The first ad was for Maui Hemp, promoting shoes. Astronomy and Beyond wrote an article about the rescheduling of cannabis to Class III. Western Mass Hemp advertised Nighttime capsules, brought by a farmer who explained terpenes and aromatherapy. Mechanical Mind posted how hemp and bamboo can change the world. Hempproject is promoting disposable, biodegradable hemp-plastic silverware.
Literally every single product listed by the Landman can be made from hemp.
What bothers me most is that we can’ t seem to make anything mainstream. When the Landman talked about our history since 1920, why didn’ t anyone think to look back before 1920? Women had silk stockings, and seamstresses repaired them if they ran. Lipstick was made from hemp. Cattle and chickens ate hemp.
These are the kinds of events we need for hemp to go mainstream.
Last year we lost many lives and homes to our pissed off climate. The entire island of Jamaica needs rebuilding after a hurricane, and wildfires destroyed many homes. We need salespeople to visit construction companies to sell hempcrete, which doesn’ t burn and is hurricane-resistant.
farmer who has tried it has found success, and that farmer tells another farmer.
Building a hempcrete home( above), means saying goodbye to classic concrete.
This conversion may remain painfully slow. However, what we have now that we didn’ t five years ago is a construction infrastructure. It’ s small but growing. More of the posts I see on social media are from folks who have industrial hemp products for sale, and the ability to manufacture and deliver hempcrete to build hemp houses. These pioneers need one thing— us.
What happened between the mid-1800s, when we had a worldwide hemp-based economy and used hemp to pay taxes, and 1920, when the oil boom began in Texas? We know about the PR campaign,“ Refer Madness.” We know about Anslinger and his cronies on the House Ways and Means Committee initiating the marijuana tax stamp in 1937. We know all the dirty tricks used to destroy the plant.
No matter how we try to rewrite history or claim there’ s no alternative to oil, the truth won’ t stay buried any more than the Indigenous Peoples who inhabited this land before us will remain hidden. Both are returning and together.
The highlight of last year was going to Minnesota as a guest of the Lower Sioux reservation during the hemp harvest to attend the 13th International Industrial Hemp Symposium.
The issue I see ahead is mainly PR and sales. If we want to convert construction companies on a large scale, we’ ll need to do some marketing.
“ Landman” Season 2, episode 2, features the International Oil Symposium, showcasing massive heavy equipment and even finding a way to land Gulfstream jets for sale.
Hempcrete: The plant-based building block and insulation that won’ t burn.
Over the past decade, our efforts have been to establish hemp as a legitimate crop through agencies like the USDA, AFFCO, and others. Fortunately, the tribes have been able to bypass these agencies and progress with hemp unimpeded by the U. S. government.
We struggled to build the infrastructure, which has drawn on American ingenuity from young farmers like Zach Gill, working with the Prairie Band Tribe in Kansas, who converted an old cotton gin to process hemp for plastic.
Farmers, like eighty-year-old Bill Cook of Native Prairie Farm and Hemp Research facility in Garden City, have worked tirelessly for the past several years, one farmer at a time, convincing the corn and soy farmers to use hemp as a rotation crop. So far, every
Hemp clothing is eco-friendly, durable, and breathable. It also has natural antibacterial properties, and many other benefits.
They need us to buy their products. No matter what your hopes and dreams are for building projects in 2026, choose hemp. Yes, we will have to pay a little more up front. These companies need to recover their ROI.
When we can offer an alternative to oil workers where they don’ t have to risk getting smashed by an oil rig, blown up, poisoned, or injured by pipes— and work with an aboveground plant that won’ t kill them— I believe it won’ t be a hard sell.
It really is up to us.
Dolores Montgomery Halbin, RN, BSN, and Ordained Nurse Minister, resides in SW Missouri. After her husband passed in 2015, she retired from nursing. She worked with the 2014-2018 Missouri campaigns for legalized medical marijuana. She continues as a cannabis reform activist working toward Federal decriminalization through educational speaking and freelance journalism. Doloreshalbin @ gmail. com.
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