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Natural fibers from plants such as industrial hemp provide a renewable high-quality commodity that has the potential to enhance New Jersey agriculture and provide economic benefits for a wide variety of industries and small businesses in the state. Both established and emerging industries can benefit from industrial hemp by supplementing or entirely replacing petroleum-based products with those based on natural fibers while sequestering significant quantities of carbon from the atmosphere (Cherney & Small, 2016; Johnson, 2018; Schumacher, Pequito, & Pazour, 2020). Hemp contains two general types of fibers: bast and hurd. Bast fibers develop in the outer stem of the plant and represent the long fibers which are ideal for making textiles, bio-composites, and insulation. The inner core of the stem contains the hurd fibers which are shorter but ideal for use of plant-based filler in industry and the development of products like hempcrete and other green-building materials. Hemp fibers can be used to make a wide variety of products such as paper, high quality textiles, animal feed and bedding, bioplastics, and green building materials like hempcrete and hemp-based insulation (Williams, 2019). Such developing and new industries require purposeful investment and a strong collaboration between the public and private sector. The ability to market locally grown hemp products with a focus on high quality fiber traits, low-inputs of fertilizer/water/herbicides, while highlighting the carbon-positive, renewable, and biodegradable features is a significant advantage.
We have grown 16 varieties of hemp and harvested the stems for analysis. The student will help evaluate the bast fibers for suitability for textile and construction materials.
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