Industrial Hemp Podcast
Lancaster Farming newspaper editors talk to farmers and experts about industrial hemp.
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Hempcrete Hero: Little House on the Podcast
07/17/2026
Hempcrete Hero: Little House on the Podcast
We have an outbuilding at home — we call it the Little House. It's a small old barn that sits out in our back yard, maybe 25 feet from the back door. It was a barn for animals at one point, then a garage, then an apartment. There's a lot of interesting energy in the Little House. It's been many things over the years: an art studio, a bakery, a jewelry-making place. By 2018 the Little House had given birth to this very podcast. The Little House has been an epicenter of entrepreneurial spirit and love for a long time. When I got home from , I found out there was a water leak in the Little House, which sent me on a mission of ripping and tearing — rugs, floors, decking and drywall. And before I knew it, I needed a new wall on the west end. And of course, it was going to be a hempcrete wall, right? Hempcrete is hemp hurd — the woody inner core of the hemp stalk — mixed with a lime-based binder and water and packed around a wood frame like insulation. It's breathable, naturally resistant to pests and fire, and because hemp pulls carbon out of the air as it grows, a hempcrete wall can be carbon-negative. It's about as close as you can get to building a wall out of a farm field. After years and years of following the industry, reporting on builders like Cameron McIntosh, Micaela Machado, Danny Desjarlais and Matt Marino, these people are my heroes. And now, after having made seven batches of hempcrete by hand, anyone who has ever built something out of hempcrete is my hero. Luck favors the prepared, so I sought knowledge. I drove down to the Ice House in Ellicott City, Maryland, to learn from Gayle Killen. She taught me how to mix by hand, how to pack the edges better than the middle, and how to stay safe — PPE always, and a jar of vinegar handy to neutralize the lime. Cameron McIntosh, up at his shop in Bally, confirmed the numbers and sent me home with hurd, buckets, tampers and a saw. Drew Oberholzer and Ana Konopitskaya of donated nine bags of lime binder. Acts of kindness bind us all together. So I mixed and packed and mixed again, all through the Fourth of July weekend, sweating it out in the backyard, covered in lime burns, until a hempcrete wall stood where the old one used to be. My kids tell me it smells like corn. But whatever it smells like, it looks like agriculture. Imagine if we could build our houses with locally sourced, annually renewable resources so we can survive, so our children can survive, so our children's children can survive. That's what this is about: the future, and learning how to do things so we can face it together. This hempcrete wall is emblematic of the changes you'll see coming. We're building, growing, making and doing. Learn More LimeWorks.us – EcoLogic HempCrete Binder Platinum Americhanvre Hemp Building Institute HempBuild Magazine US Hemp Building Association (USHBA) International Hemp Building Association (IHBA) Thanks to Our Sponsors HEMI Take Action: Condor Seed Forever Green – KP4 Hemp Cutter
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Encore Presentation of Michael Klepacz's First Interview on Hemp Show, March 2024
07/11/2026
Encore Presentation of Michael Klepacz's First Interview on Hemp Show, March 2024
This is a special encore edition of an interview we published on YouTube two years ago. This is my conversation with Michael Klepacz, an Ohio native and Air Force veteran who moved to Poland in 2012 and founded Natural Materials Unlimited, a company that makes textiles and products from hemp, linen and other bast fibers. In this bonus episode, he talks about how the business grew from hemp wick to guitar straps, pet accessories and custom fiber products for clients around the world. The conversation digs into long fiber versus short fiber hemp: why long fiber produces stronger, higher-quality textiles, why Europe's processing equipment wasn't built for it, and why China's demand for European long fiber has scrambled the supply chain. Klepacz also traces hemp's textile history (including its role in old ship sails and painters' canvases), and shares his frustrations with U.S. and Polish hemp policy, ignorant regulators and platforms like Google and Facebook that still block hemp marketing. This episode is being republished alongside host Eric Hurlock recorded with Klepacz in Poland, revisiting the conversation as the two catch up in person. Learn More Natural Material Unlimited Sponsors HEMI (Hemp Education & Marketing Initiative) The Goodness of HEMP
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Michael Klepacz: An American in Warsaw
07/10/2026
Michael Klepacz: An American in Warsaw
This week on the Hemp Show, we continue our , catching up with American expat Michael Klepacz, owner of Natural Materials Unlimited. Klepacz sits near the end of the hemp supply chain — he doesn't grow or process raw fiber himself. Instead, he sources hemp and other natural fibers from regional mills and turns them into finished goods, from hemp wick to dog leashes, as a contract manufacturer for brands worldwide. Klepacz gives us a walking tour of his factory — beeswax, waxing lines and a dynamometer that tests twine strength — and makes the case for hemp as Europe's best fiber. We're also re-releasing his first appearance on the show, a 2024 conversation that never made it to the podcast feed, so you can get the full picture of an American entrepreneur building a hemp business from scratch in Poland. Learn More Natural Materials Unlimited RAW Hemp Wick (10ft) Libeco Belgian Linen EIHA (European Industrial Hemp Association) Thanks to Our Sponsors HEMI — The Goodness of Hemp Bish Enterprises — FiberCut 1937 International Condor Seed IND Hemp
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Julia Bialecka — Replacing Styrofoam with Hemp and Mycelium
07/03/2026
Julia Bialecka — Replacing Styrofoam with Hemp and Mycelium
This is part six of a ten-part podcast series documenting the European Industrial Hemp Association's 23rd Annual Conference in Poznan, Poland, at the Institute of Fiber Plants and Medicinal Medicine, June 10-12. Julia Bialecka is CEO and co-founder of S-Lab, short for Sustainable Laboratory. The company uses hemp and mycelium to make packaging that replaces expanded polystyrene. Based in Spain, S-Lab has already piloted its material with L'Oréal, Nespresso and JTI. "Every polystyrene Styrofoam packaging unit that was ever produced still remains somewhere on the landfills because it's 500 years there," she said. The material performs like polystyrene but fully biodegrades in 30 days and is certified home-compostable. Hemp makes up about 90% of the product, and mycelium is the other 10%, acting as a glue that binds the hemp shives together as it grows. S-Lab is closing a €2.5 million seed round and preparing to move from startup to scale-up. "My dream is that one day I go to the grocery shop, to the cosmetics shop, and I see most of the products packed into our material," Bialecka said. Learn More S-Lab (Sustainable Laboratory) Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants (IWNIRZ) European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) EIHA Conference Thanks to Our Sponsors Condor Seed HEMI — The Hemp Education and Marketing Initiative Bish Enterprises — FiberCut Hemp Harvesting 1937 International
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Beau Whitney — Making the Economic Case for Hemp, One Spoon at a Time
07/03/2026
Beau Whitney — Making the Economic Case for Hemp, One Spoon at a Time
This is part seven of a ten-part podcast series documenting the European Industrial Hemp Association's 23rd Annual Conference in Poznan, Poland, at the Institute of Fiber Plants and Medicinal Medicine, June 10-12. Beau Whitney is the founder of Whitney Economics, based in Portland, Oregon. He has tracked the economics of hemp and cannabis since 2014, and his data is a fixture at industry events around the world. But he found that the numbers alone didn't always land with audiences. "When I would start talking about hemp as an automobile part or as a substitute for lithium EV batteries, I would lose the crowd," he said. So Whitney had a hemp-based spoon made and started handing it to skeptics during talks to show that hemp isn't a drug but a real material. That grew into a second venture, the Everyday Hemp Company, which now makes hemp cutlery, straws, plant tags and a plant-based pallet wrap he calls "planet wrap." Between the data and the products, Whitney's message is the same on both sides: hemp is a real economy, not a novelty. Learn More Whitney Economics Everyday Hemp Company Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants (IWNIRZ) European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) Thanks to Our Sponsors Condor Seed HEMI — The Hemp Education and Marketing Initiative Bish Enterprises — FiberCut Hemp Harvesting 1937 International
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Caroline Matthews — Tatham's Compact Decortication Line for Small Hemp Farmers
07/03/2026
Caroline Matthews — Tatham's Compact Decortication Line for Small Hemp Farmers
