CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University’s Global Hemp Innovation Center has received $10 million in grant funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture to work with 13 Native American tribes on hemp-based economic development in the western United States, the college said.
OSU officials said that the funding is aimed at spurring economic development in the western United States by developing hemp-based manufacturing capabilities. OSU’s project will seek to develop sustainable hemp product supply chains based on needs identified by an intertribal business consortium that link regional hemp production, processing, and manufacturing to create products, college officials said.
“There is still significant interest and potential in industrial uses of hemp,” said Jeffrey Steiner, director of the Global Hemp Innovation Center. “But it’s critical that investment decisions be based on sound science and business planning to build out and scale up economic development opportunities with hemp, particularly to benefit Tribal nations and other American rural communities.”
Passage of the 2018 Farm Bill decriminalized hemp which led to a boom of interest in hemp’s potential as a driver of economic development, OSU officials said. OSU said the USDA grant builds on a 2022 White House executive order focused on biobased manufacturing that uses renewable biological resources that include farm crops, trees, fish, and animals for sustainable production of food, building materials, industrial products, and energy. Hemp-based products hold the potential to replace materials produced from oil, natural gas, and coal for uses ranging from textiles to electronics and construction materials, the college said. OSU said that this project builds on a $10 million USDA Sustainable Agricultural Systems grant received by the college in 2021 to begin defining hemp-based economic opportunities in the western United States.
Oregon is partnering with 13 Tribal nations in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, and California along with multiple universities, agencies, and bio-based product manufacturers and businesses on the grant, OSU officials said.
