Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast By cover art

Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast

By: Eric Hurlock Digital Editor
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  • Summary

  • Lancaster Farming newspaper editors talk to farmers and experts about industrial hemp.
    © 2024 - Lancaster Farming
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Episodes
  • Hempcrete Workshop Lays Foundation to Build Industry and Community

    Hempcrete Workshop Lays Foundation to Build Industry and Community
    May 2 2024
    This week’s podcast takes us to a hempcrete workshop in Barto, Pennsylvania. That’s where Cameron McIntosh of Americhanvre Cast-Hemp hosted a four-day hands-on training session to teach the basics of the spray-applied method of hempcrete installation using the Ereasy system. Training began Saturday morning at McIntosh’s shop at a farm in Berks County. With a total of 14 participants and four assistant instructors, he said, “this is our single biggest training.” Attendees traveled from around the country and the world, including Texas, North Carolina, Minnesota, California, and British Columbia. Damien Baumer, who developed the Ereasy Spray-Applied system in 2014, traveled from his village in France to help McIntosh with the training. Baumer said his system is not in wide use in France, but is used in many other European countries, and now has a strong footprint in America, thanks to McIntosh. McIntosh’s company, Americhanvre (a mash-up of America and the French word for hemp, chanvre), is the authorized North America distributor of the Ereasy system, and there are now more Ereasy systems in use in America than in the inventor’s home country. Baumer is happy to see the growth in America, and said through a translator, “Cameron’s a warrior who’s been fighting for the last three years to make this happen.” Earlier this year, Americhanvre was awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the U.S. Army for $1.9 million. While the training isn’t directly related to the grant, McIntosh sees the connection. The purpose of the SBIR program, he said, “is to commercialize your technology and your company, not only in the private sector, but also publicly.” Attendees get more than basic instruction on how to run the spray machine. “We also teach estimating and bidding. We teach accounting, we give the participants tools that they would need not only to run the system, but also to run a successful business around it,” McIntosh said. The Ereasy system is simple in its design and function. Hemp hurds are mixed with lime and water in a hopper. That slurry is then pushed through tubes by a large air compressor while the lance operator sprays the wet hempcrete mixture at a wall or, in this case, an SIP panel, which can then be used in construction. Attendees sprayed over 30 panels during the course of the workshop. Denzel Sutherland Wilson traveled from Gitxsan Nation in north British Columbia. “I came to learn how to spray hempcrete and just see if this would be something that could help us back where I come (from),” he said. Wilson is from the community of Kispiox, which sits at the confluence of the Skeena and Kispiox rivers. It’s surrounded by mountains on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other. “We have a lot of poorly insulated and overcrowded houses and mold issues,” he said. “And this hemp seems like it could address a lot of issues in the housing realm.” He also said he finds great inspiration from the work the Lower Sioux Indian Community in Minnesota is doing with hempcrete, where the tribe is building houses for community members in need. Danny Desjarlais is the head builder at Lower Sioux and was on hand at the workshop to assist in the training. Desjarlais and his team have built three hempcrete houses in the past year and they are gearing up to build more. He sees hemp construction as a way to rebuild rural communities around the country. “For any community that wants to give their community members jobs and even better homes or whatever product you’re going to make with it,” he said, “the potential for the jobs is there and the potential to take back your community.” On this week’s podcast, we meet the people at the workshop. Why did they sign up? What did they learn? All that, plus a tour of a hempcrete house in Pottstown. On this episode we talk to the following people: Cameron McIntosh Damien Baumer Navid Hatfield Danny Desjarlais Tim Callahan Henry Valles Dani Baker Denzel Sutherland Wilson Cliff the Gardener Tina Jones John Price Learn More about Hempcrete: US Hemp Builders Association https://ushba.org/ Hemp Building Institute https://www.hempbuildinginstitute.org/ Americhanvre Cast-Hemp https://americhanvre.com/ Lower Sioux Indian Community https://lowersioux.com/ New Nuggets US poised to ease restrictions on marijuana in historic shift, but it’ll remain controlled substance https://apnews.com/article/marijuana-biden-dea-criminal-justice-pot-f833a8dae6ceb31a8658a5d65832a3b8 21st EIHA Conference in Prague https://eiha-conference.org/ Hempwood, the coolest thing made in Kentucky https://hempwood.com/ Thanks to Our Sponsors! IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ King’s Agriseeds https://kingsagriseeds.com/ Forever Green https://www.hempcutter.com/ Music courtesy of Tin Bird Shadow https://tinbirdshadow.bandcamp.com/album/dot-dot-dot
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    1 hr and 35 mins
  • Exploring Hemp Fiber Agronomy and Genetics

