CODY LEY in Jones, Michigan is at the front edge of our housing issue, making the case to local and state leaders that hemp construction materials are a game-changer. He is the Midwest representative for the
US Hemp Building Association (USHBA), whose mission is to increase awareness and confidence in what is possible when hemp fiber replaces, or augments, lumber, concrete and fiberglass in the housing equation. This can be a tall order. He recently spent an hour or two with housing officials in Detroit explaining the practical technicalities of hemp, as opposed to marijuana, in building houses. Housing officials don't necessarily talk much about Supply Chains, or alternatives to what we've come to accept as How You Build Houses. Building houses is what housebuilders do, and 99% of the time it involves the same old, same old, what you can get at Home Depot. Hemp is not even way down the list.
Yet we're in a painful time when it comes to housing, never mind everything else. That's a good time for innovation, when push comes to shove, when our conservative friends in government and business, those with common sense about "getting things done" are suddenly interested in radical solutions that only 5 years ago were inconceivable. This is the role of USHBA, to keep knocking at these doors of housing influence until they crack open. This is true of all the hemp industry innovation/investment pathways that are continuing to emerge around the world.
The two groups with the most influence in the future of housing are men and developers. Many women are also builders. But men are by nature the ones who build the house, with women being in charge of everything else. In some tribal cultures, the women build the house, while the men hunt and lay around. This is a gross simplification, but let's just assume that if we hold an event in the US involving house construction you'll get a lot of young men. Regardless of gender, it's about families, raising children and the future of small towns where the obstacles to innovation are low , property is inexpensive and bureacracies are minimal. Compared to a big city for example. So this is the stage setting where people like Cody Ley are creating an amazing new opportunity.
Developers are the ones with the credit score allowing them to speculate on a single house, an entire subdivision, or to take over a small town in need of something that will be economically and environmentally sustainable. If Developers are on board, the banks and housing agencies will follow. The next step for the USHBA is to get well-financed developers on board, who might possibly see a profit opportunity.
The Lower Sioux reservation is about 2 hours SE of Minneapolis. They are proving something with hemp housing that we hope to continue following and promoting. There are big implications here.
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