Designing a Systems Architecture for Biobased Manufacturing with Industrial Hemp

Industrial hemp is standing at a threshold between legacy and innovation. Oregon State University’s (OSU) Global Hemp Innovation Center (GHIC) is advancing a model for how plant-based systems can transform the future of materials, design, and advanced manufacturing. This presentation introduces a “gene-to-plant-to-field-to-factory-to-fashion” framework that uses a systems approach linking molecular genetics, agronomy, processing technology, and apparel design into an integrated biobased manufacturing ecosystem with the research, engagement, and educational components needed to support it. Central to this vision is the principle of a flexible systems architecture that incorporates and coordinates fragmented industry sectors, public institutions, and research networks across states, regions, and continents. By designing organizational and technological infrastructures that bridge not only disciplinary silos but also eras in time, GHIC and our partners including OSU’s Apparel Design Program are building flexible, adaptive solutions to advance biobased manufacturing in a rapidly changing world. Using the Roman god Janus as a metaphor for transition, the seminar reflects on how looking backward to recover cultural wisdom enables us to look forward toward a regenerative, data-informed, and design-driven biobased economy.

Jeffrey Steiner is the director of Oregon State University’s Global Hemp Innovation Center. Jeff has broad leadership experience in university and government settings where he has led national systems research efforts in food and agriculture, natural resources, and bioenergy. As a science expert, he has also served as an adviser to political appointees and government officials, as well as to commodity, conservation, and economic development organizations.

 Jeff has been especially effective in recruiting multi-institutional-interdisciplinary teams and enhancing their efforts through extensive networks of private, public, tribal, and international partners. At OSU, he now leads comprehensive research initiatives helping to develop new economic opportunities for industrial products made from hemp grown in Oregon and the western United States.

 Jeff received his Ph.D. from Oregon State University and B.S. and M.S. degrees from California State University Fresno. He was raised on a family farm near Visalia in the California San Joaquin Valley where his parents grew cotton, alfalfa hay, grain, and fruit and nut tree crops, and raised hogs and cattle.