Industrial Hemp Podcast

In this week's hemp podcast, Lancaster Farming speaks with Ken Meyer, beekeeper and hemp processor from South Dakota. Meyer and his family run a fourth-generation beekeeping business as well as the state's first industrial hemp processing facility. As a young man, Meyer enjoyed beekeeping but was encouraged by his elders to get an education instead of going into the family business, which he did, and he had a fruitful career as lawyer. In 2013, his dad and brother successfully recruited him back into the family business of keeping bees, and today he oversees the beeswax rendering facility as vice president of A.H. Meyer & Sons, the business started by his great-grandfather over 90 years ago. Honeybees are known for their industriousness, efficiency and community spirit, not to mention the vital ecological services they provide, including the pollination of many of our food crops. "The number that we often talk about is that every third bite of what we eat," Meyer said, is made possible because of bees. And beekeepers. Some of that industriousness and community spirit must have rubbed off on Meyer. In 2020, he co-founded the South Dakota Industrial Hemp Association, and has since been on a mission to bring full-scale production of industrial hemp to the state. Since 2020, he and his SDIHA colleagues have conducted nearly a hundred educational meeting for farmers to show them the benefits of including fiber hemp in their corn and soy rotations. Simultaneous to his educational efforts, Meyer has led the way in bringing processing capacity to the Mount Rushmore State. In 2023, he and his crew opened Complete Hemp Processing at a 25,000- square-foot facility, which includes a decortication system and mechanical drying area. His outreach efforts to farmers have paid off. "Last year, we contracted for 1,600 acres," he said. "This year, we're right at 2,000 acres." The increase is twofold: more farmers have signed up to grow, and some of his existing farmers have increased their acreage of hemp. "It's definitely a mix of both. So for example, one or two farmers that did 300 acres last year, this year are doing 500 each," he said. Corn prices are also having a positive effect on hemp acres. "Last year when we signed up hemp farmers, we paid them $300 a ton for their (hemp) stalks. They were getting the same money they were getting for corn when corn was at $7 a bushel," Meyer said. But now corn is in the $4 a bushel range, and South Dakota farmers "have that extra margin in there where hemp is better than corn, because we haven't brought our prices down as corn prices have dropped," Meyer said. The processing facility is in Winfred, about 60 miles northwest of Sioux City. Meyer said most of the hemp production in South Dakota takes place in the eastern half, as the western part of the state is mostly ranchland. He said the corn and soy growers he's working with generally already have the equipment they need to plant and harvest and bale the fiber crop. "The farmers bring the bales to us, per our contract, at roughly the rate of a third of their harvest at harvest time. And then a few months out into the second quarter, they bring a second third," he said. "And then as we're coming into the spring, they bring the last third of their bales," Meyer said. The hemp is processed into two main lines: bast fiber and hurd. Meyer said the majority of the processed hemp hurd goes into the hemp animal bedding market, while some goes into the hemp-lime, or hempcrete, building industry. According to USDA's national hemp report, South Dakota led the nation in harvested acres of industrial hemp in 2022 with 2,550 acres, in no small part thanks to Ken Meyer and his crew. As hemp becomes more common in the state, the marijuana stigma has lessened, Meyer said. "The first year when we were educating people, we would hear people ask questions or make jokes about industrial hemp being marijuana," he said," and who was going to come and steal the crop and those kind of things." But none of those things ever happen, Meyer said, and now just a few years later, no one is making those jokes. "So after some education, attitude is changed quite a bit," Meyer said. Learn more about Complete Hemp Processing https://www.completehempprocessing.com/ Learn more about A.H. Meyer & Sons https://www.meyerhoneyfarms.com/ Thanks to our sponsors! IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ King's Agriseeds https://kingsagriseeds.com/ The Pennsylvania Industrial Hemp Council https://www.pahic.org/ Forever Green and the KP4 Hemp Cutter https://www.hempcutter.com/ Topics discussed in this interview: Industrial Hemp Processing in South Dakota Complete Hemp Processing Center Location and footprint Drying process for bales Contracting with farmers in South Dakota Increase in industrial acreage from previous year Reasons for hemp vs corn Challenges and education for new hemp growers Regulations for hemp growers in South Dakota Ken Meyer's family business Beekeeping history Ori

On this bonus episode of the Hemp Podcast, we talk to Mike Mercadante from Right Coast Hemp in Manahawkin, New Jersey, where the company is holding the first of a series of hands-on hempcrete work shops, May 10-12. The workshops are intended to give local builders and contractors a chance to get to know hemp as a material and see how the hempcrete process works. Learn more about Right Coast Hemp https://rchemp.com/ Learn more about Hearts of Mercy https://hearts-of-mercy.org/ Register for the workshop May 10-12 https://rchemp.com/learn-to-build-with-hemp-workshop/ Thanks to our sponsors: IND HEMP Americhanvre National Hemp Association Forever Green King's Agriseeds Pennsylvania Hemp Industry Council SunRay Hemp

This week's podcast guest Mattie Mead competed in a 2013 pitch competition at Hobart College in Geneva, New York. He had just shared his vision for a company that made building materials out of hemp. "One of the judges for the contest said, 'So let me get this straight, you're looking to build houses out of a Schedule 1 substance?' "And I said, well, 'Yes.' "Today it's a Schedule 1 substance, but in five or so years it's going to be federally legal," Mead said. "And I want to be on the forefront of what I believe to be an emerging industry." Indeed, industrial hemp was legalized with the 2018 Farm Bill and today Mead is co-founder and CEO of Hempitecture, a building materials manufacturing company in Idaho. "We're focused on what we believe are the most truly sustainable building materials on the planet," Mead said. "And as you could probably guess by our name, our not-so-secret ingredient is hemp fiber." Hempitecture makes several construction materials from hemp, including HempWool thermal insulation, a plant-based alternative to fiberglass insulation. Another product line is FiberPad, a hemp-fiber-based, non-toxic carpet underlayment. Hempitecture brought a state-of-the-art manufacturing center online in early 2023 in Jerome, Idaho. The company sources hemp fibers from Montana and Alberta, but recently a processor in Idaho — Whitefield Global — has come into operation, providing Hempitecture with fibers produced by farmers in Idaho. "Seeing this kind of movement towards industrial hemp cultivation in the Rocky Mountain West — and seeing it move closer and closer to our manufacturing plant — is really encouraging," Mead said. He also talks about his company's latest round of fundraising. "We opened up our second round to the public on March 18. And within the first day of going public, we've put $740,000 of reservations in this investment round," he said. He also speaks about expanding Hempitecture by building a second manufacturing facility in upstate New York. "As we look towards expansion on the East Coast, we want to use our Idaho facility as a blueprint and replicate that blueprint nationally," Mead said. Also on this podcast episode, we hear from Morris Beegle, founder of the NoCo Hemp Expo taking place in Colorado in April. We'll have a handful of news nuggets as well, including a story about kitty litter made from hemp. Invest in Hempitecture https://wefunder.com/hempitecture Learn more about Hempitecture https://www.hempitecture.com/ News Nuggets All Walks Pet Products Hemp Litter https://allwalkspet.com/ Get Your Tickets for Noco Hemp Expo, April 11 - 13 https://www.nocohempexpo.com/ Hemp-Lime Appendix Published in 2024 US Residential Housing Codes https://www.hempbuildmag.com/home/irc-hemp-lime State attorneys general urge Congress to address risks posed by intoxicating hemp products https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/20/intoxicating-hemp-products-state-attorneys-general-congress-00147819 Manufacturing skis from hemp tapes https://www.knittingindustry.com/manufacturing-skis-from-hemp-tapes/

Hemp Podcast guest James "Jimmy" Cottrell II is a fourth-generation paper maker at family-owned Cottrell Paper in Saratoga County, New York. He started cutting the grass in high school and began working at the mill after graduation, and has worked his way up. Today he is director of maintenance for the mill and vice president of Mill26, Cottrell Paper's hemp paper brand. The company was founded in 1926 when Cottrell's great-grandfather began making electrical insulation paper. "We've always produced electrical insulating sheet," Cottrell said. "It's a specialty product, and nobody else in the world makes exactly the same sheet we make." Cottrell Paper's products are in numerous consumer goods "We're in cars. We're in automotive. We're in a lot of things that are in your household items, your dishwashers, little parts and pieces everywhere," Cottrell said. "But we've never actually sold to a consumer where people know who Cottrell Paper is." The company operates in the same paper mill in Rock City Falls, along the Kayaderosseras Creek, where 19th-century industrialist and the so-called "Paper Bag King" George West is said to have invented the paper bag, a story in which Cottrell finds inspiration. "So to come full circle now 150 years later, to invent a hemp sheet and build another paper bag in this mill...," Cottrell said. "I feel that's a threat to the paper bag itself, because we got something new in the same old place." Mill26 Hemp Paper During the days of COVID when the world slowed to a snail's pace, Cottrell put the time to good use. "We ventured into trying to make a new line," he said. "We got a little slow, like everybody did, and started getting some stalks and stems in, and we started processing some hemp." At first he bought hemp out of Canada and the Netherlands, but has lately been sourcing material from Texas. "The United States is catching up, and we're just a little bit behind, you know, overseas everywhere," he said. He said he wants clean bast fiber at a 95:5 ratio of bast to hurd. The bast fibers are the long strands that make up the outer portion of the stalk and the hurd is the inner woody core, often used for hempcrete construction and horse bedding. "Everybody has their own classification right now of what 95 five is," he said, "but we really need the cleanest bast fibers around to make the best papers that we can make here at Mill 26." Cottrell Paper decided to brand their hemp paper line independently as Mill26 to attract new costumers and to avoid any negative association with marijuana. Cottrell said his warehouse is full and he is ready for business. "We can sell rolls, we can sell sheets, we can sell coils. We can sell paper bags from size two to size 12. We can print your logo on it up to four colors," he said. "You can buy a thousand quantities all the way up to million quality bags." The implications of Mill26 hemp paper are wide. A durable, tree-free paper has the potential to disrupt many industries and usher in a new era of regenerative consumer packaging (and maybe the newspapers). "I really feel that it can help change so many industries and then help change this planet and the ecological footprint and our carbon footprint here at Cottrell Paper itself," Cottrell said. Mill26 Hemp Paper https://mill26.com/ Cottrell Paper https://www.cottrellpaper.com/ Thanks to our Sponsors! IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ Americhanvre Cast-Hemp https://americhanvre.com/ Forever Green https://www.hempcutter.com/

This is a special weekend edition of the Hemp Podcast. Lancaster Farming speaks with Geoff Whaling, chair of the National Hemp Association. I will update the details of this episode soon. For now, enjoy the audio. Learn more: National Hemp Association https://nationalhempassociation.org/ Thanks to our sponsors! IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ Americhanvre https://americhanvre.com/ Forever Green, distributors of the KP4 Hemp Cutter https://www.hempcutter.com/

Jean Lotus is an award-winning investigative journalist and publisher of HempBuild Magazine. She is based in Fort Collins, Colorado, where she has been covering the hemp industry since 2017, and is our guest on this week's hemp podcast. While she has written about various sectors of the hemp industry, her main area of interest is the hemp building sector. "I thought, jeez, this is a technology that's been in use successfully in Europe for 30 years," she said. "They've already made all the mistakes, they've done all the testing. They know what works." "All we have to do is sort of turn a key and we could do it here," Lotus said. Lotus has become a well-respected voice in the hemp industry, not only because of her deep interest in the plant and the potential for its uses, but also because of her commitment as a journalist to getting the story straight. "I was an investigative reporter in Chicago for many years," she said, "and what I found when writing about hemp and researching hemp online is that there is this bizarre world of fabulosity." Wild claims about what hemp can do run rampant on the internet, and the dearth of accurate information spurred Lotus to start Hemp Build Magazine, to provide researched and fact-based information to anyone who wants it at HempBuildMag.com. Last year, she co-founded a school in association with the US Hemp Building Association, called HempBuild School Masterminds. The school has two tracks, one designed for the home owner. "We have a lot of people who are dreaming about building their own house (out of hemp)," Lotus said. The other track is for professional builders who want to learn the trade. The professional track covers building techniques as well as softer skills, such as talking to regulators, building inspectors, code enforcers and subs like the electricians and plumbers, who most likely have never worked with hempcrete before and will stare at you like an old mule looking at a new gate when you tell them what you need them to do. Most recently, Lotus has published the "2024 Hemp Building Directory, A Guide to the International Hemp Building Industry." It's a 138-page book, nearly double in size of the first edition of the directory she published in 2022. The book provides contact information for businesses around the world that are connected to the hemp building industry. "Everything from hemp wood to wallpaper to, you know, some kind of experimental stuff, hemp blowing insulation, hemp paints and stains," she said. Not just products, the directory also lists hemp builders, architects, engineers, designers, processors, decorticators, suppliers, and more. "The idea is," Lotus said, "at any stage you can find supplies that have hemp as a building material in them." For Lotus, her work is informed by a vision of a better world — a place where hemp construction is ubiquitous and boring. Houses are made from local agriculture-based materials and are accessible and affordable for everyone. "That is sort of the vision that I see that when you say, what does success look like for this industry?" Lotus said. Listen here: Hemp Build Magazine https://www.hempbuildmag.com/ 2024 Hemp Building Directory https://www.hempbuildmag.com/directory-2024 HempBuild School Masterminds https://www.hempbuildmag.com/hemp-build-school News Nuggets and Hemp Events Oregon State receives $10 million grant to work with 13 Native American Tribes on hemp economic development https://today.oregonstate.edu/news/oregon-state-receives-10-million-grant-work-13-native-american-tribes-hemp-economic-development International groups join forces to expand standards for industrial hemp https://hemptoday.net/international-groups-join-forces-to-expand-standards-for-industrial-hemp Right Coast Hempcrete Workshop, May 10-12 https://rchemp.com/learn-to-build-with-hemp-workshop/ Ereasy Spray Method Hempcrete Training, April 27-30 https://americhanvre.com/april-ereasy-training/ Vote for HempWood! It's definitely the coolest thing made in Kentucky. http://coolestthingky.com/cast-your-vote Thanks to our Sponsors! IND HEMP https://indhemp.com Mpactful Ventures https://www.mpactfulventures.org/ Forever Green https://www.hempcutter.com/

