On this week’s Hemp Podcast, Lancaster Farming talks with Tom Trite, Sairam Rudrabhatla, Kenneth Okrepkie and David Minnig, who make up part of the leadership team of the Pennsylvania Hemp Engine.
Funded by a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the Pennsylvania Industrial Hemp Engine Development Project is a strategic planning effort aimed at creating an innovative and inclusive economic ecosystem centered on industrial hemp.
Spearheaded by Vytal Plant Science Research and partnering with universities, including Penn State and Emory University, and various stakeholders, the project seeks to advance technology, stimulate regional economies, address societal challenges and generate high-wage jobs.
“The National Science Foundation wanted to reach out across the entire country to identify ways to stimulate the economy and take science and find out applications for commercialization,” said Okrepkie from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania, a key stakeholder in the project.
“We're talking about everything from space technology to lasers to industrial hemp,” he said. “What we've done is created an opportunity for the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, number one, that we competed on a national level to win an award.”
And No. 2, he said, is the opportunity for Pennsylvania to be a national leader in the hemp industry.
The Pennsylvania Industrial Hemp Engine Development Project is focused on the industrial applications of hemp fiber and grain and is not focused on CBD or medicinal uses of the cannabis plant.
Learn more:
Pennsylvania Industrial Hemp Engine Development Project
Vytal Plant Science Research
National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engines
https://new.nsf.gov/funding/initiatives/regional-innovation-engines
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