It takes a lot of energy to grow good, smokable hemp. Whether the energy comes from fuel, electricity, human, or otherwise, we all should be more aware of what it takes to grow hemp the next time we shop online for CBD. In this post, we’ll cover the differences between the energy consumed to grow indoor vs. sungrown hemp and where we get that energy. Continue reading “CBD With A Conscience: Energy Needs Of Indoor Vs. Sungrown Hemp”
CBD for Social Good
Another harvest is done and that makes four! Our production team is still working on getting this year’s flower hand-trimmed up, but we’ve battened down the hatches for the year.
We can hardly believe it ourselves, and we have folks like you to thank for making this all possible.
It seems like we just finished last year’s Giving Tuesday roundup a few weeks ago. Now that we have a moment to sit and think, I wanted to reflect on our social philanthropy for 2022 and how it aligned with our mission. Continue reading “How Hemp Can Help: 2022 Roundup”
In solidarity with the striking nurses of St. Vincent’s, a Worcester hospital, and in honor of National Nurses Day, Sunset Lake CBD is donating $2,500 to the nurses’ strike fund. As workers ourselves, we want to support fellow workers fighting for better conditions and contracts.
The nearly 10-week strike is for better pay and staffing levels, the latter of which St. Vincent nurses say were far too low to ensure adequate patient care.
Why We’re Donating to the St. Vincent Nurses’ Strike Fund
If this pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that all workers are essential. Without workers, our grocery stores wouldn’t be stocked. Deliveries would languish on warehouse floors. Garbage would pile up on the curbs everywhere.
Without workers— nurses, janitors, physician assistants, doctors— who would help us recover in our hour of need? Certainly not wealthy healthcare executives.
As a majority worker-owned business, we understand just how important workers are. That’s why we offer our workers a starting minimum wage of $15/hour and a host of other perks. But we know that it’s not enough to stand by our own workers. We’ve got to invest in the well-being of workers all over.
While we know it’s no substitute for standing on the picket line, we’re hoping that this modest donation of $2,500 can help meet some of the needs of St. Vincent’s striking nurses that are holding strong for better contracts.
See our official press release below:
SUNSET LAKE CBD DONATES $2,500 TO ST. VINCENT’S NURSES’ STRIKE FUND
BURLINGTON, VT May 2021 — Sunset Lake CBD, a majority worker-owned CBD company based in Burlington, Vermont is donating $2,500 to St. Vincent Nurses’ Strike Fund. The announcement of the donation comes on National Nurses Day.
St. Vincent nurses have been on strike since March 8, 2021 over pay and staffing levels, the latter, the nurses say, have been far too low to ensure adequate patient care. Tenet, the Dallas-based healthcare company that owns the Worcester-based hospital, has reportedly posted profits of $97M in the first quarter of 2021.
Sunset Lake CBD, a nearly two-year-old company, has a connection to Worcester through its Director of Operations, T.J. Anania. “As workers ourselves, we think it’s important to stand in solidarity whenever we can, however we can,” Anania said. “We can’t really make it down to the picket line, so we wanted to show support with a donation. This strike just really hits close to home— I used to work downtown and deliver food to St. Vincent’s all the time.”
Sunset Lake CBD is a vertically integrated hemp farm in Northwest Vermont. Originally a dairy farm producing milk for Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, Sunset Lake decided to diversify in 2019 and started growing hemp for CBD. As a majority worker-owned company, Sunset Lake believes in the importance of workers and has a $15/hour minimum wage.
At Sunset Lake CBD we have a crisis of conscience. We are privileged white people in Vermont who are now in business and profiting off of lawful cannabis. All while millions have been and continue to be harmed by the war on drugs. Our personal values and those as a company dictate that we advocate for criminal marijuana law reform. Marijuana should be:
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Descheduled and removed from the controlled substance list.
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Marijuana convictions should be expunged and current prisoners released from incarceration.
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Efforts made to rehabilitate and compensate those harmed by heavy-handed drug policies.
This fourth of July we celebrate the 244th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. A fundamental American principle and the first amendment of the Constitution is the ability to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. We have decided as a company that ending the war on drugs and more specifically marijuana is the injustice closest aligned with our business that demands attention.
After careful research, we have decided that The Drug Policy Alliance is the non-profit advocacy organization that aligns with our values. Their vision statement is:
“The Drug Policy Alliance envisions a just society in which the use and regulation of drugs are grounded in science, compassion, health, and human rights, in which people are no longer punished for what they put into their own bodies but only for crimes committed against others, and in which the fears, prejudices and punitive prohibitions of today are no more.”
We couldn’t agree more.
Sunset Lake CBD strives to be a part of the marijuana law reform effort. The United States should have safe and regulated marijuana markets constituted in science and public wellness and not in criminal law. The war on marijuana has disenfranchised and harmed millions of people and disproportionately people of color. It is a corrupt stain on this country’s recent history. Morally it is imperative to work with organizations like the Drug Policy Alliance that promote a comprehensively ethical and inclusive cannabis industry.
That is why Sunset Lake CBD is donating 4.20% of all online sales to the Drug Policy Alliance for the month of July.
Cy Kupersmith
Director of Sales & Sustainability