This week on the Hemp Podcast, Lancaster Farming talks with Maciej Kowalski, founder and CEO of Kombinat Konopny, a hemp company based in Elbląg, a Polish city on the Baltic Sea. Kombinat Konopny is a vertically integrated hemp operator working both in the herbal and fiber division. Kowalski said the company takes a no-nonsense approach to floral production and extraction. "Which means basically we are not doing extraction, because nature does it best," he said. Instead of a complicated chemical extraction process, "we just mix hemp biomass with olive oil and then press it mechanically," he said. "No distillation, no extraction, no messing with the natural ratios of the cannabinoids. Whatever is in the plant goes into the oil," Kowalski said, noting that this model runs counter to the mainstream floral hemp industry's fixation on hemp derived intoxicants like Delta-8 THC. "I don't mess with nature. I just put it in a bottle," Kowalski said. A separate division of Kombinat Konopny is focused on hemp fiber. "I've been working with hemp flower for more than 10 years now, and hemp stalk has always been an enemy," he said. "It was something that ropes around all the bits and pieces. So like five, six years ago, I decided to try to somehow work with it, not against it." Since then Kowalski has built a vertically integrated hemp textile company. "We are growing hemp. We are harvesting hemp. We are decorticating hemp," he said. "Then we are refining the fiber, we spin it into yarn, and we actually make the products out of it," Kowalski said. "So it's a full value chain." Before getting into hemp, Kowalski was working as a journalist and was trying to write a story about a Catch-22 in Polish hemp law. "In order to grow hemp, you need to be registered in a registry of hemp growers," he said. But the registry did not exist. He wanted to write an article that asked some basic questions: "How can you say that I'm in the registry, if there is no registry, but you cannot grow if you're not in the registry?" He applied for the registry, knowing his application would be rejected because there was no registry. But much to his surprise (and to the detriment of his career in investigative journalism), "some wise person from the ministry said, 'Well, the country cannot expect from a citizen to fulfill something that is not possible.'" In 2014, Maciej Kowalski was granted the first private license issued for hemp in Poland. "I wanted to show that it is not possible, but I actually proved that it is possible, so maybe I should start doing it," he said. From there he built a successful CBD business, which was bought by a Canadian company in 2018, but the sale came with a non-compete clause, so Kowalski was unable to work with CBD for two years. "So imagine 2018," he said. "I've got quite a lot of money to invest. I got quite a lot of willpower and knowledge, but I cannot be working with CBDs. So that's how I got into fiber." Also in this interview we discuss winter retting, feral hemp, and how Kowalski took a case to the Polish Supreme Court to prove that hemp does not fall under the EU's novel food regulations. Listen here: Kombinat Konopny https://kombinatkonopny.pl/ Maciej on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/maciejkowalskihemp/ What's up with European Novel Foods? https://food.ec.europa.eu/safety/novel-food_en What Does Maciej think about Novel Foods? https://kombinatkonopny.pl/court-judgment-hemp-is-not-a-novel-food-it-can-be-used-in-food/ Thanks to our Sponsors! IND HEMP https://indhemp.com National Hemp Association https://nationalhempassociation.org/ King's Agriseeds https://kingsagriseeds.com/

This week's hemp podcast is divided into two parts. Lancaster Farming talks with Shannon Powers from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture about some major changes to the hemp program in the Keystone State. "The first is that Pennsylvania is moving to a performance-based testing system for growers who are growing either for fiber or grain," Powers said. Performance-based testing, she said, will reduce the amount of testing needed by growers if they meet basic requirements. Reduced testing means reduced costs for producers. The second change, Powers said, is the removal of the application deadline. In the past, growers had to get their application in by April 1. Removing the deadline makes it easier for farmers to make planting decisions later in the season. "We're finding that folks can grow two crops of hemp in one season," Powers said. KP-4 Hemp Cutter The second interview on the hemp podcast this week is with Peter Dushop, founder of the Canadian company Forever Green, distributors of the KP-4 hemp cutter. The KP-4 is an adjustable-height, multi-tiered sickle bar for harvesting fiber hemp, made by Lithuanian equipment manufacturer Laumetris. Dushop said the cutter makes "the crop manageable and improves consistency and repeatability from season to season, from field to field." Dushop grows fiber hemp on the family farm in British Columbia, where he is also developing a processing facility. "We firmly believe that processing starts in the field and not necessarily at the mill," Dushop said. Learn more: Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Hemp Program https://www.agriculture.pa.gov/Plants_Land_Water/hemp/Pages/default.aspx Agricultural Business Development Center https://www.agriculture.pa.gov/Business_Industry/Pages/ABDC.aspx Forever Green https://www.forevergreen.com HempCutter.com https://www.hempcutter.com/ News Nuggets South Bend Industrial Hemp to Launch Apprenticeship Program https://www.morningagclips.com/south-bend-industrial-hemp-to-launch-apprenticeship-program-through-kfbs-rkap/ Hemp-Based Batteries to Be Manufactured in Wisconsin https://www.constructionequipmentguide.com/hemp-based-batteries-to-be-manufactured-in-wisconsin/64029 Thanks to our Sponsors! IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ National Hemp Association https://nationalhempassociation.org/

This week's podcast guest is Robert Hoban, a cannabis attorney and industry leader. Hoban recently published a five-part series at Forbes.com in which he takes a deep dive on some of the most controversial issues in the hemp industry today. Hoban has had a full-spectrum cannabis career, having worked extensively on both sides of the marijuana/hemp divide. A few years before the 2014 Farm Bill opened a legal pathway for hemp in the U.S., Hoban was approached by a company that wanted to sell CBD, which at the time was a relatively unknown substance. "I was asked a very direct question," he said. "Is CBD legal under the Controlled Substances Act?" He was only vaguely familiar with CBD at the time, and so he didn't know the answer. "I said, 'Give me three weeks. I'm going to do the deepest dive I could possibly do,' and I did," he said. The legal opinion he wrote based on his analysis was widely shared and ultimately was a contributing factor to the meteoric rise of CBD. "Based on the definition of marihuana, spelled with an H under our Controlled Substances Act, it was quite clear to me that certain elements of the plant, and certain variations of the plant grown internationally, were indeed lawful under our Controlled Substances Act," he said. "And CBD is not and was never a scheduled substance." It's not hard to draw a line between the overproduction of CBD after the 2018 Farm Bill and the recent market explosion of substances like Delta-8 THC or THC-0. "Because of all this biomass, the lack of FDA action, and good ole American entrepreneurialism, we saw the rise of intoxicating hemp derivatives," Hoban writes in his Forbes article. Hoban refers to the derivatives, or IHDs, as "red state weed" because "much of this hemp derivative activity has become popular in so-called red states," Hoban writes, where as Democratic-majority blue states are more likely to have avenues for legal marijuana through medical dispensaries or recreational shops. Red state weed has created headaches for lawmakers who are trying to figure out the best way to deal these substances. Should they be regulated? Should they be banned? Because Hoban has worked closely with both the hemp industry and the marijuana industry, he has watched with concern as these two sectors of the larger cannabis industry go to war over these derivatives. "When I started to see the finger pointing back and forth, I just wanted to shed some light on what was happening and bring some perspective to it," he said. "And this was on the heels of fighting a policy battle in the state of Colorado, where the marijuana sector was very deliberate in its intention to shut this sector down." Some argue that the rise of IHDs was due to a loophole in the language of the Farm Bill. But Hoban said this is no loophole and the cannabis industry as a whole should be embracing these substances, not trying to ban them. The demand for these products does not go away simply because a state government bans them. It only makes consumer safety an issue, Hoban said. Read Robert Hogan's articles on Forbes.com https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthoban/ News Nuggets Hemp sampling protocol changed in Pennsylvania https://www.farmprogress.com/hemp/hemp-sampling-protocol-changed-in-pennsylvania Oklahoma's industrial hemp potential: Unveiling benefits and new task force formation https://ktul.com/news/local/oklahomas-industrial-hemp-potential-unveiling-benefits-and-new-task-force-formation-farmers-thc-oklahoma-cbd-marijuana-plant-people-growing-batteries-bill-rian-graphene-cannabinoids-states-field-products-grow Advocates celebrate inclusion of hemp in USDA's Census of Agriculture https://mjbizdaily.com/advocates-celebrate-inclusion-of-hemp-in-usda-census-of-agriculture/ 'It's almost carbon-negative': how hemp became a surprise building material https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/15/its-almost-carbon-negative-how-hemp-became-a-surprise-building-material Thanks to our Sponsors! IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ Mpactful Ventures https://www.mpactfulventures.org/ Forever Green, distributors of the KP-4 Hemp Cutter https://www.hempcutter.com/

This week's hemp podcast guest is Patrick Atagi, president and CEO of the National Industrial Hemp Council of America (NIHC), a DC-based organization that advocates for and lobbies on behalf of the hemp industry. ON this episode, Atagi discusses industry priorities for the next Farm Bill and the work the NIHC is doing to put hemp on a level playing field with other commodities in the eyes of the USDA. The NIHC has formed an informal coalition with more than 30 national and regional hemp groups and associations, including the US. Hemp Round Table and the Hemp Industries Association, to develop a list of issues they would like addressed by Congress in the Farm Bill. Unlike more mature ag industries that usually advocate and lobby as a unified front, the hemp industry groups haven't coalesced into a single voice, which makes it confusing for policy makers who rely on industry insiders for information and education about a given industry. "On Capitol Hill, I get that all the time, 'There's so many groups, who do we listen to?' type of thing," Atagi said. The Farm Bill priorities list is an attempt to bring the industry together, but because the hemp plant can be used for everything from medicine to houses to biofuels, the industry naturally has many voices. But some consensus was achieved, Atagi said. The list of industry priorities includes: regulating CBD and other ingredients derived from hemp, reducing regulatory requirements for producers of hemp fiber and hemp grain, permitting hemp grain as a commercial livestock feed, and raising the THC limit of hemp to 1% from 0.3%. Atagi also talks about NIHC's work developing overseas markets for American hemp products. He said the NIHC was recently granted cooperator status in the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) Market Access Program. He said this new status puts hemp on a level playing field with other ag industries. "This means that we're on par with cotton, we're on par with grain. We're on par with 75 other commodities," he said. What will that mean for the industry? Listen and find out. National Industrial Hemp Council of America https://nihcoa.com/ Thanks to our Sponsors! IND Hemp https://indhemp.com/ Mpactful Ventures https://www.mpactfulventures.org/ Forever Green, distributors of the KP-4 Hemp Cutter https://www.hempcutter.com/

This week on the industrial hemp podcast, Lancaster Farming talks with Scott Evans, executive vice president of Panda Biotech, a Dallas-based company whose High Plains Hemp Gin in Wichita Falls will be one of the largest hemp processing facilities in the world when it opens this year. Evans said the processing technology comes from Europe and has a throughput of 10 metric tons per hour. As you might expect from a hemp gin in Texas, "It is a large line," Evans said, "To my knowledge, the second biggest in the world, next to one in France." The hemp gin is located six miles from the Oklahoma border, making it centrally located for growers in several states, including Kansas and Missouri. But Evans said, for now, Panda is working mostly with farmers in Texas and Oklahoma. "We need about 25,000 acres to run this facility around the clock once we ramp up and are at full scale," he said. According to USDA, only 6,850 acres of fiber hemp were gown in the U.S. in 2022. "So while it sounds like a lot," Evans said, "when you take a step back and look at other commercial crops, it's really a drop in the bucket here." "Texas planted, I think, 8.5 million acres of cotton last year," he said. Evans said Panda Biotech now gives cotton farmers another option. "We're looking for them to have another crop they can put into the rotation that's going to be profitable, that's going to use less water," he said. "And it's also going to regenerate the health of their soil." Production at the Texas facility will focus on textile for denim. Evans said hemp blends well with other fibers, adding "durability and other attributes to the denim or twill, khaki, or whatever it's going into." Panda Biotech aims to deliver a clean, mechanically processed fiber without the chemical de-gumming process. "That really helps keep the sustainability story that's driving hemp intact," Evans said. Panda Biotech is an offshoot of Panda Energy, a Texas-based company that specializes in building and running power plants, a business run by the Carter family. Panda Biotech chairman and CEO Bob Carter knows how to build things at scale, Evans said, citing Carter's leadership in nearly two dozen power plant projects around the world. "We're not getting in this business just to build one processing center," Evans said. "As we get this one dialed in, we'll start looking for other strategic locations where we can expand the company based on offtake and agriculture." To which Lancaster Farming replied, "Pennsylvania is a wonderful place. Just throwing that out there." Panda Biotech https://www.pandabiotech.com/ Thanks to our sponsors! IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ Mpactful Ventures https://www.mpactfulventures.org/ Forever Green, distributors of the KP-4 Hemp Cutter https://www.hempcutter.com/

The Industrial Hemp Podcast is back after a short break. Episode one of Season Four is available now. The theme of this episode is Good News, because there seems to be a fair amount of it these days in the hemp space. One such piece of positivity comes to us from podcast guest Morgan Tweet, executive director of the Hemp Feed Coalition, a nonprofit organization working to gain federal approval for hemp grain as a commercial livestock feed. "The good news to share is we've completed a key milestone in the regulatory pathway for federal approval, specifically for hemp seed meal, as an ingredient for laying hens," said Tweet. "This is a big deal," she said. "We got the nod of approval from FDA CVM. They have made the recommendation for approval, to allow this as an ingredient. So it's a big deal. It's a long time coming." On this episode, Tweet explains the process of introducing new ingredients into the commercial feed supply and how hemp presents some unique challenges to the feed control officials. She said there are still hoops to jump through but expects hemp seed meal to be granted approval as a feed for laying hens after a final vote by the Association of American Feed Control Officials this August. Continuing with theme of good news, hempcrete builder Cameron McIntosh shares the news on this episode that his company Americhanvre has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research grant. "We received a fully funded direct-to-phase-two award, worth $1.9 million, for research and for studying the Ereasy hempcrete system and methodology," McIntosh said. "So that's about the best news I could give you." The system is a spray-applied method of building with hempcrete, a faster and more efficient delivery system compared to the traditional cast-in-place method of building with hemp. "Building and construction are globally responsible for 30% of our carbon emissions," McIntosh said. "I think (this grant) is an acknowledgment by, not only the U.S. Army, but the entire Department of Defense and even the entire federal government that they need to encourage and be interested in carbon sequestering, sustainable, renewable building technologies," he said. We'll also hear some good news from Patrick Atagi, president and CEO of the National Industrial Hemp Council of America, about the work his organization is doing to get hemp on a level playing field with other commodity crops in the eyes of the USDA. And finally, Tennessee filmmakers Jordan Berger and Maxwell Duryea stop by the Lancaster Farming podcast studio in Ephrata to share some good news about their documentary about industrial hemp called One Plant. You can watch a trailer of the film at oneplant.film Listen here: Hemp Feed Coalition https://hempfeedcoalition.org/ Contact the Hemp Feed Coalition https://hempfeedcoalition.org/contact/ Americhanvre Cast Hemp https://americhanvre.com/ Sunflower Films: One Plant https://www.oneplant.film/ National Industrial Hemp Council https://nihcoa.com/ Thanks to our Sponsors! IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ Mpactful Ventures https://www.mpactfulventures.org/ Forever Green, Makers of the KP-4 Hemp Cutter https://www.getforevergreen.com/

Season 4 of the Industrial Hemp Podcast will be starting up soon, and this brief message is sort of like a teaser for the new season. Have questions, comments or concerns? I'd love to hear from you: [email protected]. Thanks!

