Industrial Hemp Podcast

This week on the Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast we're looking at hemp's environmental promise. We've all heard the claim the hemp can save the planet—but what does the science really say? I talk with environmental scientist Lorelei Alvarez and strategist Joseph Carringer, co-authors of the brand-new Hemp and Sustainability Report, published by HempToday and CannaMarkets Group. Together,...

This is the final installment of our special Global Hemp Fiber Summit Box Set. Sides 5 and 6 wrap up our coverage from Raleigh 2025, featuring voices from across the fiber hemp industry—from seasoned pioneers to fresh perspectives. Hear updates from long-time advocates, emerging researchers, farmers, processors, and policy influencers shaping the future of American hemp textiles. Side 5: Robert Ju...

Thanks for tuning in to the Hemp Show. This week we're spinning sides 3 and 4 of our special box set recorded at the 2025 Global Industrial Hemp Fiber Summit in Raleigh, North Carolina, July 15 – 17, 2025. Side Three: Glen Kayll – CEO, The Hemp Plastic Company [00:00:51]   https://www.hempplastic.com Joseph Carringer – HempToday / CannaMarkets Group [00:06:42]   https://hemptoday.net Eric Henry –...

We're celebrating big news from western Kentucky — HempWood is opening their new factory on the HempWood Campus in Murray. It's a big deal and it's a big day. On this special HempWood episode, we catch up with Greg Wilson for a freewheeling conversation about flooring, farming, the Fibonacci sequence and the future of sustainable materials. From co-op growing systems and carbon credits to tornadoe...

Dear listeners, This week on the Hemp Show, we're dropping the needle on a very special commemorative box set from the 2025 Global Industrial Hemp Fiber Summit in Raleigh, North Carolina. In this first installment — Sides 1 and 2 — of a three-episode miniseries, we hear from a wide range of voices building the fiber side of the hemp industry from the ground up: farmers, machine makers, wet process...

This week on the Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast, we're listening to a recap of the 2025 Global Industrial Hemp Fiber Summit, hosted by the National Industrial Hemp Council of America at the Wilson College of Textiles at NC State, that took place in Raleigh, NC, July 15-17, 2025. For three well-planned days, leaders from across the hemp value chain came together—from farmers and genetici...

This week on the Hemp Show, we're continuing the conversation around the need to split the industry into two. There is much confusion in the minds of law makers and consumers when it comes to what hemp is. For years hemp advocates championed the fact that hemp doesn't get you high, but thanks to a loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill, somebody figured out how to get high from hemp, and so began the era...

This week on the Hemp Show we're talking about flax, a fiber plant with remarkable similarities to industrial hemp when grown for textiles. There's a fair amount of flax growing this year in southeastern Pennsylvania. The last time this much flax grew here, tractors hadn't even been invented yet. By the late 1800s flax production was in rapid decline in the Keystone State, pushed out by cheap cott...

Lately on the podcast, I've been wrestling with a question of language. What does the word hemp really mean, where did that meaning come from, how has it shifted over time, and who gets to define the word hemp today? For a thousand years, hemp was known as the plant or material that you made things from — things like rope, cloth and paper. But now when people hear the word hemp, they think about w...

This week on the Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast, we're talking about wipes. And diapers. And makeup pads. And all the other throwaway hygiene products we barely think about — but use every day. Most of these single-use items are made from plastic. Why? Because plastic is cheap, consistent, and engineered to run smoothly on fast-moving machines. But that convenience comes at a cost: land...

On this episode of the Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast, we take a look at the fight for industrial hemp's future — from grassroots advocacy to global certification and the ongoing struggles farmers face in the banking system. Act 1: Virginia Hemp Month – Reclaiming the Word "Hemp" Joe Domino and Scott McStacy of the Virginia Hemp Coalition join the show to talk about their efforts to off...

This week on the show we reconnect with Chad Rosen, founder and CEO of Victory Hemp Foods, who was first on the show back in the summer of '21 when I drove the Lancaster Farming National Hemp Tour RV right up to Victory Hemp's grain bins in Carrollton, Kentucky. When I was there 4 years ago, Victory was processing batches, roughly 20,000 lbs a month, but they just put in a new processing line that...

