Shift by Alberta Innovates
We're happy to announce we won Best Business podcast for 2025 by the Quill Podcast Awards!
Shift by Alberta Innovates is dedicated to interviewing the innovators, entrepreneurs, and researchers who are leading the future of innovation in Alberta and globally. Alberta has many unsung heroes and many interesting and important technological advancements being made that will greatly impact our lives. Shift is a spotlight for listeners to get a sense of how Alberta innovation is leading the way.
Shift by Alberta Innovates
Hemp: A Global Miracle Crop
Hemp has the potential to play a significant role in the future of Alberta's agriculture industry. Shift by Alberta Innovates interviews Jan Slaski of InnoTech Alberta and Aaron Barr, CEO of Canadian Rockies Hemp Corp.
About Jan Slaski:
Over the last 17 years, Jan Slaski has been leading research aimed at introduction and breeding of hemp varieties that suit the needs of the fibre and food industries on the Prairies. To fully realize potential residing within this crop hemp and to assure whole crop utilization Jan assembled a program at InnoTech Alberta offering solutions from “seed to final product” that includes three domains: breeding and agronomy, fibre processing and product development. Since 2012, Jan has been serving hemp industry as a director of the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance. Jan’s research also focuses on the development of best management practices permitting sustainable production of staple (cereals, pulses, canola) and novel (flax, quinoa, Jerusalem artichoke) prairie crops under changing environmental conditions.
About Canadian Rockies Hemp Corp.:
Canadian Rockies Hemp Corporation (CRHC) is an Alberta-based agribusiness focusing on processing hemp at scale for industrial use outputs. Working to develop Alberta as the global hemp processing hub, CRHC is building a bio-refining processing plant in Bruderheim, AB.
Capable of processing 50,000 acres of hemp per year, producing 50,000 tonnes of fibre and 110,000 tonnes of hurd, CRHC is the largest hemp processing plant in North America.
Working with local Alberta farmers, CRHC contracts hemp acres, directly providing specific high-quality feedstock to the Bruderheim Plant.
Shift by Alberta Innovates focuses on the people, businesses and organizations that are contributing to Alberta's strong tech ecosystem.
