A hempcrete residential remodel of a blighted balloon-frame house in New Castle, PA is providing proof-of-concept for local farmers that there exists a realistic outlet for fiber industrial hemp in Pennsylvania.

Ketchum, ID-based Hempitecture, Inc., a pioneering U.S. company in hemp building materials, raised almost $1 million in the first two days through an online regulation crowdfunding investment campaign this week.

The cost of U.S. construction timber is skyrocketing, and a national concern is growing for the carbon emitted by the construction industry. As homebuilders look for solutions, the nation’s small-but-growing number of hemp builders wonder if building with hemp will finally break through into the mainstream construction consciousness.

Arnie Valdez, a professor or architecture and owner of southwestern Colorado’s Rezolana Farm, was one of the first licensed hemp growers in the state. Valdez and his team created a field-to-shelter sustainable demonstration casita with homegrown and hand-decorticated hemp and clay to make adobe bricks.

A publicly traded Canadian hemp company plans to build communities of 50 -100 modestly priced hemp homes in northwestern Colorado per year, with two demonstration homes being built this year, the company spokesman said.

Builders and designers met on one of the earliest licensed industrial hemp farms in southwest Colorado in late April to learn about adobe hemp construction and create a hemp-based prototype for a small emergency shelter.

Hemp processing in the United States is a chicken-and-egg problem. But Amazon could be the 500-foot chicken that solves it.

Hemp building is good for your health, good for the environment, and has potential to be lucrative for entrepreneurs and existing businesses. We have the answer everyone is looking for, we just need to prove it to them.

The Highland Hemp House is a “hempcrete” home in Bellingham, Washington. The project started in 2014 with researching healthy insulation for a small renovation.

An Allentown, Pa. company is the new North American distributor for a European spray-applied hempcrete system that can make hemp insulation quicker and cheaper to install, the company said.

We see the potential to create a new agriculturally based system for producing healthier affordable housing, creating new opportunities in agriculture for farmers, and providing training opportunities for workers.