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Inside The NIHC Global Hemp Fiber Summit With Guy Carpenter

Release Date: 05/29/2025

The PA Flax Project & The Return of American Linen

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,...

The Etymology of Hemp and Why Words Matter

Industrial Hemp Podcast

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...

Bast Fiber Tech and the Rise of Hemp in Nonwoven Hygiene

Industrial Hemp Podcast

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...

Virginia Hemp Month, Responsible Hemp Standard & Banking Barriers on Brush Mountain

Industrial Hemp Podcast

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...

Victory Hemp’s Processing Expansion and the Future of Hemp Ingredients

Industrial Hemp Podcast

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...

Inside The NIHC Global Hemp Fiber Summit With Guy Carpenter

Industrial Hemp Podcast

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,...

The Hemp Show in Three Acts: A Café, a Workshop and a Reckoning

Industrial Hemp Podcast

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...

Untangling The Language: What We Mean When We Say Hemp

Industrial Hemp Podcast

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...

Special Edition: Musical Teaser in Exchange for Your Patience

Industrial 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,...

Unlocking the USDA Hemp Report - A Tale of Two Industries

Industrial Hemp Podcast

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,...

More Episodes

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, door panels, dashboards, paper, packaging, bioenergy, bioplastics and more.

Just don’t expect cannabinoids, CBD, Delta-8, hemp-derived intoxicants, or any discussion of the floral side of cannabis.

According to Carpenter, this event is all about building the fiber industry.

"If you have any interest whatsoever in starting a business in our industry and figuring out how to make it work and also figuring out what are the starting points, what are the roadblocks, what are the opportunities … this is the place to be,” he said.

The three-day event will include panel discussions with industry experts, as well as field trips to NC State hemp fields, local manufacturing centers and the largest and newest hemp processing facility on the East Coast, recently opened by Biophil Natural Fibers in Lumberton, North Carolina.

Carpenter said the summit will cover “everything from seed to decortication … whatever type of segment of the fiber you want to use, we're going to have people here who are experts at it."

Carpenter has dedicated his life to natural fibers. He’s worked in fashion and apparel, international textile manufacturing, and policy development. After the Army and the Peace Corps, his professional journey in the apparel industry took him all over the world, eventually studying hemp fiber production in China. His vast industry knowledge is a pivotal resource as his home state of North Carolina ramps up hemp for textiles.

He brings an unmatched experience and credibility as the organizer of the summit.

Carpenter said this event follows in the tradition of the Montana Hemp Summit, hosted by IND Hemp in previous years, which means the summit will be less of a celebration of hemp and more of a working session to move the industry forward, and the people who attend are the people building the industry.

“They're not just out there promoting hemp for its magical powers or its halo of goodness… but figuring out ways to make money from it,” he said. “This is the place to be."

Also this week, we read a few hemp excerpts from USDA's 1913 Yearbook.

Register for the NIHC Global Industrial Hemp Fiber Summit here:

https://www.globalindustrialfibersummit.com

Read the USDA Yearbook of Agriculture, 1913 — Chapter on Hemp by Lyster Dewey:

https://archive.org/details/yearbookofusdept1913unit/page/282/mode/2up

News Nuggets

Texas Legislature Moves to Ban THC Hemp Products

https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/21/texas-house-thc-hemp-senate-bill-3-ban/

Moldova Plants First Legal Hemp Fields

https://hempgazette.com/news/moldova-hemp-fields-hg2123/

Germany Introduces Hemp Flower Tax Stamps

https://hemptoday.net/german-hemp-flower-stamps/