Ken Meyer's boots imprint the fine layer of dust settled over the concrete floor as he walks through South Dakota's first industrial hemp processing facility. It's loud. Fans whirl and machinery grinds. Strips of sunlight cut through the haze.
Piles of dry hemp stalks line one wall. Meyer gestures toward a forklift feeding one of the piles into an industrial contraption. On one side of the machine, fiber pours out in tangled ribbons. On another, chunks of the woody core, called "hurd," tumble into a large sack atop a pallet. Meyer reaches in and raises a handful.
"We can turn hemp stalks into materials for animal bedding, hempcrete, bioplastics, you name it," he said. "Right here in South Dakota."
Meyer has a vision. He said expanding the hemp supply chain in South Dakota will bring more small processing and manufacturing into the state, and pull heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
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