Change and Patience
As someone in the hemp industry, you know that change doesn’t come easy.
Our industry fought long and hard to ensure that Americans had an opportunity to grow, process, sell and buy hemp-derived materials. Since the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, the hemp industry continues to mature and innovate.
At NIHC, we’re helping to lead that maturation of the hemp industry through numerous initiatives. Facilitated by staff, board members, experts, our members, trusted partners, consultants and contributors who have aligned with our mission – NIHC is working to move industrial hemp forward into becoming the valuable commodity crop we all know it has the potential to be.
Part of work includes an immediate focus on a variety of legislative initiatives. Our NIHC government affairs committee and leadership are working diligently every day, meeting with lawmakers, regulators and industry stakeholders. We’re working to provide input in legislative language when asked and we’re briefing and updating the agencies that oversee our industry, including USDA and FDA.
But the value-add for the entire industry is more than just our work in hemp policy. Through our participation in the USDA’s Market Access Program (MAP) we’re educating international suppliers and customers in the global marketplace on American industrial hemp. What that means is if you’re in the hemp industry, you will be able to have access to international marketing and promotional opportunities, including but not limited to trade missions that will allow you to share your technical expertise about the U.S. Hemp industry with foreign negotiators.
We’re still working on a domestic checkoff program that will fund key industry research, consumer education initiatives, and promotion of hemp-derived products that will benefit everyone in the hemp industry.
Lastly, we’ve been busy at work exploring standards and certifications and what a program might look like to ensure there is transparency for the products sitting on store shelves. Everything we do at NIHC is rooted in the belief that the consumer has a right to be fully informed and the right to feel safe. We look forward to our standards committee reporting some progress to you soon.
As we look back on this year, we start to realize all that we’re accomplishing, and we’re grateful for your trust in us to represent you as an industry.
In the month of August, NIHC will be scaling back our newsletter to every other week as things slow down a bit. But you will see our updates on NIHC’s 2021 Hemp Business Summit. When we are back in full force in September, we’ll be moving full steam ahead continuing straight into our annual 2021 meeting where we can’t wait to see you and share in more detail all that we are doing.
We hope you have a great end of summer and we look forward to seeing you in the fall – in person.
