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Cannabis Cash From High-Less Hemp Beckons to Ailing U.S. Farmers

Cannabis Cash From High-Less Hemp Beckons to Ailing U.S. Farmers

Where tobacco once flourished on Gator Williams’ North Carolina farm, he now plants 1,380 acres of cannabis.

Williams isn’t growing marijuana but hemp, a kind of cannabis plant that offers the medicinal benefits of pot without the high. At his Lazy Gator’s Hemp Farm in Kinston, he’s breeding seed lines, experimenting with cultivation techniques and making products such as skin creams and gummy candies.

Like a growing number of struggling U.S. farmers, Williams is betting on hemp as an entirely new cash crop. Lumped in with its intoxicating cousin for decades under federal laws restricting controlled substances, Congress is on the verge of fully legalizing hemp under a new farm-bill agreement struck Thursday.

“We want the tobacco belt to become the hemp belt,’’ Williams said. After nearly losing his farm when he couldn’t squeeze enough profit from his row crops, he sees limitless potential in cannabis. “We use everything from the roots all the way down to the base fibers. The bark on it. There’s nothing wasted from this plant.”

Presidential Undertaking

While American hemp was once a common material for everything from rope to paper -– even George Washington grew it –-institutional knowledge was lost as the law clamped down on cannabis beginning in the 1930s.

Williams, 41, is among more than 3,500 farmers in 23 states attempting to resurrect that knowledge under a trial program Congress created with the 2014 farm bill.

Companies including Walmart Inc. and Coca Cola Co. have already shown interest in hemp-related products. If legal barriers to banking and interstate commerce are removed, advocates foresee a market that could reach as much as $3 billion in sales by 2022.

“This is going to be another major crop, but it’s going to take time because we’re starting from scratch,’’ said Eric Steenstra, president of the lobbying group Vote Hemp.

Driving demand is a hemp extract called CBD, short for cannabidiol. CBD is one of the substances in cannabis, but in hemp, it comes with no mind-altering effect from tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the main psychoactive component in marijuana.

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Cannabis Cash From High-Less Hemp Beckons to Ailing U.S. Farmers

Cannabis Cash From High-Less Hemp Beckons to Ailing U.S. Farmers

Where tobacco once flourished on Gator Williams’ North Carolina farm, he now plants 1,380 acres of cannabis.

Williams isn’t growing marijuana but hemp, a kind of cannabis plant that offers the medicinal benefits of pot without the high. At his Lazy Gator’s Hemp Farm in Kinston, he’s breeding seed lines, experimenting with cultivation techniques and making products such as skin creams and gummy candies.

Like a growing number of struggling U.S. farmers, Williams is betting on hemp as an entirely new cash crop. Lumped in with its intoxicating cousin for decades under federal laws restricting controlled substances, Congress is on the verge of fully legalizing hemp under a new farm-bill agreement struck Thursday.

“We want the tobacco belt to become the hemp belt,’’ Williams said. After nearly losing his farm when he couldn’t squeeze enough profit from his row crops, he sees limitless potential in cannabis. “We use everything from the roots all the way down to the base fibers. The bark on it. There’s nothing wasted from this plant.”

Presidential Undertaking

While American hemp was once a common material for everything from rope to paper -– even George Washington grew it –-institutional knowledge was lost as the law clamped down on cannabis beginning in the 1930s.

Williams, 41, is among more than 3,500 farmers in 23 states attempting to resurrect that knowledge under a trial program Congress created with the 2014 farm bill.

Companies including Walmart Inc. and Coca Cola Co. have already shown interest in hemp-related products. If legal barriers to banking and interstate commerce are removed, advocates foresee a market that could reach as much as $3 billion in sales by 2022.

“This is going to be another major crop, but it’s going to take time because we’re starting from scratch,’’ said Eric Steenstra, president of the lobbying group Vote Hemp.

Driving demand is a hemp extract called CBD, short for cannabidiol. CBD is one of the substances in cannabis, but in hemp, it comes with no mind-altering effect from tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the main psychoactive component in marijuana.

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Starbucks unveils strategic growth plan for Japan

Starbucks unveils strategic growth plan for Japan

TOKYO — New stores and digital innovation are on tap for Starbucks Japan as Starbucks Coffee Co. executes its recently unveiled growth strategy for the country. The moves are part of Starbucks’ commitment to “building deeper customer relationships, expanding digital innovation, enhancing Starbucks’ unique coffee experience and strengthening local communities” to accelerate sales and profit growth as well as elevate the customer experience in Japan, the company said.

