Behind the Research: Marguerite Bolt

About the Feature

Many people are involved in the remarkable range of programs, services and facilities that undergird research in the College of Agriculture. Collectively they’re integral to the college fulfilling its research mission. “Behind the Research” explores their individual roles. Each academic year, we profile six people whose work supports the College of Agriculture’s global reputation for developing innovative, multidisciplinary solutions to challenges and then putting those solutions into action.

Marguerite Bolt, Hemp Extension Specialist

• Participating in the Midwestern Hemp Research Collaborative, a 3-year, USDA-funded project to research best growing practices.
• Working with faculty and staff across the university to identify new hemp products, enlarging the market for farmers.
  
• Organizing and participating in popular hemp events to share information with stakeholders.

Hemp makes comfortable clothing and excellent chicken feed. Its seeds can be crushed into oils for lotion or added whole to smoothies for a healthy crunch. You can turn it into building materials or animal bedding, protein powder or biodegradable plastic, biofuel or lip balm.

“There are literally thousands of different products hemp could go into,” says Marguerite Bolt, Purdue’s first-ever hemp extension specialist. “It’s a huge list.”

First, to get any confusion out of the way – and there’s historically been a lot of confusion when it comes to hemp – no, it is not psychoactive. Hemp has insignificant levels of THC, the substance responsible for the ‘high’ feeling among users of recreational cannabis. Yet in the mid-20th century, the government effectively banned growing all types of Cannabis sativa, making no distinction between psychoactive and non-psychoactive varieties. This guilt by association wasn’t remedied until the 2018 Farm Bill, when Congress removed hemp from the Controlled Substances Act.

Because it was banned so long, there’s been very little research on hemp, which makes it an exciting field for farmers and researchers alike – and Bolt is both.

“I love working with this specific plant because we had such a gap in research and production, so we’re constantly learning new things,” she says.

Bolt grew up on a farm in northwest Michigan, where her family raised beef cattle and grew specialty crops including asparagus, strawberries, sweet corn and pumpkins. She loved collecting insects, a hobby her parents encouraged.

“I really liked butterflies and moths,” she says. “My favorites were Cecropia moths and other giant silk moths. We had lots of milkweed, and we would raise monarch butterfly caterpillars.”

When she was 8, she met an entomologist – the late Frederick Stehr of Michigan State University - and learned you could turn bug-hunting into a career. She studied entomology at Michigan State, then came to Purdue for a master’s degree. She wrote her thesis on hemp-insect interactions, making her one of relatively few people with master’s level hemp expertise.

At the same time, Purdue had become interested in hiring a hemp extension specialist to deal with the new interest in hemp production following the 2018 Farm Bill. Two weeks after graduation, Bolt started the job.

“My role is heavily traditional extension educator, with a small percentage of research,” she says.

This means her days vary widely, both in terms of tasks and geography.

“This time of year, it’s field season, so I’m out in the field,” she says. She conducts site visits, helping farmers who are having issues. She also has her own research projects, and an undergraduate student who assists in the field.

When she’s not in the field, she gives presentations on hemp production, sometimes offering general information, other times covering special topics like pest or disease management. She puts together publication materials, taking research information and distilling it into readable publications for non-scientists. She collaborates closely with faculty and staff across the College of Agriculture and beyond, studying and testing new uses for hemp; she has an especially strong partnership with the Food Science Department, where researchers have been delving into the potential of hemp grain and fiber. She’s also a member of the Midwestern Hemp Research Collaborative, a multi-university USDA-funded project engaging growers in trials to identify suitable cultivars and best management practices.

“I love working with farmers,” Bolt says. “Hearing about their challenges, getting feedback from them on how to design trials that would be helpful. We have 6th generation farmers – hemp may be new to them, but farming is not. They’re a wealth of information.”

Hemp grows very well in Indiana, Bolt says. It’s even possible to find feral populations of hemp, known colloquially as ‘ditch weed,’ left over from early 1900s production. Bolt and the Midwest research team have done some projects with this feral hemp – it’s persisted for more than a century, providing itself extremely adaptable.

As for farmed hemp, its production has waxed and waned a bit over the past seven years. An initial boom of excitement settled down, but growth is rising again as interest in hemp grain and fibers increases.

When Bolt’s not working, she enjoys making pottery, hiking, and spending time with her husband and her dog. Her husband is a commercial beekeeper who manages hives across the Midwest and Florida, so Bolt often travels with him when he heads south, taking advantage of the warm waters for another passion – scuba diving.

Going forward, Bolt is excited to continue helping farmers find better growing methods and new markets for their crop.

“It’s been really exciting to have a group here at Purdue looking to turn hemp into products,” she says. “It’s provided a much bigger picture of what we can do with the plant.”