Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast

This week’s podcast takes us to a hempcrete workshop in Barto, Pennsylvania. That’s where Cameron McIntosh of Americhanvre Cast-Hemp hosted a four-day hands-on training session to teach the basics of the spray-applied method of hempcrete installation using the Ereasy system. Training began Saturday morning at McIntosh’s shop at a farm in Berks County. With a total of 14 participants and four assistant instructors, he said, “this is our single biggest training.” Attendees traveled from around the country and the world, including Texas, North Carolina, Minnesota, California, and British Columbia. Damien Baumer, who developed the Ereasy Spray-Applied system in 2014, traveled from his village in France to help McIntosh with the training. Baumer said his system is not in wide use in France, but is used in many other European countries, and now has a strong footprint in America, thanks to McIntosh. McIntosh’s company, Americhanvre (a mash-up of America and the French word for hemp, chanvre), is the authorized North America distributor of the Ereasy system, and there are now more Ereasy systems in use in America than in the inventor’s home country. Baumer is happy to see the growth in America, and said through a translator, “Cameron’s a warrior who’s been fighting for the last three years to make this happen.” Earlier this year, Americhanvre was awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the U.S. Army for $1.9 million. While the training isn’t directly related to the grant, McIntosh sees the connection. The purpose of the SBIR program, he said, “is to commercialize your technology and your company, not only in the private sector, but also publicly.” Attendees get more than basic instruction on how to run the spray machine. “We also teach estimating and bidding. We teach accounting, we give the participants tools that they would need not only to run the system, but also to run a successful business around it,” McIntosh said. The Ereasy system is simple in its design and function. Hemp hurds are mixed with lime and water in a hopper. That slurry is then pushed through tubes by a large air compressor while the lance operator sprays the wet hempcrete mixture at a wall or, in this case, an SIP panel, which can then be used in construction. Attendees sprayed over 30 panels during the course of the workshop. Denzel Sutherland Wilson traveled from Gitxsan Nation in north British Columbia. “I came to learn how to spray hempcrete and just see if this would be something that could help us back where I come (from),” he said. Wilson is from the community of Kispiox, which sits at the confluence of the Skeena and Kispiox rivers. It’s surrounded by mountains on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other. “We have a lot of poorly insulated and overcrowded houses and mold issues,” he said. “And this hemp seems like it could address a lot of issues in the housing realm.” He also said he finds great inspiration from the work the Lower Sioux Indian Community in Minnesota is doing with hempcrete, where the tribe is building houses for community members in need. Danny Desjarlais is the head builder at Lower Sioux and was on hand at the workshop to assist in the training. Desjarlais and his team have built three hempcrete houses in the past year and they are gearing up to build more. He sees hemp construction as a way to rebuild rural communities around the country. “For any community that wants to give their community members jobs and even better homes or whatever product you’re going to make with it,” he said, “the potential for the jobs is there and the potential to take back your community.” On this week’s podcast, we meet the people at the workshop. Why did they sign up? What did they learn? All that, plus a tour of a hempcrete house in Pottstown. On this episode we talk to the following people: Cameron McIntosh Damien Baumer Navid Hatfield Danny Desjarlais Tim Callahan Henry Valles Dani...

