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 weed. And that’s not helpful for a nascent industry trying to raise capital, build infrastructure and...
Jun 25, 2025•53 min•Season 5Ep. 21
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: landfill waste, microplastic pollution and a total disconnect from the land. But what if we could change...
Jun 18, 2025•38 min•Season 5Ep. 20
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 officially recognize June as Virginia Hemp Month. With events ranging from hempcrete building workshops...
Jun 12, 2025•43 min•Season 5Ep. 19
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 lets them do 120,000 pounds of hemp hearts per month, a sixfold increase. But that’s not all. The n...
Jun 05, 2025•42 min•Season 5Ep. 18
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 hemp fiber and the industries that are growing up around fiber: textiles, apparel, denim, upholster...
May 29, 2025•29 min•Season 5Ep. 17
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 Cindy Amick, whose new endeavor is the Planet Hemp Café, which opens June 7 in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylv...
May 22, 2025•42 min•Season 5Ep. 16
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 actually a hemp farmer. But he might be wrong and this week he goes on a journey to find out. On thi...
May 16, 2025•30 min•Season 5Ep. 15
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, we don’t want to leave you empty-handed. So here are a few instrumental tracks that Eric Hurlock h...
May 08, 2025•11 min•Ep. 14
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 and grain, and floral hemp, i.e., cannabinoids, medicinal and recreational products and smokable he...
May 01, 2025•16 min•Season 5Ep. 13
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 use of natural fibers, like hemp, to reduce carbon emissions, create American manufacturing jobs...
Apr 25, 2025•40 min•Season 5Ep. 12
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 a thousand years, the English word hemp meant one thing: the crop you farm at scale to produce raw ...
Apr 18, 2025•53 min•Season 5Ep. 11
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 revolutionizing hemp and flax cultivation. Despite encountering funding hurdles and project delays, Groff remai...
Apr 09, 2025•43 min•Season 5Ep. 10
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 brought with them a collection of over 200 plant samples that Lewis meticulously cataloged and preserve...
Apr 02, 2025•32 min•Season 5Ep. 9
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, finding early success with a hemp health bar in Europe in the 1990s before moving to Australia where he...
Mar 26, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Season 5Ep. 8
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 able to capture the resilience of the Lower Sioux in the film. "I had the light turned on as far as th...
Mar 21, 2025•45 min•Season 5Ep. 7
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 background in sculpture and landscape architecture, and she’s bringing her deep passion for sustainability an...
Mar 12, 2025•39 min•Season 5Ep. 6
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 hempcrete hotel in South Africa, Morris provides a firsthand look at the developing hemp sector in Africa...
Feb 28, 2025•52 min•Season 5Ep. 6
On this episode of the Hemp Podcast, we speak with Jeff Kostuik, of Verve Seed Solutions , aa Canadian Hemp Seed company based in Saskatchewan. Jeff joins us from the road—literally, from an airport—on his way to North Carolina for a meeting with a hemp processor. We'll hear about Verve Seed Solutions and the new varieties they are bringing to the hemp space this year. We will also talk about Donald Trump's impeding trade wars and what Canadian hemp businesses like Verve are doing to face the ne...
Feb 21, 2025•19 min•Season 5Ep. 5
On this episode of the Hemp Podcast, we welcome back Geoff Whaling, chair of the National Hemp Association, for an in-depth discussion on the evolving landscape of the hemp industry under the new administration. We cover the uncertainty surrounding the NHA’s $19.8 million climate-smart grant, the impact of leadership changes in Washington, and the ongoing push for hemp as an approved food and animal feed ingredient. Whaling shares his insights on the Farm Bill negotiations, the role of key offic...
Feb 13, 2025•39 min•Season 5Ep. 4
On this episode we talk to Max Justice from Setas Mushrooms — the innovator behind MyCoffin, biodegradable coffins made of mycelium and industrial hemp. Justice is the co-founder and CEO of Setas Eternal Living, a company that offers people a sustainable end-of life solution — with aspirations to disrupt the death industry with affordable and sustainable options. For Justice, Setas Eternal Living was logical next step in his fungus journey. He and his wife started Setas Mushrooms on their farm i...
Feb 05, 2025•57 min•Season 5Ep. 3
On this episode we check back in Chris Boucher, who was originally on the program in July of 2022. Boucher is a hemp industry OG. In 1990, he was first introduced to hemp by Jack Herer himself in, author of the book that jumpstarted the hemp movement in America, The Emperor Wears No Clothes . In 1994 Boucher was issued a permit from the USDA to grow fiber hemp in California, but his crop was destroyed before harvest by local drug enforcement agents. He was a founding member of the Hemp Industrie...
