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Quick links: JBS meatpackers strike | 859 wage-theft cases | Small business funding trouble| Office to apartment conversions | AMP’s biochar attracts Google | Take the survey: Jobs
When Ryan Eakes surveys the sprawling farm he manages in the Uncompahgre Valley surrounding Montrose, he thinks about how he could be standing in the global epicenter of production for a natural health and wellness product.
Yet that future hangs on the same material as certain drafts of the U.S. Constitution.
Following negotiations to reopen the federal government during the shutdown in November, the U.S. Senate surprised the hemp industry when it included language in a 2026 Agriculture appropriations act that effectively bans all intoxicating hemp products within one year of President Donald Trump signing the bill on Nov. 12.
Eakes manages Typhoon Farma, the largest grower of hemp for cannabinoids in Colorado. He grows his crop on 315 acres and says he employs 13 locals year-round and as many as 40 during planting and harvest seasons, subject to contracts.
Typhoon Farma sources supplies from many local companies that generate a half-million dollars locally, Eakes said. It generates between $600,000 and $700,000 in local wages annually. The organic hemp he grows contains nonpsychoactive cannabinoids that don’t get a person “high” but may help relieve a variety of ailments including chronic pain and inflammation, epilepsy, anxiety, mood disorders, insomnia and addiction cravings.
“I feel like we’re one of the better, larger employers in the town we’re in,” he said. “I mean, obviously you have the hospital and the school system and the airport. But beyond that, we employ a lot of people. And we drive quite a bit of business to this town.”
There’s a catch in Eakes’ rosy picture, though, and it could put Typhoon Farma and dozens of other Colorado hemp growers out of business.
It’s linked to the legalization of hemp containing a tiny percentage of THC in 2018 and the creation of a $2.2 billion quasilegal market for intoxicating hemp products including THC-infused seltzers, brownies and gummies that flowed into in gas stations, farmers markets and CBD stores across the nation.
“Bad players” got into the game, however, and put the industry in jeopardy, Eakes said.
They used toxic solvents to convert CBD into THC, creating products containing harmful chemicals that made thousands of people using vapes and e-cigarettes sick. In 2020, the Centers for Disease Control linked these chemicals to 2,800 hospitalizations and as many as 68 deaths.
Colorado was one of the first states to ban intoxicating hemp products made by chemical processing. However, legislators and regulators failed to adopt many critical regulations that other states have employed to keep hemp products off the shelves, according to an investigation by ProPublica and the Denver Gazette.
But Eakes said the way the Trump administration closed the loophole that allowed the sale of hemp containing THC was not “through a surgical adjustment,” like it should have been. “They took a sledgehammer to it.”
The new federal definition of legal hemp will change to a much stricter standard in three significant ways.
“The only thing that will survive is anything that is made with CBD isolate, which is 0% THC,” Eakes said.
“And the demand and market for those types of products is minuscule, compared to the full- or broad-spectrum products, which retain important qualities when the THC is pulled out,” he added. “They’ll still be available, but they’re harder to make, more expensive and not everybody can make them. So all the people that we sell to, to make all the shelf products, like the good ones that help veterans and athletes and moms and senior citizens, it’s gonna wipe all of that out.”
It might not be the end of the road for Typhoon Farma, though. Eakes said he’s negotiating “one large account” for which they may still be able to provide their hemp.
“It’ll be a unicorn if we get it,” he added. “If we don’t, I’m going to have to lay off 75% of my staff.”
Section by Tracy Ross | Reporter
Sun economy stories you may have missed
➔ Lawsuit claims Vail Resorts’ Epic Pass and Alterra Mountain Co.’s Ikon Pass are anticompetitive, violate antitrust laws. The 74-page class action complaint argues that the dominant resort operators’ $350 single-day lift tickets and $1,000 season passes are overpriced schemes that hurt skiers and independent resorts >> Read story
➔ Colorado data center bills split environmental, labor groups. At the core of the dispute is a legislative proposal to rein in the energy-hungry facilities powering the artificial intelligence boom >> Read story
➔ Tegna-Nexstar megamerger drama has national implications, but seismic impact on Denver news. Combining newsleaders 9News and Fox31 already has triggered a lawsuit and concerned experts — and not just because of what might happen to Kyle Clark >> Read story
➔ Colorado is losing 1 affordable housing unit for every 2 it builds. But the state keeps rejecting efforts to stop the bleeding >> Read story
➔ Colorado lawmakers are pursuing state’s first guardrails on online betting since sports wagers began. The push has opened a fight over addiction, financial harm and whether the state has grown too dependent on gambling revenue >> Read story
➔ Google taps Boulder physicist to head up new quantum-computing team in Colorado. It’s the company’s first physical entry into the local quantum ecosystem >> Read story
Take the survey: How hard is it to get a job?
