On this episode we talk to David Suchoff, alternative crops professor and Extension specialist at North Carolina State University, about hemp at NC State and the research he oversees as leader of the Alternative Crops program and as the director of the Hemp Research Consortium.
We talk about hemp in the South and why hemp for textiles makes sense in North Carolina and how his time in the Peace Corps informs his work in agriculture today, and how his musical education prepared him for success.
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David Suchoff is an assistant professor and an Extension specialist at North Carolina State University, where he leads the alternative crops program.
“Farmers in North Carolina, just like farmers across the nation, are kind of always looking for new alternative crops,” he said.
That’s especially true in the Tar Heel State where tobacco was once king.
“But that market has changed and continues to change,” Suchoff said, “so farmers are seeking alternatives.”
One of those alternatives is industrial hemp.
When Suchoff started at NC State five years ago, hemp was on the cusp of becoming a legal commodity crop again after 80 years of prohibition, and farmers had lots of question.
“I knew that it was going to be a crop that I would be working with when I started, just because of the sheer number of farmers that were growing it in our state,” Suchoff said.
Farmers’ interest in hemp and the types of questions they bring to Extension has changed since the 2018 Farm Bill brought the crop back to the fields of Carolina.
But Suchoff said hemp research still makes up “the larger percentage of the type of work that we do” in the alternative crops program.
“When we started off working with hemp, we were doing primarily floral hemp research. That's where the industry was. That's what our farmers were growing,” he said.
But he said he sees tremendous growth and interest from farmers and industry in hemp fiber production.
“And so we're really shifting with that to make sure that our work is applicable to our stakeholders, who are the farmers,” he said.
Suchoff said hemp is a climate-smart crop that fits nicely into the regenerative model, but cautions against overhyping the crop before more research is in.
“I'll admit that there are some pretty big claims that are being made in the hemp realm that are not yet backed up by good data,” he said, especially “when we talk about carbon sequestration.”
Before making claims about what hemp can and cannot do, “it's really critical that we have more life cycle analysis,” he said, from seeds in the ground all the way to finished product.
Suchoff is optimistic about hemp’s potential for carbon sequestration, but said, “We just have to be really smart about how we do it and how we quantify it.”
Suchoff is also the director of the Hemp Research Consortium, a partnership between academia, government and industry to address the challenges facing the nascent hemp industry.
“The strength of the consortium lies in the diversity of its members, both our academic members and our industry members. So we want hemp breeding companies, we want textile companies, we want grain companies,” he said.
From agronomics to processing and manufacturing, the hemp industry has a complex puzzle to solve.
“And if we're really to effect change, we have to take a holistic approach to do that,” Suchoff said. “In order to have a holistic approach, we need to have as many voices at the table as possible.”
NC State Hemp Extension Webportal
FFAR Hemp Research Consortium
https://foundationfar.org/consortia/hemp-research-consortium/
News Nuggets
Alaska moves to restrict marijuana-like ‘diet weed’ products derived from hemp https://www.adn.com/alaska-marijuana/2023/10/09/alaska-moves-to-restrict-marijuana-like-diet-weed-products-derived-from-hemp/ DNR Releases Updated Regulations, Opening the Door for Industrial Hemp Production https://www.akbizmag.com/industry/government/dnr-releases-updated-regulations-opening-the-door-for-industrial-hemp-production/ Building crews on Lower Sioux Reservation using industrial hemp https://www.kvrr.com/2023/10/14/building-crews-on-lower-sioux-reservation-using-industrial-hemp/ ‘This is the future:’ New natural building material made of hemp could help Illinois and the US go green https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2023/10/10/23911747/building-material-hemp-illinois-green-environment Go see Common Ground https://commongroundfilm.org/ Thanks to our Sponsors
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