T H E
U D E N T
F IL E S
THE HEMP WORSHIPER
CLACKAMAS STUDENT STARTS BUSINESS WITH HEMP
BY MATT ROWNING
T h e C la c k a m a s P rin t: T e ll u s a b o u t
yourself! W h at’ s the story b ehin d O r
ego n H em p W orks?
B en C h risten sen : I started my company
about six years ago. 1 ended up getting
in a car wreck at a certain point and got
a medical marijuana card. I had a buddy
growing marijuana. 1 thought it was pretty
cool that he worked with the plant, but
I didn’t think there were enough voices
on hem p. I decided I wanted to work with
hem p.
A lso , I happened to like 'Fight Club'
quite a bit at the time, so I decided to make
soap. I sp ent the next year research
ing Oregon and hem p and cannabis in
general.
BC: No, 1 source it from Canada, they’re
kind o f the world leader on hemp oil and
hemp seed product. ’97 1 think they start
ed doing a pilot hemp program. It’s a huge
industry. The United States buys 90 per
cent of what they produce, so a significant
am ount. The federal governm ent was
actually sued over that. The US govern
ment had said 'no hemp in this country,’
but there was a suit filed claim ing hemp
was a food product. Now we have hemp
food items and oil. So that’ s what I use in
my soap is food grade, organic hem p oil.
TCP: You’ve mentioned the product is
organic, why did you choose to make
it that way?
BC: It’s not certified organic, so what I can
TCP: Y ou w ere liv in g in O regon at th e
tim e?
B C: Yes, I am bom and raised here.
T CP: W h at successes have you had so
far? Is th e b all fin a lly sta rtin g to roll
w ith th e le g a liz a tio n o f recreatio n al
m arijuana?
Ben Christensen proudly stands with
marijauna plants. Photo contributed by
Ben Christensen.
B C: I’ve seen a dramatic increase jn the
acceptance of hemp with the legalization.
There’ s so many people fighting for med
ical and recreational, but in comparison
there’ s quite a few less for hem p.
A s o f last year there are n ine hem p
farm s in Oregon.
TCP: Do you have any difficulty acquir
ing industrial hemp for your products
w ith o n ly n in e fa rm s in state?
say on my label is it’ s made with organic
hemp oil. It’ s made with organic olive oil,
organic coconut oil. I can only put that
on the label.
TCP: What’ s the future for you and for
Oregon Hemp Works?
BC: As for the future, it kind of started out
as a hobby thing, I didn’t know what I was
doing. Now I’ve started to go to school for
renewable energy, I started at Clackamas
fou r years ago. M y renew able energy
degree will only help me to improve and
build in sustainability into my company.
So, I can understand it’ s not just about
having a Prius company car and compact
fluorescent lights, it’ s a matter of putting
solar panels up. It’ s not just recycling but
actually m anaging our waste.
Right now the soap’s packaging is hemp
paper with hem p twine. It’ s biodegrad
able. M ovin g forward, I ’ m transferring to
OIT n ext term fo r business.
TCP: W h at w ould you say i f I accused
you o f b ein g a forw ard m ind ed e n tre
preneur?
B C: I w ouldn’t use that terminology for
m yself, but I w ouldn’t disagree with it.
I th in k it w as A dam Corolla w ho said
'you’ re not an entrepreneur u n til you
m ake $100,000 a year.' I just try to be
humble about it, because it’ s not about
me or m y com pany, its a m atter o f the
planet.
This is the m ost sustainable resource
we have, and you can’t really talk about
renewable energy and saving the planet
unless hem p is in the conversation as
well. It is the most nutritionally complete
food source on the planet; it’ s a carbon
negative building material. I took classes
in 2015 on how to build with hempcrete. I
went to Bellingham over the summer and
took a three day course on building a tiny
house with hemp materials.
Hempcrete is chopped up hemp stock
with lim e and water. It creates a carbon
negative building material that absorbs
carbon over tim e, it essentially petrifies
and sucks carbon dioxide out o f the air. It
makes a building that will last hundreds
o f years. Then, when you want to change
som ething, you can smash it down and
make it into a new hempcrete batch. It’s
amazing stuff.
It’ s a victim o f its own success. People
hear this and say I would haye heard o f
it if it could do all those things. That’ s
exactly why you haven’ t heard o f it.
Correction: In issue 11 of The Clackamas Print. Cassandra Garcia-Torres' name was misspelled. We apologize for the error.
ON THE COVER: Macro photo o f marijuana by Andrew Koczian. Design by Brandon Chorum.
Itheclackamasprint.com
oo®
Editors- In-Chlef Andrew Koczian & Megan McCoy, chiefed@clackamas.edu; News Editor Cassidy White, newsed@dackamas.edu; Arts & Culture Matthew Rowning, aced@dackamas.edu; Associate Arts & Culture Saige Keikkaia; Sports EdRsr Katie Archer, sportsed@clackamas.edu; Copy Editor Blake Swan,
copyed@clackamas.edu; Design Editor Brandon Chorum; Photo Editor Austin Boltz. ptiotoed@clackamas.edu; Associate Photo Editor Victoria Inker; Wed Edftor.Cheisea Pagan, weberktor@dackamas.edu; Associate Wed Editor Shaytyn Struna; Ad Manager Robin Scott, admgr@clackamas.edu; Associate Ad
Manager Merari Calderon Ruiz; Staff Writers A Photographers Dani Clifton. James Harley. Taras Kovch, Tom Boggess. Tony Pellico; Production Cole Slawson. Debbie Fox. lexie Wagar. Travis Whittaker. Journalism Advisor Melissa Jones, melissai@cldckamas.edu; 77* aadteaias Print aims to report the news in
an honest, unbiased and professional manner. Content published in The Print is not screened or subject to censorship. Email comments, concerns or tips to: chiefed@dackamas.edu or call us at 503-594-6266; 19600 Molalla Ave., Oregon City, OR 97045
2 Clackamas Pri n t FEBRUARY 10.2016 foeclackamasprint.com