We're taking the show on the road again. This week we'll hear interviews from my recent trip to Massachusetts, where I visited the Cape Cod Hemp House in Harwich, and the Hillside Center for Sustainable Living in Newburyport. Michael Monteiro gave me a tour of his newly built 6,000-square-foot house. "It may look like any other house here on the cape. We have cedar sidewall shingles on the house," he said. "But ... the house is actually insulated with a biobased material called hemp lime, or hempcrete. So behind these white walls, we have an insulation material that doesn't come from oil. It actually comes from a plant." Monteiro worked with an architecture firm to design and build a house that looks like a normal cape house, but uses the latest technology in green building, which he explains in detail during the interview. Then I drove up to the Hillside Center for Sustainable Living in Newburyport, where I met with local builder David Hall, a partner in the vertically integrated real estate and building firm Hall & Moskow. Phase 3 of the Hillside Center is under construction now. It is billed as the largest industrial hempcrete project in North America, and when complete will be a 12-unit apartment complex. "We set out 10 years ago to build a community here of very low carbon living," Hall said. "We have already built 30 units that meet passive house criteria and perform beautifully. "It's not an exaggeration to say 1,300 watts, like a typical hair dryer, would heat the homes because that's what they consume. They're very tight, very successful," he said. The walls of those first 30 units are made from concrete, which is extremely carbon intensive. But hempcrete has a much lower carbon footprint, which is why Hall & Moskow are using it in the next phase of the community. You can hear all about both of these building projects on this week's show. Plus an interview with Lindsay the waitress at Persy's Place in North Plymouth. The Hillside Center for Sustainable Living http://www.hillsidecenterforsustainableliving.com/ The Cape Cod Hemp House https://www.capecodhemphouse.com/ Persy's Place https://persysplace.com/ News Nuggets Hemp: I Can Tell Your Future, Just Look What's In Your Hand (Part 5/5) https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthoban/2023/12/16/hemp-i-can-tell-your-future-just-look-whats-in-your-hand-part-55/ Some hemp with your wine? Study shows better soil, potentially flavors from intercropping https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/some-hemp-with-your-wine-study-shows-better-soil-potentially-flavors-from-intercropping/ Thanks to our Sponsors! Mpactful Ventures https://www.mpactfulventures.org/ IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ King's Agriseeds https://kingsagriseeds.com/ Cornell Hemp https://cals.cornell.edu/cornell-agritech/products-we-research/hemp National Hemp Association https://nationalhempassociation.org Americhanvre Cast-Hemp https://americhanvre.com/

This weeks' show is sort of mixed bag. I've got a few nuggets of hemp news, a few updates, a trailer for a new Lancaster Farming podcast called The Farm House, and an in-person interview with hempcrete builder Cameron McIntosh. Sorry for the lack of details on this episode, but I'm trying to get everything done before i hit the road a mini hemp tour to Massachusetts. Americhanvre Cast-Hemp https://americhanvre.com/ News Nuggets Industrial hemp will be used to build affordable housing for farmworkers in Huron https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article282806448.html This Ain't No Loophole—Hemp Economics And The Market (Part 3/5) https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthoban/2023/12/06/this-aint-no-loophole--hemp-economics-and-the-market-part-35/ Panda High Plains Hemp Gin Marks Final Stage Commissioning To Bring Largest Industrial Hemp Processing Facility In The Western Hemisphere Online https://www.textileworld.com/textile-world/fiber-world/2023/12/panda-high-plains-hemp-gin-marks-final-stage-commissioning-to-bring-largest-industrial-hemp-processing-facility-in-the-western-hemisphere-online/ New York Governor Vetoes Bills To Allow Hemp Seed In Animal Feed, Calling On State To Collect 'More Information' On Safety https://www.marijuanamoment.net/new-york-governor-vetoes-bills-to-allow-hemp-seed-in-animal-feed-calling-on-state-to-collect-more-information-on-safety/ Thanks to our sponsors! Mpactful Ventures https://www.mpactfulventures.org/ IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ Watch this interview on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRbHPEPB5Av1xUS-L3ecT1Q

On this week's show, we talk with Morris Beegle, founder of the Noco Hemp Expo, the largest industrial hemp convention in North America. The tenth annual expo will be held April 11-13 in Estes Park, Colorado. "It's really a beautiful mountain resort location where we can get 2,000-3,000 people up there and basically take over the town," Beegle said. He expects it to be a good meet-up, full of constructive conversations on how to shape the industry, develop supply chains, influence regulation and do business. The Noco Expo has become an important part of the development of the hemp industry domestically and internationally. Different sectors of the industry have different priorities, and Noco provides the chance industry players "try to figure out our internal issues and how do we move this industry forward and try to position ourselves politically and harmonize our message," he said. "And also harmonize ourselves with what's going on in Europe and Asia," he added. Beegle just returned from a whirlwind trip, first attending the Asia International Hemp Expo in Bangkok, Thailand, followed by a cannabis convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, called MJBizCon. On this week's episode, he shares his experiences from both conventions as well as his thoughts on the state of the hemp industry as 2023 winds down, and where the industry is headed in 2024. Looking into his crystal ball, he sees "more support for the industrial hemp side of things through government grants, through the USDA. I think that there is a support mechanism there that will be more beneficial than it has been in the past." He said his crystal ball is a bit foggy due to the uncertainty around the 2024 presidential election and the sticky political mess we call Congress. "I think that we're going to be in for quite a year next year," he said, "so everybody better hold tight and stay focused and try to stay as positive as possible." Buy Tickets for the 10th Annual NoCo Hemp Expo in Estes park, Co, April 11-13 https://www.nocohempexpo.com/ Apply to become a speaker or presenter at Noco https://letstalkhemp.net/ News Nuggets New York Lawmakers Send Governor Bill To Allow Hemp Seeds In Food For Pets, Horses And Llamas https://www.marijuanamoment.net/new-york-lawmakers-send-governor-bill-to-allow-hemp-seeds-in-food-for-pets-horses-and-llamas/ U.S. commodities platform that traded industrial hemp shuts down as investor pulls back https://hemptoday.net/u-s-commodities-platform-that-traded-industrial-hemp-shuts-down Lower Sioux in Minnesota need homes — so they are building them from hemp https://grist.org/indigenous/hempcrete-lower-sioux-housing/ Rich Folks Import This Building Material. A Minnesota Tribe Makes Its Own. https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2023/12/minnesota-tribe-mdewakanton-band-dakota-hempcrete-sustainable-wellness-architecture/ Their Cape Cod Home Isn't Small, but Its Carbon Footprint Is https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/01/realestate/sustainable-home-massachusetts-climate.html Thanks to our Sponsors! IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ National Hemp Association https://nationalhempassociation.org/

This week on the hemp podcast we talk with Erica Stark, chair of the Pennsylvania Hemp Industry Council, a nonprofit seeking to accelerate the return of hemp to Pennsylvania's agriculture landscape. Earlier this year, PAHIC received over $200,000 in grant money from the state ag department to attract capital investment with a program called Invest in PA Hemp. Last month, the organization released a series of videos and educational materials "specifically geared towards investors to help them understand the space, help them understand what the opportunity is, and also explain all of the reasons why Pennsylvania is an ideal location for investment in this space," Stark said. With great farmers, excellent farmland, and proximity to major consumer markets, Pennsylvania is poised to be a leader in the U.S. hemp industry, she said. "There's a lot of reasons why Pennsylvania is ideal and we're just trying to kind of bring that message home," Stark said. In the video for investors, Ag Secretary Russell Redding says we're "at the very intersection of some of the most important issues of our time, and the future is around the bio-based materials we produce off this land." "And we see the hemp industry as critical to that success," he said. Redding said he wants investors to "see the promise that we see and the opportunities that we see to build an agricultural economy that is the solution to so many of the issues." Globally, industrial hemp is estimated to be a $5 billion industry in 2023 and is projected to grow to an $18 billion dollar industry by 2027, according to PAHIC. The organization also released a kit for entrepreneurs to help navigate the fundraising phase of building their businesses. "We've created a set of tools for business people to help them get investment-ready," Stark said. "A set of financial tools, financial models, both for the decortication, grain processing, and construction." She said they also created a "pitch deck template" to help businesses make a document that gives potential investors an overview of the business model and investment opportunity. "A lot of people have great ideas, but selling them is always the hard part," Stark said. Early next year, PAHIC will launch a secondary campaign that speaks directly to consumers about hemp products and where to find them. Access the inventor tools at PAHIC.org Watch PAHIC's inventor video: https://youtu.be/X9H0uz7PPxM?si=bQBRPXdEQqsKGpb8 Thanks to our sponsors! IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ King's Agriseedshttps://kingsagriseeds.com/ Cornell University's Master's of Professional Studies in Integrative Plant Sciences with a concentration in hemp sciences. https://cals.cornell.edu/school-integrative-plant-science

On this week's hemp podcast, Lancaster Farming talks with Cole Gibbs and Adam Dietrich from Colorado-based Dama BioPlastics. The company specializes in biomaterials and bioplastics made from upcycled agricultural plant waste, including industrial hemp which is abundant in Colorado's flourishing hemp and cannabis industries. Dietrich, Dama's director of material science, said they're not using industrial hemp exclusively, but of all the plant waste, "it's one of the best that we've seen," and the carbon makeup of the hemp waste "is quite high, 40% to 45%," he said. "Then we convert that material into usable drop-in replacements for automotive plastics (and) the construction industries," said founder and CEO Gibbs. One of the products the company makes is called Dama Black, a bio-based replacement for carbon black, a material widely used in petroleum-based plastics. "Carbon black is a fossil fuel byproduct," Gibbs said. "Basically, it's the soot inside the chimneys when they're burning material that gets added to plastics to generate the black colorant and UV protection." Carbon black is ubiquitous — from tires to toys, electronics to car parts. It is in nearly every black plastic in use today, Gibbs said. Because Dama Black is a carbon negative bio-based material, it is very attractive to automakers seeking to de-carbonize their vehicles and production lines. One such company is Swedish automaker Polestar, which has set ambitious climate-carbon goals for its fleet of electric cars. Polestar is partnering with Dama BioPlastics for the Polestar 0 Project which aims to eliminate — not just reduce — all greenhouse gas emissions from every aspect of production by 2030. Gibbs said Dama BioPlastics is one of the only exclusive North American partners "for the Polestar 0 project for all of their electric vehicles going forward." Gibbs said Dama Black will be used in everything that would normally be used in traditional petroleum plastic, from interior pieces and window switches to dashboards and exterior trim. "We're even looking into the automotive tires and the rubber seal, the gear around the door frames and everything," he said. Gibbs said his company is also working with the Polestar team "to eliminate the massive volume of different types of polymers that are used in vehicles" which, he said, can number between 40 and 50 different materials. "We want to shrink that down into a smaller number, so it's more easily recycled," he said.

Hemp has played a role in the lives of humans for a very long time, according to this week's podcast guest, Jeremy Klettke, cannabis breeder and owner of Davis Farms, based in Oregon and Massachusetts. "It's clearly culturally assimilated with us. It's clearly evolved with us," he said, "when you talk about it from an endogenous cannabinoid perspective." "Whatever we ask for, the plant seems to give," he said. "Food, fuel, fiber — any of it, it's giving us these incredible versions of it. So there's clearly been a parallel evolution." Klettke has been working internationally with the cannabis plant since the early 1990s and shares many tales from his experience on this episode. While living and working in Copenhagen in the 1990s, he caught a glimpse of the cannabis trade that has existed internationally for thousands of years, an experience he called "profound." "It definitely helped me to recognize that, you know, this plant was a culturally important part of our civilization for ... I didn't know how long," he said. As a plant breeder, he shares his views on genetics and the role THC plays in the plant. He suggests that breeding THC out of hemp altogether will have unintended consequences. "When you remove THC, you're removing one of the primary defense mechanisms," he said. THC also happens to be the compound responsible for psychoactive properties of cannabis which, he said, humans have been using as a spiritual tool since prehistoric times. He cited the Dogon tribe in Mali, which would ingest fermented cannabis during their religious ceremonies. This interview covers a lot of territory. Davis Farms https://davishempfarms.com/ News Nuggets Hemp uses and potential economic impact in Pa. https://www.witf.org/2023/11/13/hemp-uses-and-potential-economic-impact-in-pa/ Is hemp making a comeback? Tennessee farmers eye an era beyond CBD https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2023/11/15/tn-farmers-eye-hemp-production-facilities-past-cbd/71301942007/ Pennsylvania Hemp Industry Council https://www.pahic.org/ Pennsylvania Hemp Industry Council's introductory video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fFW4d3Bykg Thanks to our Sponsors: IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ National Hemp Association https://nationalhempassociation.org/ Cornell University's Master's of Professional Studies in Integrative Plant Sciences with a concentration in hemp sciences. https://cals.cornell.edu/school-integrative-plant-science

This week on the podcast we talk to Robin Destiche and Corbett Miteff, two founding partners of KonopiUS, a company that sells seeds and consulting services. KonopiUS specializes in seeds from Europe, importing genetics that work best for North America. Miteff said the company is a conglomerate of three other businesses that were exporting European genetics to the U.S. We "decided to kind of quit working against one another and try to make the industry successful. So we we became partners and started KonopiUS," he said. Destiche and Miteff teamed up with Hana Gabrielová, a longtime advocate and entrepreneur in the European hemp industry, and Bert James, an agronomist from North Carolina. "It became very apparent that working together is clearly more advantageous than working apart," Destiche said. Founded in 2021, the company has farmers growing its seeds in about 30 states, mostly in the north. "Some states grow better than others," Destiche said. "We do work with European genetics, and their home latitude is a bit more north. We have found a lot of success operating 37/38 (degrees) north." As you go farther south, the days become shorter, and because hemp is photosensitive, these European varieties don't do as well in southern climes. Miteff and Destiche both lived in Europe for several years and have close ties with the European hemp industry. In this podcast interview they talk about the difference between the European approach to hemp and the American approach. The Europeans are more conservative in their business development, Destiche said. "It took them a number of years in Europe, two decades really, to develop the amount of processors that they have now," he said. "And the U.S. is probably going to have double the amount of processors next year." This wide-ranging interview explores many topics, from the history of the hemp industry in France to the future of the Farm Bill here in the U.S., including a look at how KonopiUS supports its farmers with genetics and agronomy support. "Not only do we try to sell the seed, but we also make sure that the farmer's successful and has a successful grow and sells his crop and makes a profit," Miteff said, "because at the end of the day, if the farmer isn't successful, then we're really not successful." Learn more about KonopiUS: https://www.konopius.com/ Go see Common Ground https://commongroundfilm.org/ Thanks to our Sponsors! IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ Mpactful Ventures https://www.mpactfulventures.org/

