American Hemp The Hemp Plant

David Hill has been working in agriculture his whole life.  Through his career, he's been part of many brands trying to find the best supply chain for America's crops into products that are sold around the world.  David joined the team at First Crop as a co-founder and the Head of Regenerative Agriculture and Education to help steward a better relationship with the land for the people and planet Earth.

This episode is part of a collaboration with the U.S. Hemp Brokerage to create a series of podcast episodes focusing on the evolving hemp industry.




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Jane Pinto is the founder of First Crop, Don’t Go Nuts, and Pinto Barn. She is a lifelong visionary in the natural food and wellness space.  Jane focuses on building cultures of love and care, companies with strong missions devoted to healing and elevating people and the planet Earth.  She has spent her entire career helping corporations create workplaces that honor unconditional equality. Jane's companies create innovative products and services to help people improve their lives by engaging with consciously created and uniquely designed products.

This episode is part of a collaboration with the U.S. Hemp Brokerage to create a series of podcast episodes focusing on the evolving hemp industry.


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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/americanhemp/support

Dani Fontaine is a fierce advocate for the hemp plant, specifically for its sustainable, renewable, and value as a multi-use crop. Dani began her career 8 years ago in 2008. She and her mother, Tracee Box started the first organic edible company, called Tastee Yummees. By mid-2011, her mother began focusing more on nutrition-based health and wellness, while Dani took over the reins of the company eventually selling to Cheeba Chews and exiting out of the MMJ industry.

In 2011, Dani received her certification in massage therapy and esthetics, from the Aveda Institute to help her establish a CBD and hemp-based spa and healing center. In 2013, Dani and her father, “Wild Bill”, started Colorado Hemp Project in 2013. They were among the first successful hemp fields planted and harvested in the U.S. in almost 60 years. After seeing a field of beautiful green hemp plants, the next logical step was to begin a healing, organic, hemp-based body care company. Dani teamed up with her mom and in 2013 Nature’s Root was born. Nature’s Root was created to fuel Dani’s passion of creating and formulating products with a mission, unlike the majority of hemp products on the market today.

Dani has a tenacious and positive attitude that helps her play an integral role in developing relationships and strategic partnership across the world for the hemp plant. Working in close partnership with The Colorado Hemp Project, Dani is working on several fronts, including ventures in nine other states (Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Kentucky, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Florida and NY), and two countries (Jamaica and Puerto Rico).


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Birthed out of the mountains and music festivals of Colorado, Mountain Mud Sunscreen was first conceived after the 2018 summer festival season. Co-founders Jai Wiglesworth and Anthony Steadman met and collaborated to create "production magic" at the Sonic Bloom and ARISE festivals. During ARISE, the co-founders were sharing ideas for future ventures and Jai mentioned a product he "brainstormed" but never got off the drawing board, CBD infused sunscreen.

A light went off in Anthony's head as he thought about a friend he meet in St. Maarten ten years ago, a biologist and dive master who created an all natural, reef-safe sunscreen in Hawaii. She developed her product and passed the rigorous FDA testing process, and is currently being sold at Whole Foods in Hawaii, California, and Florida. With her help Jai and Anthony formulated Mountain Mud Sunscreen.

Mountain Mud is the first CBD infused, biodegradable, non-nanotized mineral sunscreen, based on an FDA approved recipe sold in an eco-conscious package. Colorado sourced CBD isolate is used to ensure the sunscreen is THC free. Zinc-oxide is the active sunscreen ingredient and the other ingredients are organic oils. Mountain Mud is more than a sunscreen, it's skin food with an SPF.


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Ron Basak-Smith is the Co-Founder and CEO of Sana Packaging, a startup that designs and develops differentiated, sustainable, and compliant packaging solutions for the cannabis industry using 100% plant-based hemp plastic and reclaimed ocean plastic. Sana Packaging is proud to be a “Made in the U.S.A.” company that supports domestic agriculture and domestic manufacturing.

Ron earned a B.A. in Sociology from Ithaca College in 2011 and an M.B.A. in Sustainability, Entrepreneurship, and Finance from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2017. Ron’s goal is to support the sensibility and soft skills of his Sociology degree with the hard skills of his M.B.A. in order to bring positive social and environmental change to his business endeavors. In his free time, Ron enjoys skiing, mountain biking, and exploring the Rocky Mountains. Ron is passionate about protecting our natural environment and believes the private sector has a responsibility to drive positive social and environmental change.


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Alex White Plume was born on the Pine Ridge Reservation. He grew up strongly connected to traditional Lakota culture. He joined the U.S. Army and was stationed in Berlin until his enlistment ended in 1978. After returning to Pine Ridge, he lived in the Manderson. At that time, he joined the Tribal Police as an officer. White Plume's interest in socio-political issues developed later in life.

Alex served as the former vice president and president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of the Pine Ridge Reservation, located on South Dakota of the United States. He served as president from June 30, 2006 to November 2006 after Cecilia Fire Thunder was impeached.

From 2000 to 2002, he earned unwanted publicity when United States federal drug agents raided his farm and destroyed his crop of industrial hemp before he could harvest it for seed as intended. They got a court order prohibiting him to grow the crop. Although the Oglala Sioux have sovereignty on their land and hemp does not have psychoactive properties, the agents operated under a 1968 federal anti-drug law prohibiting the cultivation of Cannabis-related crops.

In 2019, Alex White Plume created the first Native American hemp product in the world and was the only hemp farmer in South Dakota.  Alex White Plume is a legend, a myth, and a well respected elder of the Oglala Lakota.  He is featured in an Amazon Prime Series, American Hemp: The Evolution Continues.


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