    Exploring Hemp Fiber Agronomy and Genetics
    Apr 24 2024
    On this week’s hemp podcast, we listen to a panel discussion from the NoCo Hemp Expo that took place in Colorado earlier this month. The panelists were Rachel Berry, a farmer and founder of the Illinois Hemp Growers Association; Terry Moran, a sales rep from Kanda Hemp, an importer of Asian hemp varieties; Corbett Miteff from KonopiUS, an importer of European hemp genetics; and Larry Smart, a geneticist and plant breeder from Cornell University. The panel discussion was moderated by Eric Singular who described the topic of discussion as “the intersection of agronomy and genetics in hemp fiber production.” Smart talked about starting the breeding program at Cornell and how trying to meet the needs of the industry has been a roller coaster ride. “But certainly right now the demand is for fiber,” Smart said. “So we have been focused on breeding fiber hemp. And the main trait that we see as valuable in fiber hemp is very late flowering.” Because hemp is a photoperiodic crop, it will stop growing taller once it starts to flower. “If we can identify varieties that continue to grow and do not transition to flowering, those are going to create the greatest amount of biomass,” he said. Typically, later-flowering varieties are adapted to tropical or subtropical latitudes, he said. Moran spoke about the need for seed in the U.S. as the industry grows. “The main thing to think about is if you’re going to get to 250,000 acres,” he said, “is where’s that seed going to come from?” Asia and Europe are the likely sources based on current trends. “And I don’t see that changing in the near term. And even if there’s some great variety out there, it’s going to take several years to scale that,” Moran said. Berry, a first-generation farmer in Illinois, spoke about the importance of genetic research and how she worked with the Midwestern Hemp Research Collaborative. The group provided genetics that were tailored to Berry’s region, one of which she said provided amazing results. “Having folks like you who are doing the research on these genetics and providing them to farmers like me to eliminate all that trial and error, I’m so grateful for that,” Berry said. Miteff described his work with processing methods, various fiber lengths, and the defibrillation of cellulose. “At end of the day, we’re trying to find things where we can get some really good fiber that we can break apart that cellulose and start using it,” Miteff said. “But at the same time, how do we get the grain off of it?” he asked, a question that took the panelists into a conversation about dual cropping varieties that produce both fiber and grain. Learn more: Eric Singular https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-singular Pennsylvania Flax Project https://paflaxproject.com/ Illinois Hemp Growers Association https://www.illinoishga.com/ Cornell University Hemp Program https://hemp.cals.cornell.edu/ KonopiUS https://www.konopius.com/ Kanda Hemp https://kandahemp.com/ Noco Hemp Expo https://www.nocohempexpo.com/ News Nuggets HempWood https://hempwood.com/ Coolest Thing Made in Kentucky https://coolestthingky.com/ USDA's 2023 National Hemp Report https://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Pennsylvania/Publications/Survey_Results/2024/hempan24.pdf Thanks to Our Sponsors! IND HEMP https://indhemp.com/ Mpactful Ventures https://www.mpactfulventures.org/ Forever Green https://www.hempcutter.com/ HUGE THANK YOU TO SUNRAY HEMP in ALASKA Music courtesy of Tin Bird Shadow https://tinbirdshadow.bandcamp.com/album/dot-dot-dot
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    1 hr and 2 mins
  • 420 Special: Rumble Strip – John Rodgers Weed Farmer

    420 Special: Rumble Strip – John Rodgers Weed Farmer
    Apr 20 2024

    On this 420 Bonus show, we share an episode of one of our favorite podcasts, Rumble Strip. It’s made by Erica Heilman who tells stories of rural Vermont.

    On this episode she interviews Vermonter John Rodgers, a stonemason the Northeast Kingdom, where he also runs a construction business, plows driveways and rents properties, and for sixteen years he served in the Vermont Legislature in both the House and the Senate.

    He works all the time so he can hold onto the farm that's been in his family for 200 years. It was a dairy when he was growing up there. Now he's growing weed for Vermont retailers.

    Thank you to Erica Heilman at Rumble Strip for letting us share this episode!

    Please go to her website and listen to more episodes of Rumble Strip: https://www.rumblestripvermont.com/
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    28 mins
Politics & Government
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