Cannabis News
AmericanHort joins Amicus Brief to defend H-2A wage reform, as workforce concerns loom large for growers
AmericanHort has joined more than 25 agricultural organizations to file an amicus brief defending the Department of Labor’s (DOL) updated H-2A wage rule.
An amicus brief (“friend of the court”) is a legal document submitted by organizations not directly involved in a case to provide relevant information, expert opinion or legal arguments to influence the court’s decision.
The coalition says reform is essential to protect growers from unsustainable increases in labor costs and provide businesses with the stability they need. The lawsuit challenging the updated DOL rule is expected to introduce damaging uncertainty into the strained labor system essential to the operation of horticultural businesses.
The brief asks the court to throw back efforts to dismantle the Adverse Effects Wage Rate (AEWR) framework. AmericanHort supports the Interim Final Rule and views the updated methodology as a necessary step in restoring balance and predictability to the H-2A program. The horticulture industry needs stability to sustain production of houseplants and to keep businesses competitive.
“Labor stability is fundamental to sustaining American plant production,” said AmericanHort President and CEO Ken Fisher. “The updated H-2A wage methodology reflects the real economic conditions faced by growers, giving companies a framework within which they can plan while continuing to protect workers. The anticipated labor policy allows our industry to remain competitive, invest in growth and support the communities that depend on horticulture.”
It comes as Congress approaches another funding deadline, with appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ending at the end of the week. Although lawmakers have finalized 11 of the 12 regular spending bills for FY2026, DHS remains unresolved due to disagreements over immigration enforcement policy. If negotiations continue to stall, Congress may be forced to approve a short-term extension to avoid a disruption in operations.
For horticulture employers, the uncertainty surrounding DHS funding has real workforce implications. DHS oversees the agencies responsible for administering the seasonal visa programs that many greenhouse, nursery and landscape businesses use to maintain stable operations. A disruption or slowdown in DHS functions could create processing delays and uncertainty for employers already facing tight labor markets and rising production costs.
The compressed timeline is made more challenging by the president’s day off and several speeches that will take many lawmakers away from Capitol Hill. Democratic leaders have continued to demand policy changes as part of the negotiations, and Republicans and the Administration have expressed their opposition to several of these proposals, leaving no clear way forward.
For more information
:
AmericanHort
Email: (email protected)
www.americanhort.org
Cannabis News
New Zealand sun-grown cannabis site earns endorsement from Columbia University scientist
Not all cannabis farms are visited by a Columbia University professor. Fewer still are singled out as the best place on earth to grow the plant. That’s what happened when Colin Nuckolls, a professor of organic chemistry at Columbia and one of the most cited independent researchers on the chemistry of cannabis, visited Puro’s Kēkerengū farm on the Kaikōura Coast earlier this year.
Puro has been cultivating medicinal cannabis in Marlborough since 2018, building its model around outdoor, organically certified production at two sites in the region. Kēkerengū Farm is located on the coast with mountain protection to the west, and the company has long pointed to its environment, long hours of sunshine, ocean air flow, warm days, cool nights and vibrant soil as the foundation of the quality of its product. Nuckolls, whose research focuses on the chemical differences between indoor and sun-grown cannabis, came up with the tools to evaluate that claim. “If I had to pick one place in the world to grow sun-grown cannabis, this would be it,” he said.
© Cigar
The endorsement carries scientific weight, as Nuckolls’ work addresses a gap that standard cannabis testing can hardly cover. Certificates of analysis measure a defined set of cannabinoids and terpenes, meaning two products grown under completely different conditions can appear identical on paper. His research shows that the picture is more complicated than that. “Sunlight creates complexity in the plant,” he said. “Sun grown cannabis represents a wider spectrum of compounds, more terpenes, more nuances, more chemistry that people value.”
The mechanism is evolutionary. Natural sunlight provides a full and dynamic light spectrum, including UV exposure, that plants have adapted to over millennia. Controlled indoor environments, however sophisticated, replicate only part of that equation.
The Kēkerengū site drew a close comparison with Northern California’s Humboldt County, one of the world’s most respected cannabis-growing regions. The two locations are located at roughly mirror-image latitudes on opposite sides of the equator and share a mountainous coastal profile. “This place is where you’d want to grow cannabis, like Humboldt County,” he said. “It’s the coast, the air is fresh and it’s mountainous. Nature does a lot of work in these areas, the growing conditions are ideal.”
For Puro, the visit was an independent validation of the company’s production philosophy since its inception. Marlborough’s sunshine hours are among the highest in New Zealand, and combined with the microclimate factors of the site where the farm is located, factors Nuckolls described as conditions “that technology cannot reproduce”.
For more information:
clean
www.puro.co.nz
Over the decades, the legality of hemp cultivation in the United States has undergone some changes. In 1970, the Controlled Substances Act made the cultivation of hemp completely illegal, along with the definition of “hemp” as “marijuana.” This criminalized approach to hemp changed with the 2018 Farm Bill, which removed hemp from the definition of “marijuana” and allowed states to create their own hemp regulation programs. In the past year, there has been a change in hemp cultivation regulations at the state level, as well as a change in the federal legal definition of “hemp.” Both of these changes will likely affect hemp growers.
After passing the 2018 Farm Bill, the state of Ohio, through the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA), submitted its plan to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to regulate the cultivation and processing of hemp. In the spring of 2020, the ODA began accepting applications for the cultivation and processing of hemp.
as was shared in a blog post last summer, language included in the state operating budget passed in June 2025 gave up ODA’s authority to regulate hemp cultivation in the state. On July 25, 2025, the ODA began the process of transferring hemp cultivation regulation to the USDA. As of January 1, 2026, if you are growing hemp in Ohio, you must be licensed through the USDA, and all ODA cultivation licenses are revoked. The ODA continues to regulate hemp processors. ODA has a web page explaining these changes which is available here. For further reading, the state operating budget, HB 96, is available here.
Federal changes to the legal definition of “hemp.”
When hemp cultivation was legalized in the 2018 Farm Bill, Congress defined “hemp” as “Cannabis sativa L. plant and any part of that plant, including seeds and all derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids, isomers, acids, salts, and salts of isomers, whether or not grown, with a deltabin (THC)-9 tetrabin (THC)-9 tetrabin concentration in excess of 0.3 percent dry weight.” After passing the 2018 Farm Bill, however, Congress discovered that this definition of “hemp” created an unintended loophole. Although delta-9 THC is the main psychoactive compound found in both hemp and marijuana that can cause intoxication, it is not the only compound. Since legalization, hemp products have been sold that contain no more than 0.3 percent delta-9 THC, but contain other cannabinoids, such as delta-8 THC, that can cause intoxication if ingested.
To close this loophole to allow for intoxicating hemp products, Congress changed the definition of hemp in HR 5371, which became law on November 12, 2025. The federal definition of hemp is now “Cannabis sativa L. plant and any part of that plant, including its seeds and all derivatives, extracts, isomers, isomers, isomers, acids, salts, isomers, acids, salts, isomers and acids. Whether or not growing, with a total (THC) concentration (including tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA)) of more than 0.3 percent by dry weight.” As a result, instead of regulating only the amount of delta-9 THC, federal law now regulates the total THC concentration of hemp and its components. Thus, growers with hemp plants with a total THC concentration of more than 0.3 percent would be in violation of federal law. Importantly, this definition also applies to industrial hemp, or “hemp grown for use as seed stalk, whole grain, oil, cake, nut, hull, or any other non-cannabinoid derivative.” The new definition of hemp will go into effect one year after the law is signed, on November 12, 2026. The text of HR 5371 is available. here.
Source: The Ohio State University
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