About a year ago, I wrote about the addition of home delivery to the business at Great Lakes Growers in Burton, Ohio, a leafy greens grower that sells to grocery stores and restaurants. Well, the operation has quickly picked up on an unmet need around the area as consumers are less interested in roaming grocery store aisles: curbside pickup.

Great Lakes Growers announced the service April 4 on its Facebook page and customers responded favorably. In response to customer requests, they're also offering their living herbs for pickup, as well as greenhouse-grown vegetables. I, in fact, have two heads of Great Lakes Growers lettuce in my own fridge thanks to a lettuce run by my in-laws. At a time when scoring a grocery curbside pickup slot is akin to winning the lottery, it’s nice to know fresh leafy greens are a short drive away. It’s also a concept that could act as a stopgap while restaurants, schools and institutions are closed for business.

You can see how Great Lakes Growers has the curbside pickup set up by clicking HERE.

Trade shows and industry events continue to change their formats to meet the new challenges of COVID-19, and AmericanHort is the latest to announce a new format for its flagship tradeshow Cultivate. It will transition to Cultivate’20 Virtual, a 100% online event the week of July 13.

“Although it will be different from the face-to-face interaction we experience at Cultivate, attendees can still find much-needed resources and be able to engage with the new products, new varieties and top-notch industry education to help their business and organization perform better and improve,” says Ken Fisher, AmericanHort President & CEO.

The event will include a 3-D digital tradeshow where exhibitors and attendees can share information, view video presentations, chat live and make connections. More than 50 live educational sessions will be offered and attendees can even go to the HRI online Garden Party, an event to socialize and show appreciation for the work of HRI supporters and researchers. The town hall will still take place virtually, and there will be roundtable discussion groups and other opportunities for online networking.

Best of all, the Expo-Only pass will be free for everyone, and the All-Access Education Pass will be free to AmericanHort members and discounted for non-members.

“We’ve all had to learn to be innovative and adapt our business practices to this challenging environment,” says Susie Raker-Zimmerman, chairwoman of the AmericanHort board of directors and vice president of Raker-Roberta’s Young Plants. “I’m excited to be part of an online option that allows our industry to connect with peers and continue to maintain a sense of community.”

You can find out more at www.CultivateVirtual.org. In the meantime, Bossman Beytes is working out just how we’ll get our yearly dose of Jeni’s ice cream while attending the virtual show. You can be assured he will figure it out by July.

This week, hemp associations on behalf of 17,000 hemp farmers in the U.S. asked the administrator of the Small Business Association to clarify whether or not the hemp industry is eligible for stimulus loans through the CARES Act.

The letter, signed by leaders of associations like the U.S. Hemp Growers Association, National Industrial Hemp Council, Hemp Industries Association, and U.S. Hemp Roundtable, among others, specifically mentions funding through the Economic Injury Disaster Loans program.

“Farmers are experiencing significant headwinds and instability as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and must be able to access disaster-relief programs that can support them now,” the letter states, adding later in the text, “It is our understanding that most ‘agricultural enterprises’ are historically excluded from the EIDL program in order to avoid duplication of programs from other federal agencies, such as disaster assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). However, the disaster-relief programs offered by USDA are normally only related to natural disasters. There are not currently any disaster programs available to farmers from USDA made available in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

However, the letter may not matter, as the funding for both the Paycheck Protection Program and EIDL under the CARES Act have both been exhausted as of Thursday. SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are urging Congress to authorize additional funds.

You can read the full text of the letter HERE, courtesy of Vote Hemp, a Washington advocacy group that also signed the letter. 

Meanwhile, two U.S. Senators are requesting the SBA include cannabis companies in the loan programs, or at least not be allowed to deny loan applications to cannabis small businesses in states with legal use.

“States collected an estimated $1.3 billion in tax revenue from legal cannabis sales in 2018,” wrote Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley in early April. “However, SBA’s current policy excludes small businesses with ‘direct’ or ‘indirect’ products or services that aid the use, growth, enhancement, or other development of cannabis from SBA-backed financing. Consequently, small businesses in states with some form of legal cannabis must choose between remaining eligible for SBA loan programs, or doing business with a rapidly-growing and legal industry.”

Even if the SBA would agree, however, many banks are reluctant to work with cannabis-related businesses, which would hinder the loan process even further. You can read their letter HERE.

Sakata Seed America announced last week it purchased Vanguard Seed, along with all the existing Vanguard lettuce genetics. The Vanguard seed team will join Sakata Seed America, and the breeding, seed production, sales and marketing will be fully integrated under the Sakata brand.

I asked Alicia Suits at Sakata what this means for controlled environment ag growing and she replied, “We will be exploring the opportunities for CEA use of Vanguard genetics as they have varieties that do work for controlled environments.”

Sakata Seed America Vice President John Nelson called the acquisition a “mutually advantageous decision,” in a media release.

“We are excited for this opportunity to expand our product line into the lettuce segment," he said. "Lettuce is a widely consumed vegetable globally and this acquisition will enable Sakata to accelerate development of lettuce varieties for global markets and position our company as a major player in the lettuce market segment.”

Growers in New York (well, except for you, Long Island) and California have additional pest and disease tools available to them. Bayer Environmental Science, a business unit of Bayer Crop Science, recently announced two products received registration for use:

Altus insecticide is now registered for use in greenhouses, nurseries, landscape ornamentals, greenhouse vegetables and transplants in the state of New York, except for Long Island, for targeted control of insects like aphids and whiteflies. Altus is a novel insecticide that can be used at any time during the production cycle and is compatible with many beneficial predators, as well as honeybees and bumblebees. CLICK HERE to read more about Altus.

Broadform fungicide is registered for use on greenhouse- and nursery-grown ornamentals in California for foliar disease control of pathogens like Botrytis, leaf spot and dieback diseases. It controls more than 50 pathogens and is also useful on fruit, nuts and Christmas trees. CLICK HERE for more on Broadform.