Florida’s 60 day legislative session comes to and end on March 13th and we are seeing the hemp bills in the senate and house flying through their last committees and heading to the floor for a vote before then. The Senate Bill is Number 1876 and House Bill is Number 1063. There are many changes that have been proposed regarding seed certification, GRAS products, 21+ inhaled products, the definition of hemp extract, label changes and more. These bills are getting closer to having the same language and we look forward to them passing. Our Florida farmers have waited long enough for an opportunity in this space, and these small changes can allow for large opportunities.

As we prepare for the upcoming commercial growing season later in 2020, and new federal rules we see a lot of opportunities in Florida. However to go along with this cultivation there is a need for facilitates and machinery to cut, dry and extract the materials needed from this plant. This infrastructure should be in place prior to the end of the growing season. We are trying to make sure that our members are able to connect to each other and work together through all of this. We have already been assisting people through the expectations at the start implementation of new rules regarding food permits, labels and enforcement efforts. We are also trying to keep people informed of the most relevant events, and FDACS also started some helpful webinars we will continue to send out and post online. We hope that you will sign up and participate in our monthly member calls to discuss these developments and much more.