Winona LaDuke, Anishinaabe Agriculture Institute / Winona’s Hemp and Erin Axelrod, LIFT Economy – The vision of AAI / Winona’s Hemp is to nurture a tribal hemp economy in North America, as a replicable model of organic, innovative and equitable Indigenous economics. AAI will create a regional strategy for the restoration of a fiber hemp economy, focused on northern plains and great lakes Indigenous nations, with an emphasis on repairing our relationship to our earth and each other.

Lara Burton and Marta Kephart, Apparent Ventures – Apparent Ventures is a bio-materials company whose mission is to transform invasive plant biomass into bio-benign alternatives to traditional and synthetic textiles. These plants are disrupting ecological processes and functions resulting in desertification, a decrease in indigenous key stone species, increased fuel loads and an overall loss of biodiversity.

Shannon Welsh and Angela Wartes-Kahl, Fibrevolution – Fibrevolution will launch the first bast fiber mill in the United States in over 50 years in Oregon. The mill will operate with machinery from Europe to process fiber flax and eventually hemp when the regulations regarding production are provided for growers and mills. The mill will serve as a blueprint for additional locations on the East coast and Midwest.