Hemp Revolution

We’re living in the age of magical plants – more specifically, the cannabis sativa plant, known in its non-psychoactive form as hemp. Unlike “marijuana” cannabis, industrial/agricultural hemp contains less than 1% THC, the molecule that stimulates the feeling of getting high, and its applications for everything from clothing to food to building materials and alternative fuels is unparalleled. Yet cannabis-friendly as we are at Honeysuckle, we still had no idea what revelations our journey into the industrial hemp community would bring. When we traveled last year to the world’s largest hemp-centric tradeshow, NoCo Hemp Expo, in the aptly-named town of Loveland, Colorado, a whole new world opened before our eyes. Hemp isn’t just having a moment, it’s a movement, a key component in the effort to save our planet.

“This plant can do more things than any other plant on Earth” -

Morris Beegle, NoCo Founder

Welcome to NoCo

This plant can do more things than any other plant on Earth,” says Morris Beegle, NoCo’s founder. “Bottom line: It’s the most genetically diverse plant there is, and the amount of products or ingredients that can come from [it] is amazing. Everybody should be using hemp in every way— in their diet, in their daily lives.”

A decades-long cannabis advocate, Beegle got introduced to hemp in 1995 when he read Jack Herer’s landmark book The Emperor Wears No Clothes, which extols the plant’s benefits in both psychoactive and agricultural forms. Cut to today, when Beegle is now a major player in the arena, co-founder of the Colorado Hemp Company and TreeFreeHemp.com; an advisory board member for organizations and businesses including Hempstead Project H.E.A.R.T., PureHemp Technology, and the Hemp Business Journal; and a speaker at conferences around the globe. In five years going on six he’s grown NoCo into a powerful forum for education and industry: Nearly 150 businesses were represented at the 2018 expo, including big names in sustainability like Dr. Bronner’s and the Rodale Institute, and over 6,000 attendees sold out both days of festivities. (So many crowded into Loveland’s Ranch Events Complex that the local fire marshal had to lock the buildings!)

Touring NoCo, we find that Morris’s words ring true; there’s no shortage of uses for the plant, and walking the exhibition hall reveals not only fashion, food, and CBD products (the medicinal molecule in cannabis), but also building insulation, automotive materials, and even hemp-derived plastic. From rope and seed oils to jetpack biofuels, we’ve come a long way.

Just as important as hemp’s contribution to our daily lives is what it will do for the environment. Highly resistant to most insects and disease, the plant largely eliminates the need for pesticides and herbicides. A single acre of hemp will yield as much as two or three acres of cotton. It’s fire-retardant, there are no known allergies to it, and it remediates the soil. Even the byproducts are terrific renewable resources: Hemp paper is stronger, acid-free, has a longer shelf life, and costs less than half as much to process as tree paper. Plus it can be recycled ten times without losing its integrity, whereas wood-based paper can only be recycled twice.

No wonder those who work with hemp have such infectious energy. The positive vibes are palpable throughout the exhibits, the panels, and the two day-long seminars, the Hemp Summit and Farm Symposium. Everyone present knows they’re part of something beautiful, a connection to the Earth that’s existed for millennia and can now reemerge after a century of stigmatization. As Beegle writes in the NoCo program’s introduction, it will take a unifying effort to spread the message that’s going to change how modern society views hemp: “WE as a WHOLE will determine the future of this plant and of this industry…

#OnePlan #OnePlanet #OneLouder #OneMission

Deutsche Process

Profile Industries

Dramm

Munch Machine

Ceres Greenhouse Solutions

Aurum Laboratories LLC

Front Range Biosciences

BoMar Agra Estates

BIOCHAR NOW LLC

New West Genetics

Sunstrand

Lilu’s Garden

Mechanical Transplanter Co.

Hempsac

Hawthorne Gardening Co

RAD Extracts

710 Spirits

CPS distributors inc

U.S. Tractor & Harvest, Inc

C&M Transplanters

4Rivers Equipment

Key To Life

Sunrise Genetics

Botanacor Laboratories

Circle Energy, Inc.

PanXChange

Across International

Chimney Rock Farms

Nexus Greenhouse Systems

Healthy Hemp Research

H.e.m.p. Fuel Group LLC

EcoMark Solar

EnviroTextiles

Colorado Extraction Systems

Hortau

Colorado Cultivars LLC

Warfighter Hemp

FlexMOD

MILLER SOILS LLC.

Freida Farms

Sana Packaging

Kind Hemp Co.

Hemptique

Vital Hemp, Inc.

Rohe Hemp

Make American Hemp Again

Wumaniti Earth Native Sanctuary

RuBi Hemp Solutions

Chiefton Supply

Everest Wings

HEMPY’S

Mammoth Microbes

Illuminated Extractors

Power Zone Equipment

Bish Enterprises/Hemp Harvest Works

Salt Creek Hemp

Monosem Inc.

IEC Thermo

Orange Photonics

Kazmira LLC

Taylor Implement Co.

Bioliveit

Wnder Wrkshp

Soil Tech Corp

HGH Seed

Vote Hemp

TriEst Ag Group, Inc

Hemp History Week

PureHemp