National Hemp Association

2 hours ago

"Patrick Brown, 40, a fourth-generation Black farmer in Henderson, N.C., considers himself a steward of family land. His great-grandfather Byron Brown was born at Oakley Grove, a slave plantation also in Warren County, and lived there until, as a teenager, he learned the Civil War had ended. He moved across the county, where he worked for pay and became a sharecropper. In time he earned 200 acres of his own land, where he grew timber and raised livestock. By the time of his death in 1931, the farm was over 2,000 acres.

Over the generations, the Brown family held onto portions of the land and continued to improve it. Patrick Brown took over his father’s portion of 165 acres in 2015. Since 2016, hemp is among the crops grown on the farm.

Raised working the family fields, Brown left home to earn a degree in business management, with a concentration in finance, at Fayetteville State University. After graduation, he moved to Washington, D.C., to work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He then traveled the world as an agricultural adviser for the United States Agency for International Development, with much of his time spent in Afghanistan.

When his father became ill in 2008, Brown realized it was time to go home. With his years of agricultural experience, he also knew the family needed to focus on growing multiple crops to make a profit on the farm.

After learning about hemp and obtaining a North Carolina pilot program hemp license in 2016, Brown set about growing the new crop and developing regenerative farming practices. On about 18 acres, the family grew hemp to produce CBD for the farm’s own brand of products, Hempfinity.

In 2019 VF Corporation, an American global apparel and footwear company, reached out to Brown through Bear Fibers President Guy Carpenter to ask about using a portion of his farm’s hemp for research for the shoe and clothing line Vans. With a contract to grow hemp in partnership with David Camby of BioPhil Natural Fibers, Brown started growing hemp for fiber and hurd and increased the farm’s hemp acreage from the original 18 acres to over 200 acres today.

Brown is optimistic about hemp’s future for fiber and about his farm’s future in the industry."

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Patrick Brown’s Legacy Farm Showcases Black History & Regenerative Hemp Growing Practices

letstalkhemp.com

Patrick Brown, 40, a fourth-generation Black farmer in Henderson, N.C., considers himself a steward of land originally owned by his great-grandfather.

National Hemp Association

1 day ago

“During the Civil War, there was a battle in Lexington, Missouri. It was occurring around the Masonic College, right on the Missouri River. Soldiers found some hemp bales that were about to be shipped downstream. They used these hemp bales as a movable breastwork and pushed them up the hill to win the battle that became known as the Battle of the Hemp Bales.”

That’s just one of the interesting tales told by hemp historian John Dvorak on this week’s hemp podcast.

Dvorak has been researching the history of hemp for over thirty years and has archived his work at Hempology.org, where you can find a trove of historical documents and images from American and world history.

Dvorak uses his research to educate and advocate for sensible hemp and cannabis reform. He gives talks at universities around the country, sharing what he calls his “Cannabis Curriculum" with students, encouraging them to dig deeper into the history of the hemp plant.

“I've been all around all sorts of different colleges talking to the students, letting them know that no matter what class they're taking, they can apply it to cannabis, hemp, marijuana or the drug war,” he said.

Dvorak said his research contradicts the standard narrative of why hemp was prohibited in the 1930s, that it wasn't a diabolical conspiracy by industry tycoons who saw hemp as a threat to their fortunes.

“Hemp was not a threat to anybody in the 1930s. It was an afterthought. So that was one of the biggest surprises that I found doing my research is that it just wasn't a conspiracy,” he said.

Dvorak got his start researching hemp in the 1990s and credits a handful of hemp pioneers with laying the groundwork for the modern hemp industry, folks like Jack Herer, Don Wirtshafter, and Eric Steenstra."

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Hemp History Comes Alive with John Dvorak

www.lancasterfarming.com

This week's podcast guest is hemp historian John Dvorak, who archives his research at Hempology.org

National Hemp Association

2 days ago

"The use of hemp as a material is gaining speed across industries, including health and beauty, textiles, food and more. One of the industries that now utilizes it is in construction. Hemp can be used to create building materials such as hemp-clay bricks and hempcrete. One of the newest hemp innovations is using it as a form of building insulation."

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Hemp building material is the perfect sustainable insulation

inhabitat.com

HempWool designed by Hempitecture is the only insulation on the market that is carbon negative, meaning it is the most sustainable building material out there.

National Hemp Association

2 days ago

"The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) released a special report on industrial hemp, including a focus on how developing economies can “exploit its economic and social potential.”

“A so-called whole-plant approach based on the exploitation of all parts of the plant should be at the core of any sectoral development strategy,” according to the UNCTAD report

“This approach could facilitate the creation of production chains that are able to contribute to growth in rural areas, in manufacturing and in the food processing industry.”

The 93-page report includes information on:

Hemp taxonomy and botany.
The industrial uses of hemp.
International treaties governing industrial hemp production.
The industrial hemp value chain and “potential challenges and opportunities for processors.”
Consumer preferences and market trends.
Hemp production figures.
Information on the international hemp product trade and tariffs.
The prices of industrial hemp products.
Policy issues for governments interested in promoting industrial hemp.

“We are pleased that the UN Conference on Trade and Development invested in creating this special issue on industrial hemp,” National Hemp Association chair Geoff Whaling said in a statement.

“It is a tremendous step in breaking down barriers for the hemp industry.”

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UN report focuses on 'econcomic and social potential' of industrial hemp

mjbizdaily.com

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) released a special report on industrial hemp.

National Hemp Association

2 days ago

"On this week’s hemp podcast, we talk to Morgan Tweet, executive director of the Hemp Feed Coalition, who recently participated in a two-day hemp feed workshop co-hosted by the coalition, Oregon State University and the Hemp Innovation Center.

There was a strong showing of university researchers at the event, along with representatives of FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine and the Association of American Feed Control Officials.

“We felt like the best way to have a productive dialog between research, regulators and industry,” Tweet said, “was to bring everyone into one room to review what current research there was, have the discussion about what was needed, and then identify steps forward.”

Hemp grain was given GRAS (generally regarded as safe) status for human consumption by the FDA many years ago, but it is not federally legal to feed hemp grain to livestock.

Some states, like Montana, have written laws to allow hemp grain to be used in feed for companion animals, but the process to gain widespread approval for hemp as a livestock feed for production animals involves time-consuming and expensive testing, Tweet said.

Hemp grain has an attractive nutritional profile — high in protein and amino acids — and is often referred to as a superfood, but without opening up the livestock feed markets, hemp grain producers have nowhere to go with their seed cake byproducts after crushing the grain for oil, hampering the growth of the industry.

Tweet said there is reason to be optimistic and pointed to Pennsylvania, where Wenger Feeds was given special permission to market its Chiques Creek Hemp-Fed Eggs within the borders of the state."

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Podcast: Optimism Grows for Hemp as Livestock Feed

www.lancasterfarming.com

Morgan Tweet, executive director of the Hemp Feed Coalition, gives a recap of a two-day hemp feed workshop co-hosted by the coalition, Oregon State University and the Hemp Innovation Center.