Louisiana Hemp, Louisiana Walls
How a coalition of farmers, scientists, engineers, and builders left Vidalia with a plan to put Louisiana grown hemp into Louisiana homes
By Shawn Ledig, President, U.S. Hemp Building Association
Project Manager and Consultant for the Louisiana Builds: U.S. Hemp Building Association, under the guidance of Shawn Ledig
The Mississippi River bends past Vidalia the way it has for centuries, carrying the soil of half a continent toward the Gulf. This October, on its banks, a different kind of current began to move. At the North Louisiana Sustainability Summit, organized by the Delta Economic Research and Sustainability District with 21st Century Workforce Development, lawmakers, farmers, university scientists, processors, engineers, and builders gathered around a single conviction: Louisiana can grow its own homes.
Not someday. Not in a white paper. In walls, on foundations, under permits, with Louisiana hemp grown in Louisiana fields, processed by Louisiana hands, and raised into Louisiana homes. What follows is the story of how that conviction became a plan, and who is building it.
A Summit That Became a Starting Line
Delta AgroFiber Solutions took the stage twice in Vidalia, first to make the case for hemp building and then to connect it to biochar, carbon sequestration, and energy. The panels were the public part. The real work happened in the hallways, at the display tables, and over handshakes that turned into follow up meetings before the summit had even closed.
By the time the banners came down, the question in the room had changed. It was no longer whether Louisiana should build with hemp. It was how fast, and with whom.
The Coalition
Movements are built by people who decide to show up. Louisiana has them.
State Representative C. Travis Johnson has done more than champion Louisiana hemp. He wrote it into law. A Ferriday native who represents House District 21 and serves as Vice Chair of the House Committee on Agriculture, Forestry, Aquaculture, and Rural Development, Representative Johnson authored Act 462 of 2022, which created the Louisiana Industrial Hemp Promotion and Research Program and its advisory board to expand research, education, promotion, and facilities for the industry statewide. He served as the board's first chair, a seat I am now honored to hold. A year earlier, he carried the legislation that created the Delta Economic Research and Sustainability District, giving Northeast Louisiana a home for exactly this kind of collaboration. A Future Caucus Innovation Fellow in energy and environment, he has made rural economic development the center of his work, keeping jobs, capital, and opportunity in Louisiana communities rather than shipping them away. Together, he and I are working to bring IRC Appendix BL, the hemp lime construction appendix of the International Residential Code, into the Louisiana State Uniform Construction Code.
Dr. Jimmy Jones, Executive Director of the Delta Economic Research and Sustainability District, helped bring the summit to Vidalia. The district, a state pilot covering Concordia, East Carroll, Madison, and Tensas parishes, exists to unite public, private, and university partners around agriculture, innovation, and rural economic growth. In 2024, Dr. Jones and Representative Johnson traveled to Washington, D.C., when the district was selected as one of 20 recipients of the U.S. Department of Transportation's Thriving Communities grant from more than 400 applicants nationwide. It is exactly the kind of platform a homegrown hemp industry needs.
Mayor Buz Craft of Vidalia opened his city to the summit and to the idea behind it. Vidalia is choosing to lead on sustainability instead of waiting for it to arrive from somewhere else.
Frank Johnson, CEO of Courtesy Grows, speaks for the Louisiana growers who make every other step possible. Without the farmer, there is no fiber, there is no hurd, and no hemp house to call home.
Dr. Janana Snowden, Executive Director of the Southern Institute for Medicinal Plants at the Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center, brings the science. Her work, including mentoring graduate research on hemp production and best management practices at Southern University, gives builders, code officials, and investors the confidence that comes only from data.
Tim Kay, P.E., of TLK Engineering serves as Engineer of Record for Hyperion Group designs. His stamp is what turns a hemp lime vision into a permitted building that a code official can approve and a family can trust.
Hyperion Group carries each project from drawings to occupancy, providing design, engineering coordination, permitting, and construction delivery.
The U.S. Hemp Building Association, under the guidance of President Shawn Ledig, serves as project manager and consultant for the upcoming Louisiana builds. USHBA brings the national network, technical standards, and builder relationships that keep every site aligned with best practice and every lesson documented for the industry.
Delta AgroFiber Solutions ties the chain together, linking cultivation, processing, materials supply, and hemp lime placement into one integrated model.
Each of these partners could have stayed in a lane. Instead, they chose a shared goal: Louisiana hemp in Louisiana walls, and soon.
Seed to Structure
Most building materials arrive on a truck from somewhere far away, their story invisible by the time they reach the job site. Delta's Seed to Structure initiative does the opposite. It makes every link in the chain visible, local, and accountable.
