by Shawna Graves
With proper permits and licenses, it is legal to grow hemp in Texas, one of the most highly regulated crops
in the state.
Hemp hits Big Bend
Big Bend green builder Kevin Bishop is among the first
wave of Texans to join the new hemp program,
administered by Texas Department of Agriculture.
A hemp crop is taking root in Alpine and
Marathon as part of one person’s mission to
utilize the plant’s many industrial benefits.
Kevin Bishop, a green builder by trade, has
built sustainable housing for thirty years,
with the last eight in the Big Bend region. He
works with reclaimed materials and follows
Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED) standards— the international
rubric for green compliant practices. He’s
committed to finding renewable solutions to
the everyday demands of life, personally and
professionally.
That’s why he’s drawn to hemp.
“Everything about this plant is wonderful,”
Bishop revealed. “It fixes the soil. You can
eat the seed, which is high in essential fatty
acids and quality protein, and it has real
medicinal value.”
The fibrous outer core can be used as
building insulation and the woody inner core
can be used for construction of light weight
“hempcrete” bricks, the pinnacle in ecobuilding.
Bishop is investigating all of these
uses for the harvests he plans to eventually
yield. It may take several years to get there,
but he hopes to generate enough material to
use hemp as the construction base for his own
home.
His greenhouse nursery is based in
Marathon, with three acres to expand
outdoors on rich alluvial soils in Alpine.
He invested considerable time researching
which varieties to plant, and was drawn to
older European lines, used for making textiles
and other industrial purposes.
These varieties are not part of the newer
CBD market, which has swept across the
nation as one of the latest health trends in
recent years.
Continued on page 8
Cenizo
Summer 2020
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