Scott Giannotti
Age: 37
Company: Cannabis and Hemp Association
Position: Founder
Location: New York City, New York
Scott Giannotti feels pretty blessed right now. The 37-year-old founder of the Cannabis and Hemp Association is in the final stages of acquiring his hemp farming license in New York.
“Our governor (Andrew Cuomo) is looking to be the Rambo of hemp,” he says. “I would never have had the foresight to believe that my state would come off to be the most aggressive hemp state in the nation.”
In addition to his own farming venture, Giannotti’s Cannabis and Hemp Association has helped produce more than 100 educational events since the trade association was founded in May 2014.
“The main focus of the Cannabis and Hemp Association is education and raising awareness of cannabis as, what I like to call, ‘a cornerstone crop for sustainable living,’” Giannotti says, “meaning that with one plant you can get food, shelter, medicine, spirituality and culture — everything you need to have a human civilization and have it run optimally.”
Giannotti, who is also the managing director for the Cannabis World Congress & Business Expo, plans use his new hemp farming license for a third enterprise, One Stop Hemp, which he envisions as a clearing house for the CBD industry and an incubator to help establish new hemp businesses.