Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
High-valued, biobased materials and products (BBMP) manufactured from hemp can be an economic development driver for Northwestern Native American tribes. Thirteen tribes within the geopolitical boundaries of California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington have expressed interest in investing in hemp production, biobased manufacturing, and utilization on their reservations. They have agreed to form an Intertribal Business Consortium that partners with rural businesses, technology providers, universities and colleges, federal research centers, and other organizations to identify the most feasible opportunities to link production, materials processing, and biobased manufacturing to produce BBMP made from hemp. Our project builds on earlier USDA-supported projects that have developed relationships with tribes and made general assessments of private technology provider needs tribal interests in hemp. This project uses and integrated Research, Extension, and Education objectives to define specific business opportunities that can be utilized to draw investments to establish a competitive, biobased manufacturing sector in the region.With the relatively low yields of high-quality textile fibers produced from hemp stalks, a whole-system value proposition for hemp-derived bioproducts is needed so multiple or even overlapping process flows and supply networks are developed that utilize materials for a suite of produced BBMP. Our focus on assessing commercial hemp fiber production requires integrated planning and coordination of supply chain operations to develop tribe-centric production and processing capabilities. As such, we leverage existing tribe and non-tribe resources, capacities, and infrastructure with a community capitals framework to identify the most resilient production opportunities. Through ongoing engagement with hemp producers and processors, we have identified a set of core hemp materials and end-products. A technology classification categorizes have identified value-added BBMP and serves as a starting point for commercial viability analysis. Our preliminary analyses suggest these products have different levels of manufacturing-supply chain and institutional complexity that will affect how the industry can achieve scaled production.We focus on four key objectives:(i) Enable tribal communities to develop a biobased economy utilizing hemp through engagement and education. Working collaboratively with Native American tribes' existing educational resources and business development structures, we will develop an educated and skilled multicultural workforce that can effectively engage in biobased manufacturing with a focus on tribal communities, specifically K-12, community colleges, university students, and tribal leaders and community members.(ii) Using a whole-system approach, we will discover optimal hemp BBMP quality and biobased manufacturing systems efficiencies through breeding, field production, harvest/handling, and processing research with a primary focus on the potential utilization of the whole plant to concurrently generate multiple product income streams with no waste as is done by other commodities such as cotton, corn, and soybean. Dedicated fiber varieties and new genetic materials created through genomic selection will be assessed under a range of field production, harvest/handling, and processing methods to understand how bast fiber and hurd yields and quality are affected by four commercial Production, Harvest, and Primary Processing (PHPP) systems.(iii) Determine optimal materials characteristics, equipment, facilities, and technology provider configurations to establish sustainable BBMP manufacturing pipelines. Materials and byproducts produced from select PHPP combinations will be characterized for their physical and chemical properties and the data used to identify their potential for the highest-valued, triple-bottom line, commercial use in four Materials Processing to Products Biomanufacturing (MPPB) Pathways based on manufacturers' specifications.(iv) Support intertribal hemp fiber production and value-added biobased manufacturing and trading business networks. There are multiple systems and technological solutions available to address gaps in a modern industrial biomanufacturing economy which can be addressed by an integrated education and engagement approach that enables the development of a modern technical workforce, including equipping the non-Native partners. Information generated from the systems analyses will be used to improve overall triple-bottom-line system performance and make recommendations to the IBC members on options for selecting investment opportunities.The results from this project will provide IBC decision makers; economic developers; financiers; and government agency service providers; policy makers; and regulators the science/business-based information they need to evaluate the technical, economic, environmental, and social implications of investing in a biobased manufacturing economy. Our intent is to build out a domestic advanced biomanufacturing sector that competes in world markets and which can create new wealth and jobs and foster further economic growth, not only on reservations, but across rural America and contribute towards a lowered-carbon 21st Century.The project addresses a USDA National Institute of Food and Agricultural requirement that the Sustainable Agricultural Systems (SAS) program significantly advance the bioeconomy and has an emphasis on generating benefits for underserved communities. This 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 the basics to sustain life through nutritious food for health, clothing, and shelter. Through this project, we desire to restore and provide restitution to Native American nations upon which the sacrifice and contribution of their lands and culture made possible the establishment of the Land Grant University system. This project supports both the White House Executive Order on Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, Safe, and Secure American Bioeconomy and the Justice 40 Initiative to help confront decades of under-investment in under-represented communities. The outcomes from this effort can be extended beyond the five-year tenure of the project by leveraging Federal investments through the Inflation Reduction Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, American Rescue Plan, and other USDA and federal business development programs.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
