Hemp farmers Doug Fine and Mike Lewis have partnered on Hempsty.com, an online marketplace for artisans who create small batch products from hemp and other bio materials.
Hempsty has opened a registration panel where artisan producers can register and offer products from a wide range of categories — from clothing to jewelry and crafts, fine art and literature to hemp hurd for animal bedding.
“As hemp and other biomaterials replace petroleum and petro-chemicals on a mass scale in the industrial supply chain, we’re trying to ensure that the independent artisans, whose products derive from a regenerative, soil-based source, have an opportunity to display their wares,” Fine said.
Fine, who lives in New Mexico, is the author of “Hemp Bound,” “Too High to Fail” and “Farewell, My Subaru.” Lewis, a Kentuckian, is the founder of the Growing Warriors Project, which helps train military veterans in organic farming.
Hemptsy is to launch for buyers before June 1, Fine said. Once sales get rolling, Hempsty will host and manage marketing and sales while taking a 3% commission, and eventually a 15-cent service charge for individual product uploads.
The platform will be open-source and self-regulating, Fine noted, and will have only basic terms in place to prevent abuse. Hempsty.com is hemp-only and does not accept psychoactive cannabis products or live seeds.
