Rise and Fall of Mom & Pop Cannabis Cultivators in the Emerald Triangle. Featuring Cathy Brown (Episode 21)

Rise and Fall of Mom & Pop Cannabis Cultivators in the Emerald Triangle. Featuring Cathy Brown (Episode 21)

The Emerald Triangle in Mendocino County, California has a rich history of cannabis growers for over 50 years. Listen in as we speak with Cathy Brown, who shares with us the ups and downs of cannabis cultivation and the struggles for small farmers to get proper licensing according to strict and expensive guidelines. Learn how she has turned the setbacks into an opportunity to live even closer to nature and share her rich land with others. Visitors can have a first hand experience of sustainable living on her 160 acre ranch, eat from her organic garden, and have a cannabis-friendly camping experience. BIO Cathy and her husband Bill are off-grid, Cannabis homesteaders for 25yrs, living a lifestyle detached from centralized services and supporting local community-based businesses in Mendocino County, California’s Emerald Triangle. As homesteaders, they both do what they can to sustain themselves on the land. Retired environmental science and biology teacher, Cathy has always crafted herbal remedies/products for the family as needed and when appropriate, Cannabis is an ingredient. Cannabis is treated no differently from any other plant Cathy grows in the garden. Everything grows together. To make the homestead more financially sustainable, Cathy has diversified Farm to Family’s income to include “Cannabis Friendly Tent Camping” through Hipcamp.. Here, they offer a judgement free, private space on the homestead for camping guests to enjoy the forested mountains of the Emerald Triangle. As additional experiences, guests can get a first hand look at their lifestyle: book a tour of the off-grid homestead, eat from the CCOF certified organic gardens, or book some time to chill with their horses. Small events with overnight options are accessible through Farm to Family’s website www.farmtofamilyranch.com [http://www.farmtofamilyranch.com/] Speaker Tags/Social Media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathy-brown-90870439/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathy-brown-90870439/] --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hempfoundation/support [https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hempfoundation/support]

No till, Hemp Farming CBD, Grain & Fiber- Featuring Steve Groff (Episode 20)

Learn best practices for healthy soil and better oil with Steve Groff of Cedar Meadow.Farm. BIO Steve Groff and his family farm 200 acres of cover crops for seed, pumpkins,hemp, and heirloom tomatoes in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Some fields have been continuously no tilled for 40 years! He has spoken all over the U.S and in a dozen other countries. For the past 20 years he has pursued how to make nutrient dense foods a reality on his farm. Steve is developer of the famous Tillage Radish cover crop and is the founder of Cover Crop Coaching which educates farmers and farm advisors about effective cover crop use and soil health principles. His recently released book “The Future-Proof Farm; Changing Mindsets in a Changing World” is available at SteveGroff.com. CedarMeadow.Farm was started in 2020 to market the unique CBD hemp products grown on Steve’s Cedar Meadow Farm. “Better Soil, Better Oil” is this brands claim that is backed up by ongoing studies and based on the results from decades of using this system on his 3 rd generation vegetable farm. Transparency is a high value, and anyone is invited to see for themselves how this regenerative farm is packing more nutrients into the products produced from these well cared for fertile fields! Speaker Tags/Social Media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-groff/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-groff/] --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hempfoundation/support [https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hempfoundation/support]

What's In the Production of Quality Organic CBD & CBG? Featuring President of Kentucky Heritage Hemp, Alice Peterson (Episode 19)