35%
Applied
55%
Developmental
10%
Goals / Objectives
This project will provide tribal leaders, financial decision-makers, policymakers, federal agency service providers, regulators, and technology providers with the business and science information needed to evaluate the merits of investing in a hemp-based bioeconomy on reservations and across the region. Our project will allow multiple supply chain components to be addressed, from field-to-harvest-to-processing-to-biobased manufacturing facilities, and identify opportunities to increase system efficiencies towards improved triple-bottom-line performances of materials and products manufactured from industrial hemp. Our approach will assess tribe-specific interests; identify existing and needed resources and infrastructure; characterize and direct production of biomaterials and byproducts to their highest valued markets; and identify financial and policy tools to support investments in biobased manufacturing. The work will be carried out on and off reservations and utilizing tribe, commercial, and public institutional platforms at modeled, laboratory, pilot and commercial operational scales. Building the needed skilled workforce to accomplish this vision is a part of the project. We assume tribal values and good stewardship can be designed into an emergent hemp biobased manufacturing ecosystem by estimating ahead of time the potential impacts different manufacturing system components have on natural resource quality, job creation, and worker safety, and will consider approaches to enhance equity for all supply chain participants. As a result, this project will provide the science and business information needed for decision making when evaluating the technical, economic, environmental, and social contributions of establishing a hemp-based bioeconomy across the region. The objectives with sub-objectives for our project are:Objective 1. Enable tribal communities to develop a hemp-based bioeconomy through engagement and education. 1-1. Working collaboratively with existing Native American tribe educational resources and structures, we will develop a multicultural workforce that can effectively engage in a hemp-based biomanufacturing economy. 1-2. We will create culturally competent team of researchers, educators, and engagement specialists; provide foundational education opportunities for tribal audiences including K-12, community college, and university students; provide educational experiences that will include curriculum that uses culturally-sustaining teaching and learning practices incorporating student cultural identities and experiences; enhance teacher knowledge, skills, and confidence in context-based modeling and problem design rich in agriscience, technology, engineering, and math; provide tribal leaders and community members educational experiences about the fundamentals of hemp. 1-3. Tribal workforce development that includes student internships offered in project research, education, and extension activities; development of a skilled tribal workforce in the manufacture and use of hempcrete building panels for renovation and new construction of housing on reservations; partners will share experiences and knowledge gained from participating in commercial facilities and on tribal and research farm trials;Objective 2. Optimize biobased materials and products quality and biomanufacturing systems efficiencies through hemp breeding, field production, harvest/handling, and processing. We will: 2-1. determine hemp germplasm and variety production performance for adoption by tribal agriculture departments for industrial and cultural uses; 2-2. demonstrate how reservation production environments affect hemp variety performance and determine the effects of production, handling, and processing systems on bast fiber and hurd yield and quality; 2-3. determine the effects of field production and harvest effects on fiber yield and quality; and 2-4. develop genomic strategies to improve end-product quality and bioprocessing systems efficiencies.Objective 3. Determine optimal materials characteristics, equipment, facilities, and technology providers needed for establishing sustainable biobased manufacturing pipelines. We will: 3-1. develop testing methods, classifications, and standards for fiber, hurd, and other co-products; create standard test methods for measuring biobased materials characteristics; and create evidenced-based hemp materials quality classifications; and 3-2. determine processes for manufacturing new materials manufactured from hemp feedstocks and new co-products including hempcrete and construction materials, hemp-derived biochar as a "platform" building block toward value-added products, and bioplastic composites from short fibers and hurd byproducts of processing.Objective 4. Support intertribal and regional hemp fiber production and value-added biobased manufacturing and trading business networks. 4-1. Identify tribal and regional technology and market opportunities with insights from global hemp intelligence; 4-2. design scaled and commercially viable production processes based on a new set of operational parameters; 4-3. create a framework for assessing and enhancing economic, environmental, and social outcomes of products and technology options including economic, environmental, and social impact analyses; and 4-4. understand policies concerning commerce on tribal land and hemp to propose amendments and new policies to promote hemp-based economic development that supports tribal and nearby communities.
