Shirley Sneve
ICT
Proponents call hemp the “Green Buffalo.”
Like the buffalo, nothing goes to waste. The multipurpose industrial plant – essentially the same plant as marijuana but grown to emphasize its strong stalks rather than its THC-loaded buds – has been used for generations for making rope, cloth, food and fibers.
Now the Lower Sioux Indian Community is hoping to revolutionize the tribal housing industry with the use of “hempcrete,” a concrete-like mixture that is sturdy and energy-efficient.
“The Lower Sioux Indian Community has launched a ‘seed to wall’ hempcrete program, becoming one of the first organizations in the U.S. to grow, process, and build with this sustainable material,” said Brooklyn Lindsey, director of innovation, public policy, and legal affairs at the nonprofit Ivory Innovations, which works for affordable housing.
“Their vertically integrated approach combines hemp farming and production with the creation of affordable, eco-friendly homes, which addresses a community and regional need while also advancing environmental sustainability,” Lindsey said.
The tribe’s program is now a finalist for the Ivory Prize, an annual award offered by Ivory Innovations and based at the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business. The award recognizes U.S. organizations for their innovative, feasible, and scalable solutions to advance housing affordability.
The accolades come as the tribe is hosting the 13th International Hemp Building Symposium Oct. 3-5 at the Lower Sioux Indian Reservation near Morton, Minnesota. The symposium is organized by the International Hemp Building Association.
“I came into this kind of a skeptic, but I started using the material, seeing how easy it was, and seeing people around me get jobs around it,” said Danny Desjarlais, the tribe’s hempcrete project manager and a Lower Sioux Tribal member.
“Seeing houses being developed here on our reservation by our own community members, for our community members. It’s become more of a why now than a job–that’s my whole reason for coming to work every day to rebuild our community.” Desjarlais said.
It’s a $445 million industry across the United States and growing, with increasing demands for manufacturing to follow suit.
‘Seed to wall’
Like many reservations, there’s a housing shortage at the Lower Sioux Indian Community, in southwestern Minnesota. Desjarlais said the tribe needs 196 new homes. There are only 160 homes on the 1,743-acre reservation.
“It’s like a never ending crisis,” Desjarlais told ICT. “And not just that we’re in need of these homes. It’s also the homes that we already … Most of them were built when HUD came through in the late ‘90s. Most of them are on their last leg. They either need to be completely renovated or put in the landfill. The houses that came after that were prefabricated homes built with the cheapest materials and the least amount of insulation and the least standards possible.”
Hempcrete provides new options. The versatile hemp plant was used in World War II as a superior fiber for making rope, and its fibers are also used for making cloth. The hemp hearts, available in some health food stores, is a nutrient-dense food offering a complete plant-based protein, essential fatty acids like omega-3 and omega-6, fiber, and vital nutrients such as magnesium, iron, and zinc.
The Lower Sioux Indian Community, in south-western Minnesota has started down the path of “seed to wall” with the agricultural investment of a hemp crop to the creation of hempcrete, which is a natural insulation that is being used in the construction of new homes and remodeling of older reservation structures.
Hempcrete is not load-bearing like concrete, however, It’s used as insulation. The positive aspects to the product are that it is fire and mold resistant, and its denseness makes it a natural rodent repellent.
The budding hemp industry caught the attention of Democratic U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. The ranking member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, Klobuchar announced that an amendment she secured in the agriculture funding bill that passed the Senate would allocate $1 million to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Cereal Disease Lab, which is also located on the University of Minnesota campus. Included in the funding is $500,000 for research on industrial hemp fiber, which would support Minnesota hemp growers and processors.
The project is getting international attention. The hemp symposium on the Lower Sioux reservation marks the first time the gathering will be held in the United States, but international attendance is expected to be down because of recent Trump administration policies aimed at foreign visitors.
Looking ahead
Hempcrete still has its skeptics, however. It’s expensive, but the trade-ff is that it lasts much longer than conventional building materials. Since it’s in the cannabis family, some are worried that it is like smokable marijuna.
“We tell them it’s just like a dog – you can have a Great Dane and a Chihuahua. They couldn’t be more opposite, but they are still both dogs,” Desjarlais said. “Same with hemp and marijuana or weed or whatever you want to call it. You know, they’re both the cannabis plant, but they couldn’t be more opposite.
“Industrial hemp is a sober straight-shooter,” he said. “And then weed is the cousin — the naughty cousin, or whatever you want to call it.”
Desjarlais said hempcrete production continues, but the tribal farming operation determined that it would not plant hemp this year. Analysis showed that for now, it’s cheaper to buy the hemp stalks from area farmers.
At this point, the tribe is not using the rest of the plant, which contributes to making textiles, rope and paper, as well as food products. The tribe is looking to expand into prefabricated housing units with Hempcrete insulation, for sale around the region.
Mary Jane Oatman, executive director of the Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association, says the U.S. is lagging behind other countries in hemp manufacturing.
“The United States is in a significant backlog — being able to provide not just the manufacturing infrastructure for the fibers, but also to be able to create sustainable fabrics,” Oatman said. “We’re in competition right now with the cheaper, faster, quicker production of other materials.”
But it brings manufacturing opportunities to the U.S., she said.
“We currently lack domestic processing for the grain to make the hemp parts, and those are very nutritious,” she said. “Affordability is going to be a challenge until we can start to get our tribal hub zones, and then our tribal foreign trade zones really activated around creating new manufacturing opportunities for the whole plant uses here domestically in the United States.”
Oatman and Desjarlais agree that the future is bright for tribes and the hemp industry.
“We really see Indian Country is positioned to lead in that manner because of our large agricultural base, our strong water rights, as well as just being able to push forward the ethos of regenerative farming, which comes hand in hand with the hemp plant.” Oatman said.