Southern California will soon be home to Mojave Desert-based organic hemp production through a newly created joint venture between natural resources company Cadiz Inc. and cannabis cultivator Glass House Farms. Scott Slater, president and CEO of Cadiz told Cheddar Tuesday the company is "bullish on the long-term prospects for organic, California-based CBD and hemp."
The two companies are creating SoCal Hemp, which will grow the industrial hemp in the desert, a location Slater said is beneficial as there are "not a lot of bugs in the desert," more hours of sunlight throughout the year, and "organic and pristine" soil.
"Our intention is to control our distribution chain so that we would raise hemp, process our CBD and then use it in forward retail distribution," Slater said of the new partnership.
With SoCal Hemp now entering its commercial phase after two test phases, it is expecting to cultivate 200 acres in the spring and 1,000 acres by the end of 2020.
"We do not expect to, or want to, compete with the super-large players who are going to be doing tens of thousands of acres of industrial hemp," he said. "Our intention would be to split up what we have, to maximize our value in the CBD space for our own products and distribution, and then to have arrangements with forward-thinking companies that are interested in substituting hemp for cotton fiber," Slater said.
SoCal Hemp intends to use some of the crops as a potential substitute for cotton and some for CBD, Slater said.
"There is a strong belief that the use of hemp from farm to fiber can be an important substitute for things like cotton," he said, noting that the cultivation of hemp uses a relatively low amount of water when compared to crops like hay.
"Ours is really a niche. We want to be associated with organic, sun-raised, California hemp," Slater said.
Starbucks’ decision to restrict its restrooms to paying customers has flushed out a wider problem: a patchwork of restroom use policies that varies by state and city. Starbucks announced last week a new code of conduct that says people need to make a purchase if they want to hang out or use the restroom. The coffee chain's policy change for bathroom privileges has left Americans confused and divided over who gets to go and when. The American Restroom Association, a public toilet advocacy group, was among the critics. Rules about restroom access in restaurants vary by state, city and county. The National Retail Federation says private businesses have a right to limit restroom use.
President Donald Trump is talking up a joint venture investing up to $500 billion for infrastructure tied to artificial intelligence by a new partnership formed by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank. The new entity, Stargate, will start building out data centers and the electricity generation needed for the further development of the fast-evolving AI in Texas, according to the White House. The initial investment is expected to be $100 billion and could reach five times that sum. While Trump has seized on similar announcements to show that his presidency is boosting the economy, there were already expectations of a massive buildout of data centers and electricity plants needed for the development of AI.
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