This is part eight of a ten-part podcast series documenting the European Industrial Hemp Association's 23rd Annual Conference in Poznan, Poland, at the Institute of Fiber Plants and Medicinal Medicine, June 10-12. Caroline Matthews represents Tatham, a fiber processing machinery company based in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. Tatham is a 200-year-old, fifth-generation family business that started in wool processing — carding and spinning — and has moved into hemp over the last decade or so as interest in the crop has grown. Today the company manufactures hemp decortication and cleaning machinery. One of the things drawing the most attention at the conference is Tatham's smaller, compact line that processes about one ton an hour, rather than the four-ton systems that can feel daunting to newcomers. "There's been a lot of interest in our small system, which is good, because I also think that means that farmers can club together and maybe think how they can invest in a system that's more achievable, really," Matthews said. Learn More Learn More Tatham Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants (IWNIRZ) European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) EIHA Conference Thanks to Our Sponsors Condor Seed HEMI — The Hemp Education and Marketing Initiative Bish Enterprises — FiberCut Hemp Harvesting 1937 International
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Lorenza Romanese — Hemp as a Building Block of the Bioplastics Economy
07/03/2026
Lorenza Romanese — Hemp as a Building Block of the Bioplastics Economy
This is part nine of a ten-part podcast series documenting the European Industrial Hemp Association's 23rd Annual Conference in Poznan, Poland, at the Institute of Fiber Plants and Medicinal Medicine, June 10-12. View the whole series . Lorenza Romanese is Secretary General of European Bioplastics, the Brussels-based trade association representing bio-based and biodegradable plastics across Europe. She came up through the European hemp industry, and while her day job is now bioplastics, she says her heart stays with hemp — which she argues is a building block of the European bioeconomy, not a niche crop. Her core message is that the technology already exists; what's missing is scale, and only regulation can force it. "We are not talking about innovation anymore. We have the technology, we have the ideas, we know how. We need to scale up. This is the game," she said. The barrier is cost. Bioplastics still make up just 0.5% of all plastic on the planet, and while consumers say they want to help the environment, they hesitate at the price. Romanese points to 2026 as a pivotal year, with several EU regulations on the table — including the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation — that could set binding targets and finally push bioplastics to scale. Learn More European Bioplastics Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants (IWNIRZ) European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) EIHA Conference Thanks to Our Sponsors Condor Seed HEMI — The Hemp Education and Marketing Initiative Bish Enterprises — FiberCut Hemp Harvesting 1937 International
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Bob Hoban — The "Hemp Cliff" and What Comes Next
07/03/2026
Bob Hoban — The "Hemp Cliff" and What Comes Next
This is part ten of a ten-part podcast series documenting the European Industrial Hemp Association's 23rd Annual Conference in Poznan, Poland, at the Institute of Fiber Plants and Medicinal Medicine, June 10-12. Bob Hoban is an attorney and consultant in the international cannabis and hemp space, based in Denver, Colorado. He has advised governments, companies and trade organizations across multiple continents, and in this Hemp in Poland series finale, he turns his attention to a deadline looming over the U.S. industry. "So we've got what I've kind of come to refer to as the hemp cliff happening in November of 2026," he said. Hoban explains that a wide range of products — from intoxicating cannabinoids to CBD — could become federally illegal at that point, along with a DEA opinion that effectively classified cannabis seeds as hemp. He traces it to a political reaction from Senator McConnell's office, but doesn't expect the cliff to actually arrive, pointing to heavy lobbying, an invested alcohol and distribution sector, and a lawsuit with a legal team ready to seek an injunction. Even if it does take effect, he argues, state programs will keep operating and the industry will absorb the hit. "I think that it will impact the economics of the industry, but it doesn't kill the industry," Hoban said. Learn More Hoban Law Group Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants (IWNIRZ) European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) EIHA Conference Thanks to Our Sponsors Condor Seed HEMI — The Hemp Education and Marketing Initiative Bish Enterprises — FiberCut Hemp Harvesting 1937 International
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Ken Elliott & Rusty Peterson — What US Hemp Can Learn From Europe
06/26/2026
Ken Elliott & Rusty Peterson — What US Hemp Can Learn From Europe
This is part one of a ten-part podcast series documenting the European Industrial Hemp Association's 23rd Annual Conference in Poznan, Poland, at the Institute of Fiber Plants and Medicinal Medicine, June 10-12. The series starts with a casual conversation with Ken Elliott and Rusty Peterson from IND HEMP in Montana about the conference itself and how it compares to hemp events back home. "The professionalism that they bring, the fact that they've been doing things instead of talking about things in Europe is a big difference,“ Elliott said. Both Elliott and Peterson spoke at the conference on topics ranging from the state of hemp in the U.S. to how carbon and carbon markets will shape the future of hemp farming, processing and manufacturing. Learn More IND Hemp European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) EIHA Conference Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants (IWNIRZ) Thanks to Our Sponsors! HEMI — The Hemp Education and Marketing Initiative Bish Enterprises — FiberCut Hemp Harvesting 1937 International Condor Seed
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Witold Czesiak — Professionalizing Hemp Through Genetics and Licensing
06/26/2026
Witold Czesiak — Professionalizing Hemp Through Genetics and Licensing
This is part two of a ten-part podcast series documenting the European Industrial Hemp Association's 23rd Annual Conference in Poznan, Poland, at the Institute of Fiber Plants and Medicinal Medicine, June 10-12. Witold Czeszak, co-founder and head of the Polish Hemp Program at the Institute of Natural Fibers and Medical Plants, talks about Polish hemp genetics, the importance of IP protection and why he fought hard to bring the European Industrial Hemp Conference to the Institute. “I brought to the table new blood. I brought here representatives of huge companies because in general my idea is to professionalize the sector so to scale it up, keeping of course quality on the highest level,” he said. Poland has been at the epicenter of hemp in Europe for decades, and with genetics like Hanola and Białobrzeskie coming out of Czesak’s breeding program, Polish varieties have become standard fiber genetics around the world. Learn More Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants (IWNIRZ) European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) EIHA Conference Thanks to Our Sponsors HEMI — The Hemp Education and Marketing Initiative Bish Enterprises — FiberCut Hemp Harvesting 1937 International Condor Seed
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Estelle Delangle — Building a Whole-Plant Hemp Bioeconomy
06/26/2026
Estelle Delangle — Building a Whole-Plant Hemp Bioeconomy
This is part three of a ten-part podcast series documenting the European Industrial Hemp Association's 23rd Annual Conference in Poznan, Poland, at the Institute of Fiber Plants and Medicinal Medicine, June 10-12. Estelle Delangle, director of the Hemp European Hub in Troyes, France, frames the hemp challenge differently than most: The material isn't the problem, the world is. "The world is not ready for hemp. Today, when you use hemp in textile, for example, you have to make it look like something else. You have to make it look like cotton. You have to make it look like wool. You have to make it look like linen or flax," she said. Delangle has spent six years building the Hemp European Hub — a cooperative company that coordinates complex, cross-sector projects across Europe and beyond. The Hub isn't a traditional industry cluster or a government agency. It's a working laboratory for what Delangle calls "cooperative bioeconomy applied to hemp." The European hemp model, she explains, rests on three pillars: farmers who built their own markets and machines; price stability that makes the sector resilient; and whole-plant utilization — fiber for textiles, grain for food, hurd for bedding and leaves for extraction. No waste. "We are trying to do at the hub is to act stone by stone on those socio-technical obstacles," Delangle said, describing her approach to regulatory change, consumer perception and cross-sector cooperation. "Time is key. You don't change the world overnight." The Hub hosts the World Hemp Forum every two years in Troyes, drawing 300 participants from around the world. The next edition is November 24–26, 2026. Learn More Hemp European Hub (Pôle Européen du Chanvre) World Hemp Forum 2026 La Chanvrière — Hemp Cooperative InterChanvre — French Hemp Industry Organization Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants (IWNIRZ) European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) EIHA Conference Thanks to Our Sponsors Condor Seed HEMI — The Hemp Education and Marketing Initiative Bish Enterprises — FiberCut Hemp Harvesting 1937 International