On this week’s hemp podcast, we listen to a panel discussion from the NoCo Hemp Expo that took place in Colorado earlier this month. The panelists were Rachel Berry, a farmer and founder of the Illinois Hemp Growers Association; Terry Moran, a sales rep from Kanda Hemp, an importer of Asian hemp varieties; Corbett Miteff from KonopiUS, an importer of European hemp genetics; and Larry Smart, a geneticist and plant breeder from Cornell University. The panel discussion was moderated by Eric Singular who described the topic of discussion as “the intersection of agronomy and genetics in hemp fiber production.” Smart talked about starting the breeding program at Cornell and how trying to meet the needs of the industry has been a roller coaster ride. “But certainly right now the demand is for fiber,” Smart said. “So we have been focused on breeding fiber hemp. And the main trait that we see as valuable in fiber hemp is very late flowering.” Because hemp is a photoperiodic crop, it will stop growing taller once it starts to flower. “If we can identify varieties that continue to grow and do not transition to flowering, those are going to create the greatest amount of biomass,” he said. Typically, later-flowering varieties are adapted to tropical or subtropical latitudes, he said. Moran spoke about the need for seed in the U.S. as the industry grows. “The main thing to think about is if you’re going to get to 250,000 acres,” he said, “is where’s that seed going to come from?” Asia and Europe are the likely sources based on current trends. “And I don’t see that changing in the near term. And even if there’s some great variety out there, it’s going to take several years to scale that,” Moran said. Berry, a first-generation farmer in Illinois, spoke about the importance of genetic research and how she worked with the Midwestern Hemp Research Collaborative. The group provided genetics that were tailored to Berry’s region, one of which she said provided amazing results. “Having folks like you who are doing the research on these genetics and providing them to farmers like me to eliminate all that trial and error, I’m so grateful for that,” Berry said. Miteff described his work with processing methods, various fiber lengths, and the defibrillation of cellulose. “At end of the day, we’re trying to find things where we can get some really good fiber that we can break apart that cellulose and start using it,” Miteff said. “But at the same time, how do we get the grain off of it?” he asked, a question that took the panelists into a conversation about dual cropping varieties that produce both fiber and grain. Learn more: Eric Singular https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-singular Pennsylvania Flax Project https://paflaxproject.com/ Illinois Hemp Growers Association https://www.illinoishga.com/ Cornell University Hemp Program https://hemp.cals.cornell.edu/ KonopiUS https://www.konopius.com/ Kanda Hemp https://kandahemp.com/ Noco Hemp Expo https://www.nocohempexpo.com/ News Nuggets HempWood https://hempwood.com/ Coolest Thing Made in Kentucky https://coolestthingky.com/ USDA's 2023 National Hemp Report https://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Pennsylvania/Publications/Survey_Results/2024/hempan24.pdf Thanks to Our Sponsors! IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ Mpactful Ventures https://www.mpactfulventures.org/ Forever Green https://www.hempcutter.com/ HUGE THANK YOU TO SUNRAY HEMP in ALASKA Music courtesy of Tin Bird Shadow https://tinbirdshadow.bandcamp.com/album/dot-dot-dot

On this 420 Bonus show, we share an episode of one of our favorite podcasts, Rumble Strip. It’s made by Erica Heilman who tells stories of rural Vermont. On this episode she interviews Vermonter John Rodgers, a stonemason the Northeast Kingdom, where he also runs a construction business, plows driveways and rents properties, and for sixteen years he served in the Vermont Legislature in both the House and the Senate. He works all the time so he can hold onto the farm that's been in his family for 200 years. It was a dairy when he was growing up there. Now he's growing weed for Vermont retailers. Thank you to Erica Heilman at Rumble Strip for letting us share this episode! Please go to her website and listen to more episodes of Rumble Strip: https://www.rumblestripvermont.com/

This week’s hemp podcast is a recap of the 10th annual NoCo Hemp Expo in Estes Park, Colorado, April 11-13, where industry stakeholders gathered to collaborate, commiserate and celebrate the state of hemp in 2024. The episode features voices from many attendees, including Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. “We’re really all hands on deck to make sure Colorado continues to be an ag powerhouse, and hemp is a big part of that,” Polis said. State Ag Commissioner Kate Greenberg agreed with the governor and said the “conversation is really just diversified in what hemp is capable of.” Hemp researcher Przemyslaw Baraniecki came all the way from the Institute of Natural Fibres and Medicinal Plants in Poland, where hemp was never prohibited yet still carries a stigma. “In Europe, when you when you say to someone on the street ‘hemp,’ they will smile and treat it as something, let’s say, spicy,” Baraniecki said. Karll Lecher from Dakota Hemp Co. in South Dakota echoed those sentiments and the industry is being held back by conflicting messaging. “We just need one unifying voice to enlighten the public about hemp and maybe get rid of some of those stigmas,” he said. The Hemp Twins — Abigail and Noemy Cuevas — from Los Angeles have been hosting workshops and events back home for years to educate the public and spread the message of hemp. For Noemy, hempcrete construction is one of the bright spots in the hemp industry. “Living in Los Angeles, California, we have a lot of wildfires, so if we would have hemp building, then we will be able to save people’s homes, people’s lives,” she said. Andrew Bish from Hemp Harvest Works, an equipment manufacturer from Nebraska, was showcasing a recent research-scale decorticator. “We produced this for universities around the country, as well as processors that want to work to ultimately grade their herd and fiber products,” he said. You will hear many voices from all over the world on this week’s show, plus you’ll hear about the time spent with Danny DesJarlais and the crew from the Lower Sioux from Minnesota. Thank you to the following voices featured in this week's episode: Aaron Appleby Andrew Bish, Hemp Harvest works Caroline Matthews, Tatham Colorado Department of Ag Colorado Office of the Governor Abigail and Noemy Cuevas, The Hemp Twins, Hemp Traders Bethany Niebauer, Industrial Hemp Research Foundation Raven Faber, EngErotics Nianyi Gan, Kanda Hemp Patrick Atagi, NIHC Przemyslaw Baraniecki, Institute of Natural Fibres and Medicinal Plants Thanks to our sponsors! IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ Americhanvre https://americhanvre.com/ Forever Green https://www.hempcutter.com/ SunRay Hemp Music Courtesy of Tin Bird Shadow.

