Industrial hemp project yields incredible crop

By Chris Tanaka
Source: hawaiinewsnow.com


Industrial hemp project yields incredible crop

WAIMANALO, OAHU (HawaiiNewsNow) -

"It's crazy.  It's crazy fast".  That's how Dr. Harry Ako, the lead researcher on UH Manoa’s industrial hemp project, describes how well one of the varieties has taken to the local environment.

In just ten weeks, several plants have grown to nearly 10 feet in height.

"Notice they destroy the weeds underneath because they grow so much faster than the weeds" he continued.

Longtime advocates were thrilled with the results.

"I'm so excited.  It means so much for our farmers, it means so much for our entrepreneurs" said State Representative Cynthia Thielen, who has long championed the effort.

"This is an amazing plant.  It's going to be a boon for Hawaii farmers, for the Hawaii economy" said State Senator Mike Gabbard, Chair of the Committee on Water, Land and Agriculture.

While the plants have flourished, the industry is still stunted. In Hawaii, industrial hemp growth is illegal.

"There are a few, a very few number of legislators that still are afraid of a crop that won't get anyone high.  Unfortunately, some of them were in key positions last year" said Thielen, in reference to a bill that died in committee.

She and Gabbard, however, remain steadfast in getting legislation passed that will allow farmers to cultivate the crop for one of its thousands of applications.

State Representative Chris Lee sees it as an economic driver.  "With the demise of sugarcane, pineapple...this can be something that can truly replace that on a massive scale.  This can put people to work, can put dollars back in our economy, and market globally".

Researchers will now test the harvested hemp for a variety of factors.  Doctor Ako said if politics weren’t involved, Hawaii could have an established hemp economy in as little as five years.

Industrial hemp, he notes, has a low THC count and does not get you high.

New proposal outlines plans to replace cement with 3D printed sustainable 'Hempcrete' house

By Simon
Source: 3ders.org

It’s no secret that along with the medical industry and the aerospace industry, the construction industry is also on the forefront of a revolution thanks to the possibilities provided by additive manufacturing.   

While previously we’ve seen efforts towards making entire houses from a single 3D print, more companies and individuals are experimenting with creating ‘building blocks’ of various sizes that are much more manageable and in some cases, able to be built with materials that might have a more significant impact on the environment.    

Among others who are looking into the possibilities of offsetting greenhouse gases through the use of additive manufacturing in structural design applications include a motivated individual by the name of Chad Knutsen.

Knutsen, along with a team he is leading, have recently proposed to MIT’s Climate CoLab crowdsourced design platform an idea for replacing cement with 3D printed ‘Hempcrete’ for construction projects with the aim of reducing worldwide CO2 emissions by 7-8%.    

In an effort to help illustrate the possibilities of using the material, Knutsen and his team are planning on building a full-sized 3D Printed Hempcrete Structure to demonstrate Hemp/3D Printing as a sustainable alternative to traditional construction.

According to Knutsen, all of the structural and architectural elements will be constructed of either hemp fiberboard, hempcrete/hempstone, or hemp plastic or resin composites - all produced via additive manufacturing in ‘single-man-manageable-blocks’ that feature a low weight “skeleton” form - or in other words, a structurally-optimized design that only applies material where needed.  The resulting blocks are able to be stacked similar to building blocks in any shape desired by the homeowner with the ability to incorporate special blocks for utilities and wiring into the final design.  

“We intend to produce a hempcrete mixture that I am calling "Hempstone", made of micronized lime, and specially milled refined hemp fibers with incredible strength using a (currently functioning and proven) proprietary technology that breaks down materials utilizing resonant frequency and negative air pressure rather than friction and heat to tease the materials apart long natural structural boundaries,” explains Knutsen in his proposal, which has already received 79 votes from the crowdsourced community.  

“As hempcrete "petrifies" after a few years in the elements, we are excited about the possibilities presented by constructing structures that will evolve from plant into stone, will actually absorb more co2 than they release during construction and during the petrification process, and can be made from a completely renewable material using minimal waste methods for construction.”

Considering that producing just a single ton of cement requires approximately 4.7 million BTUs of energy, it becomes clear just how much of an impact even the slightest alterations to traditional processes can have.