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Jan Slaski — Hemp Breeding on the Canadian Prairies
06/26/2026
Jan Slaski — Hemp Breeding on the Canadian Prairies
This is part four of a ten-part podcast series documenting the European Industrial Hemp Association's 23rd Annual Conference in Poznan, Poland, at the Institute of Fiber Plants and Medicinal Medicine, June 10-12. Jan Slaski, hemp researcher and plant breeder at InnoTech Alberta, has spent nearly a quarter-century developing industrial hemp on the Canadian prairies. He came to Canada from Poland in 1993 and started hemp research in 2001, testing nearly 90 varieties from around the world to find what worked on the Canadian prairies. His team at InnoTech Alberta addresses the entire value chain — from seed to final product — across genetics, agronomy, processing and engineering. But Slaski's real battle has been cultural, not agronomic. People conflate industrial hemp (low-THC fiber crops) with cannabis (high-THC intoxicating plants). Even at trade shows, visitors holding hemp seeds ask if they'll get high. "This thing between hemp and cannabis, because you know, just like a word matters, how people perceive reality, you know they perceive through words, right?" he said. For 25 years, Slaski has been destigmatizing industrial hemp — fighting regulatory confusion and consumer misunderstanding. His current focus is artificial intelligence applied to hemp breeding. Using drone technology and computer vision, his team is developing tools to automatically identify male plants in seed production — work currently done by hand. Beyond genetics, Slaski emphasizes that reliable feedstock matters most. In Canada, hemp breaks disease cycles that devastate canola. Farmers generate income while improving soil health. The conference message: industrial hemp has moved from abstract "world-saving" rhetoric to practical business. Learn More InnoTech Alberta International Seed Standards Global Congress Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants (IWNIRZ) Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants (IWNIRZ) European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) EIHA Conference Thanks to Our Sponsors Condor Seed HEMI — The Hemp Education and Marketing Initiative Bish Enterprises — FiberCut Hemp Harvesting 1937 International
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Colin Steddy — Soil, Carbon, and Grassroots Farming Down Under
06/26/2026
Colin Steddy — Soil, Carbon, and Grassroots Farming Down Under
This is part five of a ten-part podcast series documenting the European Industrial Hemp Association's 23rd Annual Conference in Poznan, Poland, at the Institute of Fiber Plants and Medicinal Medicine, June 10-12. Colin Steddy is a grassroots farmer from Western Australia who got into hemp in 2005 after selling his farm following two droughts and a divorce. He's a no-till advocate, a carbon thinker and someone who speaks from the heart about soil biology and systems thinking. "Everything affects something else. So you gotta understand when you make one decision what around it gets affected because it's not a single thing that makes things work," Steddy said. Steddy grew up on a sheep farm south of Perth, learned to shear, and spent decades in cropping and controlled traffic farming. He's been knocked down three times by deals worth five million dollars or more that fell through — each time he picked himself up. At 42, he lost his farm and had to start over. Hemp gave him that second chance. What draws Steddy to the Poznań conference isn't theory. It's reality. "They're not talking about s*** and they're not talking about the warm and fuzzies, they're talking about the things that happen and the obstacles they're faced," he said. He points to a Ukrainian hemp processor whose buildings were bombed, who lost power for three months, but kept moving forward. Real people doing real things — not scientists studying irrelevant data. On carbon credits, Steddy is clear: they're icing on the cake, not the foundation. Carbon credit schemes are political and can disappear overnight. The real work is building soil organic matter through farming practices you should be doing anyway. His advice to farmers: find a partner who covers baseline costs and shares credit returns. Get your baseline established early, before you start your regenerative journey, so you capture the financial benefit. And remember biochar isn't just a home for soil biology — it's a condominium. But you have to stock it with food: minerals, nutrients and plants. Everything affects something else. Learn More Hemp Inside The Hemp Corporation iHemp NSW Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants (IWNIRZ) Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants (IWNIRZ) European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) EIHA Conference Thanks to Our Sponsors Condor Seed HEMI — The Hemp Education and Marketing Initiative Bish Enterprises — FiberCut Hemp Harvesting 1937 International
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Meet Ursa Alta, The New Low-THC Fiber Cultivar from Cornell AgriTech
06/10/2026
Meet Ursa Alta, The New Low-THC Fiber Cultivar from Cornell AgriTech
This week on the Hemp Show, Larry Smart returns to talk about Ursa Alta, the new low-THC hemp variety that Cornell AgriTech has released for commercial production. The variety has been seven years in the making. "We had come up with a new cultivar that was distinct, uniform and stable. That's our definition of a cultivar," Smart said. Ursa Alta, which means tall bear and is named for the Cornell mascot, is a fiber variety with low THC and a high hurd ratio. While bred for conditions in New York state, Smart said the variety excels in southern latitudes as well. "This variety does grow very well in Texas," Smart said. "My collaborator, Calvin Trostel, is based in Lubbock, at about the same latitude as where they're growing for Panda Biotech. So we think it will grow quite well in that area and yield quite well for them." Panda Biotech, owner of the second largest hemp processing facility in the world, is based in Wichita Falls, TX. Cornell has licensed seed multiplication to Condor Seed Production in Yuma, Arizona. Condor has a deep history of vegetable seed production — onions, artichokes, brassicas — and brings more than 40 years of experience to the work. Smart provided Condor with 110 pounds of breeder seed to start the multiplication process, with an ambitious target ahead: "to scale up the seed from 110 pounds of breeder seed to hopefully by next year, somewhere between three and 400,000 pounds of seed. And then they can start really selling it,” Smart said. Listen to show to learn more. Learn More Condor Seed Production Cornell AgriTech Hemp Breeding Program AOSCA — Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies USDA Plant Variety Protection Office HempWood Sponsor Links IND Hemp — Fort Benton, Montana. Fiber, food, feed. Forever Green — Distributors of the KP4 Hemp Cutter. Summary: In this episode of the Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast, host Eric Hurlock speaks with Dr. Larry Smart, plant geneticist and director of hemp breeding at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, New York, about the official release of Ursa Alta, a certified low-THC industrial fiber hemp cultivar developed over seven years of research and field trials. The conversation covers the cultivar development process, AOSCA seed certification, Plant Variety Protection, and the URSA trademark, offering growers and industry professionals a detailed look at what it means to release a new hemp variety in today's regulatory environment. Larry Smart explains the seed multiplication process that took Ursa Alta from 110 pounds of breeder seed to a projected 300,000 to 400,000 pounds of certified planting seed, with Condor Seed Production in Yuma, Arizona playing a central role. The episode details the agronomic challenges of desert hemp seed production, including heat-related pollen failure, photoperiod complications, and extreme weather events, and explains why the September-to-January growing window in Arizona emerged as the viable solution for large-scale seed multiplication. The episode also addresses hemp cultivar intellectual property, seed licensing, and the contrast between open-source wheat breeding culture and the more restricted IP environment in hemp. Larry Smart discusses end markets for Ursa Alta fiber including hempcrete construction, textile applications, and industrial fiber processing, with growers in Montana, Texas, and South Dakota identified as early adoption targets. Additional topics include the Farm Bill's certified seed provisions, zero-cannabinoid hemp variety development, and the role of AOSCA-certified seed in navigating hemp's evolving federal regulatory landscape. The episode opens with a tribute to Dr. Bob Pierce of the University of Kentucky, a pioneer in American hemp agronomy, and closes with a seven-year callback to Larry Smart's first appearance on the show in 2019, when the vision for what would become Ursa Alta was first discussed publicly. This episode is essential listening for hemp farmers, seed producers, plant breeders, fiber processors, and anyone tracking the development of industrial hemp as a certified, scalable agricultural commodity in the United States.
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Can the Goodness of Hemp Act Fix What's Broken in Hemp?
06/05/2026
Can the Goodness of Hemp Act Fix What's Broken in Hemp?
