With the recent events in Wisconsin, and with more states considering legalization of cannabis soon, many people are asking what their next steps should be. One thing that is a good idea is to start growing your own plants for personal use or sale, but how do you know which type? There’s an app for that! With our partners at Leafly Forks over now, it can’t get any easier than this
The “Wisconsin hemp farms” is a new market that has recently been introduced. The state of Wisconsin needs plant samplers to help them with their hemp farming. Read more in detail here: wisconsin hemp farms.
Jake Mohr served as an industrial hemp inspector for the state Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection in the summer of 2020.
Mohr, who resides in Onalaska, said he loved visiting hemp fields and greenhouses to collect plant samples, which he then sent to the DATCP lab in Madison to check the crop was THC-free.
“I loved visiting hemp farmers in southeastern Wisconsin and getting a glimpse into their various businesses. It’s also a lovely plant “he said
When the DATCP announced in September that the state will transfer over control of the business to the US Department of Agriculture, Mohr decided to research what it takes to become a federal inspector. Mohr is now employed by an organic certification organization that works with hemp growers, and he hopes that his employer will wish to add THC sampling to their list of services.
“I’d want to do it again since I’ve been working from home for over a year and I’m tired of looking out the same window,” Mohr said.
As of Dec. 8, Mohr is one of just two USDA-certified hemp sampling agents in Wisconsin. However, Wisconsin Public Radio noted that the state’s hemp business would need additional workers to make the transition to federal control in 2022 a success.
Wisconsin people are being encouraged to become certified samplers by DATCP authorities. In 2021, when the state licensed about 800 producers, DATCP hired five limited-term workers and one full-time sample coordinator for hemp sampling, according to a spokeswoman. The state employed 14 limited-term sampling personnel in 2020, when there were roughly 1,500 growers.
In order to stay up with demand, Rob Richard, president of the Wisconsin Hemp Alliance, believes the sector will need a comparable number of private sampling agents.
Richard said he isn’t concerned about the lack of agents yet since there are still a few weeks until the new year. Most producers won’t need to start searching for a sample agency until the spring, according to him. He stated that the hemp business has always attracted individuals with an entrepreneurial mentality.
“Because there is money to be earned, I have to think that individuals would come up and discover a method to achieve this. It’s a small-business opportunity for anybody with an interest in the hemp industry “he said
Mississippi, North Carolina, and Montana are the nearest USDA-certified sampling agents outside of Wisconsin. So, according to Richard, anybody who starts a sample company is practically certain to have customers, in addition to being able to determine their own pricing.
Richard believes that in the long term, the free market will result in the most equitable sampling costs for hemp growers. Producers will be permitted to shop around for the cheapest price rather than being required to pay the $250 cost imposed by the state’s hemp program.
However, Mohr is concerned that the USDA’s strategy relies too much on the market to deliver necessary services to farms.
“If you’ve got people up in Rhinelander and the closest sample agent is in Madison, say, and they charge by the mile to get there plus whatever the sample cost is plus the actual processing cost that the lab charges, then you could be looking at a sample cost that’s higher than what it was to get certified under (DATCP),” Mohr said.
After earning his certification in October, Mohr became concerned that he would be the state’s sole certified sample agent when the program is transferred to USDA on Jan. 1.
He said that the online certification, which comprised of numerous online learning courses that took him around two hours to complete, was free.
Mohr said the USDA’s program was almost too simple, and it didn’t contain a lot of instruction on how to get started, compared to DATCP’s three-day, in-person training that he went through in 2020.
“When there hasn’t been a comparable business in the state of Wisconsin, it leaves a lot for the sample agent to figure out how to get there, what you’re charging, what sort of lab you’re dealing with,” Mohr said.
He’s also concerned about the consequences of going throughout the state with a crop that may contain an unlawful amount of THC.
“You’re driving around with bags of flowers that smell just like cannabis in your vehicle. So if you’re pulled over, you won’t receive a badge or anything like that. They don’t even bother to send you any documents. However, you have an email that says, ‘I’m certified to collect hemp samples,’ and you have that email “Mohr said.
“It simply seems like somebody handed you some instructions and said, ‘Good luck,’” says the narrator.
Richard said he isn’t shocked that the USDA takes a more casual approach to training sample personnel than the state does. He said that since the 2018 Farm Bill recognized industrial hemp a legitimate agricultural product, the agency has been allowed to handle it similarly to other crops.
“They’re a government agency, after all. Their magnitude is enormous, and I don’t believe they can get bogged down in the details of ‘where can we regulate,’ versus ‘what is the bare minimum we need to do to guarantee that the crop is being tested and satisfying legal responsibilities in a safe manner,’ “Richard said.
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Wisconsin is a state that has recently been affected by the federal government’s new regulation on hemp. The plant samplers are needed for Wisconsin because of the new regulations. Reference: wisconsin hemp flower.
Related Tags
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