The self-titled "US Hemp Authority" has created a costly certification that has prohibitive pricing and does not meet common sustainability practices. The following statement was posted on Facebook today by Palmetto Harmony. I want to us to join her and add our names to the letter. I'm hoping for 1,000 signatures soon and the will be delivered to the "Hemp Authority".

"This seal does not require any notice of GMO’s, does not require organic practices, does not require them to put a country of origin of where their hemp is grown and manufactured, and worst of all even allows for certification of synthetic cannabinoids. What it does do is put unreasonable requirements on US farmers. And the program is very expensive (more so than USDA organic certification which we are in the midst of now!)

Also to note a tremendous amount of their first round verifiers are board members of the US Hemp Roundtable Which was the original funders of this certification program and steered its requirements. (Which still remains to be seen what is really being certified?). A voting member board seat on the Round Table is 25k a year. So this program in my opinion is based off a pay to play and funded by several foreign entity companies now claiming to do business in the U.S.. Some of these companies are using GMO’s and have had real issues with transparency and now will use this seal to continue to not have to be transparent.

That being said our open letter went out to them last week again please click below to read. And we have a meeting with the authority on Monday in Anaheim to address these issues. We will not approve nor participate in this program until it is a true certification seal that actually protects consumers and does not give them a “false sense of security”! If the program gets fixed and a 2.0 version is released then we will consider participation.

Please do not fall for this!! This is another play for these big companies to choke out the little guy. We will see a push on social media in the coming months that will try to get people to only purchase products with this seal and that makes them safe and legal? But understand it does not certify organic, non synthetic cannabinoids, non GMO’s, basically all the items we look for as consumers for ourself and our loved ones.

Read the open letter to the US Hemp Authority

(Copied from Palmetto Harmony's public Facebook Post.)