Bast Fiber Tech and the Rise of Hemp in Nonwoven Hygiene
Release Date: 06/18/2025
Global Fiber Hemp Summit Box Set: Sides 1 and 2
Industrial Hemp Podcast
Dear listeners, This week on the Hemp Show, we’re dropping the needle on a very special commemorative box set from the 2025 Global Industrial Hemp Fiber Summit in Raleigh, North Carolina. In this first installment — Sides 1 and 2 — of a three-episode miniseries, we hear from a wide range of voices building the fiber side of the hemp industry from the ground up: farmers, machine makers, wet processors, entrepreneurs and professors. They’re working in the field and in the lab, bridging research and manufacturing, and helping steer the industrial hemp conversation back to its core: fiber,...
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The Fiber of Our Being: The NIHC Global Industrial Hemp Fiber Summit Recap
Industrial Hemp Podcast
This week on the Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast, we’re listening to a recap of the 2025 Global Industrial Hemp Fiber Summit, hosted by the National Industrial Hemp Council of America at the Wilson College of Textiles at NC State, that took place in Raleigh, NC, July 15-17, 2025. For three well-planned days, leaders from across the hemp value chain came together—from farmers and geneticists to processors, engineers, and global apparel brands. On this episode we follow the flow of the summit itself, threading together powerful takeaways from the TED-style talks across agriculture,...
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How to Nip Intoxicating Canabinoids in the Bud
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This week on the Hemp Show, we’re continuing the conversation around the need to split the industry into two. There is much confusion in the minds of law makers and consumers when it comes to what hemp is. For years hemp advocates championed the fact that hemp doesn’t get you high, but thanks to a loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill, somebody figured out how to get high from hemp, and so began the era of intoxicating hemp that we find ourselves in now. But if hemp is getting you high, it’s not hemp — it’s weed. Stop calling it hemp. And that’s why there needs to be a legislative fix....
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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,...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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,...
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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...
info_outlineThis 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 agriculture? From the hemp fields, even?
This week, we talk to Jason Finnis from Bast Fiber Technologies, a company working to make that shift real — using hemp fiber to replace plastic in nonwoven hygiene products.
Our guest is Jason Finnis, co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Bast Fiber Technologies, a clean-tech fiber company with operations in North Carolina and Germany. Jason’s been working to bring hemp fiber into hygiene and personal care products for more than 30 years — not as a novelty, but as a high-performance alternative to synthetic materials.
We talk about:
• The massive and often invisible role of nonwovens in our daily lives
• The hidden microplastics in wipes, pads and tampons — and why it matters
• Why hemp fiber is a smart material for hygiene: absorbent, soft and compostable
• What BFT looks for in hemp fiber: long, clean and consistent
• The importance of regional supply chains and local farm partnerships
• How consumer pressure, brand demand and European policy are aligning to create real momentum
Jason shares his journey from selling hemp out of a VW bus in the ’90s to helping build a future where everyday products are cleaner, greener and made from plants, not petroleum.
Learn More:
Bast Fiber Technologies
Global Hemp Fiber Summit – July 10–11 at NC State University
https://hempinitiatives.com/fiber-summit
Thanks to our sponsor:
HEMI – The Hemp Education and Marketing Initiative
Learn more at HempInitiatives.org
Produced by Eric Hurlock and Justin Berger