The fledgling U.S. hemp industry is decades behind countries like Canada, France and China, but according to impact investor and this week's podcast guest, Pierre Berard, it could flourish into a $2.2 billion industry by 2030 and create thousands of jobs. To reach its potential, what the hemp industry needs most right now, Berard said, is capital investment. Last month, Berard published a report titled "Seeing the U.S. Industrial Hemp Opportunity — A Pioneering Venture for Investors and Corporations Driven by Environmental, Social and Financial Concerns" in which he lays out the case for investment. It's as if Berard, with this report, is waving a giant flag, trying to attract the eyes of investors, saying, "Look over here. Look at all this opportunity." Berard likens the burgeoning American hemp industry to a developing country. "There is no capital. People don't want to finance. This is too risky. And I was like, OK, this sounds like something for me," he said. As an impact investor who manages funds specializing in agro-processing companies, Berard now has his sights set on the U.S. hemp industry, which he believes has great economic value as well as social and environmental benefits. He spent many years developing investment in the agriculture infrastructure of developing countries in Latin America and Africa, and said the hemp industry feels similar. "It is very nascent and it is a very fragmented sector. You have pioneers and trailblazers inventing or reinventing the field after 80 years of prohibition," he said. "So I feel very familiar with this context." On this week's hemp podcast, Berard talks about the report and the opportunities available to investors in the feed, fiber and food sectors of the hemp industry. Building an industry around an agricultural commodity takes time, he said. According to the report, "The soybean industry took about 50 years to become firmly established, from the first USDA imports in 1898 to the U.S. being the top worldwide producer in the 1950s." Berard has a plan to accelerate the growth of the hemp industry and sees a four-pillar approach to attract investment. First, he said, the foundation of the industry is the relationship between farmers and processors at the local level. Second, he said the industry needs what he calls a "federating body" that will represent it, foster markets and innovations, and reduce risk for its members and investors. The third pillar is "collaboration with corporations that aim to secure or diversify their supply chains with sustainable products and enhance their ESG credentials. This will be key to funding the industry and creating markets," he said. The fourth pillar is investment. Lots of it. Over $1.6 billion over seven years. This money will come from government, corporations, individual investors, and philanthropic donors. The 75-page report goes into detail about the hemp industry, its environmental and social impact, and the opportunities available to investors. Read the report here: Seeing the U.S. Industrial Hemp Opportunity Also on this episode, we check in with hemp and bison farmer Herb Grove from Brush Mountain Bison in Centre County, PA, where he grew 50 acres of hemp grain. We'll hear about harvest and dry down and crushing the seed for oil and cake. bioSolutions Initiatives https://biosolutionsinitiatives.com/ Go see Common Ground https://commongroundfilm.org/ Thanks to our sponsors: IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ Americhanvre Cast-Hemp https://americhanvre.com/

Inflammation occurs naturally in horses and is often part an animal's healing response, but chronic, low-grade inflammation is a contributing factor in diseases that affect the health of horses, according to this week's podcast guest, Kristine Ely. Last month, Ely defended her doctoral thesis at Virginia Tech, where she conducted a study to determine the effect hemp seed oil would have on inflammation in sedentary horses. She said inflammation is associated with but not a cause of a variety of diseases in horses, from osteoarthritis to metabolic syndrome and laminitis. "There's a lot of ill effects with inflammation, (so) it's an important aspect to mitigate and moderate the kind of inflammatory responses we have in the animals," she said. There are pharmaceutical treatments for chronic inflammation, but Ely said use can result in negative digestive and kidney issues. Increasing poly-saturated fatty acids in diet is one known way to address inflammation — think fish oil supplements and Mediterranean diets. One such fatty acid is gamma-linolenic acid, or GLA, which has been shown to to increase the anti-inflammatory response in mammals. Ely said GLA is uncommon in the typical dietary components of horse feed, but it is found copiously in hemp seed oil. She wanted to know if adding hemp seed oil to horses' diets could reduce chronic inflammation. She completed a feeding trial from May to September 2022, using six thoroughbred geldings. "I completed what we call crossover," she said. "Every horse served as their own control, and every horse got to eat both the control and treatment." Half the horses were fed a diet with added hemp seed oil while the other half was fed a diet without hemp. She took weekly blood samples, and also took muscle and synovial fluid samples before and after the trial. "And then I put all the horses back on the same diet for another month because I wanted to capture a washout period," she said. "Okay, we can manipulate by adding the fatty acids, but how quickly does it go back to normal or are there any lingering effects?" Hemp seeds and hemp seed oil have GRAS status from USDA — generally regarded as safe for human consumption — but using hemp as a feed for commercial livestock remains illegal at the federal level. Around the U.S., there is a patchwork of state laws that allow hemp to be fed to companion animals such as horses, dogs and cats. The issue holding everything up is cannabinoid contamination, especially tetrahydrocannabinol, commonly known as THC, which produces the high associated with marijuana. What every hempster worth her salt will tell you though is that the hemp seed does not produce cannabinoids, but the flowers where the seeds develop do, so there can be cannabinoid contamination on the outer shell of the seed in minuscule amounts. Ely fed her horses a commercially available hemp seed oil which she tested for cannabinoids at parts per million. She was not surprised to find very tiny amounts of cannabinoids. She was curious how or if this would accumulate in the horses bodies, but she detected no cannabinoids in the plasma or synovial fluid of the horses fed hemp seed oil when tested to a 50-ppb limit of detection. "If you and if you dig into the literature a bit about research specifically supplementing cannabinoids to horses, it takes a bit more of a dose to be able to observe cannabinoids within the horse," she said. She hopes her research will help make the case to remove some of the restrictions around hemp as a commercial livestock feed, giving hemp producers another outlet, livestock producers another input, and consumers another option. The focus of her work was to determine if hemp seed oil can be a good source of polyunsaturated fatty acids for horses. She determined it is, but said "the implications for it's effect on inflammation require further evaluation." Virginia Tech https://www.vt.edu/ Hemp Feed Coalition https://hempfeedcoalition.org/ Go see the movie Common Ground https://commongroundfilm.org/ Thanks to our sponsors! IND HEMP https://indhemp.com National Hemp Association https://nationalhempassociation.org/

On this episode we talk to David Suchoff, alternative crops professor and Extension specialist at North Carolina State University, about hemp at NC State and the research he oversees as leader of the Alternative Crops program and as the director of the Hemp Research Consortium. We talk about hemp in the South and why hemp for textiles makes sense in North Carolina and how his time in the Peace Corps informs his work in agriculture today, and how his musical education prepared him for success. More... David Suchoff is an assistant professor and an Extension specialist at North Carolina State University, where he leads the alternative crops program. "Farmers in North Carolina, just like farmers across the nation, are kind of always looking for new alternative crops," he said. That's especially true in the Tar Heel State where tobacco was once king. "But that market has changed and continues to change," Suchoff said, "so farmers are seeking alternatives." One of those alternatives is industrial hemp. When Suchoff started at NC State five years ago, hemp was on the cusp of becoming a legal commodity crop again after 80 years of prohibition, and farmers had lots of question. "I knew that it was going to be a crop that I would be working with when I started, just because of the sheer number of farmers that were growing it in our state," Suchoff said. Farmers' interest in hemp and the types of questions they bring to Extension has changed since the 2018 Farm Bill brought the crop back to the fields of Carolina. But Suchoff said hemp research still makes up "the larger percentage of the type of work that we do" in the alternative crops program. "When we started off working with hemp, we were doing primarily floral hemp research. That's where the industry was. That's what our farmers were growing," he said. But he said he sees tremendous growth and interest from farmers and industry in hemp fiber production. "And so we're really shifting with that to make sure that our work is applicable to our stakeholders, who are the farmers," he said. Suchoff said hemp is a climate-smart crop that fits nicely into the regenerative model, but cautions against overhyping the crop before more research is in. "I'll admit that there are some pretty big claims that are being made in the hemp realm that are not yet backed up by good data," he said, especially "when we talk about carbon sequestration." Before making claims about what hemp can and cannot do, "it's really critical that we have more life cycle analysis," he said, from seeds in the ground all the way to finished product. Suchoff is optimistic about hemp's potential for carbon sequestration, but said, "We just have to be really smart about how we do it and how we quantify it." Suchoff is also the director of the Hemp Research Consortium, a partnership between academia, government and industry to address the challenges facing the nascent hemp industry. "The strength of the consortium lies in the diversity of its members, both our academic members and our industry members. So we want hemp breeding companies, we want textile companies, we want grain companies," he said. From agronomics to processing and manufacturing, the hemp industry has a complex puzzle to solve. "And if we're really to effect change, we have to take a holistic approach to do that," Suchoff said. "In order to have a holistic approach, we need to have as many voices at the table as possible." NC State Hemp Extension Webportal https://hemp.ces.ncsu.edu/ FFAR Hemp Research Consortium https://foundationfar.org/consortia/hemp-research-consortium/ News Nuggets Alaska moves to restrict marijuana-like 'diet weed' products derived from hemp https://www.adn.com/alaska-marijuana/2023/10/09/alaska-moves-to-restrict-marijuana-like-diet-weed-products-derived-from-hemp/ DNR Releases Updated Regulations, Opening the Door for Industrial Hemp Production https://www.akbizmag.com/industry/government/dnr-releases-updated-regulations-opening-the-door-for-industrial-hemp-production/ Building crews on Lower Sioux Reservation using industrial hemp https://www.kvrr.com/2023/10/14/building-crews-on-lower-sioux-reservation-using-industrial-hemp/ 'This is the future:' New natural building material made of hemp could help Illinois and the US go green https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2023/10/10/23911747/building-material-hemp-illinois-green-environment Go see Common Ground https://commongroundfilm.org/ Thanks to our Sponsors IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ Mpactful Ventures https://www.mpactfulventures.org/

This week on the podcast, Lancaster Farming talks to Abner Johnson, chief operating officer at Pure Shenandoah, a Virginia-based, family-owned hemp company that has built a successful CBD brand while simultaneously going all in on fiber and hurd. Johnson and several of his siblings operate a full-spectrum hemp facility in the Shenandoah Valley. They process cannabinoids using CO2 extraction while also developing a fiber processing facility and operating a retail store that doubles as an event space and education center in downtown Elkton, about 15 east of Harrisonburg. "We started off like everybody else," Johnson said, "with the CBD oils. We did a few different types and different strengths, kind of capitalizing on different terpene profiles." Today the company offers a wide range of full-spectrum CBD products from oils and gummies to pet products and smokable flower. In the first few years of production, the company grew more CBD hemp than it needed. To maintain its product lines, it only needed to grow around 20 acres a year. "And that was a little bit of a Debbie Downer," Johnson said, "because we wanted to see hemp take over and be the new cash crop and help out so many people." And that, Johnson said, is why he and the company started growing and researching hemp for fiber and hurd. They started with 15 acres of fiber hemp the first year, around 200 acres the following year, and now they are currently growing several hundred acres, stockpiling the harvest in round bales to be processed at their fiber facility that's coming online soon. The company was awarded a Small Business Innovation Research Grant from the Air Force to develop hempcrete blocks. Johnson said the U.S. military has set very ambitious carbon goals, and hemp as a building material fits nicely into its plans. "Receiving that contract is a huge, huge step in the right direction," Johnson said. He said the military's interest in hemp reminds him of the Hemp for Victory program during World War II and how farmers were required to grow hemp in the American colonies. "History repeats itself," he said. "And this contract with the Air Force to me is like a domino falling in the right direction." Learn More about Pure Shenandoah https://pureshenandoah.com/ News Nuggets Minnesota cannabis czar steps down over illegal products in her hemp shop https://hemptoday.net/minnesota-cannabis-czar-steps-down-over-illegal-products-in-her-hemp-shop/ USDA Says Genetically Modified Hemp Plant 'May Be Safely Grown And Bred' In The United States https://www.marijuanamoment.net/usda-says-genetically-modified-hemp-plant-may-be-safely-grown-and-bred-in-the-united-states/ Thanks to our sponsors for their support! Americhanvre Cast-Hemp, North American distributor of the E-Reasy Spray applied Hemp Crete System https://americhanvre.com/ IND HEMP in Fort Benton, Montana https://indhemp.com/

On this week's Hemp Podcast, Lancaster Farming talks to Saharah Moon Chapotin, executive director of the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR). the Foundation was established in the 20124 Farm Bill "We were given the unique mandate by Congress to form public private partnerships to support food and agriculture research," she said, "really recognizing the dearth of or the decreasing amount of public funding going to agriculture research, and with the idea towards leveraging additional resources from non-federal sources, from the private sector and others." FFAR's research spans a wide array of ag topics, Chapotin said. "We focus on the sustainability of the agriculture system itself, looking at soil and water and how farmers can have the tools they need to make good decisions around really safeguarding their environment and their agriculture systems," she said. FFAR's research digs into food systems as well. "Thinking about what those in the food system need in order to deliver the foods that consumers need and want, the nutritious foods that they need to access at the store, thinking about processing and ingredients and the nutritional content of those foods," Chapotin said. One of the methods of raising money for research is by building consortia among universities, government, and industry players. "What is really valuable about our consortia to those industry players is that it de-risks the investment for them,' she said. "We're not counting on any one company to support all the research that would be needed to generate the outcome, say, for more sustainable agriculture. But they can co-invest and so that de-risk the investment for them. It often also gives companies a chance to collaborate with their competitor, something they would not normally do on their own." One such consortium is the Hemp Research Consortium, which brings together such diverse partners as North Carolina state, Cornell University, Agilent Technologies, IND HEMP, and ScottsMiracle-Grow. On this episode of the podcast, we'll learn about FFAR and the work they do and how industrial hemp fits into the overall mission. Learn more about the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research https://foundationfar.org/ Learn More about FFAR's Hemp Consortium https://foundationfar.org/consortia/hemp-research-consortium/ Sign up for FFAR's newsletter https://foundationfar.org/home/newsletter-sign-up/ News Nuggets Hungry Sheep Devour Over 600 Pounds of Cannabis After Invading Greenhousehttps://www.newsweek.com/hungry-sheep-devour-over-600-pounds-cannabis-invading-greenhouse-1829170 Is hemp the superfood vegetarians have been waiting for?https://www.news-medical.net/news/20230922/Is-hemp-the-superfood-vegetarians-have-been-waiting-for.aspx GreenBuild 2023 https://informaconnect.com/greenbuild/ HempWood https://hempwood.com/ Americhanvre https://americhanvre.com/ Thanks to our Sponsors! National Hemp Association https://nationalhempassociation.org/ IND HEMPhttps://indhemp.com/

