Anyone have any success getting their business registered into the Department of Labor Hire Vets Medallion Program? Or is this just wishful thinking due to legislation at this point? My thought is that employers being obligated to follow federal labor laws would open the industry up for eligibility in this type of Department of Labor program. Before spending hours reading through legislation I figured I would consult this wealth of knowledge. Thank you for your time in advance.
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Following this with interest, I’m a vet.
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Same here, which led to my curiosity once I learned of the program.
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The USDA programs to encourage vets to farm apply to hemp farming btw, confirmed with the local office.
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Yo same same boys. Cheers, following.
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I know my dude @Shadownaught is in on this and if memory serves correct, so is senior @Future as well and my favorite of all, RIP, @Beaker did his time as well.
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Veteran here. Interesting post. They have a lot of resources over at the USDA website for agriculture, but it’s mostly grants/microloans as far as I can tell.
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Noted, Thank you
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There’s definitely a good chunk of capital available for starting up. I’m a big fan of it because it means you don’t have to deal with actual investors and their money based opinions.
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I agree, but the loans/grants seem to mostly geared towards, well…gear/tools for existing farm operations. Such as new tractors, building materials. As far as land loans, I don’t really see much.
Unfortunately not. The easiest bet would be to lease farm land. Here in the Midwest it’s a very common practice for retired farmers to lease their fields out.
Edit: You can also buy non farmland and get grants/loans to convert it.
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Yeah the only issue is that the land for purposes of Hemp/or medical has rules about the ownership of land for that specific farming…at least in my state it does, and you have to have a certain amount of acreage to be eligible to apply for the license…again, that’s my state though so idk about the Midwest
Edit* rezoning land is a long a complicated process dependent on how close you are to people as far as I know? Just depends on how rural you are I guess?
I hate all these damn rules designed to ensure only the wealthy get to make more money.
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In Michigan there’s no land ownership requirements, and there’s no minimum plot size for hemp
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yup, good point. I did all my research for growing up in the UP, my family is still all there.
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I’ve looked into the Veterans farm programs. I was told explicitly that hemp is not covered for any of the programs. This was in the August-September time frame. Even the “new farmer” vet programs, stated that the “new” farm. Needed to be in operation for at least 3 years before approving anything.
The veterans farmers association has a few grant programs. But I didnt pursue those very hard.
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That’s very interesting. When I called the USDA extension in Baraga County Michigan, sometime around Aug-Sept as well, they assured me that hemp farming is farming and that all programs applied.
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Yes, a lot of the programs want you to basically intern at an existing farm operation first…which makes sense, don’t want to just throw large amounts of money when the majority of small businesses fail in the first year
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Just to keep everyone posted I’m currently awaiting a callback from the Department of Labor. I’ll let you all know. In the meantime I am hopeful that someone in the industry has already had some experience with this program.
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A little update for everyone. After speaking with the Hire Vets Medallion Program, all companies that meet the basic program requirements are eligible. Being a company in the cannabis industry does not affect your eligibility. Good news. Thanks to everyone for their thoughts on the situation and stay classy.
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