This week Morgan Tweet returns to the Hemp Show to talk about the Goodness of Hemp Act, a draft legislation she's confident will set the broader hemp industry on the path toward sensible regulation. She was on the show , about a week after the November surprise that we now know as the McConnell language was slipped into the appropriations bill in the eleventh hour. Tweet is the interim executive director of HEMI, the Hemp Education and Marketing Initiative. The McConnell language got everyone's attention, not only because it seemed to answer the questions around intoxicating cannabinoids once and for all, but by doing so, the bill wipes out most of the hemp cannabinoid industry, intoxicating or otherwise. "For most folks that are in the floral cannabinoid sector," Tweet said, "this has been basically an extinction event." The clock is ticking. November is on its way. Tweet is back with a draft piece of legislation called the Goodness of Hemp Act, a campaign and a call to build community. Can the Goodness of Hemp save the day? Listen to the episode and find out. Learn More The Goodness of Hemp Campaign HEMI — Hemp Education Marketing Initiatives IND Hemp National Hemp Association Thanks to Our Sponsors Americhanvre Forever Green The Goodness of Hemp Act is a 2026 draft hemp legislation proposal developed by HEMI, the Hemp Education Marketing Initiatives, in coordination with stakeholders across the hemp industry including grain and fiber producers, hemp beverage companies, cannabinoid processors, and hemp farming advocates. The bill proposes a comprehensive federal regulatory framework for hemp that addresses cultivation, food products, dietary supplements, and intoxicating hemp-derived beverages under three separate federal agencies — the USDA, the FDA, and the TTB, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. The Goodness of Hemp Act has been presented to congressional staffers and reviewed by FDA as part of ongoing hemp policy negotiations ahead of a critical November 2026 legislative deadline created by the McConnell appropriations language enacted in late 2024. The 3.7 milligram THC per serving interim limit proposed in the Goodness of Hemp Act is drawn from Johns Hopkins University research on THC impairment thresholds and is referenced in White House hemp policy discussions led by Heidi Overton, director of White House drug policy. The 3.7 mg per serving limit is designed to distinguish responsible hemp-derived consumer products from intoxicating products that the bill's authors argue should be regulated like alcohol under the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. The interim limit would defer final rulemaking to the FDA while establishing a workable and scientifically grounded starting point for Congress, hemp farmers, hemp processors, hemp beverage producers, and CBD product manufacturers navigating the post-McConnell regulatory landscape. Morgan Tweet is the CEO of IND Hemp, a grain and fiber hemp company based in Fort Benton, Montana, and serves as interim executive director of HEMI, the Hemp Education Marketing Initiatives. Tweet has been a leading voice in hemp policy advocacy since the 2018 Farm Bill and has worked with the National Hemp Association, the Hemp Feed Coalition, and other industry organizations on hemp regulation, hemp marketing, hemp farmer support, and federal regulatory frameworks for hemp cultivation and hemp-derived products. The Goodness of Hemp Act also includes language allowing hemp seed ingredients as approved feed for companion animals and horses, a provision developed in coordination with the Hemp Feed Coalition, and directs a portion of federal excise tax revenue back into hemp farmers, hemp research, and hemp supply chain infrastructure. The Goodness of Hemp awareness campaign is a grassroots marketing and education initiative launched by HEMI in 2026 to build public and legislative support for responsible hemp regulation ahead of the November 2026 federal deadline. The campaign is designed to educate consumers, retailers, policymakers, and agricultural stakeholders about the broad value of hemp across food, fiber, wellness, construction, animal care, and emerging product categories including hemp-derived beverages. The Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast has covered hemp policy, hemp farming, hempcrete, hemp fiber, hemp grain, hemp seed, and hemp-derived cannabinoid products since 2018, making it one of the longest-running editorial hemp podcasts in the United States. Farmers, hemp businesses, hemp advocates, and hemp consumers are encouraged to share their goodness of hemp story at thegoodnessofhemp.org.
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Meet NHA's New Director Sully Sullivan
05/29/2026
Meet NHA's New Director Sully Sullivan
This week on the Hemp Show we meet Sully Sullivan. He's the new executive director at the National Hemp Association — and what a time to be taking the helm of a hemp association. So much is up in the air right now. What about the November federal deadline that will ban most hemp-derived THC products, from gummies and beverages to most full-spectrum CBD? Yeah, it's just sort of hanging out there, flapping in the breeze. What's going to happen? Will there be an extension? Will there be new legislation? How will all this play out? No one knows just yet. Sully Sullivan is aware he has his work cut out for him as the new director of the NHA. "I feel like we're at a precipice right now, or a crossroads perhaps, where we are, as a country, getting the regulations right," he said. He sees what he calls "fracturedness" in the industry and the cacophony of voices in the advocacy space. "There's a lot of voices and some are saying the same thing. Some are saying different things. Some things don't match up at all," he said. For over a decade, Sullivan has been active in hemp policy in his home state of Arizona as a leader of the Hemp Industry Trade Association of Arizona, so he's no stranger to conflict, hard conversations and compromise. "I feel all of my work over the last 10 years is coalescing right now," he said. "Like this is what it was all for. This all has manifested for this moment. So I take it very seriously, and it's almost spiritual in a sense. I am in the right place at the right time. I'm the person to fill these shoes and help push this industry forward." Listen to the whole show to hear what else Sully Sullivan has to say. Learn More National Hemp Association Hemp Industry Trade Association of Arizona News Nugget: 3 US House Republicans Attempt to Thwart Intoxicating Hemp Product Ban Thanks to Our Sponsors King's AgriSeeds IND Hemp Forever Green
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Farm to Flow: Trace Femcare and the Future of Hemp Fiber Tampons
05/21/2026
Farm to Flow: Trace Femcare and the Future of Hemp Fiber Tampons
This week on the Hemp Show, Claire Crunk returns. She is the founder of Trace Femcare, the worlds first hemp fiber tampon. Her on the podcast was in 2023. Her company was just a few weeks away from their initial product launch. All they were waiting for was final approval from the FDA. She assumed then that things would be easier than they ultimately turned out to be. On this episode we find out what happened with the FDA and how the agency's request for an additional study was a major setback for Trace. What the FDA wanted from Trace was an exhaustive extraction study and mass spectrometry analysis, which would take 12 months and cost 150 thousand dollars. "So that's 12 additional months of operating expenses of runway added to the company as well. So it's not just a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It becomes, you know, four hundred thousand dollars," Crunk said. Ultimately, the company could not overcome the burden and Trace was forced to sell its assets. The story of Trace and Claire's battle with FDA is one of the story lines in the documentary film , which has finished production and is seeking a distribution channel now. But when the film ends, the Trace story remains unresolved. "But the story never actually ends. It just melts and changes," said Crunk. "There's just been a lot of reckoning in my life and I've changed in different ways and, you know, understand now what it means to have grace through failure and to figure out what to take forward from that." There was great interest in the company's assets among in the feminine hygiene space. "There were these big entities that are on shelf at every retailer that you could ever go to who were very interested in picking us up and did some due diligence on it," Crunk said. This was at the time when the new Trump administration was imposing tariffs all around the world. "There was a lot of uncertainty in the absorbent hygiene world because it is a globalized supply chain." A Blessing in Disguise Because of how the sale of the assets was structured, Crunk had no say in who bought the company. She was pleasantly surprised when 1937 International showed interest and ultimately made the acquisition. "1937 International is a fairly new US entity that is working very diligently in a joint venture with groups in Pakistan to set up hemp fiber ecosystems in Pakistan. And you know, Pakistan is globally renowned for textile production, fiber knowledge, fiber production. Fiber agronomy," she said. Ryan Zaczynski, co-founder of 1937 International, was a guest on the Hemp Show , and his fellow co-founder Nick Furlong was featured on our episode from the . Crunk said that part of 1937 International's vision "is to have hemp fiber win across categories and across the world." This development was more than Crunk could hope for. "It turned it from a grief process and what felt like something being taken away from me to I am so excited to take Trace from my hands and put it in somebody else's hands because of these people," she said. "I feel really lucky and also I feel really lucky that they want me to be along for the ride. So, you know, there's a lot of things to be thankful for." All that and more. Learn More Trace Femcare 1937 International One Plant (documentary) Heavy Metals in Tampons Study (Columbia / UC Berkeley) News Nuggets Panda Biotech and Culturewell Partner to Bring US Hemp Fibre to India's Textile Industry New Low-THC Hemp Fiber Cultivar Flourishes in NYS Climate Nepal Hemp Builder's Largest Project Yet Marks a Highly Personal 10-Year Milestone Sponsors IND Hemp Forever Green / KP4 Hemp Cutter In this episode of the Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast, host Eric Hurlock welcomes back Claire Crunk, founder of Trace Femcare, the company behind the world's first hemp fiber tampon. Claire first appeared on the show in 2023, just weeks before launch. In the years since, Trace has weathered a grueling FDA battle, a funding crisis, and ultimately a distressed sale — a story captured in the new documentary film One Plant, in which both Claire and Eric appear. This conversation picks up where the film leaves off, tracing what happened after the cameras stopped rolling. Claire walks through the regulatory fight at the heart of Trace's story: how the FDA initially flagged cannabinoids as its only concern, then reversed course months later and demanded an exhaustive chemical extraction study and mass spectrometry analysis — a $150,000, year-long process on par with the testing required for implants and high-risk medical devices. She describes the double standard she felt when the FDA later ran its own lower-standard tampon study following a Columbia and UC Berkeley report that found heavy metals in dozens of tampon brands already on the market. The result, Claire notes, is that Trace became "the most tested tampon in history" — a product more rigorously vetted than the tampons people have used for generations. The conversation also explores the surprising shape of Trace's earliest customer base, the role of consumer consent and transparency in period care, and Claire's personal journey through business failure, healing, and reinvention. She explains how Trace's assets were acquired by 1937 International, a US company building hemp fiber supply chains in Pakistan in partnership with Dr. Zafar Riaz, and how Trace's original vision of regionalized, traceable "farm to flow" supply chains can scale to a global stage. Listeners who heard the earlier episode with 1937 International's Ryan Zaczynski will recognize the connection. Looking ahead, Claire describes a roadmap that extends far beyond tampons — pads, wellness products, wound care, bandages, kinesiology tape, pet products, and even hemp fiber geotextiles for construction sites. The episode also features three news nuggets covering Panda Biotech's hemp fiber partnership in India, Cornell AgriTech's new low-THC fiber cultivar Ursa Alta, and Shah Hemp Inno-Ventures' large-scale hempcrete care home project in Meerut, India. It's a wide-ranging look at hemp fiber's expanding role across textiles, medicine, construction, and sustainable manufacturing — and Claire's remarkable story of grace through failure and reinvention.
