July 31, 2025

Global Fiber Hemp Summit Box Set: Sides 1 and 2

50 minutes

Dear listeners,

This week on the Hemp Show, we’re dropping the needle on a very special commemorative box set from the 2025 Global Industrial Hemp Fiber Summit in Raleigh, North Carolina.

In this first installment — Sides 1 and 2 — of a three-episode miniseries, we hear from a wide range of voices building the fiber side of the hemp industry from the ground up: farmers, machine makers, wet processors, entrepreneurs and professors. They’re working in the field and in the lab, bridging research and manufacturing, and helping steer the industrial hemp conversation back to its core: fiber, hurd and regenerative purpose.

NIHC’s Global Fiber Hemp Summit in Raleigh was special. No question about that. And I thought it deserved special treatment here on the podcast. I am hopeful that I was able to capture the energy in the room. I interviewed nearly 40 people during the summit, and they each have a story to tell about their part of the supply chain.

Forty interviews is too long for one show. It’s too long for two shows. but it’s perfect for this three-disc set. I’m calling it a “box set” because that’s how it feels — like a classic record album like "All Things Must Pass," "Joe’s Garage," "Europe ’72," or "The Last Waltz."

Thank you for indulging me.

— eric

Side One — Voices Featured:

• Guy Carpenter – President, Bear Fiber [00:02:25]

• Maciej Kowalski – Founder, Kombinat Konopny, Poland [00:05:06]

• Hardy Sullivan – Managing Director, THIES US [00:12:24]

• Bryan Wilson – Project ELI, Environmental Living Industries, Texas [00:15:56]

• Dan Matthews – Project Manager, Tatham Ltd., U.K. [00:17:52]

• Shira Adler – Founder, EcoSynergy LLC [00:20:18]

• Anjli Kumar – Founder, Inner Bark Heritage [00:23:07]

• Alejandro Diaz – Hemp Fortex [00:25:45]

• Rick Brown – Brown Family Farms & Produce N.C. [00:29:04]

Side Two — Voices Featured:

• Larry Smart – Hemp Geneticist, Cornell University [00:35:25]

• Monique Anderson – Farmer, Orangeburg County, S.C. [00:38:57]

• Morris Beegle – Founder, WAFBA/Let’s Talk Hemp [00:41:39]

• Keith Dunn – East Coast Hemp Supply, Dunn, N.C. [00:42:11]

• David Suchoff – North Carolina State University [00:46:37]

Stay tuned for sides 3 and 4.