Untangling The Language: What We Mean When We Say Hemp
Release Date: 05/16/2025
Industrial Hemp Podcast
This week on the Hemp Show we’re talking about flax, a fiber plant with remarkable similarities to industrial hemp when grown for textiles. There’s a fair amount of flax growing this year in southeastern Pennsylvania. The last time this much flax grew here, tractors hadn’t even been invented yet. By the late 1800s flax production was in rapid decline in the Keystone State, pushed out by cheap cotton and forgotten by a country racing toward synthetic fiber — which makes 2025 a special year in Pennsylvania. Thanks to the PA Flax Project, spearheaded by Heidi Barr and Emma de Long,...
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Lately on the podcast, I’ve been wrestling with a question of language. What does the word hemp really mean, where did that meaning come from, how has it shifted over time, and who gets to define the word hemp today? For a thousand years, hemp was known as the plant or material that you made things from — things like rope, cloth and paper. But now when people hear the word hemp, they think about weed. And that’s not helpful for a nascent industry trying to raise capital, build infrastructure and develop markets. To help me sort out the history and meaning of the word hemp, I spoke...
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This week on the Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast, we’re talking about wipes. And diapers. And makeup pads. And all the other throwaway hygiene products we barely think about — but use every day. Most of these single-use items are made from plastic. Why? Because plastic is cheap, consistent, and engineered to run smoothly on fast-moving machines. But that convenience comes at a cost: landfill waste, microplastic pollution and a total disconnect from the land. But what if we could change that? What if the raw material for these essential products didn’t come from oil — but from...
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On this episode of the Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast, we take a look at the fight for industrial hemp’s future — from grassroots advocacy to global certification and the ongoing struggles farmers face in the banking system. Act 1: Virginia Hemp Month – Reclaiming the Word "Hemp" Joe Domino and Scott McStacy of the Virginia Hemp Coalition join the show to talk about their efforts to officially recognize June as Virginia Hemp Month. With events ranging from hempcrete building workshops and beekeeping demonstrations to film screenings and brewery gatherings, Virginia is building...
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This week on the show we reconnect with Chad Rosen, founder and CEO of Victory Hemp Foods, who was first on the show back in the summer of ‘21 when I drove the Lancaster Farming National Hemp Tour RV right up to Victory Hemp’s grain bins in Carrollton, Kentucky. When I was there 4 years ago, Victory was processing batches, roughly 20,000 lbs a month, but they just put in a new processing line that lets them do 120,000 pounds of hemp hearts per month, a sixfold increase. But that’s not all. The new production line features “patented processing technology” that Rosen said, “delivers...
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The hemp event of the summer is taking place in Raleigh, North Carolina, July 15-17. It's the Global Industrial Hemp Fiber Summit, hosted by the Wilson College of Textiles, in conjunction with the National Industrial Hemp Council. This week on the Hemp Show, we’ll talk to the lead organizer of the event, Guy Carpenter. Unlike other events focused on industrial hemp, this summit centers squarely on hemp fiber and the industries that are growing up around fiber: textiles, apparel, denim, upholstery, non-wovens, construction, hempcrete, insulation, acoustic panels, automotive, biocomposites,...
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This week’s episode of the Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast unfolds in three acts, each exploring a different facet of the growing hemp industry — from a café built on hemp-based food, to a hands-on construction training, to a linguistic deep dive into the meaning of the word hemp. Act 1: A Hemp Café in Mount Pleasant The show begins with a conversation with longtime hemp entrepreneur Cindy Amick, whose new endeavor is the Planet Hemp Café, which opens June 7 in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania. The café aims to showcase the full potential of hemp in everyday life —from...
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This week on the Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast, host Eric Hurlock wrestles with a question at the heart of the industry: What is hemp? The term has become increasingly diluted and controversial — especially in light of smokable flower and intoxicating cannabinoid markets, i.e. THC-a flower, Delta-8, etc. Lately, Eric has been saying that if you're growing floral hemp, maybe you're not actually a hemp farmer. But he might be wrong and this week he goes on a journey to find out. On this show, Eric speaks with three trusted voices on the cannabinoid side of the conversation to help...
info_outlineIndustrial Hemp Podcast
This week’s episode is a little different—just a quick teaser while we finish up next week’s show, which dives into the meaning of the word “hemp” and who gets to claim it. Host Eric Hurlock has been on a journey talking to people in the cannabinoid space—like Jeremy Klettke, Joe Ullman, and Ben Davies—to sort through some big questions about language, identity, and the hemp plant. In the meantime, we don’t want to leave you empty-handed. So here are a few instrumental tracks that Eric Hurlock has recorded over the years—music you’ve probably heard behind the podcast,...
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This week on the Hemp Podcast we’re looking at the 2025 Hemp Report from the USDA. The annual report attempts to provide a snapshot of the hemp industry, which, according to the report, is valued at $445 million — up 40% from last year. That sounds amazing, but what the numbers actually show is two completely different stories about two completely different industries: industrial hemp, i.e., fiber and grain, and floral hemp, i.e., cannabinoids, medicinal and recreational products and smokable hemp flower. As usual, the floral side of things takes up a lot of the conversation. After all,...
info_outlineThis week on the Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast, host Eric Hurlock wrestles with a question at the heart of the industry: What is hemp?
The term has become increasingly diluted and controversial — especially in light of smokable flower and intoxicating cannabinoid markets, i.e. THC-a flower, Delta-8, etc.
Lately, Eric has been saying that if you're growing floral hemp, maybe you're not actually a hemp farmer. But he might be wrong and this week he goes on a journey to find out.
On this show, Eric speaks with three trusted voices on the cannabinoid side of the conversation to help untangle the confusion: Joe Ullman of Atlas Seed, Ben Davies of Wild Fox Provisions and Jeremy Klettke of Davis Hemp Farms.
Together, they explore the cultural history, legal definitions and evolving market forces that have transformed how we use — and misuse — the word hemp.
From fiber and grain to cannabinoids and regulation, this episode digs deep into the meaning, the consequences and the potential for redefining the future of the hemp industry.
Learn More:
• Joe Ullman – Atlas Seed
• Ben Davies – Wild Fox Provisions
• Jeremy Klettke – Davis Hemp Farms
Topics Covered:
• The origin and historical meaning of "hemp"
• How the 2018 Farm Bill broadened the definition
• The rise of THCa flower and "intoxicating hemp"
• The conflict between cannabinoid and fiber/grain sectors
• Regulatory confusion and COA loopholes
• The cultural baggage of the word "hemp"
• The role of education, infrastructure, and language in shaping the industry
Hemp Sponsors:
• IND HEMP — Building real infrastructure for American hemp
• King’s AgriSeeds — Call Sarah Mitchell for seasonal seed needs (717-687-6224)
• Forever Green — Distributor of the KP4 hemp cutter
Questions or comments? Email: [email protected]
This episode was written, recorded, edited, and produced by Eric Hurlock and Justin Berger.
© 2025 Lancaster Farming Newspaper, part of the Steinman Communications family.