3 Tasty and Nutritious Ways to Celebrate Hemp History Week

By Laurel Leicht

Source: glamour.com

You’ve probably known about 4/20 since some stoner friends in high school clued you in, but have you heard of Hemp History Week? It's happening right now, through Sunday, with events around the country to educate people about the eco-friendly, nutritious plant.

Yep, you read that right: nutritious. Turns out hemp boasts a surprising number of health benefits—aside from medicinal marijuana. It’s a good source of protein, omega-3 fatty acids, iron, and fiber. Who knew?

Luckily, you don’t have to travel to Colorado to celebrate (though, ahem, you might have more fun if you do). There a bunch of new foods on the market that include the crop’s seeds as an ingredient. Here are a few of our faves that hit supermarket shelves within the past couple of months. Pick one up for a nutritious snack—or, you know, if you want something healthier than Doritos on hand for when you have the munchies.

· Hemp Milk: Organic, cold-pressed juice company Daily Greens offers hemp milks infused with ingredients like matcha green tea and wheatgrass for tons of immunity-boosting power; coconut nectar and Madagascar vanilla give them a yummy, subtle sweetness.

· Hemp Cereal: The crunchy flakes of Peace Cereal’s Maple Buckwheat Hemp blend are just slightly sweet and pack a whopping 7 grams of protein per serving—so you’ll stay full till lunch.

· Hemp Yogurt: Living Harvest Tempt Hemp yogurt is a creamy alternative source of probiotics for anyone who’s lactose-intolerant, vegan, or gluten-free. It comes in four flavors, none with more than 9 grams of sugar.

Are there hemp food products that you enjoy? Tell us what they are in the comments below.

Photos: Stocksy

Hemp Ohana Open House coming this Sunday, June 7, Noon – 3pm

Source: ihemphi.com





101 N Kihei Rd. • Parking at Sugar Beach Events of Hawaii

Guided House Tour • Hempcrete Mini-demo • Hemp History Tent • Q&As w/ Key Officials: Homeowners, Don & Joy Nelson and
Lee Anderson; Architect/Builder, George Rixey;
HFUU Vice-President, Simon Russell; Denise Key, Industrial Hemp Hawaii; Steve Rose, Maui Hemp Institute for Research & Innovations Organizing Committee

See You There!

10 ways to incorporate hemp seeds into your diet

Source: amestrib.com

Wheatsfield — Hemp seeds pack protein, healthy fats, vitamin E and minerals like magnesium and zinc into their little shells. In addition, hemp seeds contain all nine essential amino acids. These little nutritious gems easily incorporate into your diet. Just add a scoop here or tablespoon there.

1. Use hemp seeds in place of pine nuts in pesto. This adds over 3 additional grams of protein per 1/4 cup.

2. Add a scoop on top of salads or mix it in with salad dressings.

3. Add a tablespoon to your smoothies. You can add as you blend for a creamy texture or as a healthy garnish.

4. Add hemp seeds to any homemade protein bar, muffin, bread or baked good recipe. Or replace hemp seeds for equal proportions of a seed the recipe calls for.

5. Add a scoop to granola or cereal or cook with oats.

6. Make a quick hemp nut butter blend. Blend with almonds or another nut, add honey and spread on toast.

7. Mix a tablespoon with an avocado and spread on toast.

8. Add to bean or turkey burgers while you are creating the patties.

9. Add a tablespoon or two to yogurt for a protein-filled breakfast.

10. Make your own hemp milk. Blend and then strain through cheesecloth or nut milk bag the following ingredients:

- 1 c hemp seeds

- 3-4 c water

- sea salt to taste

- sweetener of choice (2 dates, 1-3 tsp of honey or maple syrup, stevia)

- 1 Tbsp coconut oil (optional)

- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Nutrition

Serving Size 3 Tbsp

170 Calories 120 Calories from Fat, 10g Protein, 3g Dietary Fiber, 45% daily value Magnesium, 45% daily value Phosphorus, 20% daily value Zinc, 8% daily value Folate, 8% daily value Vitamin B6.

Atlanta activists to showcase all things hemp

Source: clatl.com

By Adjoa Danso 

HEMP HOP: Activists will promote hemp's uses and history this weekend at the Center for Civic 
Innovation in Downtown

Despite advocate groups (and research) that say hemp, a cousin of marijuana, is one of the most economically viable yet underutilized sustainable materials on Earth, hemp still can 't be grown in most states without permission from the federal government. There are 22 states that have enacted state laws relating to industrial hemp following a provision of the 2014 Farm Bill allowing for the limited cultivation of industrial hemp. Georgia ain't one of 'em.

This weekend, the Georgia Hemp Economic Revival Organization, or GA HEROs, will host Bringing Hemp Home, Atlanta’s official Hemp History Week event. On Sun., June 7 at the Center for Civic Innovation, GA HEROs will focus on promoting hemp usage as a way of strengthening Georgia’s economy and generating safe, sustainable alternatives to products such as plastics, textiles, and even food. There will be a panel discussion to highlight how farming and producing industrial hemp in Georgia can boost Georgia's economy and a showcase of products made with hemp.

