Biography/Memoir

Hempcrete insulation submitted for U.S. building codes

Under current U.S. codes, builders, engineers, and architects must get approval to use hempcrete on a project-by-project basis, although the material is commonly used in the United Kingdom and France and has been approved for use for 30 years in Europe. The U.S. Hemp Building Foundation, the non-profit arm of the U.S. Hemp Building Association (USHBA), earlier…

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Biography/Memoir

Hemp batteries are eight times more powerful than lithium, scientists discover

“We’re making graphene-like materials for a thousandth of the price – and we’re doing it with waste.” Tesla’s new million-mile battery is made from lithium-iron phosphate, which is supposed to last twice as long as conventional lithium-ion batteries. While more abundant and cheaper than lithium-ion, lithium-iron-phosphate still can’t compete with the apparently far-more-powerful (and renewable) hemp… Original…

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Science

Is hempcrete the future of construction?

Hemp insulation is a special niche in the construction market that is yet to be fully maximized. A meager 0.5% of the whopping 3.3 million tons of insulation done each year pertains to hemp. For the future of hempcrete to grow in the industry, players in the construction industry must be educated on the material.…

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Politics

USDA unveils guidelines for Federal loans to hemp business

Borrowers who are not licensed to grow hemp will be considered in non-monetary default and any losses will not be covered … [Also] hemp that contains more than 0.3 percent THC must be disposed of under the department’s rules.  “While it’s understood that this new commodity will likely produce some servicing challenges because of State…

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Politics

…USDA hemp rules announcement

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), another vocal advocate for hemp, also weighed in on USDA’s interim rule. “I’ve long said that if you can make and sell hemp products in America, you should be able to grow hemp in America,” he said in a statement. “Congress passed my bipartisan Hemp Farming Act, and now federal regulations must…

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Anthropology

Hemp poised to become major crop

Although hemp’s popularity is nothing new, its potential as an agricultural commodity has blossomed since the 2018 Farm Bill, which classified industrial hemp as a commodity and removed it from the list of controlled substances. Even when Oregon had a hemp program, which was established in 2015 after the 2014 Farm Bill passed, the industry…

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Anthropology

OSU launches global hemp research center

Jay Noeller, an OSU professor of crop and soil science who is to head the new center also noted a sense of an historical cycle coming around. “By bringing the center to Oregon, you can also think of it as we’re returning it home, because this was the site of national research on hemp from…

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Science

Hemp fibres ‘better than graphene’

Electric cars and power tools could harness this hemp technology, the US researchers say. The waste fibres from hemp crops can be transformed into high-performance energy storage devices, scientists say. They “cooked” cannabis bark into carbon nanosheets and built supercapacitors “on a par with or better than graphene” – the industry gold standard. Original Article…

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