On this week's podcast we talk to Oregon-based hemp lobbyist and legal strategist Courtney Moran, who was in Washington, D.C., last week "lobbying for support for the Industrial Hemp Act." The Industrial Hemp Act of 2023, also known as the Hemp Exemption, would create a new legal definition of hemp grown for fiber and grain, separating those sectors from hemp grown for flower or cannabinoids. Advocates argue that the existing hemp regulations put unnecessary burdens on farmers because of permitting fees, intrusive background checks, and expensive chemical testing for THC content. Moran, along with members of the National Hemp Association, held an open house in the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill last week, and invited lawmakers and their offices to see firsthand the various uses of industrial hemp. On display were an array of products made from hemp fiber, hurd and grain. "We had hemp flooring, hemp cabinetry, animal bedding. We had biochar, we had jet fuel," she said. "We had the parts of the stalk broken out into different pieces so they can visually see the distinction between hurd and fiber and the different parts of the stalk." Moran said these types of show-and-tell events are very effective in getting lawmakers to understand what farmers and entrepreneurs are up against when it comes to hemp. "It's one thing to have a phone call, send emails back and forth, have legislative text on a page talking about policy," she said, "But when they can see the images of the farms, and they can touch the products that are being made from those crops, it makes it more real for them." Moran worked with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's office on the hemp language that eventually made its way into the 2018 Farm Bill, and she said she still sees a lot of the same gaps in what lawmakers know about hemp. "Something that I experienced back in 2016 that we're still dealing with today in 2023 is that some offices still don't know this was even an issue," she said. Many lawmakers don't know "there's still barriers to getting these products to market or there are still problems or issues for the farmers," she said. Moran also discusses the likelihood of seeing a Farm Bill this year and what it could mean for the hemp industry if the DEA follows a recent recommendation from the Department of Health and Human Services to reschedule marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act. Learn more about the 2023 Industrial Hemp Act https://www.hempexemption.com/ Agricultural Hemp Solutions https://www.agriculturalhempsolutions.com/ National Hemp Association https://nationalhempassociation.org/ Thank you to our sponsors! IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ Mpactful Ventures https://www.mpactfulventures.org/

On this week's podcast, we talk to Andy Bennett, founder of Hart Hemp Co., the first commercial-scale industrial hemp producer in the Old Line State. "We're starting as a grassroots organization, putting some industrial hemp in the ground here in the state of Maryland," Bennett said. "On a commercial scale, it's never been done." He said the company is growing several different varieties and experimenting with seeding rates across a handful of Maryland farms "to understand how this plant reacts in this area, so that as we continue to grow and ask people to grow for us, we're providing the best data that we can," he said. Lancaster Farming caught up with Bennett at one of Hart Hemp Co.'s growing locations for hemp harvest field day Sept. 7 near Frederick. During his opening remarks to attendees, he said, "Nobody here was around the last time this commodity crop was farmed in this country. So take some pride this morning in knowing that you took the time out of your busy lives to be part of something groundbreaking and positive." Lancaster Farming also spoke with Burt James, North Carolina farmer and crop consultant who works with Konopi US and FyberX. James said he sees a lot of positive movement across the county as the fiber and grain industry stands itself up. "And this is the type of example where you have a bona fide businessman and ag industry specialist in Andy Bennett," James said. "He's got a robust network of farmers, an organized group, and he's just got the passion and the energy to make something happen, and this beautiful hemp crop and field day is part of that." Also on the podcast this week, we discuss the recent manhunt for convicted murderer Danelo Cavalcante, which came to its dramatic conclusion this week just a half a mile from the home of the hemp podcast host, Eric Hurlock. Hurlock interviews his neighbors Tom and Crystal to hear how they were faring during the surreal experience of having a murderer on the loose in the neighborhood and search helicopters constantly overhead. Learn More about Hart Hemp Co. https://harthempco.com/ Learn more about Konopius US https://www.konopius.com/ Learn more about FyberX https://fyberx.eco/ Read Lancaster Farming's coverage of the Chester County manhunt as it unfolded https://www.lancasterfarming.com/farming-news/news/manhunt-for-danelo-cavalcante-disrupts-life-on-chester-county-farms-updated/article_9972ab66-517d-11ee-aafa-c72e0fa06afb.html Thanks to our sponsors IND Hemp https://indhemp.com/ Mpactful Ventures https://www.mpactfulventures.org/ Music courtesy of Tin Bird Shadow https://tinbirdshadow.bandcamp.com/album/dot-dot-dot

On this week's hemp podcast, Lancaster Farming talks to cover crop coach Steve Groff, who was hoping to get one of those multilevel pull-behind sickle bar mowers to cut his hemp this year. But those machines are in demand and he wasn't able to get one in time, so he did the best he could. "What we did this year," he said, "is just farmer innovation." He had his local machine shop mount a sickle bar cutter on the front of his tractor. In the back, he had a pulled standard rear mount sickle bar cutter. With that setup, he could make two cuts, high and low, with each pass of the tractor. "When you cut a hemp stalk in 2- or 3-foot sections, it makes it easier for the haymaking equipment already in existence" to get the hemp ready for the retting and bailing, he said. Groff has 50 acres of fiber hemp on his farm this year, one of the largest stands of industrial hemp in Pennsylvania this growing season. Once the hemp is cut, it needs to be raked, retted and bailed. Because Groff planted his hemp into a no-till cover crop system, he was concerned about losing the thick layer of cover crop biomass covering his fields if he were to use a rotary rake or bar rake on the crop. The cover crop biomass would end up in the harvested hemp, which he said would be bad for the decortication process — the processor would have to remove the debris before processing the hemp. "But it's also bad for me as a farmer who values the soil being covered," he said. Groff had an idea. What if he used a hay merger? "I thought this could be good because it's not as aggressive the way it could pick up the hemp," he said. "I could run it high enough off the ground to get the hemp lifted up and moved, but not pick up my cover crop." Groff was able to trial two different hay merger models on the hemp at his farm. The first was made by Reiter, an Austrian manufacturer, and the other was an Anderson merger from Canada. He was happy with the results. The next step for Groff is to bail the hemp. For this he's using a round baler designed for bailing hemp and made by McHale, an Irish company. Groff is optimistic about the hemp industry in Pennsylvania, but knows there's still so much to learn. He compared it to building a bridge. "The way they're designed, they build from each end and meet in the middle and hopefully meet perfectly," he said. The farmers are figuring out how to grow it, while the processors are trying to figure out how to process it, he said. "But we need to be talking to one another so that we hit in the middle." Cedar Meadow Farm https://cedarmeadow.farm/ News Nugs, with ChatGPT summaries Kansas farmers rushed to grow hemp when it became legal, but now they're ditching ithttps://www.kcur.org/news/2023-09-01/kansas-farmers-rushed-to-grow-hemp-when-it-became-legal-but-now-theyre-ditching-it Kansas has seen a steep decline in hemp farming as CBD oil production wanes. In 2019, over 200 farmers joined the state's hemp program, but this year, only 41 secured licenses. The drop in demand for CBD has led to a shift towards other hemp products like fiber for clothing and grain for animal feed. While the CBD market has slowed, there's optimism about the potential of these alternative hemp markets in Kansas, with some businesses already thriving in fiber and grain production. Seeing a bright future for hemp in NYS https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2023/08/seeing-bright-future-hemp-nys Hailee Greene, an MBA student at Cornell, is focusing on the industrial applications of hemp through her company, GreeneAcres Processing. She plans to build the Northeast's first industrial hemp processing facility, emphasizing regenerative practices. The facility will provide processing services to independent growers and sell carbon credits for additional revenue. Greene sees hemp as a versatile and sustainable resource for products like paper, clothing, fuel, building materials, and bioplastics. Despite challenges in the U.S. hemp industry, she aims to build an industrial hemp supply chain in New York and plans to plant 100 acres of hemp next summer with a processing facility ready by 2024. Her goal is to support farmers and promote sustainability. USDA Releases New Hemp Handbook As Agency Works To Rebuild A Post-Prohibition Seed Bank https://www.marijuanamoment.net/usda-releases-new-hemp-handbook-as-agency-works-to-rebuild-a-post-prohibition-seed-bank/ The USDA is working to rebuild a government seed bank for hemp that was previously destroyed during prohibition and has issued updated guidance on identifying, describing, and evaluating various hemp varieties. This Hemp Descriptor and Phenotyping Handbook provides comprehensive information on the characteristics and traits of hemp, including morphology, yield, cannabinoid content, oil production, fiber quality, and more. The goal is to help researchers and breeders differentiate between hemp varieties for various applications and preserve genetic diversity. The USDA is actively contributing to the hemp indus

This week on the Hemp Podcast we shift gears a little bit and talk about flax. We go to Kneehigh Farm to meet Pennsylvania Flax Project founders Heidi Barr and Emma de Long who hosted a flax harvest educational event last week in Chester County, Pa. Heidi Barr wants you to know that flax is linen and linen is flax. A fiber artist based in Philadelphia, Barr co-founded the Pennsylvania Flax Project with Chester County farmer Emma de Long in 2020, "out of a desire to see a climate-beneficial textile crop produced regionally," she said. "The synthetic textile industry is the prime example of an industry that exploits both human labor and the natural world," and is responsible for a tenth of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, Barr said. In this episode we talk to Barr and de Long, as well as a handful of people who attended the event to learn about flax. Plus Hemp News Nuggets and upcoming hemp events. Pennsylvania Flax Project https://paflaxproject.com/ Kitchen Garden Textiles https://www.kitchengardentextiles.com/ Kneehigh Farm https://www.kneehighfarm.com/ News Nugs and Hemp Events To protect consumers, make CBD medicine only, restrict delta-8 THC to pot shops https://hemptoday.net/to-protect-consumers-make-cbd-medicine-only-restrict-delta-8-thc-to-pot-shops/ Industrial hemp plant in eastern Idaho will soon begin production https://www.eastidahonews.com/2023/08/industrial-hemp-plant-in-eastern-idaho-will-soon-begin-production/ Whitefield Global Holdings https://www.whitefieldglobal.com/ Hart Hemp Field Day Sept. 7 Hart Hemp https://harthempco.com/ Cornell Grain & Fiber Hemp Field Day Sept. 14 https://hemp.cals.cornell.edu/2023/08/11/cornell-grain-fiber-hemp-field-day-sept-14/ Cornell's Hemp Sciences MPS Concentration https://cals.cornell.edu/school-integrative-plant-science/degrees-programs/mps-degree/hemp-sciences-concentration Thanks to our Sponsors IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ Mpactful Ventures https://www.mpactfulventures.org/ Music: Tin Bird Shadow https://tinbirdshadow.bandcamp.com/album/dot-dot-dot

This week's podcast is a follow-up to a story we brought to you in April about the Lower Sioux Indian Community in Morton, Minnesota, where members of the tribe have been busy this summer building with hempcrete. With special permission, we share with you the first episode of the JD Experience, a podcast made by 12-year-old Jesse Desjarlais, who interviews two members of his tribe who have been busy making hemp a reality on the reservation: Earl Pendleton and Joey Goodthunder. Desjarlais is the son of Danny Desjarlais, the project manager and lead builder for the hemp projects at the Lower Sioux, where this summer the tribe is finishing up a hempcrete duplex that will serve as emergency housing for tribal members in crisis. Pendleton said he has been working to make his vision for hemp a reality for 15 years. "It kind of came and went as people laughed in my face for the first few years," he said. "But in the last four years, it's really gotten the support from the community leadership." Goodthunder is a farmer and grows all the hemp for the Lower Sioux. "This is my fourth growing year now," he said. "I just really enjoy the plant, I like what it can do. I see the yield bonus that I get from it from the next crop. It's a really good crop." Pendleton's vision is a circular one. The tribe will grow industrial hemp to feed the processing facility on the reservation to produce building-grade hemp hurd which the tribe will use to build housing for the community. After episode one of the JD Experience, Lancaster Farming interviews Jesse Desjarlais about his experience making the podcast and what he learned. Then we talk to his father, Danny Desjarlais, who was taking a break from the sweltering Minnesota summer with a heat index of 115. Once the house was framed, it took the hempcrete crew only four days to install the hempcrete walls using the Ereasy spray applied system. Danny said the reaction to the first hemp house on the reservation has been overwhelmingly positive. Even the naysayers, he said, have come around. "All the people that had doubted Earl for the last 15 years, now they're even like, 'Man, we should have been building with hemp 15 years ago.'," he said. The Lower Sioux Hemp project has gotten lots of attention in Minnesota, even prompting a visit from the governor and lieutenant governor, Desjarlais said. "They came and took a tour of the house and they loved it," he said. "The lieutenant governor actually wants us to retrofit her house with hempcrete now." The tribe worked with Cameron McIntosh from Americhanvre, a Pennsylvania-based hempcrete building company, and with Navid Hatfield from Massachusetts-based HempStone. McIntosh also joined the call with Jesse and Danny. "I am still at a loss for words that accurately encompass what we experienced there, what these guys did, how impressive the entire tribe is," McIntosh said. Learn more about the Lower Sioux https://lowersioux.com/ Hear Lancaster Farming's interview with Earl Pendleton and Danny Desjarlais from April 2023 https://www.lancasterfarming.com/farming-news/hemp/hemp-builds-hope-for-lower-sioux-indian-community/article_3c0a0b0a-e458-11ed-823f-271073c790d5.html Thanks to our sponsors: IND Hemp https://indhemp.com/ King's AgriSeeds https://kingsagriseeds.com/

This week we're on the road, from Ag Progress Days to Brush Mountain Bison, then to the Old Fiddler's Picnic and hemp field days at King's AgriSeeds and Penn State's research farm. This is a meandering episode. Buckle up and hold on tight. First we talk to Ag Progress Days attendee John Borders, an 83year old who just wanted to sit on a bench. Then we travel to Brush Mountain to visit with Herb Grove, hemp farmer and bison rancher. Then it's off to the 94th Annual Old Fiddler's Picnic in Chester County. And finally we end up at the King's AgriSeeds Hemp Field Day in Christiana, Pa., where we hear from Wendy Mosher from New West Genetics, Derek Montgomery from International Hemp, and Chad Rosen from Victory Hemp Foods. This week's show is made possible with generous support from IND HEMP in Montana and Mpactful Ventures in Massachusetts.

