The National Hemp Tour, Lancaster Farming Industrial Hemp Podcast’s tour, visited IND HEMP on July 27, 2021 for a gathering of hemp industry leaders and advocates from across the nation. The event, hosted by IND HEMP, took place in Fort Benton, MT, at the Agricultural Museum.

The podcast, hosted by Eric Hurlock, is a podcast dedicated to showcasing the progress hemp is making as it re-infiltrates markets in the U.S. For a month, Hurlock toured the nation and stopped to visit hemp industry leaders along the way, including IND HEMP, a sponsor of the podcast tour.

Hurlock’s visit and tour provided IND HEMP with a great opportunity, and to capitalize on this, they hosted a hemp industry event. This day-long event earned the title of Summer Summit, and 40-50 people involved in the hemp industry attended.

To start the visit off, hemp industry leaders toured test plot fields of grain and fiber along with an irrigated fiber field. The tour was followed by lunch and round table discussions in Fort Benton. 

Industry leaders from grain and fiber were given an opportunity to discuss hemp and the obstacles they face in this industry, as well as celebrate successes together. The roundtable discussions were split into two categories, grain and fiber, to streamline conversations about both industries.

The discussions were followed by tours of IND HEMP’s oil seed facility and fiber facility, and the event finished with a banquet dinner complete with music, drinks and food.

The Summer Summit provided those at the forefront of the hemp industry an opportunity to collaborate and grow together. While this event provided a fantastic occasion to brainstorm with others in the hemp industry, the challenges faced did not go away. However, the industry is made stronger with people across the nation working together toward common goals.