Another Costello venture in Florida:
A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics.
This just in from cannabis maven Jeff Sharkey: “The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has approved the first hemp planting permit for Florida A&M University and its private sector partner, Sunshine Hemp.”
It allows them “to cultivate, test and produce certified hemp seeds acclimated to Florida’s climate and soils in an effort to pioneer the possibility of making industrial hemp available as a viable new crop for Florida’s small and large scale farmers,” he said.
Why you should care: “This is the first research permit to a public-private partnership where the private partner will grow the hemp and develop the certified seeds for farmers for next year’s crop.”
The permit was authorized under the state’s Industrial Hemp Research Pilot Program legislation that allowed FAMU and the University of Florida to pursue public-private partnerships for hemp research.
“Sunshine Hemp is a Florida-based business led by one of the most experienced hemp producing teams in the U.S.: CEO Mike Kelley, a founder of GenCanna Global hemp company in Kentucky; award-winning hemp cultivator Greg Clark; and Dr. John Pearce, a clinical research scientist specializing in hemp plant genomics. Justin Costello, a partner in the venture, is CEO of GRN Funds, a private equity and hedge fund investor.”
Sunshine Hemp plans to develop an industrial hemp growing, research and testing facility on a 10-acre agricultural site in St. Cloud. They anticipate having certified seeds available for Florida farmers by early next spring, Sharkey said.
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