OSU Global Hemp Innovation Center (GHIC)

Global Hemp Innovation Center affiliated faculty member Zhaohui Wu is visiting colleagues at Shanghai Marine University and Shanghai Ocean University to talk about logistics and food systems research. Shanghai Ocean University has a Food Innovation Center and their work on food security and natural resource management matches up with his research at Oregon State University, including a focus on fishery management. The difficulty for last-mile food delivery challenge to meet customer expectations for fast, affordable, and sometimes free delivery became an issue in Shanghai during Covid-19. Also, western companies leaving or having left is having an effect on the Chinese economy that will persist into the years to come. Global Hemp Innovation Center affiliated faculty member Zhaohui Wu is visiting colleagues at Shanghai Marine University and Shanghai Ocean University to talk about logistics and food systems research. Shanghai Ocean University has a Food Innovation Center and their work on food security and natural resource management matches up with his research at Oregon State University, including a focus on fishery management. The difficulty for last-mile food delivery challenge to meet customer expectations for fast, affordable, and sometimes free delivery became an issue in Shanghai during Covid-19. Also, western companies leaving or having left is having an effect on the Chinese economy that will persist into the years to come. We are looking forward to building collaborations around hemp materials supplies and biobased product manufacturers, regardless of the direction of supply chains and trade, domestically or across the Pacific Ocean.

The Global Hemp Innovation Center (GHIC) and Sofia Thanhauser https://lnkd.in/gNTqwhB4, author of 'Worn: A People’s History of Clothing,' are pleased to announce a new partnership to document the center's processes, partnerships, and accomplishments as it expands research and development in the use of hemp construction materials for use in new kinds of building materials. There is a great need for affordable, safe, healthy, and energy efficient sustainable house designed for rural communities including on Native American nation reservations. This GHIC effort contributes to the Oregon State University Plan for Prosperity Widely Shared https://lnkd.in/gpnKEuPq that involves faculty from the Oregon State University College of Agricultural Sciences, College of Forestry at Oregon State University, College of Engineering – Oregon State University, Oregon State University College of Business, and Oregon State University - College of Liberal Arts. Sofi is a Calderwood Journalism Fellow, a ClimateWorks fellow, and the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship. Among her publications, her work has appeared in Vox, The Guardian, and Observer Magazine. Her next book, Shelter, is forthcoming from Riverhead Books. Sofi lives in Brooklyn, teaches at Pratt Institute https://www.pratt.edu/, and ever since we met, has always been a short video conference away to bounce new ideas off of one another. This past year, Sofi was a significant contributor to the student experience in the OSU Merchandising Management and Apparel Design Program. Our efforts are made possible by a grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture's Sustainable Agricultural System's project 'Sustainably Incorporating Hemp Biobased Economy into Western U.S. Regional Rural and Tribal Lands.' We are excited to have Sofi join GHIC as an affiliated partner.

The Global Hemp Innovation Center is grateful for the time our Advisory Board members invested with us this afternoon meeting to go over their latest industry updates, review center accomplishments this past year, and their perspectives of what should be our priorities for the next year. Thank you to (L to R) Lauren Yang Willison and Trey Willison (kneeling), Paul Murdock, Sunny Summers - she, her, hers, Bonny Jo Peterson (Chair), Courtney N. Moran, LL.M., Seth Crawford, Jason Cleaver, and GHIC administrator Kristin Rifai, MBA. Also on line were Travell Bradford, Jim Dooley, Eric Earnest (pinch hitter for Morgan Tweet (Elliott)), Tonia Farman, Dr. Rachel Knox, Jackie Richter, Jim Souers, Dylan Summers, and Alexis Eichler with Oregon State University Foundation, and Shawn Donkin, Oregon State University College of Agricultural Sciences’ Associate Dean for Research. We will be following up in a month and then their get together again on January 23, 2025.

Paradox. ‘A literary device where contradictory ideas are juxtaposed to reveal a deeper truth.’ This is an idea picked up from American author Ray Bradbury https://lnkd.in/gUk-RcVm in his essay “Run Fast, Stand Still,” that he used to encourage the creative process. “Run fast” means working energetically, while “Stand still” is about allowing time and space for more ideas to settle in as you work by drawing on experiences and spontaneity to capture ideas before they fade. Lessons in “Zen in the Art of Writing” can be applied to thinking through all the possible parts and products to be made and what industrial hemp supply chains could look like in the 21st Century. What these will be will not be paradoxical at all by mid-Century. Check it out at: Zen in the Art of Writing https://g.co/kgs/FS2at4B

Thank you Colleen Pokorny, PhD for more updates on the lasting impact your Apparel Design program is having with students showing the utility of hemp fashion - here in Corvallis and away in Louisiana State University.

