Hemp-It: How a French Seed Propagator Meets the Demands of a Growing Industry
08/15/24 • 60 min
In this week’s episode of the Industrial Hemp Podcast, Lancaster Farming talks with Jean-Eric Ponthou from Hemp-It and Robin Destiche from KonopiUS.
Ponthou is the manager of sales and development at Hemp-It, a French company established in 1965 that produces certified industrial hemp seeds.
“It’s the only company in France producing certified industrial seeds at international standards,” Ponthou said.
Located about 180 miles southwest of Paris, the company has 30 employees at the headquarters and works with a co-op network of nearly 150 farmers to produce about 2,000 tons of hemp seed annually.
“It’s a co-op company,” Ponthou said, “which means every farmer has one share in the company, so we’re all equal.”
He said Hemp-It produces about 15 different varieties of industrial hemp, and each of these varieties targets some specific market segment: grain, hurd or fiber.
According to a 2023 report by Textile Exchange, France is the largest producer of hemp fiber by volume in the world.
Destiche is one of the founders of KonopiUS, a seed distribution and agronomy company in Virginia, and he has been working with Hemp-It for several years.
Destiche explained how Europe operates from a database of approved varieties, varieties that have already been tested for morphology, stability and THC.
“I think currently there’s over 100 hemp varieties that are registered,” he said.
Hemp-It has also developed several varieties of hemp that contain no THC.
“This way, we open the gate to the food industry, because we can guarantee to get them the lowest the rate of THC as possible,” Ponthou said.
THC is the naturally occurring chemical compound in the hemp plant which at higher levels cause the psychoactive affects associated with marijuana.
THC-free varieties of hemp grain might be a way forward for hemp grain producers who took issue with last week’s historic vote by the American Association of Feed Control Officials to allow hemp seed meal as an ingredient for feed for laying hens.
Various international groups said the THC thresholds in the feed definition were too low and would be hard to reach.
Maybe THC-free grain is the way to go.
Learn More: Hemp-It KonopiUS Thanks to our Sponsors IND HEMP Forever Green Mpactful Ventures Music by Tin Bird Shadow
In this week’s episode of the Industrial Hemp Podcast, Lancaster Farming talks with Jean-Eric Ponthou from Hemp-It and Robin Destiche from KonopiUS.
Ponthou is the manager of sales and development at Hemp-It, a French company established in 1965 that produces certified industrial hemp seeds.
“It’s the only company in France producing certified industrial seeds at international standards,” Ponthou said.
Located about 180 miles southwest of Paris, the company has 30 employees at the headquarters and works with a co-op network of nearly 150 farmers to produce about 2,000 tons of hemp seed annually.
“It’s a co-op company,” Ponthou said, “which means every farmer has one share in the company, so we’re all equal.”
He said Hemp-It produces about 15 different varieties of industrial hemp, and each of these varieties targets some specific market segment: grain, hurd or fiber.
According to a 2023 report by Textile Exchange, France is the largest producer of hemp fiber by volume in the world.
Destiche is one of the founders of KonopiUS, a seed distribution and agronomy company in Virginia, and he has been working with Hemp-It for several years.
Destiche explained how Europe operates from a database of approved varieties, varieties that have already been tested for morphology, stability and THC.
“I think currently there’s over 100 hemp varieties that are registered,” he said.
Hemp-It has also developed several varieties of hemp that contain no THC.
“This way, we open the gate to the food industry, because we can guarantee to get them the lowest the rate of THC as possible,” Ponthou said.
THC is the naturally occurring chemical compound in the hemp plant which at higher levels cause the psychoactive affects associated with marijuana.
THC-free varieties of hemp grain might be a way forward for hemp grain producers who took issue with last week’s historic vote by the American Association of Feed Control Officials to allow hemp seed meal as an ingredient for feed for laying hens.
Various international groups said the THC thresholds in the feed definition were too low and would be hard to reach.
Maybe THC-free grain is the way to go.
Learn More: Hemp-It KonopiUS Thanks to our Sponsors IND HEMP Forever Green Mpactful Ventures Music by Tin Bird Shadow
Previous Episode
Lower Sioux Host Field Day September 5, plus AAFCO Votes on Hemp Seed Meal
Our guest this week is Danny Desjarlais, head builder for the Lower Sioux Indian Community in Morton Minnesota, where the tribe is undertaking one of the most ambitious hempcrete building projects in the country.