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Stacking Up with Renewabuild Great Plains
05/13/2026
Stacking Up with Renewabuild Great Plains
This week on the show we talk with Ken Meyer of Complete Hemp Processing in Winfred, South Dakota. As of last week, Meyer is also a co-founder of Renewabuild Great Plains — the first U.S.-licensed manufacturer of structural hempcrete blocks. We've been telling the story of these structural blocks for a long time on the podcast. We back in 2019 — they look like giant Lego blocks and work much the same way — at the Pennsylvania Farm Show, where the Pennsylvania Hemp Industry Council had them on display. Back then, the blocks were made by a Canadian company called Just BioFiber in Alberta. Today, the technology is licensed and administered by another Canadian company, Renewabuild Field to Form, which has made improvements to the original design of the block. The structural hemp blocks differ from traditional hempcrete construction because their internal frame makes them load-bearing in a way that spray-applied or cast-in-place hempcrete cannot offer. "It has a frame inside it. It's a glass-filled biocarbonate frame ... and then the hempcrete is pressed around it," Meyer said. "And that frame provides a structure in the wall. So that makes the block a structural block, and the block itself in a wall system replaces the sheet rock, the insulation and the timber." The story of the blocks continues now, as the first U.S. company prepares to manufacture them at a plant in Rock Valley, Iowa. "At Complete Hemp Processing in Winfred, South Dakota, we decorticate hemp stocks. And we need a place to sell the hemp hurd. And our farmers need us to have a place to sell hemp hurd so they can put hemp in rotation with corn and soybeans," he said. This is how an industry scales. Dedicated, passionate people working tirelessly to build a supply chain. Learn More Sponsors HEMI - The Hemp Education and Marketing Inititive Forever Green The Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast returns this week with an interview featuring Ken Meyer, owner of Complete Hemp Processing in Winfred, South Dakota, and one of three co-founders of Renewabuild Great Plains — the first U.S.-licensed manufacturer of structural hempcrete blocks. Host Eric Hurlock sits down with Meyer to discuss the new hempcrete block factory being built in Rock Valley, Iowa, the long journey of the structural hemp block from Canada to the United States, and what this milestone means for the American industrial hemp industry, hempcrete construction, and the future of sustainable building materials. Renewabuild Great Plains is the first U.S. company to license the structural hempcrete block technology developed by Just BioFiber of Alberta, Canada, and now administered by Renewabuild Field to Form. Unlike traditional hempcrete construction methods — including spray-applied hempcrete and cast-in-place hempcrete — the Renewabuild block features an internal glass-filled biocarbonate frame, making it a load-bearing structural wall component. A single block replaces sheetrock, insulation, and timber framing in one product, offering builders, architects, and engineers a scalable, lower-carbon alternative to conventional wall systems with improved fire resistance, durability, and building-envelope performance. The new Rock Valley, Iowa hempcrete block factory is scheduled to receive its equipment in December 2026 or January 2027, with the capacity to produce two blocks a minute, more than 900,000 structural hempcrete blocks per year running three shifts. At full production, the facility will manufacture enough wall material for roughly 500 perimeter walls of 2,000-square-foot homes annually. The factory's entire production equipment fits inside two shipping containers, making the model regionally scalable across the United States — a key part of Renewabuild's strategy to support local farmers, local hemp processors, and local hempcrete construction supply chains. Meyer is joined as co-founder by John Peterson of Dakota Hemp and Bill Brehmer of Renewabuild Great Plains, alongside a group of Iowa farmers who have invested in the project. This episode of the Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast also revisits archival audio from January 2019, when Pennsylvania hemp historian Les Stark first introduced the Just BioFiber structural hempcrete block at the Pennsylvania Farm Show, alongside the original podcast interview with Just BioFiber co-founder Michael D. Champlain. Listeners will also hear from David Geertz of Renewabuild, recorded at the International Hemp Building Symposium at Kansayapi in Minnesota. Plus, host Eric Hurlock follows up on last week's interview with Pennsylvania farmer Steve Groff with a statement from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture regarding agricultural innovation grant reimbursements. Subscribe to the Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast for in-depth coverage of industrial hemp, hemp farming, hempcrete construction, hemp processing, and the people building the American hemp supply chain.