In addition to the obvious environmental benefits of choosing Hempcrete over traditional cement, the material is also capable of standing the test of time without losing aesthetic qualities...an important factor when considering long-term housing situations.  

“The durability is unlike anything we have seen, with the exception of stone, as perhaps even beyond that as there is no mortar joint failure possible,” said David Mosrie of Push Design, a company that was involved in building the first Hempcrete home in the US.

“Studies in Europe have estimated about a 600-800 year life span for the wall system.”

Knutsen’s proposal has outlined the cost of the project to be somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000 including furthering the development of the material itself in addition to the production and man hours required to build the structure.  

“Our major focus moving forward would be on gaining a foothold on the infrastructure construction market, rebuilding the crumbling infrastructure of cities like Detroit using materials that could be cultivated and sourced in their own neighborhoods/areas, creating jobs, healthy soil, healthier air, and longer lasting infrastructure, which also saves on the economy by reducing the repairs needed over time,” added Knutsen.  

To add your vote or to read more about Knutsen’s proposal in-full, be sure to head over to the proposal’s page over at Climate CoLab. 

Hemp ice cream on the menu at Ilfracombe parlour

By NDJPeter 
Source: northdevonjournal.co.uk

FOR anyone visiting Ilfracombe harbour this summer, an ice cream is an essential treat. But for those who are bored of the standard flavours of strawberry and vanilla, a new unusual taste has hit the town – hemp.

The flavoured ice cream is just one of several bizarre concoctions created by Peter and Mary Small.

Following more than a decade of selling ice creams in the town, the couple decided to begin making their own flavours in April this year at their first ice cream parlour, Scoops. But not content with the normal flavours, Peter said he was now keen to offer visitors "something different". "I want to do unusual ones, I don't want to just do another chocolate flavour," he said. "We just started to think, 'how can we set ourselves apart from all the other ice cream shops?'"

As a result Peter and Mary have been testing a number of new flavours on the public, from gingerbread to cream tea – as well as the hemp flavoured One Love ice cream. It follows on from the success of their chocolate bar flavoured ice creams, which take inspiration from Snickers, Bounty and Jaffa Cakes.

Unlike normal ice creams, Peter said all their creations were made in the "traditional artisan way" to create a gelato, and are sold alongside a host of other gelatos at Joe Delucci's – which the couple also run. "What I'm doing here is complementary to Joe Delucci's," Peter explained. "All their flavours will remain but we will have six of our own as well."

Speaking about the new hemp ice cream, Peter said while it was made from hemp seed it would contain none of the properties of marijuana. "Mary's mother is Dutch, so we thought we would have a bit of fun and make it for her," he said. "But we thought we would give it a go and offer it to the public as well."

Although Peter and Mary had split opinions about whether they liked the flavour, the new ice cream received a positive response from passers-by who stopped to taste the new creation.

Hempcrete: A Revolutionary Building Material Made from Hemp

By T. Bud
Source: thedailychronic.net

Hemp is now revolutionizing the way we build homes and office buildings. By using the wood-like inner stalk of the cannabis plant, combined with some lime and water, manufacturers are now molding ‘Hempcrete’ bricks.

What Is Hempcrete?

Grinding the inner stalk of the cannabis plant into fine chips and mixing them with lime and water creates incredibly durable bricks of hemp.
Hempcrete is a strong, breathable, flexible, mold-proof and fire resistant material that offers distinct advantages over conventional building materials.

Benefits of Hempcrete

Modern day building materials are either mined from the earth or harvested from centuries old forests. Hemp crops can be harvested annually in perpetuity. One acre of hemp provides as much paper as 4.1 acres of trees. Considering the trees take decades to grow and hemp takes about 4 months, the advantages become clear.

Not a tree-hugger? No problem.

You should seriously consider using Hempcrete in your next build. The benefits are so clear that if you build a house with Hempcrete in England, you receive an insurance discount. They do this because Hempcrete is proven to be a more durable and safe building material. Not to mention it is a much cheaper option in most cases.