Project Methods
Native American-led business consortium. The project methods support the development of a Native American (NA)-led Intertribal Business Consortium (IBC) made up of 13 tribes. The IBC members will partner among themselves and with other rural businesses across the region, and with technology providers, community and tribal colleges and universities, and federal laboratories to identify the most feasible opportunities to pursue for developing sustainable supply chains that link production, material processing, and manufacturing to produce hemp-based BBMP. The IBC will function as a chamber of commerce advocating for tribal economic development, identifying priorities, and raising awareness promoting tribal culture and interests. By supporting the IBC, the knowledge systems of participating tribal businesses will be integrated with those of non-Indian businesses and public and private service providers.Responsible engagement with American Indian tribes. Commitments to work toward greater equity in opportunities for tribal nations inform the project. NA nations are the central participants, acknowledging their desire to embrace new business opportunities and expressed interest in investing in biobased manufacturing infrastructure on their reservations. Because the project team seeks to be sensitive to historical legacies, the following mechanisms are utilized to ensure responsible engagement and culturally relevant interactions between tribes and non-Indian personnel: (i) a respected NA-owned business development firm that specializes in Indian Country has been an active partner and advisor from the beginning engagement and design stages of this project; (ii) the priorities of the 13 tribe partners were sought for preliminary inclusion in project design; (iii) establish an IBC; (iv) all grant-affiliated personnel will complete training on culturally responsive engagement with tribal partners and understand relevant issues to tribal commerce and industry; (v) assessment protocols will be reviewed by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) established IRB approval requirements for tribes will be followed; (vi) will use the CARE (Collective benefit, Authority to control, Responsibility, and Ethics) principles for Indigenous data governance; (vii) the OSU Vice-President and Director of Diversity Relations is a member of the project advisory council; and (viii) the project includes educational opportunities specifically for NA students at all levels, as well as adult workforce development training with the involvement of Native American-serving institutions.Multi-institutional/interdisciplinary approach. The project leverages the institutional knowledge and capabilities of 13 NA nations across six states; five Land-Grant institutions including one 1994 tribal college; two USDA regional research centers; a community college construction technology program that partners with a local tribe; three reservation-based Federally Recognized Tribes Extension Programs (FRTEP) in two states; two non-profit American Indian-led organizations; and a Native-owned private business development firm. An Interdisciplinary team of tribal business and agriculture/natural resources departments; nine industry technology providers in the U.S., China, Sweden, and Australia; four commercial hemp processors; education and Extension specialists; and university and USDA researchers. The contributing disciplines include: cultural interpretation and awareness, customer survey development, K-12 and adult curriculum development, and Extension programming; genomics and artificial intelligence, germplasm development, plant breeding, production agriculture, and agricultural engineering; mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, analytical chemistry, biobased materials manufacturing, and construction materials; and business and finance, applied economics, information science, life cycle analysis, supply chain analytics, public policy, and marketing.Robust Tribe-Private-Public partnerships. We will work across private and public institutional platforms at modeled, laboratory, pilot, and operational scales to discover from the ground-up, options for industrial hemp fiber processing with concurrent production of co-products that can be upgraded for use in the manufacture of value-added BBMP within a no-waste framework. Multiple system and technology configurations are hypothesized to find optimal triple-bottom-line economic and environmental impact solutions with the greatest social benefit outcomes, including building the needed technical workforce. The IBC and partners will work to identify solutions to develop whole-system infrastructure, supply chain components, and technology needed for expanding biobased manufacturing on tribe reservations and neighboring rural communities. The consortium design will allow participation for (i) intertribal partnerships that identify and determine the feasibility of projects that benefit the entire consortium; (ii) one-to-one, tribe-public, and tribe-private partnerships to address tribe-specific solutions; and (iii) partnership opportunities for developing technology solutions through cooperative research and development agreements (CRADA). IBC opportunities will be used to help drive short-term project decisions and identify commercialization strategies. The project's intent is formal business consortium projects will be created and then linked to possible investment funds or loans.The industry sector technology providers represent positions widely across PHPP Systems and MPPB Pathways that produce hemp-based materials and manufactured bio-products. These partners are fully engaged in the project and will provide perspectives and produce materials and byproduct samples at their facilities that will be characterized by them and our researchers for physical and chemical properties. The partners will make available for research their data, equipment, and facilities for a range of hemp value chain operations. In addition, the 15-member Advisory Council which includes first-movers in biobased products development and procurement will give insights on biomanufacturing opportunities, BBMP quality and price-point specifications, and other business aspects needed to establish supply chains and markets and help evaluate project direction and progress. Commitment letters document all partnerships.Supply chain solutions. Our systems approach allows multiple supply chain components to be addressed to identify opportunities to increase system efficiencies toward improved triple-bottom-line performances. In order to enhance hemp competitiveness with established fiber markets, integrated, high-throughput production, harvest, and processing systems are needed. Our approach will assess tribe-specific interests; identify existing and needed resources and infrastructure; characterize and direct production of biomaterials and byproducts to their highest valued markets; and identify financial and policy tools to support investments. The work will be carried out on and off reservations, and utilizing tribe, commercial, and public institutional platforms at modeled, laboratory, pilot and commercial operational scales. We will begin building the needed skilled workforce to accomplish this vision. We assume tribal values can be designed into an emergent hemp-based manufacturing ecosystem by estimating ahead of time the potential impacts different manufacturing systems have on natural resource quality, job creation, and worker safety, and will consider approaches to enhance equity for all supply chain participants. As a result of our approach, this project will provide tribe-private-public participants the science and business information needed to make decisions when evaluating the technical, economic, environmental, and social contributions the could make towards establishing a hemp-based bioeconomy across the region.