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Steve Groff and the Great Wall of Hemp
05/07/2026
Steve Groff and the Great Wall of Hemp
HOLTWOOD, Pa. — This week on the Hemp Podcast we take a short road trip to southern Lancaster County to catch up with farmer Steve Groff. "What we're looking at here, Eric, is a metaphor for the hemp industry. We're looking broken promises and contracts that didn't come to be," Groff said, leaning against a stack of round bales of hemp at his farm in Holtwood. Twelve hundred round bales. Four bales wide. Three bales high. It extends into the field for about two tenths of a mile. It’s covered in black tarps and you can see it from the road. You can probably see it from space too. Steve Groff’s Great Wall of Hemp. This is his 2025 hemp crop, roughly 80 acres of fiber hemp, cut and baled last fall. His 2024 crop of 60 acres sits in silage bags, on the north side of the Great Wall like sleeping giants. "You know, you add it all up, it's a million, little over a million pounds,” Groff said. And so the hemp sits. Waiting for the processing infrastructure to be built in Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, one of the silage bags was torn open by some birds, so Groff is using the hemp from that bag as mulch for his tomato operation. “I grow heirloom tomatoes in high tunnels, I have over 12,000 tomato plants, it's like, well, let's use up some of this hemp mulch here.” Hemp makes a great mulch, but certainly there are better uses for a million pounds of Pennsylvania-grown fiber hemp than mulch. Denim. Houses. Paper. 8 years after the 2018 Farm Bill and we’re still talking about building processing infrastructure, instead of manufacturing products. But Groff is an optimist with an eye on the future. "I still believe in the plant and hemp and what it can do. And it looks like for the fiber and grain guys, it looks we might have a decent Farm Bill coming along here.” Learn More News Nuggets Sponsors A field visit with Lancaster County hemp farmer Steve Groff at Cedar Meadow Farm, where more than a million pounds of unsold hemp fiber, a four-acre seed treatment trial, and a four-inch precision planter under construction tell the story of an industry waiting on infrastructure that hasn't arrived. This episode of the Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast features a field visit with Lancaster County hemp farmer and innovator Steve Groff at Cedar Meadow Farm in Holtwood, Pennsylvania. The conversation centers on more than a million pounds of unsold hemp fiber stacked along the farm lane — what Groff calls a metaphor for the broken promises and stalled contracts that have defined the U.S. industrial hemp industry in recent years. Across the road, blueprints for a 16,000-square-foot processing facility sit fully permitted, awaiting funding that hasn't materialized. The visit walks through a four-acre research plot where Groff is testing five biological seed treatments against a control, replicated four times, with 2,000 colored flags tracking individual hemp seedlings from emergence to harvest. The experiment targets a long-standing mystery in industrial hemp agronomy: the gap between expected and harvested plant populations, sometimes called phantom yield loss. The episode also covers Groff's heirloom tomato operation, where unsold hemp from the 2024 crop is being used as mulch on more than 12,000 plants under high tunnels. Additional topics include a four-inch precision hemp planter under construction with farmer-inventor Charlie Martin, designed to singulate seeds and produce uniform stands at a row spacing already standard in China and Europe but rare in the United States. The project came out of a Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture innovation grant. The episode also visits 30 acres of flax — Groff's first cash crop foray as part of the Pennsylvania Flax Project — and provides an update on the Green Decorticator, which has reached the CAD-drawing stage and is headed for commercial testing this summer, targeting plant-length long fiber for high-end textile markets. The episode opens with a cold open from the host's backyard garden in southeastern Pennsylvania, where a truckload of hemp mulch from Groff's farm sets up the show's central question: why is a million pounds of hemp fiber being spread on tomato beds instead of woven into denim, processed into cardboard, or manufactured into bioplastics? A news segment covers the U.S. House passage of the 2026 Farm Bill, which formally separates industrial hemp from cannabinoid hemp and tightens regulation on intoxicating products, with the Senate version still pending.
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Getting From HempToday to Hemp Tomorrow with Kehrt Reyher
05/01/2026
Getting From HempToday to Hemp Tomorrow with Kehrt Reyher
This week on the Hemp Show, we talk to Kehrt Reyher, CEO and publisher of HempToday, a leading source of global hemp news. An American expat from Indiana who has lived in Poland for more than 30 years, Reyher cut his teeth in journalism at U.S. newspapers like the Providence Journal and USA Today before moving overseas and launching a successful media company in Warsaw. Since founding HempToday in 2015, he has become a trusted voice covering industrial hemp policy, international markets, CBD regulation and the ongoing fight to define what “true hemp” really means. In this episode, we dig into the Lawful Hemp Protection Act introduced by Kentucky congressman Andy Barr, the future of CBD regulation in both the U.S. and Europe and why intoxicating hemp products have done lasting damage to the broader hemp industry. We discuss Poland’s Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants, the upcoming European Industrial Hemp Association conference in Poznań, Australia and New Zealand’s more practical hemp policies, hemp construction materials, micro-decorticators and why hemp must find its place inside larger natural fiber and biobased building markets. As Kehrt puts it: true hemp is about fiber, food, and real industrial systems — not gas-station gummies. This episode is a wide-ranging conversation about journalism, policy, construction, agriculture and the long unfinished work of building a real hemp economy. Learn More HempToday European Industrial Hemp Association Conference Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants News Nuggets Draft bill in U.S. would wipe out intoxicants, rescue CBD, but what about ‘true hemp’? Sponsor Links IND HEMP King’s Agriseeds Robot Food: In this episode of the Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast, host Eric Hurlock sits down with Kehrt Reyher, publisher of HempToday and a longtime journalist covering the global industrial hemp industry. An American expat living in Poland for more than 30 years, Kehrt brings decades of experience from U.S. newspapers like the Providence Journal, Detroit News, and USA Today, along with deep international knowledge of hemp policy, CBD regulation, and industrial hemp supply chains across Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. The conversation focuses on the growing divide between “true hemp” and the intoxicating hemp market. Eric and Kehrt discuss the Lawful Hemp Protection Act introduced by Kentucky Congressman Andy Barr, which aims to regulate synthetic intoxicating hemp products while preserving a legal path for wellness CBD. They examine how gas-station THC products and unregulated intoxicants have damaged the hemp brand and distracted policymakers from the original promise of the 2018 Farm Bill: building markets for hemp fiber, hemp grain, animal feed, and industrial hemp processing infrastructure. Kehrt explains why he defines true hemp as the stalk and the seed—fiber, food, and industrial applications rather than cannabinoids alone. The episode explores the future of hemp construction materials, hempcrete, prefab building systems, and hemp-based bricks, along with broader conversations about biobased building materials and sustainable agriculture. They also discuss small-scale decortication systems, modular hemp processing, and why industrial hemp must compete within the larger natural fiber economy alongside flax, jute, and other bast fibers. The episode also highlights the upcoming European Industrial Hemp Association conference in Poznań, Poland, hosted at the historic Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants. Kehrt shares why he believes Australia and New Zealand are currently leading the world in sensible hemp policy and why Europe continues to offer stronger support for bio-based materials and industrial hemp development. This is a wide-ranging conversation about journalism, regulation, sustainability, and the long-term future of industrial hemp as a serious agricultural and manufacturing sector.
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Maciej Kowalski: Be Your Own Supply Chain
04/22/2026
Maciej Kowalski: Be Your Own Supply Chain
This week on the Hemp Show we talk to Maciej Kowalski, founder and CEO of Kombinat Konopni, a hemp company in Northern Poland. We hear how he built a vertically integrated company — from planting, harvesting, processing, all the way to manufacturing finished goods — and why he would rather control the system rather than rely on supply chains that don’t fully exist. “Everyone is saying about the need to build a supply chain. Yeah, that’s one approach. The other is be your own supply chain,” Kowaski said. His pragmatism is often guided by a healthy skepticism. “If you have a dozen intermediaries between you and the manufacturer of raw materials, there is a geometrically raising probability of someone in this chain being not honest.” We talk about his farming practices and why his farmers do not need anything more than a rake and a baler to harvest the hemp stalks, because they practice “winter retting” where the hemp is left standing throughout the winter. By spring the stalks are brittle enough they can be knocked down and windrowed with a standard rake and then baled like any other crop. “Just leave the plants throughout the winter in the field — they’re just going to separate on their own. If it sounds magical, it’s because it is.” Kowalski said. How does this affect the finished fiber in terms of strength and durability? He said winter retted hemp is slightly over-retted, so it is weaker but softer, which to Kowalski is a feature not a bug. “The biggest difficulty of introducing or reintroducing hemp as an apparel grade textile is its stiffness. So if you make it slightly weaker, but softer at the same time — that’s good.” We also talk about his company’s recent listing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange — and why it wasn’t about raising money. “We made a promise to our investors, six, five, four years ago when we were raising money, that one day you will be able to buy or sell those shares on a stock exchange,” he said. “So even if I am not having anything out of it right now, it’s like an essential part of keeping your word, which has two parts of it. One is just being a decent man. And the other part is being a businessperson and keeping your promises is good for business long term.” Learn More Maciej Kowalski on LinkedIn News Nuggets U.S. judge lets Medicare hemp pilot program proceed as critics escalate opposition USDA National Hemp Report (April 16, 2026) NHA + HEMI Leadership Announcement NIHC USDA Export Funding Announcement Sponsors IND HEMP Forever Green This episode of the Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast features a long-form interview with Maciej Kowalski, founder of Kombinat Konopny, a vertically integrated hemp company based near Elbląg, Poland. The conversation explores industrial hemp supply chains, fiber processing, textile manufacturing, and cannabinoid product development within a single operational system. Kowalski describes a “seed to shelf” model in which hemp is grown, processed, decorticated, cottonized, spun into yarn, and manufactured into finished goods such as socks, garments, and home textiles. The discussion highlights the challenges of building hemp infrastructure in emerging markets and the limitations of fragmented supply chains in the global hemp industry. The episode also examines winter retting, a low-input fiber processing method that relies on natural field exposure over winter months to break down plant material. Kowalski explains how this approach reduces capital requirements, simplifies harvesting through “rake and bale” systems, and produces fiber suitable for textile applications. Additional topics include the Warsaw Stock Exchange listing of Kombinat Konopny, the economics of hemp textiles versus synthetic fibers like polyester, and the broader role of industrial hemp in global agriculture, manufacturing, and sustainable materials markets.
