Australian Industrial Hemp Conference

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Conference Info
- 2026
- 2024
Contact Us

Homepage
Conference Info
- 2026
- 2024
Contact Us

Homepage
2024 Program
- 2024
- AIHC 2024 Proceedings
Contact Us

Homepage
2024 Program
- 2024
- AIHC 2024 Proceedings
Contact Us

About Us

The objective of the biennial Australian Industrial Hemp Conference was to serve as a national platform for growers, researchers, processors and end-market buyers. Industry participants attend our conference to present and discuss concepts, key issues, hot topics and the latest findings in growing, producing, and the marketing of all types of industrial hemp products.

The AIHC was conceived and designed by its founder Robert Bell to both add value and to assist in the future expansion of the industrial hemp industry and its community. From its inception, the AIHC has been supported and sponsored by the conferences’ key partners, AgriFutures and Midlands Seed. The national Australian Hemp Council and the Australian Industrial Hemp Alliance are also involved in the event.

The inaugural AIHC was held in Geelong, Victoria in March 2018 and was hosted by the Industrial Hemp Association of Victoria. The second conference was held in Fremantle, Western Australia in February 2020 and was supported by the Industrial Hemp Western Australia Association. The third event was held in Launceston, Tasmania in March 2022.
In 2024 we went to the Hunter Valley NSW maintaining one of the aims of the Conference to move around all the States and Territories of Australia.

The AIHC Organising Committee is led by the founder, Robert Bell, and Stuart Gordon from CSIRO’s Agriculture and Food business unit. Other Industrial experts and AHC/AIHA representatives are called upon for input as required.

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Associate Professor Anthony Fowler

Anthony Fowler is a Visiting Scientist at SARDI Aquatic Sciences (SA), where he had been a Research Scientist for nearly 30 years. He is a fish population biologist and fishery scientist having focussed on the population biology, life histories, and fishery assessment for species such as King George Whiting, Southern Garfish, and Snapper.

Previously, he had worked on species from a variety of ecosystems during his post-graduate work at the University of Sydney, and post-doctoral positions at AIMS in Townsville and in Canada. Although his work has involved a diversity of techniques, it has particularly used the retrospective application of otolith methodologies.

Anthony has been a member of the ASFB since the 1980s and served as the SA State Representative during the 1990s and 2000s. He was appointed to the Hall of Fame in 2021 and is the current nominee of the K. Radway Allen Award.

Robert Eccles

Rob has extensive experience and expertise in the agriculture industry, honing valuable skills in business and project management, agronomy, sales, and customer management. He is adept at navigating complex farm management practices, delivering quality customer service, and engaging with various stakeholders.

Throughout his 35-year career, Rob has encountered a wide range of challenges and opportunities. He has a track record of successfully commercialising new technologies, demonstrating his forward-thinking approach and adaptability in an ever-evolving agriculture industry.

Specifically, Rob offers expertise in farm management, sales and marketing, customer relationship management, technology adoption, plus crop, horticulture, and grazing practices.

Alana Hollestelle

Alana is a consulting Director at Common Capital, focused on driving deep decarbonisation and atmospheric carbon removal. Her expertise is in systems based approaches to scaling net zero solutions, orienting technical challenges in their social, economic, business model, supply chain, policy, regulatory and ecosystem contexts.

Her projects focus on understanding the sources of value and risk in the net zero transition across stakeholder groups, and developing capability to adapt to rapidly changing international, regulatory, market and technology contexts.

Alana is also a Director at the Climate Recovery Institute, a not-for-profit institute with a mission to scale atmospheric carbon dioxide removal in Australia. Prior to joining Common Capital, she held previous roles at Deloitte & Commonwealth Bank, where she designed and managed large regulatory and strategic projects.

Professor Larry Smart

Larry Smart is a professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics at Cornell University based at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, NY since 2009.

He is a plant geneticist and breeder working to breed improved cultivars of three crops: hemp; shrub willow for bioenergy; and hop for craft breweries in New York. His research focuses on hybrid vigor, sex determination, and disease resistance.