Here is some of the bigger Oregon State University picture that the Global Hemp Innovation Center is a part for Prosperity Widely Shared: The OSU Plan. Thank you to the GHIC partners and advisors from whom we continue to learn and are supported. Douglas Boon Eisenberg Cristina, PhD Staci Emm Chance White Eyes Scott Anand Vignos Rudy Soto

For Native American Heritage Month https://lnkd.in/dGj_gBR, the Global Hemp Innovation Center recognizes the significant partnerships we have formed with tribal business operations in the region to determine how the production and manufacture of high-value biobased materials and products made from hemp can be economic drivers. Due to reliance on fossil fuels and petroleum-based consumer products, our wastes pollute the land, atmosphere, and seas and are adversely altering our nations’ health and climate. Hemp and other natural materials have and will have even greater potential to be solutions to these challenges while significantly advancing the 21st Century bioeconomy. The design of our project is deeply rooted in the Land Grant University mission to provide opportunities for all people and to equip the next generation for service to help meet the needs of American people, families, and communities with nutritious food for health, clothing, and shelter. Through this project, we also desire to help give back to our Native American neighbors for the sacrifices and contributions of their lands and culture that made possible the establishment of the Land Grant University system. Our project is supported by a grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Sustainable Agricultural Systems (SAS) program https://lnkd.in/eQiKsVe3. To learn more about the history of the linkage between the Land Grant Universities and Native American Nations, see the article at: https://lnkd.in/ea99GkwV For more specifics about this GHIC partnership, see the article at: https://lnkd.in/gMSd5sdr We will be highlighting more details about our partnerships throughout the month of November.

Much thanks to Clark Seavert and Laurie H. for leading today's meeting-of-the-minds for all of the team members of the Climate-Smart Potatoes from the Pacific Northwest project that is part of the nation-wide USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program https://lnkd.in/gFAeaYEP. This virtual gathering was an opportunity for all project components to coordinate and coalesce the data collection and data sharing into the final schema design whose architecture allows sharing from a common data hub across the AgBiz Logic https://lnkd.in/gWrk_8Fs and Climate Smart-Verify https://lnkd.in/gVJUgetK technology platforms, into-and-out-of and across the block chain; and exchange information from producers' fields to consumer's market shelves. This collaborative venture led by the Global Hemp Innovation Center involves contributions by the University of Idaho, Soil Health Institute, LoCo Lab LLC, Way Too Digital, and Oregon State University's Departments of Applied Economics, Botany and Plant Pathology, Crop and Soil Science, Horticulture, and the Food Innovation Center. Many thanks to this dream team who all work so well together. Kenneth Frost, Megan Matousek, Kandace Little, Chris Ringo, Mara Cloutier, Katherine East, Katherine Fuller, Laynee Gilbert, Michelle Esther Odoi, Everald McLennon, PhD, Brodie McLaughlin, Rhett Spear, Sean Hammond, David Bernell, John Antle, Ann Colonna, and Roberto Valdivia.

Our society depends everyday on extracted ancient materials such as limestone and hydrocarbons for the manufacture of modern marvel products. One example is Portland Cement used in concrete that is the foundation of constructing buildings, bridges, and roads. Global Hemp Innovation Center affiliated faculty are exploring ways to combine hemp fibers with biochar carbon (also made from hemp), earthen materials, and binders to produce a matrix that performs similarly as concrete. By utilizing natural materials that fixed atmospheric carbon while being grown, and having reduced reliance on energy-intensive chemical admixtures, these strategies combined could significantly lower the carbon footprint of building material compared to traditional Portland Cement-rich mixtures. To learn more about the processes and their impacts in manufacturing Portland Cement, see the informative The Washington Post article: https://wapo.st/4fjKgSC If you are wonder what an alternatives to cement made with Portland Cement look like, see the a modern extruded mixture test swatches that are shown below. It is a modest, but significant, place to begin. Thanks to Pavan Akula, PhD, E.I.T, Devin J. Roach, PhD, Islam H. Hafez, and Yakun Zhang for your combined ideas and talents. This is a great example of how the College of College of Engineering – Oregon State University, College of College of Forestry at Oregon State University, and College of Oregon State University College of Agricultural Sciences work together to find creative new solutions to today's big challenges.

More cool work by Global Hemp Innovation center affiliated faculty member Marianne Dickson in the Oregon State University’s Apparel Design Program. This is one of the Blue Blue Ocean (Indigo) spaces GHIC is investing to advance hemp textiles.