*Hemp Building Company, based in Longmont, CO, will present the first annual Rocky Mountain Industrial Hemp Summit Aug. 28-29 on Fire Cloud Farm. Photo courtesy of Fire Cloud Farm*

Hemp enthusiasts and professionals will gather in Longmont, CO in late August to promote industrial uses of hemp and give a glimpse of new opportunities in agriculture and industry.

The first annual Rocky Mountain Industrial Hemp Summit will present demonstrations, panels and workshops covering the emerging hemp industry and sample homemade hemp-based foods Aug. 28-29 at Fire Cloud Farm.

Longmont-based Hemp Building Company will present a hempcrete building workshop and demonstration on the picturesque 15-acre equestrian farm, which grows a small plot of hemp, said organizer Phelan Dalton, who along with buddy Dan Scowcroft founded the company.

Subscribe for HempBuild Magazine’s free newsletter

Speakers will cover fiber and grain applications of industrial hemp, as opposed to CBD production. Topics will include growing harvesting, processing, regulatory compliance, market demand and hemp building materials.

Dalton and Scowcroft have become a regional source for hempcrete supplies in Colorado, reselling hemp hurd, both imported from Kanabat in France and grown locally. They also source local lime as well as admixture from Europe-based Hemp Eco Systems. The Colorado pair will be building a 1,000 sq. foot hempcrete home this spring on land in Decatur County, KS as a demonstration home, Dalton said.

Summit topics will include growing harvesting, processing, regulatory compliance, market demand and hemp building materials.

Speakers on hemp building will include Dalton and Scowcroft, as well as Ryan Doherty of Hemp Ventures, Eric McKee, of the US Hemp Building Association and colorado-based designer-builder Frank Wetenkamp of Living Craft Design, an expert in lime plaster who has built with hemp-lime and hemp-clay in Colorado. Wetenkamp is also president of the Colorado Green Building Guild.

“Hempcrete shines compared to other natural building techniques,” Wetenkamp told HempBuildMag. “It’s easy to mix and install and it works well in colder climates,” he added.

Hempcrete is gaining a “lot of traction” in conversations about the future of building and embodied energy, Wetenkamp said.

The next step of the building codes is “moving beyond operational energy” and determining which materials actually sequester carbon, Wetenkamp, who was trained as an engineer and architect, said.

Hemp is a champion in the carbon absorption category, squestering up to 5 metric tons of carbon per acre through photosynthesis, and then absorbing more as hempcrete cures.

Click here to go to our FREE online community.

“However, the challenges of hemp building are fitting into the budget and timeline of the building project,” Wetenkamp said. “Hempcrete has to figure out how to meet demands of the conventional construction world or it’ll always be somewhat niche,” he added.

Overview of hemp industry

Other speakers at the summit will discuss the hemp supply chain. Presenters will include Corbett Hefner, of Colorado-based Formation Ag; Melissa & Aaron Baldwin of Nebraska-based South Bend Industrial Hemp; Phil McCready Economic Development director for the City of Greeley and head of the Colorado Hemp Industries Collaborative, Carla Boyd of Hemp Way Foods and Margaret Sasse of the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s Hemp Compliance department.

The summit’s hempcrete workshop will teach participants the elements of hemp+lime mixing and application by insulating a wall in a workshop that was once a goat barn, Dalton said.

The summit costs $50 for the Saturday presentations and $215 for the hempcrete workshops on Sunday. Tickets are available here.