The hemp event of the summer is taking place in Raleigh, North Carolina, July 15-17. It's the Global Industrial Hemp Fiber Summit, hosted by the Wilson College of Textiles, in conjunction with the National Industrial Hemp Council. This week on the Hemp Show, we'll talk to the lead organizer of the event, Guy Carpenter. Unlike other events focused on industrial hemp, this summit centers squarely on...

This week's episode of the Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast unfolds in three acts, each exploring a different facet of the growing hemp industry — from a café built on hemp-based food, to a hands-on construction training, to a linguistic deep dive into the meaning of the word hemp. Act 1: A Hemp Café in Mount Pleasant The show begins with a conversation with longtime hemp entrepreneur Cin...

This week on the Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast, host Eric Hurlock wrestles with a question at the heart of the industry: What is hemp? The term has become increasingly diluted and controversial — especially in light of smokable flower and intoxicating cannabinoid markets, i.e. THC-a flower, Delta-8, etc. Lately, Eric has been saying that if you're growing floral hemp, maybe you're not...

This week's episode is a little different—just a quick teaser while we finish up next week's show, which dives into the meaning of the word "hemp" and who gets to claim it. Host Eric Hurlock has been on a journey talking to people in the cannabinoid space—like Jeremy Klettke, Joe Ullman, and Ben Davies—to sort through some big questions about language, identity, and the hemp plant. In the meantime...

This week on the Hemp Podcast we're looking at the 2025 Hemp Report from the USDA. The annual report attempts to provide a snapshot of the hemp industry, which, according to the report, is valued at $445 million — up 40% from last year. That sounds amazing, but what the numbers actually show is two completely different stories about two completely different industries: industrial hemp, i.e., fiber...

They say hemp has 25,000 uses — but today, we're focusing on just one: nonwovens. In this episode, Eric and Sophia dive into a hidden-yet-ubiquitous part of our daily lives with guest Mattie Mead from Hempitecture. From car door panels to carpet padding, nonwovens are everywhere — and mostly made from petroleum-based plastics. But they don't have to be. Mattie explains how Hempitecture is scaling...

The NoCo Hemp Expo wrapped up its eleventh annual event last week in Estes Park, Colorado. The overall mood was optimistic, according to attendees, but there was an undercurrent of uncertainty and angst. The industry stands at a crossroads. Is it too dramatic (or melodramatic) to call it the battle for the soul of the industry? The word hemp means different things to different people, but for over...

In this episode, regenerative industrial hemp farmer Steve Groff returns for a candid discussion about the current state of hemp farming, innovation and industry challenges in Pennsylvania. Groff shares insights on the unexpected bureaucratic setbacks he's faced, his pragmatic approach to political and economic changes and exciting developments in precision planting technology aimed at revolutioni...

When President Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on the original American road trip in 1804, there weren't many roads, so they took boats. Up the Missouri River and into the great unknown. One of their tasks was to collect and catalog detailed information about the natural world as they made their way westward. When the expedition returned in 1806, the American explorers bro...

This week on the Hemp Show, we talk with global hemp expert and co-founder of the Hemp Plastic Company, Paul Benhaim.  Benhaim takes us on a deep dive into hemp plastics — and why he believes scalability is more important than purity. We'll hear about the company and the process of turning hemp into objects like didgeridoos and car parts. Benhaim has been in the hemp industry for over 30 years, fi...

This week on the Hemp Show, we catch up with filmmaker Joel Caldwell and hempcrete builder Danny Desjarlais about the film "Green Buffalo." Coming off of a win for the short documentary category at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, "Green Buffalo" is making waves. Caldwell shares his experience on making the film within the limitations of the short documentary medium and how he was ab...

This week on the Hemp Show, we head to Tucson, Arizona, where Micaela Machado of Old Pueblo Hemp Co. is leading a hemp-building revolution. She said she hopes "Tucson becomes a hub for natural building and specifically hemp. I think Tucson, Arizona, is right for building, for processing. We have all the right weather and lots of land to do it with." Machado is a general contractor with a backgroun...

In this episode of the Lancaster Farming Hemp Podcast, we welcome back Morris Beegle, the founder of NoCo Hemp Expo and a leading advocate in the hemp industry. The conversation spans the globe as Morris shares insights from his recent travels to Africa, Asia, and South America, discussing the growing industrial hemp movement worldwide. From the first-ever Kenya Hemp Conference to a 12-story hempc...