Oregon State University’s Global Hemp Innovation Center has received $10 million from the USDA to work with 13 Native American tribes and develop manufacturing capabilities for materials and products made from hemp.

“The focus of this project is to look at industrial materials and industrial properties,” said Jeffrey Steiner, director of OSU’s hemp center.

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The funding will cover five years of the project, which is designed to spur economic development.

The work builds on a $10 million USDA Sustainable Agricultural Systems grant the OSU hemp center received in 2021 to begin defining economic opportunities for hemp in the western U.S.

OSU also worked with the USDA to develop the Hemp Research Needs Roadmap, which was released by the agency last week.

The university will partner on the project with 13 tribal nations in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, California, Nevada and Montana, as well as Washington State University, University of California-Davis, University of Nevada-Reno and other institutions.

Steiner said hemp-derived materials, which are renewable and sustainable, have the potential to replace those manufactured from oil, natural gas and coal.

They can be used in textiles, nanofibers, electronics, polymer bio-composites and construction materials, he added.

Steiner said the project will investigate standards and methods of grading hemp fiber and byproducts (graded equals traded), hemp practices in other countries and export opportunities.

“American agriculture since the 1970s has leveraged the opportunity for international markets for commodities. That’s what we have to do with hemp,” Steiner said.

The project also will look to create educational and workforce development opportunities to equip Native American students and adults for jobs in the emergent biobased economy.

Biobased products

The announcement of the OSU’s hemp center award came on March 8, as the USDA celebrated its second annual National Biobased Products Day.

Biobased products are goods — other than food or feed — determined by the USDA to be composed or significantly made up of biological materials from land and sea, such as crops from farms, trees and fish and animals.

Biobased products offer opportunities for more revenue streams for small and mid-sized farmers while giving consumers more in-demand, clean options for everyday items.

Hemp supply, demand

Hemp was decriminalized in 2018 and OSU’s hemp center launched that year as the most comprehensive research institution of its kind in the nation.

Steiner said the center has received about $80 million in federal funding.

Oregon legalized hemp cultivation in 2009, but the state didn’t license its first grower until 2015, three years before hemp became legal nationwide.

Hemp acreage surged with a focus on cannabinoid oils before the market became oversaturated.

In 2019, Oregon surpassed 64,000 acres of industrial hemp, according to the Oregon Department of Agriculture. National acreage hit 520,000.

In 2023, Oregon had 2,417 acres of hemp.

An April 2023 USDA report showed the nation with about 28,300 acres of industrial hemp in 2022, down 48% from the previous year.

Steiner was happy the USDA was now tracking hemp. “That’s a good sign of a maturing commodity,” he said.