Jan Slaski — Hemp Breeding on the Canadian Prairies

Colin Steddy — Soil, Carbon, and Grassroots Farming Down Under

This is part five of a ten-part podcast series documenting the European Industrial Hemp Association's 23rd Annual Conference in Poznan, Poland, at the Institute of Fiber Plants and Medicinal Medicine, June 10-12. Colin Steddy is a grassroots farmer from Western Australia who got into hemp in 2005 after selling his farm following two droughts and a divorce. He's a no-till advocate, a carbon thinker and someone who speaks from the heart about soil biology and systems thinking. "Everything affects something else. So you gotta understand when you make one decision what around it gets affected because it's not a single thing that makes things work," Steddy said. Steddy grew up on a sheep farm south of Perth, learned to shear, and spent decades in cropping and controlled traffic farming. He's been knocked down three times by deals worth five million dollars or more that fell through — each time he picked himself up. At 42, he lost his farm and had to start over. Hemp gave him that second chance. What draws Steddy to the Poznań conference isn't theory. It's reality. "They're not talking about s*** and they're not talking about the warm and fuzzies, they're talking about the things that happen and the obstacles they're faced," he said. He points to a Ukrainian hemp processor whose buildings were bombed, who lost power for three months, but kept moving forward. Real people doing real things — not scientists studying irrelevant data. On carbon credits, Steddy is clear: they're icing on the cake, not the foundation. Carbon credit schemes are political and can disappear overnight. The real work is building soil organic matter through farming practices you should be doing anyway. His advice to farmers: find a partner who covers baseline costs and shares credit returns. Get your baseline established early, before you start your regenerative journey, so you capture the financial benefit. And remember biochar isn't just a home for soil biology — it's a condominium. But you have to stock it with food: minerals, nutrients and plants. Everything affects something else. Learn More Hemp Inside https://hempinside.com.au [https://hempinside.com.au/] The Hemp Corporation http://thehempcorp.com.au [http://thehempcorp.com.au/] iHemp NSW https://ihempnsw.org.au [https://ihempnsw.org.au/] Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants (IWNIRZ) https://iwnirz.pl [https://iwnirz.pl] Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants (IWNIRZ) iwnirz.pl [https://iwnirz.pl] European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) eiha.org/ [https://eiha.org/] EIHA Conference eiha-conference.org/ [https://eiha-conference.org/] Thanks to Our Sponsors Condor Seed condorseed.com [https://condorseed.com] HEMI — The Hemp Education and Marketing Initiative thegoodnessofhemp.org [https://thegoodnessofhemp.org] Bish Enterprises — FiberCut Hemp Harvesting bishenterprise.com/fibercut [https://bishenterprise.com/fibercut] 1937 International 1937international.com [https://1937international.com]

Jan Slaski — Hemp Breeding on the Canadian Prairies

This is part four of a ten-part podcast series documenting the European Industrial Hemp Association's 23rd Annual Conference in Poznan, Poland, at the Institute of Fiber Plants and Medicinal Medicine, June 10-12. Jan Slaski, hemp researcher and plant breeder at InnoTech Alberta, has spent nearly a quarter-century developing industrial hemp on the Canadian prairies. He came to Canada from Poland in 1993 and started hemp research in 2001, testing nearly 90 varieties from around the world to find what worked on the Canadian prairies. His team at InnoTech Alberta addresses the entire value chain — from seed to final product — across genetics, agronomy, processing and engineering. But Slaski's real battle has been cultural, not agronomic. People conflate industrial hemp (low-THC fiber crops) with cannabis (high-THC intoxicating plants). Even at trade shows, visitors holding hemp seeds ask if they'll get high. "This thing between hemp and cannabis, because you know, just like a word matters, how people perceive reality, you know they perceive through words, right?" he said. For 25 years, Slaski has been destigmatizing industrial hemp — fighting regulatory confusion and consumer misunderstanding. His current focus is artificial intelligence applied to hemp breeding. Using drone technology and computer vision, his team is developing tools to automatically identify male plants in seed production — work currently done by hand. Beyond genetics, Slaski emphasizes that reliable feedstock matters most. In Canada, hemp breaks disease cycles that devastate canola. Farmers generate income while improving soil health. The conference message: industrial hemp has moved from abstract "world-saving" rhetoric to practical business. Learn More InnoTech Alberta https://www.inotechalberta.ca [https://www.inotechalberta.ca] International Seed Standards Global Congress https://www.worldseed.org [https://www.worldseed.org] Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants (IWNIRZ) https://iwnirz.pl [https://iwnirz.pl] Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants (IWNIRZ) iwnirz.pl [https://iwnirz.pl] European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) eiha.org/ [https://eiha.org/] EIHA Conference eiha-conference.org/ [https://eiha-conference.org/] Thanks to Our Sponsors Condor Seed condorseed.com [https://condorseed.com] HEMI — The Hemp Education and Marketing Initiative thegoodnessofhemp.org [https://thegoodnessofhemp.org] Bish Enterprises — FiberCut Hemp Harvesting bishenterprise.com/fibercut [https://bishenterprise.com/fibercut] 1937 International 1937international.com [https://1937international.com]

