Erica McBride, executive director of both the Pennsylvania Hemp Industry Council and the National Hemp Association, said at the Pennsylvania Farm Show last week.
“Hemp is going to make a lot of products better and more sustainable,” she said.
Hemp can be used in everything from rope and fiber to food, building materials and even a form of fiberglass used by European auto manufacturers, she said.
It’s also a good alternative for farmers shying away from tobacco, she said. Easy to plant and maintain, it’s also an effective riparian buffer, allowing farmers to plant money crops along waterways and still protect the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
https://www.thecannabist.co/2018/01/22/pennsy...nty/97178/
“It’s not a hard crop to grow, It grows well on all soils, even hard redland. It grows well on clay soils as well. It’s a very hardy plant.”
Every part of the plant is used.
“None’s wasted. Less waste of a product that you’re growing, that’s more money for you,” Finch said. “You’re not losing any of that product. You get a little bit of money for everything.
At the end of the day, the farmer’s got to make money too.”
Finch sells his product to Industrial Hemp Manufacturing, LLC, in Spring Hope, which is a subsidiary of Hemp Inc.
David Schmitt, chief operating officer of the 70,000 square-foot plant purchased in Nash County in 2014, said there are about 25,000 products made from hemp.
The company buys hemp, a super-absorbent natural material, wholesale from farmers and produces loss-circulation materials used as an additive for drilling fluids used the oil and gas industry.
“Our customers are global,” Schmitt said. “I’m working on projects today on five different continents. If they are drilling for gas and oil, they are using an LCM.”
The United States is the largest hemp-importing nation in the entire world, Schmitt said.
“It’s our vision to make the United States the largest exporting nation of hemp-related products in the world,” Schmitt said.
According to Schmitt, about $20 million has been invested in the Spring Hope facility that employs about 60 people.
“We elected to concentrate on the milling operation and our CBD extraction unit,” Schmitt said.
CBD, or hemp oil, is widely used in the treatment of a variety of illnesses.
“Both of those are done and both of them are operational. Now we will be putting our time into getting the decortication line operational,” Schmitt said.
The decortication machine, a $15 million item, is one of only five in the world.
When operational, it will have the capability of processing 40 million pounds of hemp in a year.
“This is the largest hemp manufacturing facility in the United States,” Schmitt said.
North Carolina, once a leader in the production of hemp, is poised to regain that stature in the coming years, Schmitt said.
http://wilsontimes.com/stories/hemp-the-new-cash-crop,95760
“Hemp is going to make a lot of products better and more sustainable,” she said.
Hemp can be used in everything from rope and fiber to food, building materials and even a form of fiberglass used by European auto manufacturers, she said.
It’s also a good alternative for farmers shying away from tobacco, she said. Easy to plant and maintain, it’s also an effective riparian buffer, allowing farmers to plant money crops along waterways and still protect the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
https://www.thecannabist.co/2018/01/22/pennsy...nty/97178/
“It’s not a hard crop to grow, It grows well on all soils, even hard redland. It grows well on clay soils as well. It’s a very hardy plant.”
Every part of the plant is used.
“None’s wasted. Less waste of a product that you’re growing, that’s more money for you,” Finch said. “You’re not losing any of that product. You get a little bit of money for everything.
At the end of the day, the farmer’s got to make money too.”
Finch sells his product to Industrial Hemp Manufacturing, LLC, in Spring Hope, which is a subsidiary of Hemp Inc.
David Schmitt, chief operating officer of the 70,000 square-foot plant purchased in Nash County in 2014, said there are about 25,000 products made from hemp.
The company buys hemp, a super-absorbent natural material, wholesale from farmers and produces loss-circulation materials used as an additive for drilling fluids used the oil and gas industry.
“Our customers are global,” Schmitt said. “I’m working on projects today on five different continents. If they are drilling for gas and oil, they are using an LCM.”
The United States is the largest hemp-importing nation in the entire world, Schmitt said.
“It’s our vision to make the United States the largest exporting nation of hemp-related products in the world,” Schmitt said.
According to Schmitt, about $20 million has been invested in the Spring Hope facility that employs about 60 people.
“We elected to concentrate on the milling operation and our CBD extraction unit,” Schmitt said.
CBD, or hemp oil, is widely used in the treatment of a variety of illnesses.
“Both of those are done and both of them are operational. Now we will be putting our time into getting the decortication line operational,” Schmitt said.
The decortication machine, a $15 million item, is one of only five in the world.
When operational, it will have the capability of processing 40 million pounds of hemp in a year.
“This is the largest hemp manufacturing facility in the United States,” Schmitt said.
North Carolina, once a leader in the production of hemp, is poised to regain that stature in the coming years, Schmitt said.
http://wilsontimes.com/stories/hemp-the-new-cash-crop,95760
