Oregon State University's Global Hemp Innovation Center brought together nine hemp construction companies and ten invited trainees in Corvallis this June for a five-day Train-the-Trainer Workshop focused on hemp-based building systems.

Homeowners returning to their burned-out homes in southern California are facing the painful consequences of the US construction industry’s reliance on cheap plastics and petroleum-based building materials: Not only are these materials easily combusted in a wildfire, but they leave behind a toxic soup that has polluted waterways and poisoned air quality.