Estelle Delangle — Building a Whole-Plant Hemp Bioeconomy

This is part three of a ten-part podcast series documenting the European Industrial Hemp Association's 23rd Annual Conference in Poznan, Poland, at the Institute of Fiber Plants and Medicinal Medicine, June 10-12. Estelle Delangle, director of the Hemp European Hub in Troyes, France, frames the hemp challenge differently than most: The material isn't the problem, the world is. "The world is not ready for hemp. Today, when you use hemp in textile, for example, you have to make it look like something else. You have to make it look like cotton. You have to make it look like wool. You have to make it look like linen or flax," she said. Delangle has spent six years building the Hemp European Hub — a cooperative company that coordinates complex, cross-sector projects across Europe and beyond. The Hub isn't a traditional industry cluster or a government agency. It's a working laboratory for what Delangle calls "cooperative bioeconomy applied to hemp." The European hemp model, she explains, rests on three pillars: farmers who built their own markets and machines; price stability that makes the sector resilient; and whole-plant utilization — fiber for textiles, grain for food, hurd for bedding and leaves for extraction. No waste. "We are trying to do at the hub is to act stone by stone on those socio-technical obstacles," Delangle said, describing her approach to regulatory change, consumer perception and cross-sector cooperation. "Time is key. You don't change the world overnight." The Hub hosts the World Hemp Forum every two years in Troyes, drawing 300 participants from around the world. The next edition is November 24–26, 2026. Learn More Hemp European Hub (Pôle Européen du Chanvre) https://www.pole-europeen-chanvre.eu [https://www.pole-europeen-chanvre.eu/en/] World Hemp Forum 2026 https://www.pole-europeen-chanvre.eu/world-hemp-forum [https://www.pole-europeen-chanvre.eu/en/std-world-hemp-forum2026/] La Chanvrière — Hemp Cooperative https://www.lachanvriere.com [https://www.lachanvriere.com/en/home/] InterChanvre — French Hemp Industry Organization https://www.interchanvre.org [https://www.interchanvre.org/about-us] Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants (IWNIRZ) iwnirz.pl [https://iwnirz.pl] European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) eiha.org/ [https://eiha.org/] EIHA Conference eiha-conference.org/ [https://eiha-conference.org/] Thanks to Our Sponsors Condor Seed condorseed.com [https://condorseed.com] HEMI — The Hemp Education and Marketing Initiative thegoodnessofhemp.org [https://thegoodnessofhemp.org] Bish Enterprises — FiberCut Hemp Harvesting bishenterprise.com/fibercut [https://bishenterprise.com/fibercut] 1937 International 1937international.com [https://1937international.com]

Witold Czesiak — Professionalizing Hemp Through Genetics and Licensing

This is part two of a ten-part podcast series documenting the European Industrial Hemp Association's 23rd Annual Conference in Poznan, Poland, at the Institute of Fiber Plants and Medicinal Medicine, June 10-12. Witold Czeszak, co-founder and head of the Polish Hemp Program at the Institute of Natural Fibers and Medical Plants, talks about Polish hemp genetics, the importance of IP protection and why he fought hard to bring the European Industrial Hemp Conference to the Institute. "I brought to the table new blood. I brought here representatives of huge companies because in general my idea is to professionalize the sector so to scale it up, keeping of course quality on the highest level," he said. Poland has been at the epicenter of hemp in Europe for decades, and with genetics like Hanola and Białobrzeskie coming out of Czesak's breeding program, Polish varieties have become standard fiber genetics around the world. Learn More Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants (IWNIRZ) iwnirz.pl [https://iwnirz.pl] European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) eiha.org/ [https://eiha.org/] EIHA Conference eiha-conference.org/ [https://eiha-conference.org/] Thanks to Our Sponsors HEMI — The Hemp Education and Marketing Initiative thegoodnessofhemp.org [https://thegoodnessofhemp.org] Bish Enterprises — FiberCut Hemp Harvesting bishenterprise.com/fibercut [https://bishenterprise.com/fibercut] 1937 International 1937international.com [https://1937international.com] Condor Seed condorseed.com [https://condorseed.com]

Ken Elliott & Rusty Peterson — What US Hemp Can Learn From Europe

This is part one of a ten-part podcast series documenting the European Industrial Hemp Association's 23rd Annual Conference in Poznan, Poland, at the Institute of Fiber Plants and Medicinal Medicine, June 10-12. The series starts with a casual conversation with Ken Elliott and Rusty Peterson from IND HEMP in Montana about the conference itself and how it compares to hemp events back home. "The professionalism that they bring, the fact that they've been doing things instead of talking about things in Europe is a big difference," Elliott said. Both Elliott and Peterson spoke at the conference on topics ranging from the state of hemp in the U.S. to how carbon and carbon markets will shape the future of hemp farming, processing and manufacturing. Learn More IND Hemp indhemp.com [https://indhemp.com] European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) eiha.org/ [https://eiha.org/] EIHA Conference eiha-conference.org/ [https://eiha-conference.org/] Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants (IWNIRZ) iwnirz.pl [https://iwnirz.pl] Thanks to Our Sponsors! HEMI — The Hemp Education and Marketing Initiative thegoodnessofhemp.org [https://thegoodnessofhemp.org] Bish Enterprises — FiberCut Hemp Harvesting bishenterprise.com/fibercut [https://bishenterprise.com/fibercut] 1937 International 1937international.com [https://1937international.com] Condor Seed condorseed.com [https://condorseed.com]