Industrial Hemp Podcast

This week on the Hemp Show, we're revisiting some of the folks we met during our National Hemp Tour of 2021. Five years ago this summer the Industrial Hemp Podcast hit the road to map the industry as it was then. Hemp farmers, processors and manufacturers were few and far between at the time. One of the stops we made in the summer of 2021 was South Bend Industrial Hemp near Great Bend, Kansas, where Melissa Nelson, her husband Aaron Baldwin, and brother-in-law Rich Baldwin had recently installed a decortication machine that processed raw hemp bales into usable streams of fiber and hurd. Melissa's vision for growth has always been about building a resilient regional supply chain. South Bend Industrial Hemp developed a growers group with the intention of educating local farmers to grow the crop. Five years later, the team at South Bend works with a group of 27 growers across Kansas, producing around 7,000 acres of hemp this season. "Our farmers are everything," Nelson said. "At the end of the day, we couldn't do this without them. And the responsibility that we feel because of the trust that they put in us is immeasurable. I carry that weight very heavily on my shoulders and it's very important to me that they have success." Listen to the whole show to hear how South Bend has grown over the past five years — the challenges, the successes, the learning curves and much more. Learn More South Bend Industrial Hemp southbendindustrialhemp.com Lancaster Farming lancasterfarming.com Thanks to Our Sponsors Jungmaven jungmaven.com IND Hemp indhemp.com Forever Green / KP4 Hemp Cutter hempcutter.com Kings Agriseeds kingsagriseeds.com

This week's Hemp Podcast is divided into two parts. First, we take a look at the recent changes in U.S. hemp policy in a conversation with Rachel Umansky-Castro, the agriculture reporter for Bloomberg Government, who has spent the summer covering the fight over the federal definition of hemp. She walks us through what's been happening in D.C. lately, who the various lobbying groups are and what they ultimately want from federal policy. "There are so many divisions among these lawmakers, and it's clear that the hemp issue has split members of the same party, " Umansky-Castro said. Last week, Congress used a continuing resolution to push the so-called Mitch McConnell deadline from November to December 11, and Umansky-Castro explains what that extra month does and doesn't buy the industry. In part two of the show, we check in with Tennessee filmmaker Jordan Berger, whose documentary, "One Plant," is finally finished after several years of production. "The plant itself, you know, it touches on everything. And this thing started as a series because there's just so much, but we ultimately made it one film," Berger said. One Plant premieres at the Nashville Film Festival on September 26, 2026. From there, the film travels around the country to other festivals, with stops in Bozeman, MT; Santa Cruz, CA; and Minneapolis, MN. On October 24, the Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast will host a double screening of One Plant in Lancaster, PA, at the Zoetropolis Theatre with a Q&A and time to meet others from the film and the Pennsylvania hemp community. Doors open at 11:30 a.m., tickets are available on Eventbrite at the link below. Learn More Get Tickets — ONE PLANT in Lancaster  eventbrite.com ONE PLANT Lancaster Screening, Oct 24  oneplant.film/lancaster Bloomberg Governmentnews.bgov.com/ Rachel Umansky-Castro — Bloomberg Government news.bgov.com/author/rachel-umansky-castro-25432161 Hemp Ban Delay Passed by Congress After Blowback From Hardliners news.bgov.com/bloomberg-government-news/hemp-ban-delay-passed-by-congress-after-blowback-from-hardliners Nashville Film Festival — World Premiere, Sept 26 nashvillefilmfestival.org/2026-festival Bozeman Film Festival — Oct 10 bozemanfilmfestival.org Santa Cruz Film Festival — Oct 17 santacruzfilmfestivals.org   NIHC Global Summit — "Seed to Style," FIT, NYC nihcglobalsummit.com Choose Your Change — Farm to Fabric Hemp Textile Symposium  chooseyourchange.org Sponsors Jungmaven — hemp clothing, made in the USA jungmaven.com IND Hemp — Fort Benton, Montana indhemp.com

