PARKERSBURG, W.Va. (AP) — The half-acre plot of fledgling plants along a hillside at Cedar Lane Farm puts into perspective the return of hemp to West Virginia soil — a resistance-riddled movement struggling to rise out of infancy.

VIENNA, W.Va. (AP) — A nonprofit trade association has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help back the effort to turn industrial hemp into the West Virginia's next niche crop.

VIENNA, W.Va. (AP) — A nonprofit trade association has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help back the effort to turn industrial hemp into the West Virginia's next niche crop.

Hemp. It’s a word you have probably heard more than once, and probably had some questions about at the time.

“This could potentially create the largest carbon-negative industry in the world."

Despite its eco-friendly nature, hemp is still not allowed for widespread cultivation in the US; rather only small-scale pilots are allowed in a few states around the country.

Use of hemp as a construction material is part of the revival of the crop in America, thanks to entrepreneurs who are thinking big — and small, including a Colorado firm that hosts workshops on hempcrete and builds tiny hemp houses.