This week on the podcast, we talk to Jay Burstein, a luthier in Vermont who makes guitars from industrial hemp. His company is called Hemptone Music and specializes in fine-crafted hemp instruments. On this episode, Burstein talks about his process of making the guitars and the journey he's undertaken to improve his production methods. Burstein was first on the podcast in early 2019. Back then he was using clay and fiberglass to make molds to shape the body of the instruments, but he's since streamlined his process and now uses a more elaborate method for shaping the bodies of the guitars. "Not only do you have to design the instrument, you have to come up with the tooling involved to make it," he said. He worked with an engineer and a facility to mill the aluminum for the new body mold. He originally wanted to make a small but sturdy travel-sized guitar, after trekking through South America with a traditional guitar made from wood, which he said didn't hold up so well. "Basically the instrument I designed is the one I'd always wanted, as someone who'd done some traveling," he said. Last month, Burstein loaned one of his hemp guitars to me for my trip to the Montana Summer Hemp Summit in Great Falls. The instrument traveled well and fit nicely in the overhead compartments of the airplane. "It's approximately half of the size of a guitar, but it's got a full 25-inch scale length, which is about the string length of a full-sized guitar," Burstein said. "But I lop it off essentially at the fifth fret." For guitar players, this would be like having a capo on the fifth fret. The guitar plays like any other guitar, but the low note is an A rather than an E. Taking the guitar to Montana was a homecoming of sorts, because Burstein sourced the hemp fibers for the instrument from IND Hemp in Montana. The small guitar made a big splash at the summit, where it was on display at the Lancaster Farming expo table. Summit attendees played it and marveled at its uniqueness. Everyone wanted to know the process of how it was made. Hear Jay Burstein from Hemptone Music explain his process: Hemptone Music https://www.hemptonemusic.com/ Hemptone Music on Instagram: @hemptonemusic Penn State's Ag Progress Days https://agsci.psu.edu/apd High Five, Miss America https://www.lancasterfarming.com/country-life/fairs-and-shows/high-five-miss-america/article_cae17c9d-54ba-512c-b734-cdd948873c39.html Thanks to our Sponsors! IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ King's Agriseeds https://kingsagriseeds.com/

This week on the Hemp Podcast, we talk to Sandra Marquardt, fiber crops manager at Textile Exchange, a global nonprofit that works with textile brands, manufacturers and farmers around the world to guide the industry toward purposeful production methods and sustainability goals. Marquardt is based outside of Washington, D.C., and said Textile Exchange has about 140 employees working in 30 countries. "There is such huge demand on the part of brands in particular trying to figure out how to green their supply chains," she said. "They're really turning to us to say how do we do it? What are we doing? What are the materials we use?" Textile production is a large emitter of greenhouse gases, and Marquardt's group researches what's called Tier Four of the textile supply chain. That's the farm level where the raw materials enter the system. She said she's "trying to dive into the weeds to see how cotton is grown, how hemp is grown, and how flax is grown," along with other natural fibers such as alpaca, cashmere and wool. Last month, Textile Exchange published a report on the state of the global hemp industry that looks at production methods, fertilizer and pesticide use, and output and yields by country and region. "We were under the opinion that China was No. 1 for everything. But really it's not," Marquardt said. "It's it's definitely a major player, but France is No. 1 for overall production." She said the United States, despite only having had a legal hemp industry for less than five years, is already a major player. "I think we're No. 5 for overall production," she said. Companies, countries and consumers around the world are turning to hemp because of its reputation as an environmentally friendly raw material, needing fewer inputs than other fiber crops. But as the industry scales up, can it keep that cachet? "Hemp is a great fiber, but if we don't look at how it's grown, we can't use its powers to really address the future," Marquardt said. With the report, Textile Exchange poses the question: If we have the chance to introduce a new textile fiber on the global market and design the systems and supply chains around it, shouldn't we design those systems to be carbon negative and less dependent on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides? Instead of copying the pesticide- and carbon-intensive model of cotton production, why not design the system we want right out of the gate? Growing Hemp for the Future — A Global Fiber Guide is available as a free download at TextileExchange.org. News Nuggets House Oversight Committee's Hearing on 'Hemp in the Modern World: The Yearslong Wait for FDA Action' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpmpPZkcrEk Why feral cannabis can be found throughout Iowahttps://wcfcourier.com/news/state-regional/why-feral-cannabis-is-found-in-sioux-city-and-across-iowa/article_216c0bb9-87a9-5722-8261-ffae314862b7.html Thanks to our sponsors IND HEMPhttps://indhemp.com/ Americhanvre Cast-Hemp https://americhanvre.com/

What was the Montana Hemp Summit all about? Depends on who you ask. This episode was made on location in Fort Benton and Great Falls, Montana, and a few airports along the way home back to Pennsylvania. I will update this page with a list of the people I interviewed, but now I'm home and happy to be here and grateful to have gone to Montana to witness the event. -=-=-=- On this episode you will hear from: Ken Elliott and Morgan Tweet from IND HEMP, Jordan Berger and Maxwell Duryea from Sunflower Films Co, Geoff Whaling and Erica Stark from the National Hemp Association, Jacob Bish from Hemp Harvest Works, Patrick Van Meter from Midwest Natural Fiber, Marty Clemons from FyberX, Cort Jensen from the Montana Dept. of Ag, Steve Groff from Cedar Meadow Farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Dr. Cheryl Mitchell from Steuben Foods Inc., Peter Düshop from Forever Green, and Pierre Berard. Give a listen when you can and please share it! Thank you. Again, so very grateful for this front row seat on an industry with such potential and benefit to people and the planet.

This week on the Hemp Podcast, Lancaster Farming reconnects with Alyssa Collins, associate research professor at Penn State and the director of the university's Southeast Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Manheim, Lancaster County, where she oversees hemp production and research trials. Penn State Extension's mission is to deliver science-based information to people, businesses and communities. "The Extension part of what Penn State is," said Collins, "is basically turning what nerds in a lab or a greenhouse are thinking about and doing in terms of research and translating that for people who can actually use it." Penn State's hemp research was originally conducted at the Rock Springs farm near main campus, but was moved to the Landisville farm in 2018, "because a lot of the activity and interest was in south-central PA for growing hemp," Collins said. "Our farm is also a little bit more accessible in the region. It's just easier to get to and we can do big events here in a way that it's a little bit harder to do when you're up in Happy Valley," she said. Collins was one of the first guests on the hemp podcast almost five years ago. Since then, she has seen growing interest in the industrial applications of fiber and grain varieties and decreased interest in CBD. Collins said the state of Pennsylvania is a leader in the hemp industry, in part due to the Ag Department's commitment to easing regulatory burdens and making funds available. "Unlike some other states that have either really high fees or have a lot of hoops to jump through, Pennsylvania is really trying to keep it as minimal as they can with making sure they still do their their due diligence," she said. Pennsylvania also made hemp eligible for specialty crop research funds. "Most other states have not done that. And in fact, the federal government didn't do that until recently," Collins said. Penn State is one of several dozen universities across the country contributing to variety and agronomic trials coordinated by the University of Kentucky. The research aims to determine which varieties grow best in which regions. "We're all working from the same seed lots and we get to see how they perform relatively in our areas," she said. Penn State's hemp research, including the variety trials, will be on display during the Hemp Research Field Walk Aug. 15 at the research farm. It's a chance for the public to walk and talk with industry specialists, Extension educators and policymakers to raise questions and share ideas about the industry's future. The event is free, but space is limited and pre-registration is recommended. You can register here. Southeast Agricultural Research and Extension Center https://agsci.psu.edu/research/centers-facilities/extension/landisville Upcoming Hemp Events Aug. 3-5 South Dakota Industrial Hemp Field Day https://www.eventbrite.com/e/industrial-hemp-field-day-tickets-643817313917 Aug. 15-16 King's AgriSeeds Field Day https://kingsagriseeds.com/ Aug. 15 Penn State Hemp Research Field Walk, Policy Update and Networking Event https://agsci.psu.edu/research/centers-facilities/extension/landisville Thanks to our sponsors: IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ Mpactful Ventures https://www.mpactfulventures.org/ Hemptone Music https://www.hemptonemusic.com/ HempWood https://hempwood.com/

This week on the hemp podcast, Lancaster Farming catches up with recent Cornell grad Owen Deitcher, who is on the road this summer to visit hemp farmers and processors around the country. The reason he's making this trip, he said, is to understand where the industry is at the moment, who the main players are and what challenges they face. Deitcher sees a disconnect in the minds of the public and wants to shed some light on the journey from hemp in the field to end-products. "We don't really know what goes on in the production and processing side," he said. His first stop was in Murray, Kentucky, where Greg Wilson gave him a tour of the HempWood facility, which has grown substantially since Lancaster Farming visited HempWood two years ago on our National Hemp Tour. From Kentucky, Deitcher went to Texas where he attended a hempcrete workshop, then to South Bend Industrial Hemp in Kansas, where Melissa Nelson and the Baldwin brothers have created a strong local hemp supply chain and economy by building a hemp-processing facility. Heading west to Colorado, he spent time in Monte Vista, a regional hub of hemp innovation and processing power and home to hemp equipment manufacturer Formation Ag and Global Fiber Processing, a facility that went online in 2022. Lancaster Farming caught up with Deitcher while he was taking a break in Boulder, Colorado, before embarking soon for IND HEMP in Montana, then through the upper Midwest as he journeys eastward, eventually stopping at Steve Groff's Cedar Meadow Farm in Holtwood, Pennsylvania, sometime in August. Graduating with a master's degree in regional planning from Cornell, Deitcher is interested in renewable energy development, agrivoltaics, biofuels, circular economy, industrial hemp processing/end-use production, and agricultural supply chains. Also on this episode, we cover last week's launch of the Pennsylvania Hemp Engine and provide details on a few upcoming local and national hemp events in August. Follow along on Owen's trip on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/highwaytohemp/ Learn More About Cornell's Hemp Program https://hemp.cals.cornell.edu/ Upcoming Hemp Events Aug. 3-5 South Dakota Industrial Hemp Field Day https://www.eventbrite.com/e/industrial-hemp-field-day-tickets-643817313917 Aug. 15-16 King's AgriSeeds Field Day https://kingsagriseeds.com/ Aug. 15 Penn State Hemp Research Field Walk, Policy Update and Networking Event https://agsci.psu.edu/research/centers-facilities/extension/landisville News Nugget: IND HEMP Completes New Oilseed Certified Seed Cleaning Facility and Processing Expansion https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/07/12/2703339/0/en/IND-HEMP-Completes-New-IH-Oilseed-Certified-Seed-Cleaning-Facility-and-Processing-Expansion.html Thanks to our sponsors and supporters: IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ King's Agriseeds https://kingsagriseeds.com/ Americhanvre Cast-Hemp https://americhanvre.com/ HempWood https://hempwood.com/

On this week's hemp podcast, we talk to Dalton Wittmer, agronomist at IND Hemp, a hemp processing company based in Fort Benton, Montana. Growing up and working on a farm in southern Indiana and graduating from Purdue University's agronomy program, Wittmer has been chin deep in agriculture his whole life. "I worked on a farm since I was 12 and just been around livestock — cattle, pigs, a little bit of turkeys. And row cropping, corn and soybeans mainly, so I've had a pretty good learning experience on the farm," he said. His interest in industrial hemp was piqued in college where one of his advisers was leading Purdue's hemp research program. Wittmer knew there was stigma around hemp, but he said he wanted to help "bring the goodness of hemp to America and across the world" for its environmental and economic benefits. Wittmer relocated to Fort Benton a year and half ago and has been enjoying his new life in the West. "I''m an outdoors person. That's my happy place, and in Montana, you have anything outdoors you could ever imagine," he said. "And it's right outside my living room window. I get to see antelope, mule deer, moose, bears, whatever it is," he said. The town of Fort Benton is along the Missouri River in north-central Montana, where the land is generally flat but the conditions are dry and often difficult for farming. Between scant rainfall, destructive hail storms and clouds of hungry grasshoppers, farming in Big Sky Country isn't a walk in the park. Wheat is the main crop in Montana, and it's a challenge to get the small-grain guys thinking about growing a new crop like industrial hemp. "They like growing wheat. That's what makes them their money. And they know that," Wittmer said. But there are farmers in Montana who are willing to put in some acres of hemp and give it a go. This year, Wittmer said, IND Hemp has contracted farmers to grow around 7,000 acres of hemp. Five thousand of those acres are what Wittmer calls a dual-purpose crop that will yield both grain and fiber. The remainder of the acreage is a single-purpose fiber crop, he said. About half of the acreage is under pivot irrigation, but so far this year, the dryland acreage is keeping pace with the irrigated crops. "The majority of the state is sitting pretty good with moisture this year," he said. "The rains have been coming, and they've been nice amounts. You know, they've been a half-inch here, an inch there." Thanks to our sponsors for their generous support: IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ Mpactful Ventures https://www.mpactfulventures.org/ HempWood https://hempwood.com/

This week on the hemp podcast, Lancaster Farming talks to Hector "Freedom" Gerardo, the first farmer to grow fiber and grain hemp in Connecticut for a very long time. Hemp was outlawed in the U.S. for most of the 20th century, but was made a legal commodity crop by the 2018 Farm Bill. "I started in 2021 growing for CBD, and last year again I grew for CBD, but I lost money," he said. He became intrigued with all of the other uses for industrial hemp, including hempcrete for construction. In April, he attended a two-day hempcrete workshop in Berks County, Pennsylvania, with hemp builder Cameron McIntosh of Americhanvre Cast-Hemp. The workshop focused on making pre-fab hempcrete panels. "Oh, man, it was eye-opening experience of the things that we could do and where the industry is headed, and the things that we can accomplish if we work together," he said about the workshop. With his wife, Elizabeth, and their three children, he runs SEAmarron Farmstead in Danbury, Connecticut. It's a 3-acre farm where they do a whole lot more than just hemp. "I love hemp, but we got to feed people. So that's the other side," he said. "We grow all types of vegetables — a lot of garlic, a lot of tomatoes, a lot of cabbage — you know, a lot of things that people want." They also run a CSA on the farm and sell to restaurants. "Because at the end of the day, we need to feed people. You know, and that's the purpose of the farm," he said. The farm hosts education events and community work days. "We do a lot of work organizing with young people around food insecurity, learning how to grow your own food," he said. Gerardo also maintains a network of BIPOC farmers. "We created the CTBIPOC (Connecticut Black Indigenous People of Color) Food Network, and it's a network of 77 bipoc farmers in Connecticut. That's all the bipoc farmers in Connecticut. Only 0.06% of all farmers in Connecticut are people of color," he said. Gerardo is optimistic that his work in hemp and community agricultural education will make a difference in the Constitution State. "We can move Connecticut into a sustainable place because right now we're not sustainable at all," he said. Connect with Freedom Gerardo on the Socials: Instagram LinkedIn News Nugs The buildings constructed from cannabis https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230614-the-buildings-constructed-from-cannabis Study finds 90% of Arizona hemp farmers failed from 2019 to 2021. Here's why (hint: it's CBD) https://www.12news.com/article/news/local/arizona/study-90-percent-arizona-hemp-farmers-failed-in-2019-2021/75-e14e075b-804e-4146-967b-e2c3ab9ebffc Shapiro Administration Awards More Than $390,000 to Grow PA Hemp Industry https://www.media.pa.gov/Pages/Agriculture_details.aspx?newsid=1322 Thanks to our Sponsors: IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ Americhanvre Cast Hemp https://americhanvre.com/ National Hemp Association https://nationalhempassociation.org/