Alice is an exceptional leader in the hemp space with Kentucky Heritage Hemp. KHH has gone above and beyond to lead the industry with top notch and quality CBD for brands such as Charlotte's Web. Listen in as we learn more about regenerative agriculture and what it takes to lead with stellar and respectable business practices in the cannabis space. BIO Alice is the President of Kentucky Heritage Hemp, the premier provider of 100% USDA certified organic CBD and other hemp products. KHH extracts CBD and CBG from organic hemp plants and creates top-of-the-line extract, distillate, isolate and custom blends. The company’s laboratory is cGMP and kosher certified. Kentucky Heritage Hemp's bulk wholesale ingredients are used by the world's most exacting consumer brands for capsules, tinctures, drinks, edibles and topicals.  After starting her career in large public companies (PepsiCo, Kraft, Sears), Peterson shifted to high-growth businesses.  Her early focus was finance and M&A before moving to operating roles.  She ran the Treasury and Corporate Finance functions at Sears during the company’s restructuring (mid-1990s), and was asked to lead the Sears Online business in 1999; she grew it from zero to $500 million in 18 months. She left the Fortune 100 world and in 2002 founded Syrus Global.  Syrus created a technology platform to provide risk management, ethics and compliance solutions for businesses large and small. This service became a core service for businesses focused on Environmental Social and Governance (ESG).  Syrus was acquired by a public company in 2009.  She stayed with the acquiring company through 2011 to open and grow markets in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Peterson is the founder and principal of The Loretto Group, which helped businesses achieve sustainable profitability, operational scaling, and winning cultures.  This built on a prior role as Executive Vice President of Operations for Fluresh, a cannabis grower, processor, manufacturer, and retailer in Michigan.  There, she was responsible for bringing together the people, processes, and systems to build velocity into the core business model. Prior to joining Fluresh, Ms. Peterson ran a healthcare start-up where she operationalized the founder’s concept, raised capital, and enhanced the user experience.  She had previously worked in private equity, where she bought, turned around, and sold companies with her partners.  She started and ran Big Shoulders Capital, an asset-based lender. Alice Peterson has served on the boards of large and small, public and private companies, for more than 20 years.  Public company boards include 360 Communications, Fleming Companies, TBC Corporation, Hanesbrands, and Williams Partners.  She currently serves on the board of SP Plus Corporation (NASDAQ) and chairs its Audit Committee.  She is a qualified financial expert. She is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago, The Chicago Network, and the International Women’s Forum.  She holds an MBA in finance from Vanderbilt University. Speaker Tags/Social Media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicepeterson/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicepeterson/] --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hempfoundation/support [https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hempfoundation/support]

What's In Your Garment? with Peter Gorse (Episode 18)

We wear clothing daily and it touches our largest organ of our bodies, our skin. In addition, our worn clothing goes through the wash almost weekly, and microfibers leak into our water supply. If you could know more about your clothes and what ingredients they contain, would that change your purchasing decision?  Do you think there should be more transparency for the Fashion Industry to share the fabric ingredients and include labor costs, etc? Tune in as we speak with Peter Gorse, who created a “Garment Label” prototype akin to our food’s “Nutritional Label”. BIO Peter Gorse trained as a product designer at Coventry University in the UK. One of his designs won an Audi Design Foundation Award. Afterwards, he set up his own brand to design products, which included a small clothing collection. These products and clothing were sold via a number of wholesale accounts from Dockers Europe, Paul Smith Shops, Selfridges, plus numerous independents. Peter has also gained experience of marketing by filming a promotional video with MTV and appearing on an early morning breakfast TV show called Channel 4’s The Big Breakfast. More recently, Peter has had the opportunity to conduct textile research on regenerated cellulose fibres at Cranfield University in the UK. During Covid, when laboratories were closed, Peter created the Garment Facts label. Which he is now trying to progress after receiving significant interest. Speaker Tags/Social Media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petergorse/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/petergorse/] --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hempfoundation/support [https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hempfoundation/support]

Why Build with Hempcrete? -Episode 17 (Matt Marino)

Matt Marino has moved hempcrete construction to new levels with his modular build system.  Listen in as Matt uncovers the how and why of building with hempcrete. BIO Matt Marino is the President and Founder at Homeland Hempcrete. He has a background in operations and has focused most of his career on supply chain efficiencies, but has also spent years building, renovating, and managing properties. Early on when exploring the hemp industry he realized that building with hemp not only aligned with his interests but also had the opportunity to make a huge impact. His goal now is to make hempcrete more accessible and accelerate the adoption of healthy and sustainable building materials. Founded the same year the US Farm Bill legalized production of industrial hemp, Homeland Hempcrete entered the market utilizing the traditional cast-in-place build method. After years of trial and error they decided there must be a more effective solution that will decrease install time and get more hempcrete to more customers. The solution they have embraced is pre-made, pre-cured, high-quality modular hemp panels. Their panel system allows for consistent quality, quick and easy install, customized design, with finishes that can be applied immediately after install. Speaker Tags/Social Media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-marino-hempcrete/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-marino-hempcrete/] --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hempfoundation/support [https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hempfoundation/support]