Long before we talked about hemp as a commodity crop with profound industrial potential, hemp was something simpler: a plant grown in soil, worked by human hands and shaped into useful things.
This week on the Hemp Show our guest is Laura Sullivan — hemp farmer, Extension educator at the University of Vermont and fiber artist whose work explores hemp not as a commodity but as a material with cultural and ecological meaning.
Laura recently completed her Master of Fine Arts, using hemp fiber grown on the research farm to create garments and installations that blur the boundary between agriculture and art.
"I've been working in science for over five years now and I have seen a lot of really great data come out that has changed absolutely nothing about how we operate in our world where we have so many solutions at our fingertips and yet no way to implement them," Sullivan said.
"So I thought that art could reach people in a way that white papers and data and graphs and science don't always seem to."
In one of Sullivan's pieces, hemp garments embedded with seeds were watered until they sprouted, making visible the idea that clothing, like food, begins in the field. Sullivan notes that synthetic fiber now dominates the global textile system, and that most of it originates not from farms but from fossil fuels.
"Synthetic fiber currently makes up about 70% of textiles globally," she said. "Synthetic fiber is any fiber that is made of plastic, which is derived from oil. Alternatively, we have this other group of fibers — derived from the soil… and to the soil they can return."
Her work also draws on mythology, ancestry and traditional fiber practices, using hemp and wool to create large-scale symbolic pieces that connect ancient textile traditions with modern agricultural realities.
Plus, News Nuggets and a very special visit from everyone's favorite Kentucky hemp flooring guy, Greg Wilson, who looks at hemp like this: "You gotta grow it, you gotta make it and you gotta sell it. And I look at our business model and I always say, if you've got two hands, you can't carry three buckets."
Learn More
University of Vermont Extension Hemp Program
www.uvm.edu/extension/nwcrops/hemp
Vermont College of Fine Arts
https://vcfa.edu/
News Nuggets
European hemp stalwart HempFlax Group is departing Romania after historic 14-year run
https://hemptoday.net/european-hemp-stalwart-hempflax-group-is-departing-romania-after-historic-14-year-run/
Sask Polytechnic and EnviroWay develop biodegradable plastics from hemp and flax fiber waste
https://www.packaginginsights.com/news/sask-polytech-enviroway-biodegradable-plastics.html
Time for a little home hemp?
https://www.echo.net.au/2026/02/time-for-a-little-home-hemp/
Sponsors
HEMI
www.hempinitiatives.org/
King's Agriseeds
https://kingsagriseeds.com/
Forever Green Equipment – KP4 Hemp Cutter
https://hempcutter.com/
HempWood
https://hempwood.com/
