Hal Lucas, a business lawyer by trade, discussed his vision with the farm\u2019s owners, Salvatore Finocchiaro and Leo Talarico. He\u2019d already represented them as their business attorney.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Lucas told them he wanted to turn the land into a CBD-rich hemp farm. The location was perfect: rich soil due to its proximity to the Everglades, seasonal rainfall that means crops can be watered naturally, and a climate that would allow multiple growth seasons, thanks to its proximity to the equator.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThey were enthusiastic from the outset,\u201d Lucas says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And so South Tip was born. Lucas formed a multi-disciplinary team, including his business partner Keith St. Germain, whose wholesale nursery was granted the 13th medical marijuana license in the state of Florida in\u00a0<\/span>2017. In fact, it was St Germain\u2019s idea to start the farm.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The company has also partnered with the University of Florida, with researchers doing experimental hemp cultivation projects, through which Lucas hopes to certify South Tip\u2019s hemp genetics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The South Tip team also includes Randy Cole and Charles Steinfield, who are \u2018cannabis experts,\u2019 Lucas says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThey have extensive experience in the industry. Randy is one of the most sought-after cannabis experts in Florida and Charles is his right-hand man. We\u2019ve worked hard to bring them to our team.<\/p>\n \u201cWe spent 2019 putting a team together, and 2020 has been about executing it.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The process of executing the plan has entailed purchasing real estate, more land and equipment, including tractors, and building greenhouses. They\u2019ve also been buying seeds, and talking to business partners to plan how they will bring their products to market.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In addition to the farmland, South Tip has approximately 58,000 square feet of building space and plans to build a processing plant. It is currently retrofitting an existing structure to turn into an indoor growth facility.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On their 70 acres of farmland, South Tip is also planning to build a welcome centre, where customers can try and buy hemp and CBD products and merchandise and go on tours of the hemp farm.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re embracing the agriculture community, but we want to be public-facing, too,\u201d says Lucas, who also sits on the hemp advisory committee for the Florida department of agriculture, who regulates South Tip.<\/p>\n But if the company wants to sell its own hemp-derived products to consumers, as opposed to selling biomass business-to-business, it will need to get an additional licence first, specifically a food safety permit.<\/p>\n But Lucas would also like to eventually sell cultivars to farmers; farmers sell each other seeds that have germinated into small plants, because not all seeds germinate.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to have good relationships with farmers. When we certify genetics, we want to provide cultivars to other farmers for them to grow.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to provide them with high quality cultivars to grow rich hemp plants.\u201d<\/p>\n The ultimate goal, Lucas says, is to build a CBD company that grows and processes products, as well as manufacturing the final CDB product and selling them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe certainly have the capacity to grow this farm to more than 1,500 acres,\u201d Lucas says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But, Lucas says, expansion will wait until the time is right, and the market is ready.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m bullish, but I have to have patient for the science on CBD to continue to come out. I also have to be aggressive as this is a frontier industry. This is a business, not a hobby, but I love what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On the southern tip of the US in South Florida, a former vegetable farm that grew beans, tomatoes and squash has a new destiny: becoming the US\u2019s largest hemp operation\u2026 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","content-type":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,32],"tags":[48],"yoast_head":"\n