On this week's Hemp Podcast, Lancaster Farming talks with Tom Trite, Sairam Rudrabhatla, Kenneth Okrepkie and David Minnig, who make up part of the leadership team of the Pennsylvania Hemp Engine. Funded by a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the Pennsylvania Industrial Hemp Engine Development Project is a strategic planning effort aimed at creating an innovative and inclusive economic ecosystem centered on industrial hemp. Spearheaded by Vytal Plant Science Research and partnering with universities, including Penn State and Emory University, and various stakeholders, the project seeks to advance technology, stimulate regional economies, address societal challenges and generate high-wage jobs. "The National Science Foundation wanted to reach out across the entire country to identify ways to stimulate the economy and take science and find out applications for commercialization," said Okrepkie from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania, a key stakeholder in the project. "We're talking about everything from space technology to lasers to industrial hemp," he said. "What we've done is created an opportunity for the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, number one, that we competed on a national level to win an award." And No. 2, he said, is the opportunity for Pennsylvania to be a national leader in the hemp industry. The Pennsylvania Industrial Hemp Engine Development Project is focused on the industrial applications of hemp fiber and grain and is not focused on CBD or medicinal uses of the cannabis plant. Learn more: Pennsylvania Industrial Hemp Engine Development Project https://paihe.org Vytal Plant Science Research https://vpsresearch.org National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engines https://new.nsf.gov/funding/initiatives/regional-innovation-engines Hemp News Nugs How Colorado Became Ground Zero For Hemp Production https://lithub.com/how-colorado-became-ground-zero-for-hemp-production/ Agricultural Scientists Receive USDA Grant to Explore Hemp as a Sustainable Alternative to Grain in Animal Feed https://www.pvamu.edu/research/post/agricultural-scientists-receive-usda-grant-to-explore-hemp-as-a-sustainable-alternative-to-grain-in-animal-feed-2/ New research set to increase carbon capture through cropping https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2023/research/increase-carbon-capture-through-cropping/?utm_source=miragenews&utm_medium=miragenews&utm_campaign=news Hemp Fiber Market To Experience Rapid Consumption Growth Between 2023 and 2032 https://www.bowmanextra.com/news/hemp-fiber-market-to-experience-rapid-consumption-growth-between-2023-and-2032/ Rivaling steel: hemp as the 'superior' alternative https://cranbournenews.starcommunity.com.au/news/2023-06-13/rivalling-steel-hemp-as-the-superior-alternative/ Why Hemp Is The Perfect Fabric for Your Summer Wardrobe https://www.salonprivemag.com/why-hemp-is-the-perfect-fabric-for-your-summer-wardrobe/ Thanks to our Sponsors! IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ KING'S AGRISEED https://kingsagriseeds.com/

On this week's show we talk to Duane Shugars from Hemp Katalyst and the digital platform Metaihemp, which aims to bring together various parts of the industrial hemp supply chain making it easier for farmers to grow exactly what manufacturers are looking for. Learn more: Hemp Katalyst https://www.hempkatalyst.com/ Meta iHemp https://www.metaihemp.com/pages/index.html Hemp News Nuggets Contact your representatives about the Industrial Hemp Act of 2023. Tell them you support the Hemp Exemption and they should to! https://www.hempexemption.com/contactcongress 7K+ THC Laced Fake Branded Products Seized In Lancaster County: DA https://dailyvoice.com/pennsylvania/lancaster/7k-thc-laced-fake-branded-products-seized-in-lancaster-county-da/ Minnesota OKs hemp-derived delta-8 and delta-9 THC, bans other synthetics https://hemptoday.net/minnesota-oks-hemp-derived-delta-8-and-delta-9-thc-bans-other-synthetics/ USDA Renames Trade Committee To Recognize Hemp As A Key Specialty Crop https://www.marijuanamoment.net/usda-renames-trade-committee-to-recognize-hemp-as-a-key-specialty-crop/ Reps. Rosendale, Houlahan introduce Industrial Hemp Act https://financialregnews.com/reps-rosendale-houlahan-introduce-industrial-hemp-act/ Thanks to our sponsors IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ Mpactful Ventures https://www.mpactfulventures.org/

This special bonus episode was recorded at Cedar Meadow Farm in Holtwood, Pennsylvania, where Steve Groff has been practicing no-till farming for over 30 years, and this year he has planted 50 acres of fiber hemp into his no-till system. Andrew Bish from Hemp Harvest Works and the Hemp Feed Coalition was on his way from Nebraska to Washington to lobby for hemp as an animal feed when he stopped by Steve's farm. Sarah Mitchell, hemp specialist from King's Agriseed was there too and the three of them had an amazing conversation about soil health, soil microbes, no-till farming, panting and harvesting equipment, cover crop mixes and more. Thanks to our sponsor IND HEMP.

It's that time of year again — time to get your hemp seeds in the ground. On this week's podcast, we check in with a handful of farmers (and one processor) to hear how things are going. What varieties are they planting, how much acreage, how's the weather? First we talk to Herb Grove, farmer and bison rancher in Center County, Pennsylvania, who said he's looking to put in about 45 acres of grain hemp this year but hasn't planted yet because of the lack of rain. "I don't think there's much hurry getting it in the ground. It ain't gonna do much till it gets some moisture. So we're going to play the rain game and hit it hard right before an estimated rain shower, I hope," Grove said. Lack of rain is also an issue for Katherine Dubansky at Backbone Farm in Garrett County, Maryland, where she grows produce as well as hemp for CBD. "We decided to go on the real low side this year and grow 300 plants, which is the smallest number we've ever grown," she said. She started her seeds in the greenhouse about 10 days ago and expects to get into the field in another 10 days or so. For Steve Groff in Lancaster County, the lack of precipitation is an issue, but it's not as bad as it could be, thanks to his cover crops and no-till farming practices. He direct-seeded 50 acres of fiber hemp the third week of May and has good emergence. He said he was concerned that there might not be enough moisture to germinate the seeds. "But I got to mention our regenerative agriculture methods, using cover crops and no-till, which is definitely in our favor. We're able to hold the moisture in that soil," he said. For Aaron Templin, operating partner at Dakota Hurd Company in Fargo, North Dakota, things are looking good. He's working with three local farmers to grow about 100 acres of fiber to feed the processing facility. The hemp was planted in early May and weather-wise, they seem to be OK. In Sikeston, Missouri, Jeff Limbaugh is managing the hemp production for Midwest Natural Fiber. He said they've got about half of the anticipated 600 acres in the ground in the southeastern corner of the state, referred to regionally as the Boot Heel. He said they're still determining the best planting density, somewhere between 700,000 and million seeds per acre. "Our best method is drilling down on a seven and a half inch spacing," Limbaugh said. Brush Mountain Bison https://www.facebook.com/brushmountainbison Backbone Hemp https://backbonehemp.com/ Maryland Mountain Hemp Alliance http://www.mountainmarylandhemp.org/ Cedar Meadow farm https://cedarmeadow.farm/ Hemp Harvest Work's FiberCut https://hempharvestworks.com/fibercut/ Dakota Hurd Companyhttps://www.dakotahurd.com/ Midwest Natural Fiber https://www.midwestnaturalfiber.com/ Thanks to our Sponsors IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ King's Agriseeds https://kingsagriseeds.com/

Half the people in the world menstruate, but nearly no one knows exactly what feminine hygiene products are made of and how those materials may be affecting the health outcomes of the people using the products, according to Claire Crunk, founder and CEO of Trace Femcare. "Part of why there is so little transparency in period products, Crunk said, "is because the supply chain is global, complex and opaque, and the solution to that is to build regionalized supply chains that are brand-led and very intimate." Which is exactly what she's doing at Trace, where they make tampons and pads from a blend of hemp and cotton. Crunk was a women's health nurse practitioner and owned her own practice for more than 10 years in Tennessee. During this time she saw many patients with vulvar rashes, period pain, period irregularity, infertility and more. She dug into the research and tried "to understand how the products in our environment that we put on and in our bodies could be affecting health outcomes," she said. The more she learned about the opaqueness of the tampon industry, the more her frustration grew. She said that most products on the market, regardless of brand, are made by the same small group of manufactures, and often these manufactures don't themselves know what's in their products. "This is a huge problem that we're trying to solve in the industry," she said. "There's just no transparency. The tampon manufacturer doesn't know what chemicals are being used to process the fibers that they're purchasing to make their products." She said that these formulations are often proprietary, so even if you ask the fiber producers what chemicals they are using, they won't disclose them. "So a lot of the risk assessment is categorical in nature instead of precise," Crunk said. She pointed to the use of PFAS, or forever chemicals, in menstrual underwear, which can cause infertility, cancer and autoimmune disorders. "They're endocrine disruptors, hormone disruptors. So to put that in a product that's touching our reproductive organs, that's a big problem to me," she said. After a decade of running her women's health practice, Crunk suffered from severe burnout and walked away from it all, and embarked on her own journey of healing. Her time of recovery was also a time of discovery. She was struck with the idea to build a brand of feminine products made from natural materials like hemp and cotton that offered transparency in the supply chain. And Trace Femcare was born. "And to this day, I think we're the only brand that knows what farm practices happen in their fiber production," she said. The hemp fiber used in Trace's tampons is sourced from hemp grown and processed in the U.S., mostly from North Carolina and Montana. "Our product is blended with a regenerative cotton called Climate Beneficial cotton, and all of our cotton is grown and processed in the U.S. as well," she said. Building Trace Femcare Crunk founded the company in 2018 and soon brought in two additional co-founders to make her dream a reality — Meg Galaske, a holistic medical doctor and energy healer; and Olaf Isele, an engineer who has specialized in absorbent hygiene products for over 25 years. Together they have built Trace and are preparing to launch their first product this summer, an applicator-free, biodegradable menstrual tampon, with several more products in the pipeline. "Our mission at Trace is to heal the earth with our periods." Crunk said. As girls grow up into women, they get signals from society that "periods are something dirty or something bad, a problem that needs to be fixed, hidden, to be taken care of," she said. "And that's how we're marketed to. But we believe that our periods can be a tool to healing — and in this case, healing the earth. So I started Trace because I was looking for period products that were made of materials that were healthier for our bodies," she said. "I wanted to make tampons and pads with full traceability down to farm level and operate a brand where I personally know every single person that touches the making of this product, and every single chemical, and have a primary voice in guiding that process, too. So, I'm proud to say that we have accomplished that." Trace Femcare https://traceyourtampon.com/ Thanks to our Sponsors! IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ Mpactful Ventures https://www.mpactfulventures.org/

This week on the hemp podcast, Lancaster Farming talks with Alejandra Diaz, a hemp entrepreneur, educator and activist from Los Angeles. Diaz does business development and sales for Hemp Fortex, a Chinese manufacturer of sustainable textiles with a specialization in hemp fabrics. "Most of our fiber comes from China, and currently sourcing some from France as well," Diaz said. "And (we are) now looking to the U.S. and other parts of the world to source fiber." Diaz has been a leader in her community, organizing education programs around hempcrete, hemp farming and hemp clothing. Also on the podcast this week, we share an interesting hempcrete project. It's a collaboration between the Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast and Americhanvre Cast-Hemp, a hempcrete building company based in Barto, Pennsylvania. The idea was to build hempcrete acoustic panels for the walls of the new podcast studio in Lancaster Farming's Ephrata office. Earlier this week, podcast host Eric Hurlock and Cameron MacIntosh from Americhanvre built wooden frames and filled them with pigmented hempcrete using the cast in place method. The panels will spend the next few weeks curing in the Americhanvre shop and then will be trimmed out with HempWood, a hemp-based wood alternative made in Kentucky. Alejandra's Socials Instagram: @alejandrahemp_ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandra-diaz-617737188/ Hemp Fortex (wholesale hemp fabric)https://www.hempfortex.com Hemp Fortex Company Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FnWselGBD8&t=126s Bastine (retail hemp fabric)https://bastine.com Industrial Hemp Alliance at Los Angeles Trade Technical College https://www.industrialhempalliance.net Sustainable Culture: Hemp x Couture Fashion Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG5QNWmcYP4&t=19s Hemp Traders https://www.hemptraders.com Hemp Traders YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@hemptraders5881/videos News Nuggets Pennsylvania hemp initiative aims to build out regional supply chainshttps://hemptoday.net/pennsylvania-hemp-initiative-aims-to-build-out-regional-supply-chains/ Industry Leaders' hemp vision for the 2023 Farm Bill falls far shorthttps://hemptoday.net/industry-leaders-hemp-vision-for-the-2023-farm-bill-falls-far-short/ Thanks to our Sponsors! IND HEMPhttps://indhemp.com/ National Hemp Associationhttps://nationalhempassociation.org/ Americhanvrehttps://americhanvre.com/

On this week's hemp podcast, Lancaster Farming talks with Hunter Buffington, a Colorado-based hemp policy expert with Agriculture Policy Solutions. She shares her concerns about legislation in the Colorado House of Representatives that she says threatens the hemp industry nationwide. SB23-271 attempts to address the the issue of intoxicating cannabinoids such as delta-8 THC, a synthetic compound derived from hemp with similar effects to marijuana. Synthetic cannabionoids currently occupy a gray area in the national hemp market. Some states are outlawing them while others are regulating their use. Buffington recently wrote an opinion piece on the hemp news website Let's Talk Hemp entitled "Colorado Intoxicating Cannabinoid Legislation Threatens an Industry, Fails to Protect Patients and Endangers America's Children." She said special interests groups have hijacked the bill by convincing lawmakers to add numerous amendments in the 11th hour. "The marijuana industry group and a couple of large dispensaries were writing these amendments. We can see their influence," Buffington said. The interests of the marijuana industry differ from those of the hemp industry, even though both industries are built around the uses of the cannabis plant. Buffington said the Colorado bill could also have negative effects on the fiber and grain sector of the hemp industry, with implications for hemp cosmetics and food. "It's a slippery slope," she said, "because we're opening up the door to now have to regulate THC content in these products." Agriculture Policy Solutions http://www.agpolicysolutions.com/ Colorado Intoxicating Cannabinoid Legislation Threatens an Industry, Fails to Protect Patients and Endangers America's Children https://letstalkhemp.com/colorado-intoxicating-cannabinoid-legislation-threatens-an-industry-fails-to-protect-patients-and-endangers-americas-children/ SB23-271: Intoxicating Cannabinoid Hemp And Marijuana https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb23-271 Learn more about the issue on the Hemp Rising podcast with Josh Schneiderhttps://hemprising.buzzsprout.com/1951087/12791512 Contact the Office of Colorado Governor Jared Polishttps://www.colorado.gov/governor/contact-us New Nuggets Jon Tester wanted to soften hemp regulations and turned to industry officials to help craft the bill https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/07/jon-tester-wanted-to-soften-hemp-regulations-00095634 You elected them to write new laws. They're letting corporations do it instead.https://publicintegrity.org/politics/state-politics/copy-paste-legislate/you-elected-them-to-write-new-laws-theyre-letting-corporations-do-it-instead/ 'Hemp Hotel' Trails South Africa's Green Credentials https://www.africa.com/hemp-hotel-trails-south-africas-green-credentials/ European Hemp Leaders Launch Bid To Designate 'Natural' CBD A Traditional Food https://businessofcannabis.com/european-hemp-leaders-launch-bid-to-designate-natural-cbd-a-traditional-food/ Colorado lawmakers say compromise reached on THC levels for CBD https://hemptoday.net/colorado-lawmakers-say-compromise-reached-on-thc-levels-for-cbd/ Thanks to our Sponsors! IND HEMPhttps://indhemp.com/ Mpactful Ventureshttps://www.mpactfulventures.org/

