Pennsylvania Hemp Shines Bright in the Spotlight

This week on the Hemp Podcast we bring you Part One of our coverage of the Lancaster County Hemp Circuit, a two-day, four-farm hemp event that shone a bright light on hemp in Pennsylvania and attracted attendees from all over the U.S. and a few foreign countries. On Part One of our Hemp Circuit coverage on the podcast, we hear from a handful of out-of-state attendees. We’ll hear a few impressions of the county. “It’s beautiful farmland,” said Larry Smart, a plant breeder and head of the hemp program at Cornell University. “I’ll just say the roads here are twisty and turny. We’re used to straighter roads in the Finger Lakes, but the landscape is just spectacular.” We’ll hear how Pennsylvania fits into the national hemp industry landscape. Bert James, a North Carolina farmer and co-founder of hemp seed distributor KonopiUS, called Pennsylvania a “hemp playground, in the way that they have access to so many different varieties. There’s a good latitude. They’ve got good soil.” “So there’s a lot of potential here, but we’re going to obviously need to get some processing online to serve this opportunity,” he said. And we’ll hear why Pennsylvania might just be the perfect place for the intersection of business, innovation and opportunity. Larry Serbin, from Hemp Traders in California, is impressed with the farmers and Amish machine shops in Lancaster County. He said he is working with some folks in Pennsylvania to develop “green decorticating” techniques. “The hemp would be decorticated in the field, which would result in farmers earning a lot more money for the crop and the cost of the hemp raw materials, like the hurd and bast fiber, to be about half what they are now,” Serbin said. On this episode, we will hear from: Morris Beegle, WAFBA;  Eric Singular, International Hemp; Larry Smart, Cornell University; Wendy Mosher, New West Genetics; Larry Serbin, Hemp Traders; Laura Sullivan, University of Vermont; Bert James, KonopiUS; Rusty Peterson, IND HEMP; David Suchoff, NC State;  Keith Harvey, UGP Global Energy Upcoming Hemp Events: Sept. 11 Kifcure Hemp Harvest Open House https://kifcure.com/event/kifcure-hemp-harvest-open-house/ Sept. 12 Cornell University Fiber & Grain Field Day https://rchemp.com/2024-hempcrete-workshop/ Sept. 20-22 Right Coast Hemp Hempcrete Workshop https://rchemp.com/2024-hempcrete-workshop/ Thanks to our Sponsors! IND HEMP National Hemp Association Forever Green