Upcycling Agricultural Waste

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

Part of improving our food system and returning more money back to farmers is expanding markets for every part of the crop. That includes the stalks, which in the case of hemp, have not been able to be utilized says HEMPALTA founder Darren Bondar.

Bondar… “There are literally thousands and thousands of these bales sitting on farmer's fields and nobody knows what to do with them. So we're providing that solution and we hope that we're able to advance the industrial hemp industry by being a processor and showing people, okay, when you process it, especially with the cool Hemp Train and this ag tech that we've got, you know, these are the streams and these are the different ways that it can be used. So it's gonna require a little bit more consumer adoption. But I do know, I think we all know that consumers want more sustainable products and alternative products. And it's very important for farmers to keep hemp as part of their crop rotation because it regenerates their soil. But, you know, it's one thing to grow it and process it for the oil, but then when you have these bales, it's frustrating for the farmers. So, this is just giving them some confidence that they can grow hemp, that they will be able to sell the entire stalk. And what we call full plant utilization is really being optimized.”

HEMPALTA uses technology called a hemp train to turn these stalks into a variety of different consumer goods from animal bedding to produce crispers to sustainable packaging.