Job data about openings and job growth (or lack thereof) is telling us that it’s becoming a challenge to find work. Have you felt it? Help us better understand how Coloradans are impacted by taking the What’s Working reader poll. >> Take the poll at cosun.co/WWget-a-job
Other working bits
➔ JBS meatpacker strike will go into third week. The labor union representing about 3,800 workers at the Swift Beef Company plant in Greeley owned by JBS said Thursday that the ongoing labor strike will start its third week on Monday, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7.
The walkout, which started March 16, has workers demanding that the company cover the cost of personal protective equipment and raise wages “sufficient to meet inflation, including rising health care costs,” according to the union. The union also accused JBS of not negotiating.
JBS officials said it’s the opposite and that “Local 7 leadership chose to walk away from the bargaining table, did not allow team members to vote on the company’s offer,” and other issues, JBS spokesperson Nikki Richardson said in a statement. She also pointed to a union contract reached last year with UFCW International and union members in other states. “The company cannot — and will not — undermine the integrity of its nationwide agreement,” she said.
Local 7 officials have called the national contract inadequate because the cost of living is higher in Colorado.
➔ Denver had 859 wage-theft cases last year, still trying to collect $14M from strip clubs. City auditor Timothy O’Brien, whose office houses the Denver Labor Division, said the department pursued a record of 859 cases last year and distributed $2.3 million in payments to workers owed money, according to the auditor’s 2025 annual report. Approximately, 4,236 workers received some sort of financial restitution.
Last year, the biggest offenders were strip clubs Diamond Cabaret and Rick’s Cabaret, which were ordered to pay nearly $14 million in restitution and penalties for more than 230 workers. The auditor’s office alleged the workers were misclassified as entertainers and had to pay their own “house fees” and “promo fees.” The strip clubs have appealed the order so the $14 million is in limbo.
Another offender, staffing firm GigSmart, also misclassified workers as independent contractors and didn’t provide benefits like overtime pay, paid leave and workers’ compensation. The auditor recovered $22,000 and GigSmart voluntarily classified everyone as W-2 employees.
Denver Labor audits company payrolls but also responds to worker complaints. File a complaint right here, or check the auditor’s site to see if you’re owed money. For those outside of O’Brien’s purview of Denver, file a wage-theft complaint with the state’s department of labor (details here). >> View 2025 report
➔ Small Business Development Centers lacks federal funds. Colorado’s 14 Small Business Development Centers (plus another 25 or so satellite operations) haven’t received their 2026 allocation of $2.25 million from the federal government yet.
That was enough to get all the Democrats of Colorado’s congressional delegation plus one Republican — Rep. Jeff Hurd from Grand Junction — to pen a letter to Kelly Loeffler, administrator of the Small Business Administration, demanding the funds. Absent were Republican U.S. Reps. Lauren Boebert from Windsor, Jeff Crank from Colorado Springs and Gabe Evans from Fort Lupton.
The development centers provide free one-on-one advising, training and workshops, and other resources to small businesses in urban and rural communities. In 2024, the centers helped 385 businesses get started, advised 10,944 clients and helped businesses secure $75.7 million in capital. A request to the SBA for comment went unanswered Friday.
➔ Denver offers loan to turn two office towers into apartments. The Denver Downtown Development Authority approved a $63 million low-interest loan this week for the developers behind the High Fidelity Plaza project, which consists of two office towers at 621 and 633 17th St.
The Luzzatto Company, which purchased the properties last year for a reported $3.2 million, plans to convert 1 million square feet of underused office space into 700 apartments. The project is estimated to cost $315 million.
The funding comes from a voter-approved DDA initiative in 2024, to free up $570 million for the city to invest in downtown economic development. Including the High Fidelity project, the DDA has approved $242 million for projects that include buying the Denver Pavilions shopping center, renovating the historic Barth Hotel, and providing a $14 million loan to help convert the Petroleum Building from office space to apartments. >> Details
➔ Robotic trash recycler teams up with Google. Louisville-based AMP is rolling out full-service technology of robotics and artificial intelligence to pick out recyclable materials from unsorted consumer waste that would otherwise end up in landfills. But another service the company offers is to remove organic waste and convert it to biochar, which essentially reduces methane-producing decomposition into a stable material that keeps carbon out of the atmosphere.
That got Google’s attention. Google agreed this month to pay for enough carbon credits to support AMP’s removal of 200,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent by 2030. The tech giant will also work with AMP to create a protocol for “verified emissions reductions associated with superpollutants like hydrofluorocarbons and methane,” said AMP spokesperson Carling Spelhaug. AMP has also built a biochar plant in Virginia that, at full production, will be the largest in North America, she said. >> Details
Section by Tamara Chuang | Business/Technology Reporter
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