Desjarlais said his community is has been experiencing a housing crisis. No so much homelessness, he said, but overcrowding—extended families all living together in small, poorly constructed houses on the reservation.
But with hempcrete, he sees a path forward to provide respectable, comfortable, dignified housing for the people of the Lower Sioux in an efficient yet timely manner.
In the past two years, Desjarlais and his crew have completed four hempcrete houses and a retro fit of an existing house. More hempcrete houses than most communities in the world, but still it’s not enough.
“Our main need here in the community is housing. And so we really need to make a difference,” he said. “And even four houses, five houses a year isn't going to make a big enough impact for what we need.”
A recent census of the community determined the need was closer to 200 houses, which would more than double the number of houses on the reservation.
One of the issues with building in Minnesota is the weather. Desjarlais said winter starts late and ends early, so there is a limited window for on-site construction, which is why the tribe is planning to make prefab houses from hempcrete panels—4' by 8' sections of walls that can be built in a facility and then assembled on site.
This is the plan the tribe is working towards. To that end, they have developed a processing facility that will be opening soon, so they can be self-sufficient. They’ll grow the hemp, process the hemp, and build houses for their people.
The hemp houses and processing facility will be on display to the public on September 5, 2024, when the tribe is hosting their inaugural field day.
Also, on this episode, we hear from Morgan Tweet and Andrew Bish from the Hemp Feed Coalition moments after AAFCO voted to approve hemp as a livestock feed for laying hens.
Learn More: Lower Sioux Indian Community
Thanks to our sponsors: IND HEMP Forever Green
Music courtesy of Tin Bird Shadow
Next Episode
Pennsylvania Hemp Shines Bright in the Spotlight
This week on the Hemp Podcast we bring you Part One of our coverage of the Lancaster County Hemp Circuit, a two-day, four-farm hemp event that shone a bright light on hemp in Pennsylvania and attracted attendees from all over the U.S. and a few foreign countries.
On Part One of our Hemp Circuit coverage on the podcast, we hear from a handful of out-of-state attendees.
We’ll hear a few impressions of the county.
“It’s beautiful farmland,” said Larry Smart, a plant breeder and head of the hemp program at Cornell University. “I’ll just say the roads here are twisty and turny. We’re used to straighter roads in the Finger Lakes, but the landscape is just spectacular.”
We’ll hear how Pennsylvania fits into the national hemp industry landscape.
Bert James, a North Carolina farmer and co-founder of hemp seed distributor KonopiUS, called Pennsylvania a “hemp playground, in the way that they have access to so many different varieties. There’s a good latitude. They’ve got good soil.”
“So there’s a lot of potential here, but we’re going to obviously need to get some processing online to serve this opportunity,” he said.
And we’ll hear why Pennsylvania might just be the perfect place for the intersection of business, innovation and opportunity.
Larry Serbin, from Hemp Traders in California, is impressed with the farmers and Amish machine shops in Lancaster County.
He said he is working with some folks in Pennsylvania to develop “green decorticating” techniques.
“The hemp would be decorticated in the field, which would result in farmers earning a lot more money for the crop and the cost of the hemp raw materials, like the hurd and bast fiber, to be about half what they are now,” Serbin said.
On this episode, we will hear from: Morris Beegle, WAFBA; Eric Singular, International Hemp; Larry Smart, Cornell University; Wendy Mosher, New West Genetics; Larry Serbin, Hemp Traders; Laura Sullivan, University of Vermont; Bert James, KonopiUS; Rusty Peterson, IND HEMP; David Suchoff, NC State; Keith Harvey, UGP Global Energy
Upcoming Hemp Events: Sept. 11 Kifcure Hemp Harvest Open House https://kifcure.com/event/kifcure-hemp-harvest-open-house/
Sept. 12 Cornell University Fiber & Grain Field Day https://rchemp.com/2024-hempcrete-workshop/ Sept. 20-22 Right Coast Hemp Hempcrete Workshop https://rchemp.com/2024-hempcrete-workshop/ Thanks to our Sponsors! IND HEMP
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