The Pennsylvania Grant Program provides $200,000 for hemp education and marketing

On Oct. 17, Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding announced a $200,000 grant program to reward organizations that strive to promote hemp.

The Department intends to provide grant funding to reimburse “half of project cost” with a minimum grant amount of $1,000. Special consideration will be given to applicants who “use other funding and private partnerships”.

“Hemp has presented a unique opportunity to build an industry from the ground up and provide seemingly limitless sustainable building materials, fiber and food products,” Redding said in a press release. “These grants will feed a new industry that was once a mainstay of Pennsylvania’s economy, returning opportunities for farm income and jobs and new opportunities for climate-friendly, environmentally friendly products.”

Applicants must have started on or after July 1, 2022 and completed by June 30, 2023 (although the application window closes on December 2).

This is a slight increase from the department’s total grant of $157,735 in 2021, which was used to fund three separate projects to raise awareness of hemp products as a beneficial fiber and food: Don Services for Hemp as Building Materials, Team Pennsylvania (also hosts). of the Pennsylvania Hemp Summit) at the forefront of education, and the Urban Affairs Coalition All Together Now PA, which also championed hemp education.

The press release commended the administration of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf for its support and development of the state’s hemp program. In July, at the Pennsylvania Hemp Summit, the state Department of Agriculture announced a $460,000 program to help hemp farmers and other unique crops through Specialty Crop Block Grants. “We’re building a new industry, literally from the ground up,” Redding said at the event.

Back in 2019, Wolf also signed the Pennsylvania Farm Bill, which called for “strategic investments” in state agriculture, noting the inclusion of hemp as animal feed.

In other hemp news, tiny homes in Europe were built by Margent Farms using corrugated hemp panels. The surprisingly spacious two-storey homes were created with sustainability, affordability and design awareness in mind. “The fibers bind and trap carbon and prevent it from being released back into the atmosphere, resulting in a very low-carbon product. The plant’s high cellulose content (60-70%) makes it a very strong and durable material. The sheet is bound with a sugar-based resin made entirely from agricultural waste. Our hemp panels are a natural alternative to corrugated steel, PVC, bitumen and cement,” the construction company says on its website.

Earlier this summer, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper signed legislation to remove hemp from the state’s controlled substances list. “Agriculture is North Carolina’s largest industry, and providing North Carolina farmers with the assurance that they can continue to participate in this growing market is right for rural communities and our economy,” Cooper said in a press release.

A hemp-focused museum exhibit debuted in Barcelona in June, highlighting the unique uses of hemp as an important commercial crop and source of income for merchants in Japan. Unique clothing samples and literature will be exhibited under the name “Cannabis Japonica” until February 2023.

Japan is also experiencing its own cannabis renaissance. While cannabis is tightly regulated, the country’s health authorities are proposing to legalize medicinal cannabis to align its regulation with other major countries.

A new report from Technavio examined the global industrial hemp market and predicts the industry could grow to be worth $6.47 billion between 2021 and 2026. Specifically, the report anticipates that the leading hemp product will be textiles. “The growth in the market share of industrial hemp in the textile segment will be significant during the forecast period. Hemp fibers possess important properties, such as high absorptive capacity and good thermal and electrical properties, such as low static charge and high heat of sorption,” the report said. “Hence, hemp is used in the manufacture of apparel, fabrics, denim and fine textiles, increasing demand for hemp in the textile segment. Therefore, due to these factors, the textile segment of the focused market is expected to grow over the forecast period.”