History of Hempcrete

Using hemp as a building material is nothing new, in fact the ancient Gauls used a Hempcrete-like material to build a bridge over two-thousand years ago. Since then it has been a popular building material in Japan for centuries and most recently in Europe.

Hempcrete as we know it was developed in France, because Europe never prohibited the cultivation of hemp plants they have been able to take full advantage of this remarkable and environmentally friendly building material. Using Hempcrete to build homes and even office buildings.

Prince Charles even constructed a zero-carbon home using Hempcrete.

Why Now?

If you are like me, you are probably wondering what took so long to start using Hempcrete if it has been used for thousands of years before. The eco-movement has been running strong for years, so why are we still using scarcely renewable and nonrenewable resources to build inferior structures?

The only answer we can come up with is because the cannabis plant has been prohibited in all its forms since the 1930’s. Because Europe never placed a ban on growing hemp for textiles and building materials, they are light-years ahead of North America.

What Next?

Now that we can import and grow a very limited amount of hemp in America, businesses are adopting it and advancing it quicker than ever before.

One business developed a Hempcrete panel system much like drywall. By moving away from the large Hempcrete bricks, they are innovating new and better ways to use this phenomenally diverse building material.

Farmers gather for hemp lessons

By Michelle Willard
Source: dnj.com

MURFREESBORO – Farmers from across Tennessee gathered Friday afternoon in Murfreesboro to learn about the ins and outs of growing industrial hemp.

A capacity crowd squeezed into a conference room at the Embassy Suites to hear speakers discuss the budding industry.

One farmer, Christian Grantham of Woodbury, explained he became a licensed hemp farmer, so he can help future hemp farmers by experimenting with varieties and conditions.

“I’m here to learn what we can do legally and what we can produce,” Grantham said about growing about an acre of Canda hemp on his Cannon County farm.

Grantham and other farmers are allowed to grow the controversial crop after the Tennessee General Assembly last year passed a law that legalized strains of low-THC varieties of cannabis, as well as measures to start a licensing program. Under the new regulations, industrial hemp can be grown in Tennessee only as part of a research or pilot project.

Industrial hemp is the same plant as marijuana but the different strain has significantly lower content of the psycho-active chemical tetrahydroncannabinol (THC), officials said.

Colleen Sauvé, founder of the Tennessee Hemp Industries Association, said Tennessee farmers were given varieties from Canada, where hemp has been legal since 1998, to see how they thrive in Tennessee. “We want to know how these varieties are performing,” Sauvé said.

So hemp farmers are collecting data about how the plants are growing, which soils work best and what varieties do best where in the state.

“We have a lot of hemp in the ground, and it’s exciting to see where we are headed,” Sauvé said.

Grantham said he wants to see what he and his husband, Vince Oropesa, can do with the plant, specifically therapeutic applications. The couple started growing medicinal plants, like turkey tail mushrooms, to help a family member with the side effects of cancer, he said.

“Being a small farm, we will never be able to produce hemp as a commodity, but we can produce a value-added product,” Grantham said. He said they might be able to extract cannabinoids for use in medicinal hemp oil, which was legalized for limited medical purposes in May. Sauvé said industrial hemp can be used for therapeutic purposes, but mostly it’s grown for fiber, grain and hemp seed oils. “(Hemp seed oil) is used in bath and body products, nutritional supplements, salad dressing,” Sauvé said.

Therapeutic uses wasn’t the only thing Grantham and the other 150 registered attendees were there to learn about. They heard from Canadian farmer James Silcox about growing and harvesting hemp, as well as others who spoke about processing, manufacturing, and research and field data.

Judging by the extra chairs organizers had to bring in the room, interest is high among farmers and agricultural professionals.

Study explains why hemp and marijuana are different

Source: phys.org

Genetic differences between hemp and marijuana determine whether Cannabis plants have the potential for psychoactivity, a new study by University of Minnesota scientists shows.

"Given the diversity of cultivated forms of Cannabis, we wanted to identify the genes responsible for differences in drug content," says U of M plant biologist George Weiblen. While marijuana is rich in psychoactive tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), hemp produces mostly a non-euphoric cannabidiol (CBD), but the genetic basis for this difference was a matter of speculation until now. The study was published in the July 17 online edition of New Phytologist.