Additionally, "Bringing It Home," a documentary inspired by a man who built a hemp-based home because chemicals in conventional construction materials triggered his daughter's seizures, will be screened. And, of course, there will be food, drinks, and other products made with hemp. (No, there won’t be anything “special” about them except that they’re hemp-based.)

The event is free, but GA HEROs suggests a $10 donation to help cover event costs. Reservations can be made here.

Ex-Flyer, Pa. State Senators host a hemp building clinic

Cannabis can be used as a construction material, and it won't catch afire.

By Chris Goldstein
Source: philly.com

A construction worker pours blocks of hempcrete. Credit: Tiny Hemp Houses. 



Not only can you smoke cannabis, you can build with it.

A workshop on building with hempcrete, a cannabis-reinforced concrete, will take place this Saturday, June 6th, in Berks County.

The event will feature talks from former Philadelphia Flyer Riley Cote, Pa. State Sen. Judy Schwank (D., Berks), St. Sen. Mike Folmer (R., Lebanon), St. Rep. Russ Diamond (R., Lebanon) and author/activist Les Stark of the Keystone Cannabis Coalition. A bill to allow industrial hemp farming is making its way through the legislative process in Harrisburg.

The gathering is part of a national series of events called Hemp History Week, with dozens planned across Pennsylvania though Sunday.

John Patterson, a career carpenter of Tiny Hemp Houses in Colorado, will be leading the workshop.

Hemp, when mixed with a lime binder, becomes a lightweight building material that can be shaped into a form similar to a cinder block. When fully cured, it floats in water. Hempcrete structures up to 10 stories tall reportedly have been built with it in Europe.

On Saturday, participants will learn the basics of design and framing along with a history of hemp building materials. The core lessons will focus on hempcrete recipes and the proper mixing techniques. Attendees will go home with their own block of hempcrete.

Senators Schwank and Folmer are the lead sponsors of the hemp farming bill SB50.

“From paper to fuel, clothing to biodegradable plastics, the return of industrial hemp would give Pennsylvania’s farmers the opportunity to grow an in-demand crop that benefits tens of millions of people all over the world,” said Schwank.

During a hearing before the Senate Agricultural and Rural Affairs Committee in May, the measure received the support of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau and the state Dept. of Agriculture. Rep. Diamond has sponsored a companion bill in the House.

Cote has been holding the Hemp Heals Music Festival at Penn's Landing since 2013 to raise awareness for the multiplicity of uses for the plant. The concert takes place this year on July 31st and features Sublime with Rome, Rebelution, Pepper and Mickey Avalon.

"The Hemp Heals Foundation is helping people reconnect to the natural world through education and innovation," said Cote.

William Penn saw hemp as a core crop and it had a rich history in the Commonwealth. Long used for rope and fiber, hemp has found a resurgence today in food products, beauty care products and sustainable building materials. Early European settlers to the area even used hemp as legal tender.

Hemp is in the cannabis family but it's a very different plant. Growing in tall stalks, like bamboo, hemp contains only trace amounts of THC and other cannabinoids compared to its smokeable cousin. So don't pack your hemp t-shirt into a pipe. Inhaling a field of the stuff would not get you high. (And, for that matter, neither would trying to burn down a structure built of hempcrete. Its fireproof.)

But it was marijuana prohibition that maligned the crop and stamped out hemp farming across the United States.

Today, 13 states have passed modern hemp farming laws. The federal U.S. Farm Act of 2014 officially allowed these states to proceed.

Les Stark, who spearheaded the effort for the Pa. bill, helped to organize the building workshop.

"As a historian who studied the old Pennsylvania hemp industry for the past 20 years I am thrilled to see hemp coming back," said Stark.

"It's an exciting opportunity,” Stark said. “Over the next few years we are going to lay the foundation of a great industry and it feels good to be a part of it."

The Hempcrete workshop takes place June 6th at 9 a.m., 631 West Penn Avenue (422 West) in Robesonia, Pa. Information and registration can be found here.

Chris Goldstein is associate editor of Freedom Leaf magazine and co-chair of PhillyNorml. Contact him at chris@freedomisgreen.com.

Ecovative sees potential in New York's industrial hemp industry

By Chelsea Diana
Source: bizjournals.com




Ecovative Design, which makes mushroom materials, wants to be a part of New York's budding industrial hemp industry.

The state is starting a pilot program to test production of industrial hemp at Cornell University, SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry and other schools.

Legislators are in the final stages of authorizing how much can be grown and who can grow it. Once approved, institutions will be able to apply for test plots and could start growing by spring of 2016.
The industrial hemp industry could mean big business for New York companies.

