Industrial Hemp Podcast

Click for show notes. Episode 70: On this episode of the podcast we talk to hemp builder Cameron McIntosh of Americhanvre Cast-Hemp in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Hemp has many properties that make it an ideal building material. When mixed with lime, it becomes mold-, mildew-, rot- and pest-resistant, and very nearly fire-proof, according to McIntosh. The building industry in America is young and ful...

Click for show notes. Episode 69: This week we talk to seed breeder Joe Ullman from Atlas Seed Company where they're bringing to market two autoflower varieties of industrial hemp this year. We explore the benefits of autoflower and why it's perfect for commercial production of CBD, especially in light of the new USDA rules. We also get into plant spacing, growing practices and more. Then we hear...

Click for show notes. Episode 68: Farmers in New Jersey can now grow industrial hemp in the Garden State. In this week's show, we talk to New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Doug Fisher and the Director of the Division of Plant Industry at the New Jersey Department of Agriculture Joe Zoltowski. We dig into the details of the New Jersey hemp program, including licensing fees and structure, acreage...

Click for show notes. Episode 67: This week's Industrial Hemp Podcast was recorded live at the 2020 Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg, featuring an in-depth discussion of the 2020 hemp program in Pennsylvania with Fred Strathmeyer, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, and Sarah Pickel, the hemp program coordinator at the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. We talk about changes in the program a...

Click for show notes. Episode 66: Over the course of this show, we've talked to many wonderful, passionate, knowledgeable people from the world of industrial hemp – farmers, inventors, visionaries, business leaders, policy makers, artists – and so to celebrate the end of the year, we thought we'd check back in with a some previous guests to get an overview of the 2019 year in hemp and take a glimp...

Click for show notes. Episode 65: Over the course of this show, we've talked to many wonderful, passionate, knowledgeable people from the world of industrial hemp – farmers, inventors, visionaries, business leaders, policy makers, artists – and so to celebrate the end of the year, we thought we'd check back in with a some previous guests to get an overview of the 2019 year in hemp and take a glimp...

Click for show notes. Episode 64: This week on the Industrial Hemp Podcast we talk to hemp farmer Ben Davies from Wild Fox Farm in eastern Berks County, Pennsylvania, where he and his wife Karah have developed 17 different retail products from their high CBD hemp harvest – everything from lip balm and tinctures to herbal tea and pet products. Davies explains how they developed the products, what t...

Click for show notes. Episode 63: This week we talk to Sarah Yetman, owner of Sovereignport, a business that imports and exports CBD products worldwide. Yetman explains how she works with farmers, governments and businesses all around the world to provide shipping and logistics solutions for buyers and sellers of CBD, from isolate to flower to biomass. She offers lots of good advice for farmers wh...

Click for show notes. Episode 62: While the hemp industry buzzes about CBD, it's important to remember the other side of industrial hemp: the fiber side. Fiber varieties of the cannabis plant have been grown since ancient times to make paper, clothing and building materials. This week's guest, Steve Allin, has been using hemp as a building material for decades on hemp projects all over the world....

Click for show notes. Episode 61: This week we talk to Larry Nagle, founder of the Cannabis College of America, designed to teach students the various phases of growing, harvesting, drying and packaging hemp. The school will offer online and in class sessions starting this January. Nagle's deep experience with the cannabis plant gives him a wide range of subject matter to discuss in this podcast i...

Click for show notes. Episode 60. As the hemp industry invents itself in Pennsylvania, many new and surprising partnerships arise. Cynthia Petrone-Hudock spent most of her career in finance and healthcare, but now she's the CEO for Hemp-Alternative, and is joined on the podcast by Jamie Hicks, crop farmer and co-owner of Hicks Brothers, LLC, the farming operation that raised hemp in partnership wi...

Click for show notes. Episode 59: This week's show is divided into three parts. First we talk to Joshua Decatur, CEO of Trace, a Vermont-based technology company that is building a block-chain based application that will help standardize and verify hemp crop information, making a crop easily traceable from farm to processor and beyond, and thereby eliminating law enforcement's inability to differe...

Click for show notes. Episode 58: This week we talk to Dr. Ruth Welliver, the director of the Bureau of Plant Industry at the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, which over sees the industrial hemp program in the state. We talk about what PDA got right this year and what lessons it's learning for next year. Plus we get into how the new USDA interim rules might affect the hemp program in Pennsy...

