HEMP
It’s said that a hundred years ago we had a choice between a hydrocarbon economy and a carbohydrate economy. The carbohydrate economy was hemp. We made the wrong choice. This is about returning to hemp as a critical piece of physical and materials economy and infrastructure.
Why Hemp?
For the past seven years, we have been growing fiber hemp and providing education on all aspects of hemp production to the developing hemp farming industry in our region. We recognize that fiber hemp is a central material for the transition to a post-petroleum restorative economy.
Growing Hemp
Feral Hemp Study with the University of Minnesota
Here in Northern Minnesota, local hemp seeds, and seed varieties, are non-existent. Forcing Winona’s Hemp to import seeds from Canada and Russia. The ultimate goal, however, is to produce our own local Minnesota hemp seeds. Anishinaabe Agriculture Institute, in conjunction with Winona’s Hemp, has teamed up with the University of Minnesota in a groundbreaking study that has the ability to change the entire hemp industry.
Watch this video to hear the story!
R.D. Offutt
This year AAI had the opportunity to purchase a field off R.D. Offutt, the largest potato farmer in the country.
Our new farm has 40-acres of industrial hemp corn, pumpkins and organic purple potatoes. The nutritious purple potatoes of our ancestors are a big step above the pesticide-optimized potatoes formerly grown on the land for McDonalds french fries. Right now we are celebrating the harvest with a hemp maze for the children of our village in Pine Point, on a farm that no longer spills pesticides onto their school.
Watch this video to learn more!
Tribal Hemp Project
Building Tribal Economies without Extraction
Goals of our Tribal Hemp Project
Support Development of Integrated Tribal Agricultural Research Project on White Earth which includes hemp and heritage foods as a replicable model for our region for both food and income.
Develop a Tribal Hemp Outreach and Education Project including curriculum for use with tribal colleges, and in tribal communities nationally.
Prototype a hemp fiber processing project intended to use intermediate technology to process quality organic fiber hemp, and create a base for building a farmer cooperative of hemp growers for our region.
Work with the White Earth Tribal Council to create a set of Tribal Hemp policies and a strategic plan for the development of a tribal hemp industry on White Earth and as a model for this nationally.
Hemp Learning
Hemp 101 Online Class
Registration is open for Spring 2024 Cohort!
The New Green Revolution Hemp 101, is our online course. Hemp can transform our materials and textiles economies, return carbon to the soil, be a central material in sustainable housing, provide health and well-being, and be a path to restorative justice. This course offers a comprehensive exploration of industrial hemp as a transformative crop, including its history, cultural significance, the legal and historical landscape, and the state of the hemp renaissance surrounding its cultivation and many uses.
Join us! Click here to register:
Hemp Resources
Please click the link below to be redirected to our the Indigenous Hemp and Cannabis Farmers Cooperative site to learn more about our emerging Indigenous Hemp and Cannabis Farmers Cooperative, as well as our research and writing on the emerging hemp economy –also known as the New Green Revolution– and most recently, our Let My People Grow Campaign for fair and equitable cannabis legalization and business support in the region.