Jan 29, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Season 5Ep. 2
This week’s guest on the Industrial Hemp podcast is Lucia Vignale, a third-year PhD student at Cornell University, where she studies plant breeding, genetics and pathology. “I’m interested in searching for, mapping, and characterizing new sources of resistance against hemp powdery mildew,” she said. Vignale earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in molecular biologist in her native Uruguay, and in 2022 she came to Larry Smart’s hemp lab at Cornell on a Fullbright scholarship to pursue her Ph...
Jan 22, 2025•32 min•Season 5Ep. 1
Holtwood, PENNSYLVANIA—On this episode of the Industrial Hemp Podcast, Lancaster Farming visits with Lancaster County hemp farmer Steve Groff to discuss his recent trip to China. Steve shares his observations from visiting China's expansive hemp supply chain, from farms to textile factories. With vivid descriptions and first-hand insights, Steve explains how the Chinese grow, harvest and process industrial hemp at an unparalleled scale. The conversation explores: • The differences between Chines...
Dec 13, 2024•44 min
This week on the Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast, host Eric Hurlock speaks with filmmaker Jordan Berger from Sunflower Films in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Berger and his team are creating the documentary One Plant, that tells the story the cannabis plant. Fresh off the success of a Kickstarter campaign that raised over $65,000, Jordan discusses the process of funding, creating, and finishing a film. He provides insight into how the funds will be allocated, including editing, sound design,...
Dec 04, 2024•29 min•Season 4Ep. 41
In this special Thanksgiving episode, hemp podcast host Eric Hurlock sits down with hempcrete builder Cameron McIntosh of Americhanvre Cast Hemp . Fresh off his return from the World Hemp Forum in France, Cameron shares insights from his whirlwind trip, including a tour of La Chanvrière 's world-class processing facility and his participation on a global panel of hemp-building experts. The conversation explores the state of hemp construction globally and at home, covering key events like Greenbu...
Nov 27, 2024•38 min•Season 4Ep. 40
This week we talk hemp with industry leader Morris Beegle. Known for his work with the NoCo Hemp Expo, Let’s Talk Hemp, and other ventures, Morris shares his insights on the year in hemp, global developments, and what lies ahead for the industry. From international travels to Japan, Peru, and Prague to organizing major events in the U.S. and Europe, Morris offers a unique perspective on hemp’s evolving landscape. In this conversation we explore the challenges and opportunities for industrial hem...
Nov 27, 2024•39 min•Season 4Ep. 39
In this episode of the Industrial Hemp Podcast, we take you to the GreenBuild Conference and Expo in Philadelphia, the world’s largest event dedicated to green building and sustainable construction. This annual gathering brings together architects, engineers, builders, and innovators, all focused on creating a more sustainable future for the built environment. Under the banner of The Goodness of Hemp, an inspiring collective of hemp-based businesses showcased their products and vision for the fu...
Nov 15, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Season 4Ep. 38
This is part one of our coverage of the 2024 Montana Hemp Summit, also known as the "Goodness of Hemp" Summit, that took place in Great Falls, Montana, Oct. 15-17. First, please take action now. Help support the One Plant Kickstarter campaign. The episode opens with a conversation with Ken Elliott, co-founder of IND HEMP in Montana. Host Eric Hurlock and Ken talk about the recent summit, the introduction of HEMI, and why people in the hemp industry should stop what they’re doing right now and go...
Nov 09, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Season 4Ep. 37
In this special episode of the Industrial Hemp Podcast*, we talk to Erica Stark, executive director of the National Hemp Association (NHA), and Lancaster County regenerative hemp farmer Steve Groff. Together, they break down the exciting news that the USDA has awarded $19.6 million to support a transformative project focused on climate-smart hemp farming in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The project aims to help farmers adopt regenerative practices using industrial hemp, reduce agricultural runof...
Oct 25, 2024•34 min•Season 4Ep. 36
This week on the Hemp Podcast, we travel to Japan. Not literally, but vicariously. Our three guests recently attended the inaugural Tokyo International Hemp Conference last month and toured an 8th generation hemp farm and processing facility called Golden Hemp that makes sacred ropes used in Shinto temples. On this episode we will talk to Jean Lotus, Robin Destiche and Patrick Atagi. The trip was organized by the National Industrial Hemp Council of America and was funded by USDA’s Regional Agric...
Oct 09, 2024•38 min•Season 4Ep. 35