He earned a BS in Biology from Cornell University, PhD in Genetics from Michigan State University, and was an NSF post-doctoral fellow at UC Davis.

Tim Schmidt

Tim has been farming in Tasmania for the last 20 years, in 2003 the family purchased Woodlands a 350ha farm near Deloraine in Northern Tasmania. Primarily a beef trading and dairy agistment farm they also grow potatoes and hemp.

In 2016 Tim became president of the Tasmanian Hemp Association and has since advocated for the Tasmanian hemp industry. In August 2022 after 6 years, Tim stood down as President of the THA after having overseen the development of the Association into an effective advocacy organisation for the Tasmanian hemp industry.

Tim also sits on the TFGA Meat Council, longstanding chairman of the Deloraine Landcare Group, past chairman of the Meander Valley Council NRM committee and committee member of the Meander Valley Water Users.

Tim is also president of the newly formed Australian Hemp Council, a 7 member council representing each state and NT on behalf of Industrial Hemp Industry growers and processors.

Professor Tobias Kretzschmar

Tobias Kretzschmar is professor of plant breeding and genetics at Southern Cross University (SCU), Australia, with expertise in functional genomics of natural products and functional food crops.

Co-lead of the SCU harvest to Health Research Impact Cluster.

Prior to joining SCU spent seven years at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines, as Senior Scientist in Molecular Genetics with focus on molecular breeding technologies.

PhD from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, in Molecular Plant Physiology with a project on characterizing plant secondary metabolite transporters.

Diploma in Biology from the Technical University of Kaiserslautern, Germany.

Mick Andersen

Mick Andersen is the owner and managing director of Good Country Hemp, a South Australian based hemp foods processing company.

Mick was raised on a farm in central Victoria and graduated from Melbourne University with an honours engineering degree in Agriculture. In 2000 Mick established a shed design, construction and project management business focussed on the pig and poultry industries. Then after 18 years he decided to shut it down and start again – in hemp.

Knowing basically nothing about hemp, Mick and his wife Linda set about building a hemp foods business from scratch – contracting farmers willing to grow hemp, building a processing plant and finding new markets for their products. Their journey has been successful and life-changing.

Associate Professor Gaye Krebs

Gaye Krebs from Charles Sturt University has become an expert in the areas of ruminant nutrition and alternative feeds for livestock.

In recent years the focus of her research has been on the utilisation of industrial hemp biomass as feed for sheep, investigating its effects on feed intake, nutrient digestibility, rumen parameters and carcass residues.

Recently, the research on industrial hemp has also extended to include pharmacokinetics and pharmacological studies of cannabinoids in sheep as well as effects of cannabinoids of rumen microorganisms in both sheep and cattle.

Anna Maskiell

Anna Maskiell is a registered Architect and co-founder of Footscray-based architectural consultancy Public Realm Lab.

She is an advocate, researcher and adviser on the ways in which the built environment can foster inclusivity, creativity and sustainability by putting human experience at the centre of strategic and design thinking.

Anna has over a decade of major project experience spanning master planning, strategic facilities planning, architectural design and delivery for local councils, state government departments, not-for-profit organisations and tertiary institutions. She led the design and delivery of the first public Class 9b hemp masonry buildings in Australia for Mildura Rural City Council from 2020 – 2023.

She is the recipient of the Dulux Study Tour and Marten Bequest Scholarship.

Richard Barge

Richard has served as Chair of the NZ Hemp Industries Association (NZHIA) for the last three years. NZHIA is a non-profit incorporated society involved with promoting the economic, environmental, health and social benefits of the NZ Hemp Industry.

NZHIA supports bio regional developments, based on phytoremediation of soils and sustainable production of arable and horticultural crops, producing seed, fiber and health products, grown and processed locally.

Richard’s hemp journey started in 1994 and he became involved with the NZHIA in 1998. He is a qualified accountant, with experience in industry and in practice, both in New Zealand and England.

