Chris Van Hook, Founder and Director of Clean Green Certified, discussed his company in an extended interview with Cannabis Reports. Van Hook, a medical cannabis compliance attorney in California, started the company in 2003 and certifies products based on the USDA national organic program. The certification is available in six states, including California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. The company offers growers a way to bypass the challenges of federal illegality that bars them from making organic claims about their products.
- The company certified 25K pounds of product in 2015
- There is no way to legally claim “organic cannabis”
- Company certifies not only farms but also processors and handlers
- Only 84 entities globally that have made it through accreditation with USDA national organic program, including Clean Green
- Federal EPA and California have pesticide guidelines – no registered pesticides can be used off-label
- There are many steps in the processing and handling of cannabis checked by Clean Green Certified
- Traceability is essential
- Company has seen some non-customers in mainly California claim compliance when it doesn’t exist – verification is possible on company website
- Van Hook discusses a few horror stories uncovered by onsite inspections
- Soils are screened annually for 75 compounds
- Company relies on consumers to help drive better industry practices
- Clean Green Certified companies do well in industry quality competitions
- Some companies, like Green Soldiers Healing, demand all product be Clean Green Certified
- Existing regulations and standards at the state level will be transferred to the cannabis industry, so there is no need for anyone to tell the states how to regulate the industry
- Cannabis farmers need to adapt now to stricter regulations down the road, as new entrants experienced with other agricultural products will enter the industry when it becomes legal
- Unlicensed labs are a real problem – federally licensed labs in legal states is necessary (standardization). This is less relevant to flower than edibles and extracts.
- Van Hook is proud to be working in the cannabis industry and encourages everyone to be so vocally
- Clean Green Certified expects to expand into additional states and, ultimately, it will be just considered organic except, perhaps, for indoor grown
To become Clean Green Certified, contact the company:
http://cleangreencert.com/home/
Based in Houston, Alan leverages his experience as founder of online community 420 Investor, the first and still largest due diligence platform focused on the publicly-traded stocks in the cannabis industry. With his extensive network in the cannabis community, Alan continues to find new ways to connect the industry and facilitate its sustainable growth. At New Cannabis Ventures, he is responsible for content development and strategic alliances. Before shifting his focus to the cannabis industry in early 2013, Alan, who began his career on Wall Street in 1986, worked as an independent research analyst following over two decades in research and portfolio management. A prolific writer, with over 650 articles published since 2007 at Seeking Alpha, where he has 70,000 followers, Alan is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and a frequent source to the media, including the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, and Bloomberg TV. Contact Alan: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Email