This week on the Industrial Hemp Podcast, we talk to Patrick Atagi, president and CEO of the National Industrial Hemp Council, the organization that's hosting the Seed to Style hemp fiber summit in conjunction with the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, Sept. 16-18. This event is a continuation of the conversations NIHC facilitated in Raleigh, N.C., last summer when they held their fiber summit at N.C. State's Wilson College of Textiles. But this year, the stakes are a little higher and the energy burns a little brighter. Because that's what New York City does: It amplifies everything. "It's building materials, it's clothing — the different parts and pieces of hemp all together, making it all work together. And the culmination is a fashion exhibit," Atagi said. The fashion exhibit caps the summit on Thursday evening — hemp coming off the field and onto the mannequin, the "seed to style" idea made real. Also, one big nugget of hemp news this week: Congress has hit the snooze button on the McConnell deadline that threatens to shut down the vast majority of the cannabinoid hemp industry. Intoxicating hemp products are still out, but the industry has an extra month to fight for its future. The clock is still ticking, but now the alarm is set for Dec. 11, 2026. Learn more NIHC Global Hemp Summit nihcglobalsummit.com Summit Sessions nihcglobalsummit.com/sessions/ The Goodness of Hemp Act thegoodnessofhemp.org Cornell Hemp hemp.cals.cornell.edu Thanks to Sponsors Jungmaven jungmaven.com IND HEMP indhemp.com Kings AgriSeeds kingsagriseeds.com Forever Green hempcutter.com

This week on The Hemp Show, we check in with Greg Wilson from Hempwood in Murray, Kentucky where, five years ago, Lancaster Farming's National Hemp Tour made its first stop. A lot has happened with Hempwood since then, and on this episode, Wilson brings us up to speed. In many ways, this show is a counting of the blessings — a list of what Wilson and his team have accomplished over the past half decade. We discuss new factories, new products and award-winning installations in the Bowling Green public schools that are changing the quality of education through natural building materials for generations of Kentucky schoolchildren. Learn more HempWood hempwood.com Bowling Green Daily News bgdailynews.com/2026/08/11/students-returning-to-school-amid-numerous-projects/ Cornell Hemp hemp.cals.cornell.edu Ursa Alta from Condor Seed condorseed.com/seeds/industrial-hemp/hemp-ursa-alta/ Murray State University – Center for Agricultural Hemp murraystate.edu/academics/CollegesDepartments/HutsonSchoolOfAgriculture/CenterForAgriculturalHemp/index.aspx Land Between the Lakes landbetweenthelakes.us Floor Covering News fcnews.net/2026/07/flooring-sustainability-summit-honors-2026-award-winners/ Thanks to our Sponsors! Jungmaven jungmaven.com IND HEMP indhemp.com Americhanvre americhanvre.com Forever Green hempcutter.com

  This week on the hemp podcast we take a ride in the RV Time Machine. We're going back five years, back to the National Hemp Tour in the summer of 2021, when we took the podcast on the road — and took my family too. We traveled over ten thousand miles from coast to coast in a rented RV visiting hemp farms, processors and manufacturers across the country. The industry was sparse then and these hemp companies were few and far between in 2021. And keep in mind that in 2021, most of the noise around industrial hemp was actually about CBD flower and canabinoid production. What made our trip different was that we were talking to the people on the fiber and grain side of the industry, where the game-changing potential of this plant is strongest. Think houses, textiles, food and fuel. Think row crops, think big acreage, think about a third crop in with our beloved corn and soy. Think Hemp, big, boring and ubiquitous. But it has to start somewhere. People have to start doing things to make it happen. So in 2021, I set out to meet the people where they were. I went to see the farms, see the fields and see the factories. I wanted to meet the people, hear their dreams and see their visions come to life. And now five years later, with gas prices approaching 5 dollars a gallon, we go back on the road again, but this time we go virtually. Over the next few months, I will be sharing new conversations from the people I met on the road back then. We'll hear what's changed, what's stayed the same and what the industry looks like now. But before we start publishing those episodes, we're going to go back in time and revisit the tour itself. This episode is your atlas for our time travel. Buckle up, buttercup, and we'll see you in 2021. Thanks to our Sponsors IND HEMP indhemp.com Condor Seeds condorseed.com Forever Green hempcutter.com