He is based in Paeroa, which is in the mighty Waikato (south of Auckland) and is co-owner of two hemp companies—Hemptastic NZ Ltd and Hemp Seeds Foods Ltd, which take pride in using 100% hemp that is 100% New Zealand made, while striving to use an ethical and sustainable approach to the use of resources and the environment.

Daniela Rivas-Aybar

Daniela is an international sustainability specialist with >13 years work experience in responsible sourcing, environmental and social safeguards, and addressing sustainability and climate topics in agriculture, forestry, fishing, water, and community development projects with NGOs, government, and the private sector.

Currently conducting research on the life cycle assessment of hemp-based materials in Australia as a part of her PhD candidacy at the Sustainable Engineering Group at Curtin University. Daniela holds a BSc in Engineering for Sustainable Development from the Panamerican School of Agriculture and a Masters of Agricommerce from Massey University.

Mark Skewes

Mark Skewes joined the South Australian Department of Agriculture in 1986, and currently works for the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI), at Loxton Research Centre. Mark has many years of experience in research of irrigated tree and vine crops, including variety and rootstock comparisons, irrigation scheduling, and soil and plant water monitoring.

In 2017 Mark commenced industrial hemp research on behalf of the South Australian government. In 2021 Mark was appointed as the National Coordinator for AgriFutures Australia’s Industrial Hemp Variety Trials, and he also oversees the two South Australian IHVT sites.

Dr Omid Ansari

With over twenty years of groundbreaking experience in agriculture and hemp research, Dr Omid Ansari has significantly contributed to shaping the industry in Canada, the USA, and Australia. His expertise in plant breeding and genetics has been instrumental in roles such as GRDC National Program Manager, Head of R&D at Ecofibre, and CEO at HempGenTech (HGT). Renowned for developing grain and dual-purpose hemp varieties, Dr Ansari’s work has set new benchmarks in both Australia and the US.

At HGT, Dr. Ansari leads a team dedicated to innovative and sustainable hemp cultivation. His company not only excels in hemp genetics but also provides expert consultancy services to both domestic and international companies. This consultancy role has positioned HGT as a leader in the industry, reflecting Dr Ansari’s vision and expertise.

Dr. Ansari’s commitment to the industry extends beyond commercial success. He has nurtured future talents by supervising MSc and PhD students and actively participating in key industry organisations. His roles include serving on the AOSCA board, as Research Director of the AIHA, as a member of AHC, and as a member of the FIHO Research and other sub-committees. These contributions emphasise his dedication to sustainable practices and his influential role in the hemp industry’s ongoing development. Dr Ansari’s blend of academic insight, practical innovation, and consultancy skills exemplifies his commitment to advancing the hemp industry.

Andi Lucas

After many years creating and running start-ups with and for others in the USA, Andi is now home in Tasmania and has dedicated herself professionally to the industrial cannabis industry in Australia.

Andi Lucas is the founder of X-Hemp Pty Ltd, Tasmania’s only hemp fibre processing facility and one of only a small handful currently operational in the country, and the only 100% female-owned and operated facility of this type in the world.

Securing loans as pre-seed capital to launch in mid-2021, in October 2023 Andi had raised just over $1.5 million via the crowd-sourced funding platform Birchal, welcoming close to one thousand new shareholders for next state of growth. Over the past two years, she has secured supply lines, worked through innumerable start-up challenges, more than doubled the number of hempcrete homes built in Tassie over the past decade, and are ready to scale.

Dr. Johannes Fehrmann

Dr. Johannes Fehrmann is a Research Fellow at The University of Melbourne’s Infrastructure Engineering Department, currently involved in hemp wood engineering. His PhD research focused on creating ultra-low-density composites from industrial hemp hurd, offering distinctive insights into how particle morphology shapes physical and mechanical properties. Drawing from experience in wood processing and timber research while working for the Queensland Government, he is dedicated to advancing both innovative engineered wood products and exploring the potential of alternative lignocellulosic raw materials for building components. This commitment aligns well with circular economy principles and the imperative of mitigating the ongoing depletion of timber resources.

