This week on the hemp podcast, Lancaster Farming talks with Alejandra Diaz, a hemp entrepreneur, educator and activist from Los Angeles.

Diaz does business development and sales for Hemp Fortex, a Chinese manufacturer of sustainable textiles with a specialization in hemp fabrics.

“Most of our fiber comes from China, and currently sourcing some from France as well,” Diaz said. “And (we are) now looking to the U.S. and other parts of the world to source fiber.”

Diaz has been a leader in her community, organizing education programs around hempcrete, hemp farming and hemp clothing.

Also on the podcast this week, we share an interesting hempcrete project. It’s a collaboration between the Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast and Americhanvre Cast-Hemp, a hempcrete building company based in Barto, Pennsylvania.

The idea was to build hempcrete acoustic panels for the walls of the new podcast studio in Lancaster Farming’s Ephrata office.

Earlier this week, podcast host Eric Hurlock and Cameron MacIntosh from Americhanvre built wooden frames and filled them with pigmented hempcrete using the cast in place method.

The panels will spend the next few weeks curing in the Americhanvre shop and then will be trimmed out with HempWood, a hemp-based wood alternative made in Kentucky.

Alejandra’s Socials Instagram: @alejandrahemp_ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandra-diaz-617737188/

Hemp Fortex (wholesale hemp fabric)https://www.hempfortex.com

Hemp Fortex Company Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FnWselGBD8&t=126s

Bastine (retail hemp fabric)https://bastine.com

Industrial Hemp Alliance at Los Angeles Trade Technical College https://www.industrialhempalliance.net

Sustainable Culture: Hemp x Couture Fashion Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG5QNWmcYP4&t=19s

Hemp Traders https://www.hemptraders.com

Hemp Traders YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@hemptraders5881/videos

News Nuggets

Pennsylvania hemp initiative aims to build out regional supply chainshttps://hemptoday.net/pennsylvania-hemp-initiative-aims-to-build-out-regional-supply-chains/

Industry Leaders’ hemp vision for the 2023 Farm Bill falls far shorthttps://hemptoday.net/industry-leaders-hemp-vision-for-the-2023-farm-bill-falls-far-short/

Thanks to our Sponsors!

IND HEMPhttps://indhemp.com/

National Hemp Associationhttps://nationalhempassociation.org/

Americhanvrehttps://americhanvre.com/