This week on the Hemp Podcast, U.S. Congressman David Trone, a Democrat from Maryland's sixth district, is our guest. Trone recently introduced The Free to Grow Act, which he says will end discriminatory policies that are keeping people from entering the job market in the hemp industry. The 2018 Farm Bill which legalized industrial hemp as a commodity crop prohibited anyone with a felony drug conviction in the past 10 years from obtaining a license to grow hemp. Trone believes this prohibition goes against the idea that once you've done your time, you should be able to participate fully in the economy. "I think all of us in America believe in second chances," he said. "We've all made mistakes. And if someone makes a mistake, they go to jail. But then after that, when they come out, we want them to get a job and build a family and be successful and not go back to jail." The Free to Grow Act has bipartisan support in the House, citing co-sponsorship from David Joyce, R-Ohio, Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and Chellie Pingree, D-Maine. "So together, all of us are working to get this through," Trone said. Giving people a second chance is big issue for Trone, who said he recently founded a Second Chance Caucus in Congress. "I got 20 Republicans and 20 Democrats. And together, you know, we're working all kinds of legislation to help people that have been in prison stay out of prison when they're done paying their time," he said. Trone said he thinks getting the Free to Grow Act into the the 2023 Farm Bill is the most likely route to getting this bill signed into law. Trone also weighed in on the 2023 Industrial Hemp Act, recently introduced in the Senate, that aims to separate industrial hemp grown for fiber and grain from CBD and medicinal cannabis by removing the burdensome regulations that the hemp industry says is holding the industry back from reaching its full potential as a food ingredient and raw material for manufacturing. While there is as of yet no companion bill in Congress, Trone said, "We're going to take a good look at that. We certainly 100% support cutting all burdensome regulation." Trone is no stranger to the demands of running a farming operation, having grown up on a farm in Adams County, Pennsylvania. "We had a 200-acre farm, mostly corn, wheat, a lot of hay. Then we had 55,000 layers and we purchased chicken eggs from other laying operations all through Lancaster. So I used to drive trucks all through Lancaster picking up eggs," he said. Not just chickens, but hogs too, he said. "We finished around 600 hogs at a time and turned them over. Buy 'em at 40 and sell 'em at 220 — so I understand that business." "Here in Congress, I'm one of the few people that really gets farming, having done it for, you know, decades." Learn more: Rep. David Trone https://trone.house.gov/ Trone Introduces Two Bipartisan Agriculture Bills to Promote Second Chances for Returning Citizens https://trone.house.gov/2023/03/07/trone-introduces-two-bipartisan-agriculture-bills-to-promote-second-chances-for-returning-citizens/ News Nuggets Tester introduces bipartisan bill to deregulate industrial hemp https://montanafreepress.org/2023/04/25/tester-introduces-bipartisan-bill-to-deregulate-industrial-hemp/ Industrial hemp plant begins production in Lake County https://www.madisondailyleader.com/news/article_d28b5992-e46e-11ed-90d2-33d06d86e507.html New interest in fiber hemp https://www.farmprogress.com/hemp/new-interest-shown-for-fiber-hemp U.S. hemp industry hopes for better times ahead https://www.producer.com/markets/u-s-hemp-industry-hopes-for-better-times-ahead/ Thanks to our Sponsors! IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ King's Agriseedshttps://kingsagriseeds.com/

On this week's hemp podcast, we focus on the Lower Sioux Indian Community in Morton, Minnesota. The Lower Sioux are part of the larger Dakota tribe, which once thrived in the Upper Midwest, following the bison herds across the Great Plains. The Lower Sioux Indian Community sits along the southern bank of the Minnesota River in southwestern Minnesota. The tribal land was greatly reduced after the Dakota War of 1862. Earl Pendleton, vice president of the tribal council, is the first guest on the podcast this week. Pendleton describes life on the reservation and how things have changed over the course of his life. "There's a lot of history in this area for the relations between the U.S. government, the state government and the Dakota people," he said. "The U.S./Dakota conflict of 1862, which is 160 years ago, is still kind of fresh out here. And there's still a lot of tension between who we are and what we deserve." "The reason for that conflict was people seeing their families starve and seeing their food sources being eliminated around them and the encroachment of settlers and things like that," Pendleton said. The conflict led to some of the most brutal episodes in American history, including the public hanging of 38 Dakota warriors the day after Christmas 1862, the largest mass execution in U.S. history. "Obviously, I don't blame anybody here today for that. But I think there's just a story that should be told. I think our our kids need to hear our real history and feel proud of who they are,' he said. One of the bright spots for Pendleton and the Lower Sioux Community is industrial hemp. 2023 is their fourth season of growing the crop. "We're at a pretty small scale," Pendleton said. "We started at 40 acres, we moved up to 80 and 100, and I think we're doing 100 again this year. So we have a a stockpile of of hemp bales that are ready for processing." The Sioux grow a dual-purpose variety called X59, which produces grain and fiber. The tribe sells the grain and processes the fiber on site with a 1-ton-per-hour decorticator. The vision is to use the hemp fiber to build houses for the community. Many homes are government housing, Pendleton said, and were not built with the best materials or with longevity in mind. And there is a shortage of housing too. "We have a lot of families living together, overcrowding, some homelessness," he said. "So when I looked at hemp and seen that is a potential for construction, it seemed like the perfect fit for our community." Working with HempStone, a hempcrete construction company from Massachusetts, the tribe is learning how to turn their hemp hurds into hemp housing. Last year the group completed a small shed as proof of concept. And this summer the tribe is building its first full-size home. The tribe is also building a home made from conventional materials to do a side-by-side comparison of energy efficiency. Danny Desjarlais is the project manager for the tribe's hemp-building endeavors, and also a guest on this week's podcast. A traditional builder by trade, he is a convert to building with hemp. "I don't want to use any traditional buildings anymore. You know, after discovering the hemp and the hempcrete and all of its benefits has just been very eye-opening for me as a builder," he said. Desjarlais sees great potential in hemp for existing houses in the community. "We have 165 houses on our reservation right now; 160 of them probably need retrofitting or could be fixed up in some way," he said. Desjarlais said the people of his community are very excited by the prospect of industrial hemp and the hope it brings. "Our people used to follow the buffalo, and we used every part of the buffalo, he said. "And so I look at hemp as like the green buffalo — we can use every part of the plant. And so we're only barely just scraping the surface right now with with growing and building houses out of it." Lower Sioux Indian Community https://lowersioux.com/ HempStone https://hempstone.net/ Tell Your Senator You Support the 2023 Industrial Hemp Act If you think grain and fiber hemp farmers should be able to grow grain and fiber like they can grow corn and soy, then contact our senator and tell them to support the Industrial Hemp Act of 2023. https://www.hempexemption.com/contactcongress Thanks to our sponsors: Mpactful Ventures An investment and incubation company focused on sustainability and supporting startups and other initiatives that play a vital role in mitigating the adverse effects of climate change. At Mpactful ventures, they strive to amplify enterprises that bring innovative, green opportunities to the forefront and empower those making a significant impact for a sustainable future. https://www.mpactfulventures.org/ IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/

Can plants communicate with each other? Do they know when they're under attack from pests? Can they tell one type of insect pest from another—say, an aphid from a caterpillar? The answer may surprise you. According to this week's podcast guest, Aaron Appleby, the answer to all three of these questions is a resounding yes. Appleby, a Ph.D. candidate at Washington State University in the Crop Science department, specializes in organic pesticides, with a focus on the hemp russet mite and fiber hemp. Appleby said his research at WSU involves bringing organic production to the Palouse region of Eastern Washington and North central Idaho, the largest wheat growing region in the United States. Appleby is also a certified crop advisor and owner of White Coat Laboratories, a cannabis research company in Pullman, Washington. "We are studying how plant volatiles can increase secondary metabolites and attract beneficial arthropods to your system to reduce pest pressure," he said. Appleby said plants communicate with each other by releasing clouds of chemicals, which Appleby calls "plant screams." For instance, if a plant is under attach by a certain pest, the plant will produce a chemical cloud containing information that surrounding plants will sense and decipher, giving them a heads up on an impending pest attack. Appleby said plants use as many as fifty chemicals to convey specific information. He likens the combinations of chemicals to our alphabet of 26 letter that we use to build words and sentences to convey meaning. "In much the same way, plants are able to combine these different chemicals in different ratios to convey different messages to their community," he said. Is it possible to harness this communication system for commercial production? Can the communication among plants be enhanced to reduce our dependence on chemical fertilizers? Does this hyper-awareness mean that plants possess a form of consciousness? That's exactly what we're talking about on this podcast episode. Plus we have a check-in call with Jeremy Klettke of Davis Hemp Farming in Oregon. Aaron Appleby on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-appleby-901113272/ Washington State University Department of Crop and Soil Sciences https://css.wsu.edu/ Davis Hemp Farm https://davishempfarms.com/ News Nuggets Introducing the 1st shoe made from CBD weed https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/627753860/introducing-the-1st-shoe-made-from-cbd-weed Prowl Studio develops "first injection-moulded chair that can be composted" https://www.dezeen.com/2023/04/17/prowl-studio-peel-chair-m4-factory-milan-design-week/ Don't Lose Hope For The U.S. Hemp Industry https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthoban/2023/04/18/dont-lose-hope-for-the-us-hemp-industry/?sh=d323f776e4bb Thanks to our sponsors! IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ Americhanvre Cast-Hemp https://americhanvre.com/ National Hemp Association https://nationalhempassociation.org/

Geoff Whaling, chair of the National Hemp Association, joins us on the Industrial Hemp Podcast this week to talk about NHA's priorities for what they'd like to see in the 2023 Farm Bill. Topping that list is the bifurcation, or division, of the hemp industry, Whaling said, with legislation that would create a sub-definition of industrial hemp grown for fiber and grain, making it easier for row crop farmers to add it to their current rotations of crops like corn, soy and wheat. Currently, hemp farmers are subject to expensive permitting fees, FBI background checks and finger printing, and costly on-farm government testing of cannabinoid content in the field. Whaling said these requirements are barriers to the industry that keep farmers from growing industrial hemp at a scale that can establish a robust domestic hemp industry, because farmers are being treated like criminals for wanting to grow a commodity crop that can be used for food, feed, fuel, fabric and more. Whaling said NHA supports the CBD industry. "I don't want to negate the importance that cannabinoids have in this marketplace," but it's important for the two sides of the industry to be regulated differently. Whaling said the industry faces difficult educational challenges with the public and, almost more importantly, with lawmakers. "We would go into senators' offices who were leaders in this space, and their staff did not know or believe that you could plant hemp as a row crop," he said. Last month, Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Mike Braun, R-Ind., introduced the 2023 Industrial Hemp Act, which would remove the barriers for farmers who want to grow hemp as commodity crop rather than a specialty crop, the way CBD hemp is grown. If the bill does not pass as a stand-alone piece of legislation, Whaling is hopeful it will be added to the 2023 Farm Bill. Another priority for NHA is hemp for animal feed. "We get this question all the time, why is it okay for us to eat hemp hearts, we as humans, but it's not OK for us to give that to our dogs?" Whaling said. "It's a good question. But the reality is the authority for all things that are consumed by us or consumed by animals that go into the human chain is left squarely with the FDA," he said. He said state governments are taking this into their own hands, passing various legislation allowing for hemp to be used in feed for domestic animals, but Whaling said this issue deserves to be solved at the federal level, rather than by a patchwork of state laws across the country. "It most definitely is that patchwork approach," he said. "And we know that it didn't work very well for cannabinoids. And I think that if we were able to move this forward on a national program, then all citizens would be able to participate." Whaling also spoke about the work NHA is doing around the world to develop the hemp industry and to help build the market for carbon credits. While the industry has it's challenges, Whaling remains hopeful as ever. "Five years from now, we'll still be researching the potential of industrial hemp," he said. "Ten years from now, we'll be well on our way to a multibillion dollar industry. "And 20 years from now, when I'm long gone, hemp will be everywhere and people will be saying, what was the big deal?" National Hemp Association https://nationalhempassociation.org/ Hemp Exemption https://www.hempexemption.com/ News Nuggets Scientists Evaluate Potential Human Cannabinol Exposure from Consuming Meat if Cattle is Fed Hempseed Cake https://www.ars.usda.gov/news-events/news/research-news/2023/scientists-evaluate-potential-human-cannabinol-exposure-from-consuming-meat-if-cattle-is-fed-hempseed-cake/ Argentina's Government Participated In First Legal Hemp Harvests In Half A Century https://internationalcbc.com/argentinas-government-participated-in-first-legal-hemp-harvests-in-half-a-century/ Now That Weed is Mostly Legal, Hemp Should Be Booming. But It's Not https://time.com/6268420/hemp-climate-solution/ Thanks to our sponsors IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ Mpactful Ventures https://www.mpactfulventures.org/ Farm https://www.farmland.fi/

I took the podcast on the road again. Sort of. I took a plane this time. Either way, I spent four days last week in Colorado at the ninth annual NoCo Hemp Expo in in Colorado Springs. This is the largest gathering of its kind in the U.S. Part expo, part educational experience, it was a celebration of all things hemp. One highlight for me was seeing Lancaster County's own Steve Groff on the main stage talking about cover crops, no-till farming and growing hemp. Another was observing the degree to which fiber and grain are dominating the conversations around hemp, as more people embrace hemp's potential as a material and a food. One of the key moments of the expo for me was a Thursday morning meeting of industry leaders and stakeholders to discuss hemp priorities for the 2023 Farm Bill. A majority of the national and state level trade associations participated. This week's podcast will focus on that meeting. What are the industry priorities for the Farm Bill? Is there consensus? What are the differences and how can they be reconciled? And what is the state of the hemp industry coming out of NoCo 2023? Listen and find out. This week's guests include Wendy Mosher from New West Genetics, Patrick Atagi from the National Industrial Hemp Council, Andrew Bish for the Hemp Feed Coalition, Jonathon Miller from U.S. Hemp Roundtable, Courtney Moran from Agricultural Hemp Solutions, Eric Steenstra from Vote Hemp, Eric Singular from International Hemp, and Herrick Fox from the Meristem Institute. VOTE HEMP https://www.votehemp.com/ Meristem Institute https://meristeminstitute.org/ New West Genetics https://newwestgenetics.com/ Hemp Feed Coalition https://hempfeedcoalition.org/ Hemp Harvest Works https://hempharvestworks.com/ International Hemp https://www.international-hemp.com/ U.S. Hemp Roundtable https://hempsupporter.com/ The National Industrial Hemp Council of America [NIHC] https://www.nihcoa.com/ Agricultural Hemp Solutions https://www.agriculturalhempsolutions.com/ Check these out too! One Plant, a film by Sunflower https://www.oneplant.film/ Davis Hemp Farms https://davishempfarms.com/ Noco Hemp Expo https://www.nocohempexpo.com/ Thanks to our Sponsors! IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ King's Agriseeds https://kingsagriseeds.com/ BIG THANKS TO SUN RAY HEMP!