Dr. Jan J. Slaski

Dr. Jan J. Slaski is an Expert Researcher with the Bio-Industrial Services Division of InnoTech Alberta, Vegreville, Alberta. He obtained a B.Sc. and a M.Sc. in agronomy from the Warsaw Agricultural University, Poland and Ph.D. from the Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute, Poland. In 1993 he arrived in Canada to continue his study as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta, Edmonton. After successful completion of his university training in 1998, Jan assumed a plant-soil research scientist position at the Alberta Research Council (presently InnoTech Alberta).

During the last 22 years Jan has been leading research aimed at introduction and breeding of industrial hemp varieties that suit the needs of industries utilizing fibre, grain and cannabinoids-laden crop parts. Jan has been also leading extensive studies focused on the development of best management practices permitting sustainable hemp production under changing environmental conditions. For over two decades Jan has been working for the hemp industry and with the hemp industry stakeholders to make this crop a viable and profitable cropping option for Canada. To fully realize the potential residing within industrial hemp and to assure whole crop utilization, Jan has assembled at InnoTech Alberta a program offering solutions from “Seed to Final Product“ that includes three domains: breeding/agronomy, analyses/processing and product development. Since 2012, Jan has been serving the hemp industry as a director of the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance and since 2021, as a director of research and academia on the Alberta Hemp Alliance board.

In 2003 for his contribution to agricultural industry in the Province, Jan received a Distinguished Agrologist Award from the Alberta Institute of Agrology. In 2022, Jan’s outstanding contribution to the development of the Canadian hemp industry was recognized in the form of Dr. Ernest Small Industry Leadership Award conferred by the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance and The Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal granted by the Province of Alberta.

Professor Kylie O’Brien

Kylie O’Brien is Chief Scientific Officer at Cannim Group, a medicinal cannabis company located in Manly, Australia with business interests in the US, UK, Canada, Germany and Jamaica. Professor O’Brien previously worked as a clinical optometrist, then completed a Master of Public Health before career changing to Chinese medicine in 2000. After completing her PhD at Monash Medical School, she then entered the higher education sector where she has held senior roles in both Australian universities and private higher education institutions. She previously worked for the Victorian Department of Human Services on the implementation of the Chinese Medicine Act 2000.

Professor O’Brien is one of Australia’s leading educators in medicinal cannabis (MC) since 2018. Her courses in MC were the first to receive level 1 continuing professional development (CPD) points from the Royal Australasian College of General Practitioners. In 2021, she set up the International College of Cannabinoid Medicine (iccm.co), an online learning platform for healthcare practitioners focused on the evidence base of medicinal cannabis. She has written two books: O’Brien & Blair, Medicinal Cannabis and CBD in Mental Healthcare, Cham: Springer, 2021 and O’Brien & Sali, A Guide to Integrative Oncology, Springer 2017. An experienced clinical researcher, she has recently conducted a two-year observational study investigating the effectiveness and safety of medicinal cannabis, focused on: chronic pain, anxiety, PTSD and multiple sclerosis. She is currently conducting research into the effectiveness of medicinal cannabis in women’s health and has launched an international study, the Lumir Mission Study, that aims to reach over 1 million patients in four years.

She is an Adjunct Professor at Torrens University, an Adjunct Fellow of the NICM Health Research Institute (Western Sydney University), a member of the Australian government’s Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA) Expert Panel and previous member of the Australian government’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) Advisory Committee for Complementary Medicine. She sits on the Human Research Ethics Committee of the National Institute of Integrative Medicine.

David Statham

David Statham is the co-founder of FibreTrace Technologies with his wife Danielle. He is also co-owner of the Sundown Pastoral Company and Good Earth Cotton. Together they have created one of the world’s most renowned sustainable agricultural enterprises.

