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The Eleventh Northern Colorado Hemp Exposition and Conference (NoCo Hemp Expo) kicks off on April 10, 2025, in Estes Park, Colo., and runs through April 12, 2025.
This year’s three-day event, dubbed NoCo 11, continues the annual NoCo Hemp Expo series, which began on a small scale with a one-day gathering in 2014 in Winsor, Colo., and has significantly expanded since then to become what the organizers call the world’s “largest and most comprehensive hemp-centric trade show.”
To unshackle farmers from the regulatory burden and legal risk they face with growing industrial hemp, a professor at Texas A&M University (TAMU) aims to create novel hemp plants with a different chemical make-up and distinct physical appearance.
Under this concept, these plants would be devoid of cannabinoids, the chemical substances like cannabidiol (CBD) and delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) normally found in hemp, said Prof. Russell W. Jessup, who oversees TAMU’s hemp-breeding program, in an interview.
Catching my eye at the recent Celebration of Modern Agriculture on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was a sleek electric motorcycle on display with white fenders.
The motorcycle was the new S2 Mulholland model from LiveWire. This bike is significant because it represents a historic breakthrough for the fledgling domestic hemp industry. That's because its front and rear fenders are made with a composite material that contains fiber from the stalks of American-grown hemp plants.
Hemp-based building materials were among the select group of housing innovations on display for policymakers and the public in mid-June 2023 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
This year marked the first time that hemp had a presence at the Innovative Housing Showcase, an outdoor event which the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) sponsor on the national stage. 2023 was the showcase's third installment; another is planned in 2024.
The tremendous promise of the hemp plant to help feed, shelter, and power the world while also restoring the planet from environmental damage was on display in early May 2023 at the Agriculture Innovation Mission (AIM) for Climate Summit in Washington, D.C.
The National Hemp Association (NHA) had a table set up highlighting many applications of industrial hemp and how hemp could play a role in addressing climate challenges and bolster sustainable agriculture..
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Scientists are taking a greater interest in studying the flavonoids in the cannabis plant to exploit them for human health, said a biochemist at a recent cannabis conference.
These substances, which are abundant across the plant world, give some cannabis varieties vivid color. They also have demonstrated significant therapeutic effects on humans, Dr. Zacariah L. Hildenbrand, a research professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, told attendees of the 2022 Cannabis Science Conference East on Sept. 15, 2022, in Baltimore.
As the domestic hemp industry slowly moves from infancy toward adulthood, one fledgling organization is establishing a foothold to ensure that hemp growers prosper in coming years.
The National Hemp Growers Cooperative began in 2019 with the goal of building wealth for its members, said Nick Walters, the co-op's managing partner. In the process, the organization will help to strengthen the nascent industrial hemp sector and promote sound environmental stewardship, he said in an interview.
Hemp could play a valuable role as a renewable input for producing Earth-friendly energy, according to Roger Ford, president and CEO of Eureka Energy Corporation, a Wyoming-based start-up with a bold vision for transforming the domestic power sector.
The company would like to see hemp become available to it to generate electric power and make liquid transportation fuels at the novel clean-energy plants it aims to build and operate across the country. he said.
I recently visited George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate on the Potomac River in northern Virginia. I went to learn more about the estate’s hemp crop and Washington’s life there.
Mount Vernon re-introduced hemp in 2018 after an absence of some 220 years. Hemp had been an important crop for Washington when he lived at the estate in the second half of the 18th century. After his death in 1799, hemp growing waned there.
I had never greeted the rising sun on numerous consecutive mornings. That changed in mid-2020 when I committed to watching the sun come up on 90 straight days.
The purpose of this non-scientific experiment was to see if I would notice any benefit to my health. Dr. Jack Kruse, a neurosurgeon and self-described “optimal health educator,” inspired me to do this.