“The strength of our brand in Japan, the momentum in our business and the spirit of our partners who proudly wear the green apron give me great confidence in our ability to elevate the customer experience and drive growth to continue to build our brand,” said Kevin Johnson, president and chief executive officer of Starbucks. “We continue to thoughtfully evolve within Japan’s elevated coffee culture to maintain a leadership position and achieve profitable growth for the long term.”

As part of its growth strategy, Starbucks plans to build 300 new stores in Japan over the next three years, an initiative that will bring the store count to 1,700 across the market.

Additionally, Starbucks will open its Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Tokyo on Feb. 28, 2019. Located in the Nakameguro district, the Tokyo location marks the company’s fifth Roastery globally.

“The Tokyo Roastery will be the first of its kind, designed and built from-the-ground-up in collaboration with world-renowned architect and Kuma Lab founder, Kengo Kuma,” Starbucks said. “The Roastery is the pinnacle coffee experience, highligStarbucks Japan Roasteryhting Starbucks’ uncompromising pursuit of high-quality coffees and immersive retail innovation.”

Another piece of the puzzle in Starbucks’ growth plan for Japan is digital innovation. The company is launching its Starbucks Delivers program in partnership with Uber Eats Japan, which will deliver Starbucks beverages and food items direct to customers. The pilot program will begin in three stores in Tokyo, two in Shinjuku and one in Roppongi, with plans to scale the program within two years.

Starbucks also has teamed with LINE, a Japanese social media platform with more than 78 million users, to innovate across a range of technologies, including digital payment. The first phase of this partnership is expected to launch in the first half of 2019.

The company plans to roll out a pilot of the Mobile Order and Pay program in Japan in 2019. The program will enable Japanese customers to order and pay from mobile devices and pick up their orders in store.

“Starbucks Japan was built as a performance-driven company, guided through the lens of humanity, from the time of our first store opening in Tokyo in 1996,” said Takafumi Minaguchi, c.e.o. of Starbucks Japan. “We continue to set the pace for innovation and service for Starbucks globally by focusing on creating genuine human connection in our stores and positively impacting the communities we serve.”

Starbucks currently operates 1,392 stores in Japan across all 47 prefectures, making it the fourth largest market in terms of store count for Starbucks globally.

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Starbucks unveils strategic growth plan for Japan

Starbucks unveils strategic growth plan for Japan

TOKYO — New stores and digital innovation are on tap for Starbucks Japan as Starbucks Coffee Co. executes its recently unveiled growth strategy for the country. The moves are part of Starbucks’ commitment to “building deeper customer relationships, expanding digital innovation, enhancing Starbucks’ unique coffee experience and strengthening local communities” to accelerate sales and profit growth as well as elevate the customer experience in Japan, the company said.

“The strength of our brand in Japan, the momentum in our business and the spirit of our partners who proudly wear the green apron give me great confidence in our ability to elevate the customer experience and drive growth to continue to build our brand,” said Kevin Johnson, president and chief executive officer of Starbucks. “We continue to thoughtfully evolve within Japan’s elevated coffee culture to maintain a leadership position and achieve profitable growth for the long term.”

As part of its growth strategy, Starbucks plans to build 300 new stores in Japan over the next three years, an initiative that will bring the store count to 1,700 across the market.

Additionally, Starbucks will open its Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Tokyo on Feb. 28, 2019. Located in the Nakameguro district, the Tokyo location marks the company’s fifth Roastery globally.

“The Tokyo Roastery will be the first of its kind, designed and built from-the-ground-up in collaboration with world-renowned architect and Kuma Lab founder, Kengo Kuma,” Starbucks said. “The Roastery is the pinnacle coffee experience, highligStarbucks Japan Roasteryhting Starbucks’ uncompromising pursuit of high-quality coffees and immersive retail innovation.”

Another piece of the puzzle in Starbucks’ growth plan for Japan is digital innovation. The company is launching its Starbucks Delivers program in partnership with Uber Eats Japan, which will deliver Starbucks beverages and food items direct to customers. The pilot program will begin in three stores in Tokyo, two in Shinjuku and one in Roppongi, with plans to scale the program within two years.

Starbucks also has teamed with LINE, a Japanese social media platform with more than 78 million users, to innovate across a range of technologies, including digital payment. The first phase of this partnership is expected to launch in the first half of 2019.