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Dakota Hemp: Building an Industry in South Dakota
04/16/2026
Dakota Hemp: Building an Industry in South Dakota
This week on the Hemp Show, we’re talking to the guys from Dakota Hemp in Wakonda, South Dakota. John Peterson and Karll Lecher are running a HempTrain decortication system, taking in bales from local farmers and turning them into fiber and hurd. We get into how the facility works, what they’re producing, and what it takes to actually run a processing plant in the Midwest. We talk about how they brought farmers in, what those early meetings looked like, and how the conversation has shifted over time — from skepticism to real agronomic questions. Once farmers got over the novelty of hemp, they started asking questions about row spacing, fertility, yields, etc. Then suddenly it started to look like farming. We also talk about where the processed hemp is going right now — animal bedding, early fiber markets — and what still needs to be built downstream to make this thing work at scale. Plus, a quick look at how U.S.-grown hemp fiber is moving into global textile systems, and why new processing capacity is coming online even in places where acreage is still small. Learn More: Dakota Hemp Horizon Specialty Seeds HempAgra Complete Hemp Processing Canadian Greenfield Technologies HempTrain News Nuggets Thanks to Our Sponsors! IND Hemp Forever Green / KP4 Hemp Cutter
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Pushing Progress in the DC Swamp
04/09/2026
Pushing Progress in the DC Swamp
On this week’s hemp show, we talk to a couple of hemp policy advocates who recently traveled to the swamps of D.C. in hopes of affecting change. This week we’re joined by Geoff Whaling, chair of the National Hemp Association, and Andrew Bish, president of the Hemp Feed Coalition. Together they represent HEMI — the Hemp Education and Marketing Initiative — which recently released its “Pushing Progress” framework, an industry-led effort to bring some structure to federal hemp policy. The attempts to do several things — not the least of which is to impose order on an industry that’s been a swirl of chaos since its inception. First, clear lanes must be established. Fiber and grain over here, cannabinoids over there — with their own rules. Next, make it easier for agriculture to adopt this crop by removing regulatory tensions and creating real access to markets — so a farmer can plant hemp with some confidence about where it’s going and how it’s going to get paid. As Bish puts it, “We’re coming at it from the industrial aspect, trying to figure out how we make sure that we have farmers that can successfully grow industrial hemp products and that hemp products can be in the marketplace without a tremendous amount of restriction.” Then, put some guardrails around the cannabinoid side. Not to shut it down, but to bring it out of this gray area where anything goes and everything gets called hemp. And maybe most importantly, get the federal agencies on the same page — USDA, FDA, the whole alphabet — so we’re not dealing with this split-screen reality where one arm of government tolerates something and another one ignores it. Because right now, we don’t have a system. We have fragments. And what they’re trying to do — whether you agree with every piece of it or not — is build something that actually functions like an industry. And part of that — this is important — is money. They’re in federal funding to help stand up the infrastructure this industry still doesn’t have — processing, research, supply chains. That's a lot of money. But their argument is pretty straightforward: Every major crop we take for granted today had decades of public investment behind it. Hemp didn’t. So if hemp is going to become a real agricultural commodity — not just an idea — we have to decide whether we’re willing to build it, or just keep talking about it. Plus, we’ve got a handful of news nuggets this week, including a slightly head-scratching, maybe-kind-of-important move from the FDA on CBD and a letter from seed guy Terry Moran, who read my Argentina episode and basically said, “Hold on a second…” and brought the whole conversation back down to earth. Listen up, y’all. Learn More National Hemp Association Hemp Feed Coalition Pushing Progress Framework (PDF) News Nuggets FDA MEMO: Hemp-Derived Cannabidiol Products in Medical Research Models HempToday: Anti-cannabis groups sue over U.S. plan allowing hemp products in healthcare programs HempToday: Polish hemp textile maker draws heavy demand in public offering on Warsaw exchange Thanks to our Sponsors IND Hemp Americhanvre
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Cannabis Loves Community: Voices from the Industrial Hemp International Conference
04/03/2026
Cannabis Loves Community: Voices from the Industrial Hemp International Conference
On this week’s hemp show we’re headed out to Colorado for the Industrial Hemp International Conference where hempsters from all across the value chain gathered to share ideas, make deals and be in community with one another. As a hemp podcaster, I had the unique opportunity to work in community with a couple of storytellers while I was there — Blaire Johnson and Jordan Berger — two independent filmmakers who teamed up for this special event. And what you’ll hear on this episode is the result of that collaboration. First we talk about their respective work — including Berger's long awaited documentary film , which will premier this spring. Then we hear an audio essay — a sound collage of voices from the industry, including Winona LaDuke, Nick Furlong, Micaela Machado, Jeremy Klettke, Morris Beegle and more. This is a critical time not only for the hemp industry but for the world. As Winona LaDuke puts it, “You have a choice between a scorched path and a green path.” The people building the hemp industry are choosing the green path, but it takes longer than you might think. Hemp industry veteran Joe Hickey compares it to a dance, “two step forward and then one step back.” 1937 International’s Nick Furlong brings new energy to the dance of hemp this year. Furlong is a multi-platinum songwriter and producer whose work spans global hits and major-label rock records. He said he has been bitten by the “hemp bug” and has focused his energy on building out the supply chain and developing opportunities for business. He said he wants to help shape the story of hemp so it intersects with pop culture — and intersects with culture in general. We also hear from Larry Serbin from Pure Fiber Innovations who talks about his much anticipated green decorticator, which he says will increase farmer’s per acre income on hemp. “Currently they’re earning about $800 per acre. With our machine, they’re going to earn about $2,000 per acre,” said Serbin. Listen to the whole show for maximum goodness. This episode features the reporting work of Blaire Johnson and Jordan Berger. Learn More One Plant Industrial Hemp International Conference Blaire Johnson Sunflower Films (Jordan Berger) Old Pueblo Hemp Co. 1937 International Pure Fiber Innovations Sponsors IND Hemp King’s Agriseeds Forever Green (KP4 Hemp Cutter) This episode of the Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast features an on-the-ground audio collage from the Industrial Hemp International Conference (IHI) in Aurora, Colorado, bringing together voices from across the global hemp industry. Through interviews with farmers, builders, supply chain developers, and advocates, the episode explores the current state of industrial hemp, with a focus on fiber, grain, construction materials, and scalable infrastructure. Key themes include the challenge of building reliable supply chains, the need for processing infrastructure such as decortication, and the importance of aligning farmers, manufacturers, and markets. Speakers discuss innovations in hemp-based construction, textile production, and biocomposites, alongside emerging global supply chain efforts in regions like Pakistan. The episode highlights both optimism and realism, with industry leaders acknowledging slow but steady progress. The episode also emphasizes the role of storytelling and collaboration in advancing the hemp industry. Filmmakers Blaire Johnson and Jordan Berger contributed field interviews and visual documentation as part of their broader documentary project, One Plant. Their work captures the cultural and economic momentum behind hemp as a regenerative agricultural commodity and industrial material. Overall, the episode positions industrial hemp as a critical component of future sustainable materials systems, with applications in housing, textiles, and manufacturing. It underscores the need for policy clarity, investment in infrastructure, and coordinated industry efforts to move hemp from niche crop to mainstream agricultural and industrial commodity.
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Can Argentina Solve Hemp’s Seed Problem?
03/25/2026
Can Argentina Solve Hemp’s Seed Problem?
