant. He sees hemp as a natural ally in the ongoing fight to expand clean energy and renewable resources.
“We’re super excited about the possibilities for sustainable resources in hemp,” says Vega.
“With ¡WEPA! we’re always looking to work with other farmers,” he continues. “We want to be able to consciously …source materials for other people that are doing white label, [and] we’d like to expand our white label and dropshipping abilities and possibilities.”
Perhaps above all else, as someone who became a cannabis consumer at a young age, Vega recognizes the power of cannabis, including hemp, to bring people together. He’s quick to credit the company’s success to his business operations team—West Coast partner and Chief Operations Officer Ashley Stallworth, Nursery Director Pat O’Hara, Brand Director Eve Santana—as well as the people who sit on ¡WEPA!’s board of directors, including Jason Ortiz, Dr. Juan Rios and Lead Pharmacist Adelso Fernandez.
“Our team is so important to the business. Hemp is a community thing,” Vega says. “... Nobody does anything by themselves. It’s the support of everyone around you that can push you forward.”
Raj Chandler is a freelance marketer and journalist specializing in cannabis policy. Follow him on Twitter @raj_chander.
2020 Hemp Cultivation Map
Hemp Grower's interactive cultivation data map provides a state-by-state breakdown of acres grown, licenses issued and more for the 2020 growing season. View More
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Raj Chander
