Encore Presentation of Michael Klepacz's First Interview on Hemp Show, March 2024

This is a special encore edition of an interview we published on YouTube two years ago. This is my conversation with Michael Klepacz, an Ohio native and Air Force veteran who moved to Poland in 2012 and founded Natural Materials Unlimited, a company that makes textiles and products from hemp, linen and other bast fibers. In this bonus episode, he talks about how the business grew from hemp wick to guitar straps, pet accessories and custom fiber products for clients around the world. The conversation digs into long fiber versus short fiber hemp: why long fiber produces stronger, higher-quality textiles, why Europe's processing equipment wasn't built for it, and why China's demand for European long fiber has scrambled the supply chain. Klepacz also traces hemp's textile history (including its role in old ship sails and painters' canvases), and shares his frustrations with U.S. and Polish hemp policy, ignorant regulators and platforms like Google and Facebook that still block hemp marketing. This episode is being republished alongside a new interview host Eric Hurlock recorded with Klepacz in Poland, revisiting the conversation as the two catch up in person. Learn More Natural Material Unlimited naturalmaterials.eu  Sponsors HEMI (Hemp Education & Marketing Initiative) hempinitiatives.org/ The Goodness of HEMP thegoodnessofhemp.org/