Click for show notes. Episode 57: On this week's show, we discuss the new interim rules put forth this week by the USDA and what these new rules might mean for hemp farmers, including why test results will be required to include a measurement of uncertainty. But the main story this week comes from Kentucky, where farmers Ben Furnish and Kendall Henson are part of a group of farmers who are suing G...

Click for show notes. Episode 56: On this week's podcast we talk to Dr. Mowgli Holmes, co-founder and CEO of Phylos, a plant science company that is trying to revolutionize the hemp industry through data, technology and expertise. In this wide ranging interview we discuss plant breeding, cannabis genetics, why sustainable agriculture is important not just for hemp production but farming in general...

Click for show notes. There has been a spate of thefts at Pennsylvania hemp farms. CBD plants are being topped and hauled away, and in some cases entire plants have been stolen. Some farms have lost dozens of plants, others over a thousand. Who would have guessed that the biggest pest to the hemp crop would turn out to be human beings? What can farmers do to protect themselves and their crops? Sev...

Click for show notes. Episode 54: This week we taped our show on stage at the 2019 Pennsylvania Hemp Summit at the Lancaster Convention Center in downtown Lancaster, PA. The guests on the show were seed breeders and hemp growers Tom Culton and Joe Ullman, who spoke about the importance of knowing where your seed comes from and why autoflower genetics might just be the next big thing in hemp farmin...

Click for show notes. Episode 53: On this week's show, we check in with the gang at Floyd's of Leadville – Floyd Landis, Jake Sitler and Wayne Bendistis – who bring us up to speed on their endeavor to contract Pennsylvania farmers to grow high-quality, organic hemp for their line of nationally distributed CBD products. And check it out: They aren't drying the crop like everybody else, but instead...

Click for show notes. Episode 52: On this week's show, we talk to Tara Caton, the research coordinator at the Rodale Institute where she is the leader of the industrial hemp research trials. The institute is studying the weed suppression benefits of industrial hemp when it's added into crop rotation and no-till farming. They are also looking at which varieties do best in Pennsylvania for fiber and...

Click for show notes. On this week's show, we feature a small first time hemp operation in Bucks County. We talk to farmers Rich Yang and Nicholas Cole of Under the Sun Hemp, where they just installed a drying facility. We also check in with Team Pennsylvania's Kelly Kundratic about the 2019 Hemp Summit in Lancaster, and also talk to plant breeders Joe Ullman and Tom Culton who will be the feature...

Click for show notes. Episode 50: On this week's show we discuss how this ancient crop, often harvested by hand, is a bright spot of ag innovation, and how some Lancaster County farmers already have the systems in place for a smooth transition to growing hemp. Then we hear from deputy ag secretary Fred Strathmeyer about how the anticipated USDA guidelines for industrial hemp in 2020 may or may not...

Click to read the show notes. Episode 49: On this week's show we talk to Delaware Valley University biology professor Dr. Chris Tipping. A trained entomologist, Tipping has been involved with his university's industrial hemp research program since its inception in 2017. Tipping discusses the various pests a hemp farmer might encounter and how to manage them, but because the crop is so new in the r...

Click to read the show notes. Episode 48: This week we talk to Vanessa Villanova and Suzie Eckhart, the founders of The Hemptons Farm, an organic hemp farm in Chatham, New York, near the Massachusetts border. But it's more than a hemp farm. It's also a getaway retreat center where guests can stay to relax, rejuvenate, and generally chill out in the country side. It's a 70-acre choose-your-own adve...

Click to read the show notes. This week's show features an in-depth conversation with Todd Palcic, the president of Thar Process, an industrial hemp processing company in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Palcic explains the extraction process, what farmers need to be aware of when working with a processor, and why the company decided to go all in on industrial hemp this year. He also explains the importan...

Click to read the show notes. On this episode of the Industrial Hemp Podcast, we go deep into the specifics of harvesting and drying CBD hemp, from cutting the stalks to the best way to set up a drying room, plus how to keep mold from contaminating the crop. First we check in with Bucks County, Pennsylvania, hemp farmer Joe Ullman, who shares his experience working with cannabis, from the field to...