The company plans to roll out a pilot of the Mobile Order and Pay program in Japan in 2019. The program will enable Japanese customers to order and pay from mobile devices and pick up their orders in store.

“Starbucks Japan was built as a performance-driven company, guided through the lens of humanity, from the time of our first store opening in Tokyo in 1996,” said Takafumi Minaguchi, c.e.o. of Starbucks Japan. “We continue to set the pace for innovation and service for Starbucks globally by focusing on creating genuine human connection in our stores and positively impacting the communities we serve.”

Starbucks currently operates 1,392 stores in Japan across all 47 prefectures, making it the fourth largest market in terms of store count for Starbucks globally.

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Samsung Galaxy S10 Rumored To Copy A Signature iPhone X Feature

Samsung Galaxy S10 Rumored To Copy A Signature iPhone X Feature

Samsung is expected to show off the Galaxy S10 this coming February. Naturally, tech circles are already rife with rumors about this forthcoming flagship.

New code uncovered in Samsung's Android Pie update suggests that smartphone in question could include support for 3D facial recognition. To be sure, current Galaxy phones already boast facial recognition, but speculation suggests that the Galaxy S10 might have something more akin to Face ID on the iPhone X.

3D Facial Recognition On Samsung Galaxy S10 It's no secret that Face ID is far more secure than Samsung's facial recognition technology, simply because Apple's solution is more complex and involves 3D, while Samsung only relies upon a 2D map of a user's face. That means users can potentially fool Samsung's system with a photo or a video of the owner.

XDA Developers was the first to uncover the code, citing data strings reference Time of Flight cameras, a technology commonly associated with 3D mapping and can help differentiate between a 2D photo and an actual 3D face.

The news should perhaps come as no surprise. Samsung is poised to significantly improve the security and reliability of its facial recognition system, according to rumors, and debuting it on the Galaxy S10 makes plenty of sense. Assuming the rumors are true, it'll be interesting to test Samsung's implementation against Face ID, which is thought to be one of the most secure facial recognition systems on mobile phones to date.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Rumors What's also unclear is whether this new 3D facial recognition system would make it to all Galaxy S10 models. As rumors suggest, Samsung is unveiling four Galaxy S10 variants: a standard with a flat display, an "Edge" model, a Galaxy S10 Plus, and a version that's capable of 5G. It's entirely possible that Samsung will save the feature for the higher-end Galaxy S10 device. That said, it would be nice if all models will get it.

Needless to say, every rumor must be taken with a grain of salt. Plus, suppose Samsung is indeed working on a feature similar to Face ID, there's still no guarantee it will show up on the Galaxy S10.

There's a chance it debuts on the foldable Galaxy smartphone everyone got a peak of this past November. Another possibility is that the feature ends up being shelved, although that doesn't seem likely. After all, Samsung needs to prove that its smartphones are better than Apple's and having a feature akin to Face ID would be a huge part of that effort.

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Foxconn might start manufacturing flagship iPhone models in India

Foxconn might start manufacturing flagship iPhone models in India Foxconn appears ready to double-down on existing efforts in India and add to Apple's manufacturing options, as it looks to grow iPhone production beyond just low-cost models outside of China. For the first time, Foxconn may be assembling Apple's handset in its Sriperumbudur plant located in India's southern state of Tamil Nadu. The assembly partner is planning to invest more than 15 billion Indian rupees, roughly $214.2 million in U.S. dollars, on expanding its plant to accommodate iPhone production, according to people familiar with the matter.

MC Sampath, Tamil Nadu's Industries Minister, in a statement to The Economic Times said the project will create as many as 25,000 jobs for the local workforce. Sources claim the state government will announce the deal in early 2019.

Currently, only lower cost iPhones such as the iPhone SE and iPhone 6S are assembled in India by Foxconn competitor Wistron. A report earlier this year claimed Wistron will update its factory to put out Apple's higher-end handsets, specifically the iPhone X. If true, the move would be similar to Apple's existing India strategy, which sees the tech giant marketing older generation handsets at more affordable prices.

As of late, there have been a number of hurdles for Apple's expansion plans in India, including a recently decision to allow the country's anti-spam app into the App Store to avoid a ban from the local cellular networks. A top advisor to Prime Minister Narendra Modi also insisted the country should restrict its import of luxury goods like the iPhone and tax them heavily, further hurting Apple's outlook in the country for high-end sales.