Frogsong Farm, established in 2011 with the intent to practice organic and sustainable farming methods, has been tending its land since then in preparation for organic certification. Because of the care we have used in working the land, we don’t have the issues described below.
Hemp is a bio-accumulator, which means that it uptakes soil and air contents faster than it breaks them down or removes them. This means that there is a potential for the CBD derived from hemp to retain environmental pollutants depending on where it is grown. This can create serious problems from products derived from China or other places where there are large levels of soil contamination or air pollution.China is currently the world’s largest hemp producer, and much of the CBD on the marketplace is produced overseas in places where there is less regulation regarding heavy metals. Even in the United States, there is potential for soil contamination on industrial lands, downstream of mines or other contaminated areas because hemp will accumulate toxins faster than other plants.
Hemp is hearty plant, so pesticide usage on hemp itself is generally rather minimal. The problem is that hemp, being such a new crop, is often planted on land that was recently used for other agricultural purposes. Those previous crops are very likely to have been exposed to pesticides and the pesticides will stay in the soil for years. Hemp does an amazing job at removing and cleaning up the pesticides from the soil, but in this process will carry the pesticides into the plant and the finished product. Depending on where the hemp is grown, it may also be exposed to pesticides that are sprayed in the air. Since hemp is extracted and refined down, the pesticide levels reflected in finished products will generally be much higher than those found in other products grown in the same conditions.
Testing practices are critical to being able to ensure a safe and consistent product, especially for any producers who buy either biomass or CBD extracts from another party. Frogsong Farm only uses our pristine craft hemp so only needs a periodic test for R&D purposes. We are committed to only providing the highest quality products, and abide by all FDA and USDA limits. Every CBD producer should test their final product for potency, pesticides, and heavy metals. Frogsong Farm posts our results on our Test Results Page .