Hemp sustainability needs government support expert says

Evgeny Skigin has spent nearly 16 years working with industrial hemp. Government support would make it a mainstream material, not a breakthrough product or sudden market shift.

Skigin co-founded a Netherlands-based hemp venture in 2008. He argues no major industry has ever succeeded without some form of government backing. “Not the internet, not oil, not trains, not cars,” he said. “No important industry has ever made it without government contribution or emphasis.” Hemp will follow the same pattern.

Industries rely on established patterns. A material is sourced, a factory is built, a product is made and sold, and people grow accustomed to it. Changing the raw material forces everyone downstream to adapt.

Hemp as a building material illustrates the challenge. “No builder understands what hemp is, no architect understands what it is, and the client in the end also doesn’t quite understand it,” Skigin said. Even if a client wants it, they’ll still choose the familiar option. Breaking through resistance takes time.

The slow pace of agriculture compounds the problem. Hemp is a crop before it becomes a material, and farming moves deliberately. “If I wanted to increase from 1,000 hectares to 3,000 hectares, it would be a massive undertaking — more tractors, ordered a year in advance,” he said. Growers plan in November for an April planting, harvest in October, and sell over the following year while already preparing the next cycle. An industry moving this slowly cannot bootstrap itself into relevance through market forces alone in any reasonable timeframe. It requires external help.

Skigin describes that help in practical terms: subsidies, grants, and carbon credits that help a promising material reach the volume where it becomes cost-competitive. Below that volume, the new material appears expensive. Above it, the economics shift.

Hemp fits this model well. “It’s basically a weed,” he said. “It doesn’t need pesticides or herbicides. It doesn’t require a lot of water. It has a very deep root system. It can grow in Finland and it can grow in Thailand.” From a single crop, farmers can produce fiber for textiles, hurds for construction, and seed rich in protein and fat. “In one crop, you have textiles, housing, and food. That covers the base of everything humans need.”

Yet in most places, farmers growing potatoes, wheat, or corn qualify for support that hemp farmers do not. “You get subsidies for potatoes, wheat, corn — but hemp isn’t included, which doesn’t make sense,” Skigin said. The European varieties grown commercially are registered, with THC content below the legal threshold. Excluding hemp from the frameworks that back other staple crops is an oversight policy has been slow to fix.

With the right backing, infrastructure becomes possible. Skigin’s venture built the world’s first prefabricated hemp building production line, where hemp hurd is mixed with lime and water to make hemp concrete, formed into frames, pressed and dried, and ready for delivery when a construction site is prepared. “We are the only ones in the world who have done this,” he said. The project required capital, technical expertise, and persistence — a rare combination. “There just aren’t that many people with the knowledge, the funds, and the experience to implement something like this.”

Progress is visible elsewhere too. Natural fiber composites are gaining ground. Skigin points to boats now built from hemp fiber composite and to hemp materials used in serious buildings, including a museum of modern art in Eindhoven. “There are definitely positive signs,” he said. “But there’s still a long way to go.” What’s missing is the policy consistency to turn isolated successes into industrial-scale production.

Skigin keeps his position focused. He isn’t advocating for grand industrial policy or for governments to pick winners. He wants hemp treated the same as other beneficial crops: included in subsidy frameworks, recognized in carbon pricing systems, and given equal footing with competing materials. The logic extends beyond borders.

Industrial hemp remains a lifetime project for Skigin. “I’m going to die — let’s say at 80, that’s another 40 years,” he said. “In 40 years, there will still be so much to do in this industry. It just takes that long.” Replacing entrenched materials and processes requires decades. Sensible policy can speed up progress, while its absence can delay it indefinitely.

Skigin’s venture built the world’s first prefabri