Since 1984 David has been at the forefront of innovation in agricultural technology and the application of regenerative farming techniques. This has resulted in the Sundown Pastoral Company being recognised as one of Earth’s most efficient and environmentally ethical agricultural enterprises, being the world’s first carbon positive cotton farm.

David’s vision is to work in harmony with nature and believes regenerative farming techniques can create a better and healthier planet for generations ahead. It is his passion to transform the fashion supply chain. He is driven daily to leave the planet and its culture a better place for future generations.

David believes that brands need to be connected to the farms they rely on to supply their cotton – and in turn trace the product all the way to the shelf. Creating a supply chain with full visibility that ensures true long term sustainability is the way to achieving this goal.

FibreTrace LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fibretrace/

Good Earth Cotton LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/good-earth-cotton/

The Hon. Jeremy Buckingham MLC

The Hon. Jeremy Buckingham, MLC is a Member of the Legislative Council and Chair of the Premier and Finance Portfolio Committee.
He was a Member of the Legislative Council from 2011 to 2019 and re-elected in 2023 as a representative of the Legalise Cannabis Party
He has been a long-term passionate advocate for industrial hemp.

The Hon. Tara Moriarty MLC

The Hon. Tara Moriarty MLC (Minister for Agriculture, Minister for Regional New South Wales & Western New South Wales ) was elected to the NSW Parliament as a member of the Legislative Council in 2019 and was immediately appointed Shadow Minister for Mental Health and Crown Lands. In 2021 she was appointed Shadow Minister for Corrections, Juvenile Justice, and Medical Research.

Prior to her election to Parliament, Ms Moriarty was the Secretary and then President of the United Voice Liquor and Hospitality Division and served as Chair of Club Plus Superannuation.

On the election of the Minns Labor Government in March 2023, Ms Moriarty was appointed the NSW Minister for Agriculture, Minister for Regional NSW and Minister for Western NSW. Ms Moriarty is also currently a member of the ALP’s National Executive and Senior Vice President of the NSW Labor Party.

As Minister for Agriculture and Minister for Regional Development Ms Moriarty oversees the management of NSW’s primary industries, including forestry, and the co-ordination of issues affecting rural and regional communities across the state.

Ms Moriarty is an avid reader, and loves to travel, but her guilty pleasure is trashy TV.

Tony Hunter

Tony Hunter is a Global Food Futurist Speaker, Food Scientist, author and strategic foresight consultant specialising in the Future of Food and Agriculture. He has spoken on 4 continents and appears regularly in print, podcasts and radio as an expert in the Future of Food.

Tony is a qualified food scientist with more than 30 years experience in the Food Industry. His business experience includes over a decade in senior management, being General Manager of two food companies.

He provides expert and strategic foresight advice on food technology and consumer trends and their industry impacts to Australian and global food companies from PepsiCo to KFC. He also advises VC investors and top four global consulting companies such as Accenture on these topics.

He delivers a unique perspective on the Future of Food based upon his distinctive combination of scientific qualifications, business experience and detailed understanding of food technologies.

Peter Graham

Peter Graham is a Senior Executive and Company Director with over 44 years of experience in agriculture and the Cotton Industry. He holds a Bachelor of Rural Science from UNE, is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and prior to his retirement at the end of 2023 was the Managing Director of Cotton Seed Distributors Ltd (CSD), a position he held for 21 years. CSD is a key industry body within the Australian Cotton industry and the sole supplier of high quality, high yielding cotton planting seed.

He was instrumental in the formation of Cotton Breeding Australia (CBA) an unincorporated joint venture between CSD and CSIRO in 2007, the formalisation of key agreements with world leading agricultural companies, the $110m redevelopment of the processing and seed facilities, QA labs and office complex in Wee Waa, acquisition of significant land and water assets for seed production and trials and the expansion of the company’s activities both domestically and internationally. Under his leadership the company has grown its asset base from $30m to well over $350m while maintaining its structure and ensuring it remains firmly in the hands of the local industry. CSD is well known and recognised as an industry leader around the world.

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