IND HEMP is hosting a community gathering to show our appreciation for our first responders this Friday, May 31st from 4-6pm at their fiber processing plant (1500 27th street, Fort Benton) behind Wolfe Automotive. Morgan Tweet, Co-Founder and CEO of IND HEMP is excited to welcome the community, share about company developments, highlight where our Montana Grown industrial hemp is going, and ultimately thank our first responders for their selfless efforts.
“We’re pleased to welcome everyone in town to get together,” shares Mrs. Tweet. “Our doors will be open for anyone interested in a tour, and we will take the opportunity to share what we’ve been working on and where our products are going. This includes imperative hemp legislation and critical feed pathways that we are working to open.”
Morgan shared with the River Press that IND HEMP and the hemp industry as a whole, are positive about the inclusion of industrial hemp policy updates in the recently released 2025 Farm Bill draft. IND HEMP began work with the National Hemp Association and Agricultural Hemp Solutions, a legal and lobbying firm to introduce a bill to ease testing requirements and licensing hassles for producers. Local hemp producers Nathan Keane and Terry Deborde worked with this group to provide valuable insight from the farmers perspective, and they were all pleased to see local politicians step up with legislation introduced both at the Senate, with Montana Senator Jon Tester (D), and at the House with State Representative Matt Rosendale (R).
“Many in the community probably don’t know this, but Fort Benton and our Montana producers working with IND HEMP are at the forefront of an industry, not just from a policy and production standpoint, but creating and defining new markets and pathways for using the crops we grow right here.” Says Tweet.
We also spoke with IND HEMP’s Marketing Director Gregg Gnecco, who expanded on some of the products and market opportunities.
“It’s a very exciting time. This year we are seeing both maturation of our house brand HEMPTANA®, a Farm and Ranch product line of bedding, equine supplements and chicken care products, and further development as we look to bring on chicken feed later this fall. Our products are sold in over 175 stores including North 40 Outfitters, Murdoch’s and Shipton’s Big R as well as other farm and ranch stores all the way to Texas and Oklahoma. Our other house brand All Walks®, a pet products line sold on Amazon and some pet specialty stores, just recently launched a cat litter that utilizes hemp and upcycled grains including wheat and sorghum.”
Gnecco shared that their team recently exhibited at NPE, the largest plastics industry show in the world and had Montana Grown hemp fiber in HDPE buckets that were given out to 1,000’s of attendees. Hemp fiber incorporated with PLA was also on display in a 3D printing filament, as well as hemp in polypropylene, which was highlighted by the recent release of the Harley Davidson owned Livewire Mulholland Electric Motorcycle, where IND HEMP material was used in a polypropylene blend for the molded front and rear fenders.
“The timing of the Livewire bike couldn’t have been better,” shares Gnecco, because we were able to speak to real world solutions, vetted and in market by known companies, not just selling hopes and dreams.” Textiles are another diverse area that is growing for IND HEMP,” Gnecco continues “our processing line combined with what we’ve learned in the field is giving us consistent high quality fiber that can be qualified as ‘textile grade’ and has already been used in applications from feminine hygiene, with a company called Trace Femcare, to being spun and woven into fabric. We are currently working on a Montana-Grown, 100% USA made western shirt with the North 40 Outfitters house brand, Smith and Rogue and are working towards a release this fall. Beyond that, the ability to qualify our fiber quality now for high end non-woven applications has allowed us to start bidding on large scale automotive opportunities, as natural fiber mats are now being used by Mercedes, BMW, Tesla and others in door panels, dashboards, headliners and more.”
Morgan explains that the opportunities for industrial hemp are vast and that the team at IND HEMP is constantly exploring avenues to open market channels for the materials grown and processed in and around Fort Benton. “Recently our team has been working on expanding export opportunities as we are ramping up production capabilities. While our fiber materials have so far been primarily domestic customers, our high-quality Montana-Grown hemp grain has been sought out by both new and existing customers and we’ve been fortunate to export grain and hemp food products to Canada, Europe and Korea and we’re in talks now with an opportunity in South America. Some of our team will be attending the European Industrial Hemp Association meeting in Prague next month, representing IND HEMP materials and engaging the international industry as we continue to open new doors for our materials and products.”
As you can see, Morgan and the IND HEMP team have a lot going on and a lot to share with our community. “We are proud of our producers, our staff, and the community we call home for helping IND HEMP emerge as a leader in a new industry. We hope that everyone will come out and be a part of what we’re doing and thank our first responders that continue to make our community safe.”