Grow: Louisiana farmers cultivate industrial hemp for fiber and hurd, with the backing of the National Hemp Association, which has supported the growing side of this effort and the farmers who carry it.
Process: CannaVision, CEO David A. Russell, and Panda Biotech process Louisiana hemp into building grade material.
Build: Delta AgroFiber and Hyperion Group engineer, permit, and construct hemp lime homes with that Louisiana material.
The material is ready. Super sacks of home grade hemp hurd, every pound of it grown in Louisiana and processed at CannaVision, are staged and waiting for the first Louisiana build, the moment that completes the circle from Louisiana soil to carbon in Louisiana walls. Hemp draws carbon from the air as it grows, and the lime binder keeps absorbing carbon dioxide as the walls cure. A finished hemp lime wall is more than shelter. It is a carbon vault with a front door.
More Partners at the Table
A home is more than its walls, and the circle of partners keeps widening.
Greg Wilson of HempWood is joining the effort to supply hemp based flooring and custom counter space. Wilson founded HempWood in Murray, Kentucky, where the company transforms hemp fiber into a hardwood alternative for flooring, furniture, and interior finishes.
Fiber insulation partners from other U.S. hemp companies are stepping forward with insulation products that complement the hemp lime wall system.
The National Hemp Association, the National Hemp Research Foundation, and local Louisiana nonprofits are lending their reach to carry this work into communities, university classrooms, and the public conversation.
Proven Across America
Louisiana is not starting from scratch. It is starting from experience. Over the past several years, our builders and USHBA members have proven hemp lime construction across very different climates, codes, and communities.
Santa Cruz, California: Wade Atteberry led a hemp lime home in the Santa Cruz forest for homeowners Richard Dash and Patty King, built with support from Shawn Ledig, USHBA Treasurer Ryan Doherty, and USHBA member Ria Murdock.
Eureka, California: Chrissy Backman of Backman Building Services completed a panelized hemp lime ADU, the first permitted hempcrete home in Eureka, approved through a project specific alternative materials review with Shobe Engineering.
Morton, Minnesota: The Raft, a hemp lime duplex on the Lower Sioux reservation, rose with a hempcrete crew led by Danny Desjarlais.
Bellingham, Washington: Suneeta Eisenberg and her husband, Michael Toomes, a graduate of the USHBA Hemp Building School, brought a hands-on hemp lime session to Cordata Park Pavilion for the 3rd Annual PNW Climate Week, where 34 people came to work the material firsthand.
Full stories on the Eureka and Minnesota builds are coming soon in our Builder Spotlight series
And the work continues. Active builds in California, Colorado, and Texas are on track to finish before in 2027. Every lesson from those sites, from mix design to inspections, will travel south with our crews.
Certified Builders, Local Hands
A building is only as strong as the hands that raise it, and a movement is only as durable as the people it trains. That is why certified hemp builders from across the country are coming to Louisiana, not to build for the community, but to build with it. They will work side by side with local tradespeople, passing on the skills that took them years to master.
During the build, certified builder Wade Atteberry will join me to lead a hands on hemp building seminar for local residents and anyone ready to learn a lifetime trade.
Lime is where a hemp wall gets its armor, and Harry "Hemp" Sopp of Hemp Homes LLC will lead the lime application training. A Texas based natural builder and plaster finisher, Sopp will guide participants through the craft of lime plaster over hemp lime walls: preparing the substrate, building scratch, brown, and finish coats, and curing the work on lime's own schedule. A breathable lime finish shields the wall from weather while letting it manage moisture, exactly what a Louisiana climate demands.
Hemp building creates skilled work that cannot be outsourced. Every person trained on this site becomes a teacher for the next project, the next parish, and the next generation of Louisiana homes.
A Legacy in the Making
Years from now, when hemp lime homes line Louisiana streets, people will ask where it started. The answer will be a riverside town, a room full of people who refused to wait, and a first set of walls built from Louisiana soil.
As project manager and consultant, USHBA will guide every step, from planning and permitting through the final coat of lime, and share what we learn with members and builders across the country. If you are a farmer, builder, researcher, official, or neighbor who wants a hand in this story, now is the time. Watch for seminar dates and build updates from Delta AgroFiber Solutions, Hyperion Group, and USHBA.
Louisiana is growing its future. Come help us build it. Seed to structure.
Shawn Ledig
President, U.S. Hemp Building Association
Sources
Delta AgroFiber in the News
• LSU AgCenter: Researchers and a Handful of Farmers Team Up to Develop Industrial Hemp for Louisiana
The U.S. Hemp Building Association advances hemp building through education, advocacy, code adoption, and industry collaboration.
Learn more and become a member at ushempbuilding.org.
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