The discovery of a single gene distinguishing the two varieties, which according to Weiblen took more than 12 years of research, could strengthen hemp producers' argument that their products should not be subject to the same narcotics laws as hemp's cannabinoid cousin. 

Since 1970, all Cannabis plants have been classified as controlled substances by the federal government, but nearly half of all states, including Minnesota, now define hemp as distinct from marijuana. Efforts to revise hemp's U.S. legal status so that it could again be cultivated commercially have gained momentum in recent years.

The market for hemp seed and fiber in the U.S. surpassed $600 million last year alone. But despite the plant's surging popularity as an ingredient in food, personal care products, clothing and even construction, commercial hemp cultivation is prohibited by the federal government. Currently, all hemp products are imported to the U.S.

Research on hemp is tightly controlled by government regulations. Weiblen and his co-authors at the University of Mississippi are among few labs in the country with the federal clearance to study Cannabis.

"It's a plant of major economic importance that is very poorly understood scientifically. With this study, we have indisputable evidence for a genetic basis of differences among Cannabis varieties," says Weiblen, "further challenging the position that all Cannabis should be regulated as a drug."

Pot supply store eyes national growth

By KATHERINE BLUNT
Source: businessden.com


Oliver Poiss landed an investment that he plans to put to use expanding his business. Photo by Katherine Blunt.

Grow Big Supply looks like a stoner’s Home Depot. And now, armed with some fresh capital, the marijuana supply store near the Western Stock Show is hungry for a bigger slice of the cannabis support business.

Grow Big Supply struck an investment deal with a New York-based technology company last week. And now it wants to expand its national footprint.

“We needed more resources, and they provided the resources,” said Oliver Poiss, Grow Big Supply’s CEO. “I want to do this on a national platform, and I think my model is different than any other retail store you go into.”

The deal gives Grow Big Supply access to technology that assesses plant health by analyzing its chemical composition. Poiss said he plans to build a lab in the back of his supply warehouse to put the technology to use.

“Most of what we have done in this industry has been trial and error by people who aren’t trained,” Poiss said. “Now we can bring some real science to it that doesn’t happen in the trial-and-error kind of phase. We want to combine the cannabis world with technology.”

He also plans to develop a hemp research facility in an adjacent warehouse that now holds growing soil.

“I want to start concentrating a lot on hemp,” he said. “It’s really the future.”

The mural-covered warehouses tucked behind a firehouse at the outskirts of RiNo are stocked with soil, fertilizer, grow lamps and gardening tools. Its psychedelic color scheme reflects the tastes of local artists who have decorated the space inside and out.

“I say to customers, ‘Let’s get your schedule down to make sure you always have what you need,’” Poiss said. “Our niche is showing growers how to be more efficient.”

Behind the counter, you won’t find sleepy-eyed employees swathed in smoke. Poiss said he fires workers who clock in high; he wants customer service to be a priority. He employs 14 people.

“I’m a stoner, and (smoking) focuses me and gets me in the right space of mind to be a productive person,” he said. “But it doesn’t affect everyone in the same way.”

Poiss, 43, moved from New York to Colorado in 1995 after hopping between colleges and trying out different majors. He started nine programs, but he hasn’t earned a degree.

“I’m one credit short,” he said.

He studied architecture at CU Boulder and found work building houses in Steamboat Springs. But the recession demolished his business, he said. He moved to Denver shortly after the collapse.

In 2010, he opened his supply store in an 800-square-foot space at 4501 Wynkoop St. The business brought in $650,000 that year, he said. Three years later, it had grown to encompass 50,000 square feet and raked in $7.5 million in revenue, he said.

2014 didn’t bring as much luck. Poiss made some business decisions that didn’t pan out, he said, and thefts from the store took a bite out of profits.

But this year, the business is on track to expand. Poiss said he plans to host educational programs for growers and will start selling supplies to make beer, wine and liquor at home. He also hopes to sell pipes and other paraphernalia.

“I want to get all that ancillary business I’m missing out on and become a one-stop shop for the industry,” he said.