Katie Malysa is material supply manager at Ecovative Design in Green Island. Part of Malysa's job is to find and source new materials for Ecovative to use in its packaging products. She said hemp could be used in everything from food and automotive parts to Ecovative's own mushroom packaging materials.

Ecovative uses corn stalks and leaves to grow eco-friendly alternatives to foam, plastic and engineered-wood products. A mushroom material called mycelium is used as glue to hold the stalks and leaves together in a mold. The molds range from packaging used to protect Dell laptops to the backs of office chairs.

Malysa said Ecovative wants to be part of the research process to help develop material processing and finished product markets that will use New York-grown industrial hemp.

"I'm always interested in products that can be grown closer to home," Malysa said. "This is a great opportunity for us to engage in the local community. It's a great crop because its an alternative agricultural material and can create a processing business to translate that hemp into our own products."

It is currently illegal to grow industrial hemp in the United States because of its association with marijuana, despite having different properties. Industrial hemp's THC content is less than 0.3 percent. The hemp comes from the stalk and the seed of the cannabis plant.

From January 2014 to January 2015, Malysa said that $77 million worth of hemp products have been imported through New York.

"That's a significant market," Malysa said. "A lot of it comes from Europe for fiber and the seeds come from Canada, it's a pretty big industry in Canada."

Malysa said localizing that supply chain has benefits including minimizing the risk for importing, dealing with shorter times and keeping money local.

"The product has to be grown as a crop and processed, so those components can be separated as well as the third part, which is the product market," Malysa said. "A place like Ecovative would make it into a material and sell our products."

Other local industries that could take advantage of it include farmers and the Saratoga Springs thoroughbred race track. Industrial hemp is used in horse bedding and can be used in bedding for chickens and other livestock.

Emergent hemp industry muddled by uncertainties

It's too soon to tell whether hemp will be a boon for farmers or stay in mostly boutique products.

BY KRISTEN WYATT
Source: pressherald.com


Chemists test methods for efficiently turning raw hemp, left, into pulp which can be 
used for paper and other products, at Pure Vision Technology, a biomass factory in 
Ft. Lupton, Colo. The Associated Press

FORT LUPTON, Colo. — The newly legal hemp industry is entering its second growing season with some big questions for producers experimenting with marijuana’s non-intoxicating cousin.

The federal government has allowed limited imports of hemp seed – in Colorado’s case, this month – for research and development purposes. Companies trying to create a U.S. hemp industry are seeking investors not only for unproven products but for a plant that is still classified under the federal Controlled Substances Act with marijuana and thus cannot be patented.

As a result, it’s too soon to tell whether hemp will become a boon for farmers or stay in mostly boutique products that use imported hemp.

At least 22 states allow hemp cultivation, though most are limited to experimental testing, not commercial industry.

Two hemp facilities in northern Colorado underscore the crop’s uncertainty.

A biomass factory about an hour’s drive north of Denver is processing hemp into pulp, sugars and lignin. PureVision Technology CEO Ed Lehburger is also experimenting with hemp stalks, sensing potential for a broad array of industrial uses but unable to secure enough to see whether it could replace wheat, corn and wood as raw materials for use in things like plastics, fuels and packaging.

“We don’t have enough hemp to process,” said Lehrburger, who created a subsidiary, PureHemp Technology, but concedes the hemp business is a few years from taking off. He’s paying $500 a ton for the scarce commodity, compared to $65 for a ton of corn stalks.

But Lehrberger is bullish on hemp’s industrial potential. Pointing to a room-sized machine that processes the biomass into pulp, Lehrburger explained that hemp stalks become pulp faster than other raw materials and require less water.

Just down the road, a greenhouse contains a more tantalizing prospect. The company CBDRx is growing several hundred hemp plants in order to extract cannabidiol – frequently shortened to CBD – a non-intoxicating part of hemp that some believe has a variety of medical applications, from alleviating pain and inflammation to managing seizures.

CBDRx’s owners believe hemp’s therapeutic potential far exceeds any other commercial use. The company, created in January, plans to expand to 200 or more employees within a year, thanks to a large investment of venture capital.

“We see this as a very huge market, much bigger than the marijuana market,” said Alejandro Bergad, CBDRx’s chief agricultural officer for the company. “We’re poised for national expansion.”

But CBDRx must first to develop a product they can’t yet patent and make sure their plants don’t contain too much of the plant’s more popular chemical, THC, which produces a high.

The federal Controlled Substances Act makes no difference between hemp as a plant and marijuana as a drug.

Plants containing more than 0.3 percent THC are considered marijuana and must be destroyed by law, though licensed hemp growers aren’t subject to criminal prosecution if their plants are too strong. Last year, the first in which Colorado licensed hemp growers, agriculture authorities ordered the destruction of about an acre’s worth of plants after spot inspections, out of 1,811 total licensed acres.

Colorado agriculture authorities say the state’s hemp industry is still very much in its infancy, even though the state’s industry is thought to be the nation’s most mature.