We’ve been covering industrial hemp on the podcast for eight years now, and the story of farmers getting bad seed is so common it barely feels like news anymore. It’s just accepted — low germination rates, inconsistent genetics and fields that never quite come in the way they should. But this is not OK. This is not how you grow an industry. If hemp is going to scale as a commodity crop, then it must behave like one and right now, it doesn’t. So when I was invited to Argentina to see a company building the SOPs for large-scale seed multiplication alongside one of the world’s top hemp geneticists—working in the same regions where companies like Syngenta and Bayer produce their seed, alongside one of the world’s top hemp geneticists — I went. This is an effort to solve the problem at its root. And it’s happening in a place with a much deeper story than we expected. Because once you start to understand what was built there before, the future of hemp starts to look very different. See Photos From Eric Hurlock's Trip to Argentina https://www.lancasterfarming.com/hemp-podcast-cries-for-me-argentina-photos/collection_4268a512-f387-4542-9c6c-09adf37df93f.html Learn More https://parquesteverlynck.com.ar/ Thanks to Our Sponsors!
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1937 International: Hemp Textiles, Pakistan to Product
03/18/2026
1937 International: Hemp Textiles, Pakistan to Product
This week on the Hemp Show, we talk with Ryan Zaczynski, co-founder of 1937 International, a company working to build global supply chains for industrial hemp. In this episode, Zaczynski talks about what it takes to move hemp beyond niche markets and into real products that people use every day — by building supply chains that connect farms, textile mills and manufacturers around the world. At the center of that effort is Pakistan, where 1937 International is working in partnership with Dr. Zafar Riaz and his team to develop hemp production and tap into one of the world’s largest textile economies. We also talk about the upcoming Industrial Hemp International Conference in Denver, where 1937 International is the lead sponsor and what it means to bring new partners, new materials and new supply chains into the hemp industry. Learn More 1937 International Industrial Hemp International Conference News Nuggets U.S. Farm Bill revisions would modestly reshape rules for fiber and grain growers UK grant backs development of hemp varieties tailored for British farming Sponsors IND Hemp Forever Green
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Hemp in New Zealand: Policy, Markets and the Long Game
03/12/2026
Hemp in New Zealand: Policy, Markets and the Long Game
Industrial hemp has been developing quietly in New Zealand for more than two decades. In this episode, we're talking with Richard Barge, treasurer of the New Zealand Hemp Industries Association, about how the sector has evolved — from early government trials in the early 2000s to a growing network of farmers, seed processors, fiber decortication facilities and researchers exploring hemp’s role in the bio-economy. Barge explains how New Zealand’s hemp industry has taken a deliberate approach to growth, scaling carefully as markets develop rather than chasing acreage without demand. The conversation explores the country’s regulatory framework, including the long-standing Industrial Hemp Regulations under the Misuse of Drugs Act and the policy changes now underway that could allow farmers to grow industrial hemp without a license. Other topics discussed: • Hemp seed foods and New Zealand’s export-oriented agriculture • The emergence of fiber processing and hempcrete construction • Challenges around feeding hemp by-products to livestock • The role of research institutions and universities in developing new hemp materials • Opportunities for international collaboration and seed production across hemispheres Barge also describes the current supply chain in New Zealand, including seed processing, decortication capacity and companies working to introduce hemp into textiles, building materials and consumer products. Learn More: New Zealand Hemp Industries Association Thanks to Our Sponsors!
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The Mythic Possibilities of Hemp Fiber
03/04/2026
The Mythic Possibilities of Hemp Fiber
Long before we talked about hemp as a commodity crop with profound industrial potential, hemp was something simpler: a plant grown in soil, worked by human hands and shaped into useful things. This week on the Hemp Show our guest is Laura Sullivan — hemp farmer, Extension educator at the University of Vermont and fiber artist whose work explores hemp not as a commodity but as a material with cultural and ecological meaning. Laura recently completed her Master of Fine Arts, using hemp fiber grown on the research farm to create garments and installations that blur the boundary between agriculture and art. “I’ve been working in science for over five years now and I have seen a lot of really great data come out that has changed absolutely nothing about how we operate in our world where we have so many solutions at our fingertips and yet no way to implement them,” Sullivan said. “So I thought that art could reach people in a way that white papers and data and graphs and science don’t always seem to.” In one of Sullivan's pieces, hemp garments embedded with seeds were watered until they sprouted, making visible the idea that clothing, like food, begins in the field. Sullivan notes that synthetic fiber now dominates the global textile system, and that most of it originates not from farms but from fossil fuels. “Synthetic fiber currently makes up about 70% of textiles globally,” she said. “Synthetic fiber is any fiber that is made of plastic, which is derived from oil. Alternatively, we have this other group of fibers — derived from the soil… and to the soil they can return.” Her work also draws on mythology, ancestry and traditional fiber practices, using hemp and wool to create large-scale symbolic pieces that connect ancient textile traditions with modern agricultural realities. Plus, News Nuggets and a very special visit from everyone’s favorite Kentucky hemp flooring guy, Greg Wilson, who looks at hemp like this: “You gotta grow it, you gotta make it and you gotta sell it. And I look at our business model and I always say, if you’ve got two hands, you can’t carry three buckets.” See Laura's Work: Learn More University of Vermont Extension Hemp Program Vermont College of Fine Arts News Nuggets European hemp stalwart HempFlax Group is departing Romania after historic 14-year run Sask Polytechnic and EnviroWay develop biodegradable plastics from hemp and flax fiber waste Time for a little home hemp? Sponsors HEMI King’s Agriseeds Forever Green Equipment – KP4 Hemp Cutter HempWood
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Field to Fabric: Building a Hemp Denim Supply Chain in Pennsylvania
02/25/2026
Field to Fabric: Building a Hemp Denim Supply Chain in Pennsylvania
On this week’s Hemp Podcast, we talk to August Cook, Joseph Carringer and Dave Cook of Commonwealth Denim and Tuscarora Mills about their effort to weave, cut and sew 100% hemp selvedge jeans in Pennsylvania — and what it will take to rebuild a regional textile supply chain from farm to finished garment. Pennsylvania has a long history with textiles, from homespun hemp and linen in colonial times to the grandeur of Philadelphia’s textile mills in the early 20th century. But by the end of the 20th century, the industry had pretty much collapsed, held together by specialty manufacturers and legacy family businesses. Now, there is new hope on the horizon. Commonwealth Denim is weaving, cutting and sewing 100% hemp selvedge jeans in Pennsylvania while working to rebuild a fully Pennsylvania-based textile supply chain. Learn More: Commonwealth Denim pre-orders and company information: Tuscarora Mills heritage textile weaving in York County, Pennsylvania: News Nuggets Dutch hemp fiber variety Carmanecta approved for EU catalog European Food Safety Authority sets restrictive daily intake level for CBD Australia’s first dedicated hemp masonry hub opens in Nimbin Daily Inter Lake reporting on the Benton hemp work shirt and domestic textile supply chain Thanks to our Sponsor IND HEMP
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Hemp as an Indicator Species: Mapping the Future of Bio-Based Building
02/19/2026
Hemp as an Indicator Species: Mapping the Future of Bio-Based Building
This week on the Hemp Show, we widen the lens. Hemp is more than a crop — it's part of a larger material system that connects farms, forests, manufacturers, builders and cities. Architect and urban researcher Kaja Kühl joins the podcast to explain why she calls hemp and straw “indicator species” — materials that signal the health of a regional building ecosystem. Through her Bio-Based Materials & Construction Resources Map, she has been documenting the farms, processors and builders already working across the Northeast. In this conversation, we explore what it would take to scale regenerative construction from rural landscapes into dense urban markets — and why regional supply chains may matter more than centralized industrial models. We discuss: • Hempcrete as a carbon-storing wall system • Why moisture regulation and indoor air quality may be hemp’s most overlooked strengths • Straw panel manufacturing and collaborative scaling models • The advantages — and challenges — of building in a dense Northeastern region • Housing as long-term carbon storage infrastructure Kühl also reflects on building two carbon-zero hemp homes in New York’s Hudson Valley and what she learned working alongside early-stage material startups. As federal climate policy shifts, atmospheric carbon does not. If emissions oversight weakens, land-based carbon strategies — including fiber crops like hemp — only grow more consequential. This episode situates hemp inside a broader conversation about how we build, where materials come from and how regional economies can store carbon in the walls around us. News Nuggets Farm Bill / Hemp Language – Farm, Food and National Security Act of 2026 (Draft Bill Information) – Industry Response & Policy Updates EPA Endangerment Finding Learn More – Kaja Kühl’s Practice Bio-Based Materials Collective Thanks to our Sponsor
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