Few environmental sustainability mega-conferences are as notable and over encompassing as the world renowned EarthX, held annually around the time of Earth Day in Dallas’ Fair Park. With subjects featuring everything from the oceanic preservation-centric EarthxOcean to renewable energy-centric EarthxEnergy to sustainable agriculture and even wise financial investments in environmentalism, EarthX discusses every avenue of environmentalism and the future policies we must adopt in order to leave a planet for our grandchildren.
When discussing the future of sustainable agriculture, you simply can’t overlook the potential that industrial hemp contains. Textiles, construction supplies, foods, automobile supplies, biodegradable plastics and even beauty supplies can be constructed by this universally versatile plant.
While a similar event was held during the previous years EarthX Conference on a significantly smaller scale, the 2019 EarthxHemp conference showcased the true power and potential of this crop through countless knowledgeable speakers and exhibits.
Through attending the prior year and being introduced to Mark Linday of Green Spring Technologies, Green Light Events founder Daulton O’Neill became involved in the process of hosting the following year’s EarthxHemp. However, with the surrounding buzz behind the possibilities and benefits of industrial hemp production in Texas along with the reputation that EarthX carries as a mega-conference, the EarthxHemp conference became a smashing success, with the expo proving the need for industrial hemp production within our state while serving as a living testament to the almost endless number of businesses that have risen from the production of this crop grown for millenia.
The sheer number of speakers, and the caliber of activeness in the hemp industry and production among those speakers, showed the importance of this conference alone. Among the numerous speakers, there were precisely detailed, informative presentations done by hemp lawyers Lisa Pittman and David Ritter, businesspeople employed in hemp companies such as Rick Trojan of Hemp Road Trip and even “Kidd Kraddick” radio personality/CBD business owner Jenna Owens.
Arguably the most high-profile guest however was the Texas Commissioner of Agriculture and the number two result on Google Images when you search “characters from the soap opera ‘Dallas’”, Sid Miller. In recent months, Commissioner Miller has become one of the most outspoken and powerful advocates for industrial hemp and its many production uses.
Through a mutual friend, O’Neill learned that Commissioner Miller described EarthxHemp as “his favorite hemp event he’s been to so far.” And during his speech at EarthxHemp, Miller described the exact legislative processes that would need to happen in order for hemp to be legally plantable in 2020 and subtly warned the state of the repercussions of sleeping on this opportunity.
O’Neill also weighed in on strategic decisions that the industrial hemp industry as a whole must enact great financial flexibility in order to have the crop become more readily accessible.
“We can’t expect companies to switch over to hemp plastic because it’s too expensive for them. So as the hemp community matures, it’s our job to create systems and processes to make hemp paper and plastics so affordable that every company in the world switches automatically. Right now, it’s not a sustainable market. It’s good in theory but until we get mom and pop shops affordable packaging made of hemp, it’s a pipe dream.”
On the lasting impact of industrial hemp having its own mini-conference at the world’s largest environmental sustainability, O’Neill described it masterfully.
“What happened at EarthxHemp 2019 cannot be undone. For those who attended, they witnessed the hemp industry of Texas operating at full force for the first time in the light. I like to tell people that unless you know where to look, you will completely miss all the moving pieces in this industry. Because of the legality/grey area, all the resources are not readily available. However, EarthxHemp changed that. If you sought out knowledge or had questions about hemp here in Texas, EarthxHemp was the place to be.”