On this week’s hemp podcast, Lancaster Farming talks to Steve Groff from Cedar Meadow Farm in Holtwood, Lancaster County, where he is getting ready to plant 70 acres of industrial hemp. “This year it’s all fiber. And we’ll probably plant about 10 varieties,” Groff said. Of those 10, about a third will be what he calls his “core varieties“ that have performed well previously on his farm or in the Mid-Atlantic region in general. “We are going to be testing several other newer varieties that might perform well, that we need to basically, I’ll say, ground-truth and see how they work,” he said. As the post-prohibition hemp industry puts itself back together, one of the many riddles to solve is what plant genetics will work where, which is why Groff is so keen on trying new varieties — he enjoys figuring stuff out, and if his work on the farm can help grow an industry, that’s even better. Groff, well known for his pioneering work and educational efforts in no-till farming and cover crops, has been growing hemp on his farm since 2019, the first season it was legal to grow commercially in Pennsylvania. His interest in hemp is full spectrum. He’s grown hemp on his farm for CBD, grain and fiber, but this year his focus is exclusively on fiber — not just growing it, but also how to process. Groff is a partner in Hemp Katalyst, an aspirational hemp processing company focused on research and development. “So we’ve been experimenting with several different variations of processing. And as everybody knows, there’s a lot involved,” he said. Groff said that ultimately the varieties that farmers grow will be determined by how it’s used, and that manufacturers will provide specs for processors. But the industry is not there yet, so Groff pushes forward with “experimental micro processing.” “And so we’re trying to back up from what our customers want and figure it out so that when we do invest in larger scale machinery, we get it right the first time.” “I love doing the cover crops because it helped farmers. It helped the environment. It checked all the boxes,” Groff said. “And the nice thing about hemp is it does all those things too, but it’s enhanced because it a stronger connection to everyone.” Or, as we say on the podcast, cannabis loves community. Groff also discussed his recent work with Penn State’s College of Medicine. Groff grows CBG and CBD varieties of hemp for their medical research. From food, fiber and fuel to building materials and medicine — the list goes on and on — Groff said he can’t think of another plant that God made that benefits humanity in more ways than hemp. Learn more about Cedar Meadow Farm https://cedarmeadow.farm/ Learn more about Hemp Katalyst https://www.hempkatalyst.com/ New Nuggets IND HEMP Earns B Corp Certification https://www.bakersfield.com/ap/news/ind-hemp-earns-prestigious-b-corp-certification/article_6a68890d-1ee4-524f-975b-c38286b68ecb.html Commercial Operations Begin at Panda Biotech’s Massive Wichita Falls Hemp Gin https://dallasinnovates.com/commercial-operations-begin-at-panda-biotechs-massive-wichita-falls-hemp-gin/ Thanks to our sponsors! IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ National Hemp Association https://nationalhempassociation.org/ Mpactful Ventures https://www.mpactfulventures.org/ Forever Green, distributors of the KP-4 Hemp Cutter https://www.hempcutter.com/ Music Courtesy of Tin Bird Shadow.

On this bonus episode we talk to Andrew Bish and Morgan Tweet from the Hemp Feed Coalition, the advocacy group that has been working for four years to get hemp grain approved as a livestock feed. Opening up the feed markets is the one of the most important issues in the hemp industry today. Hemp grain was given tentative approval by AAFCO in January, with a final vote in August. On this episode the HFC folks respond to a recent blog post published by Agriculture Policy Solutions, another advocacy group with deep ties to the hemp industry, a blog post which at best confuses the issue and at worst jeopardizes the likelihood of hemp’s approval in August. Then we hear from Hunter Buffington from Agriculture Policy Solutions and author of the blog post in question. She defends her position and lays out why she wrote and why she chose to publish it now. She raised a few questions that needed answered so we talked to Morgan Tweet from HFC again. Hopefully this episode sheds some light on the messy process of getting ingredients approved for livestock. Hemp Feed Coalition https://hempfeedcoalition.org/ Agriculture Policy Solutions http://www.agpolicysolutions.com/ as TENTATIVE DEFINITION FOR HEMPSEED MEAL Moves forward, APS Constituents have concerns http://www.agpolicysolutions.com/news/tentative-definition-for-hempseed-meal-has-been-described-as-a-poison-pill-for-the-hemp-industry Response to Industry Questions Around Tentative Definition and Potential Concerns on Cannabinoid Thresholds https://hempfeedcoalition.org/2024/03/29/response-to-industry-questions-around-tentative-definition-and-potential-concerns-on-cannabinoid-thresholds/

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...

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!...

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...

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: podcast@lancasterfarming.com. 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/