Latent Dirichlet Analysis (Topic Modeling) of Industrial Hemp in Product Descriptions
Channel: JMU ISAT
Date: 02/07/2017

Full Title: Latent Dirichlet Analysis (Topic Modeling) of Industrial Hemp in Product Descriptions, Academic Articles, and Legislative Communications by Benjamin Steen
Advised by: Dr. Nicole Radziwill
Abstract: Industrial hemp is a versatile resource crop that been grown all over the world for thousands of years, but until recently, it has been illegal in the United States. Due to prolonged prohibition, stakeholder attitudes about hemp farming vary significantly. This project explores conceptual themes in products, academic literature, and the legal and regulatory environment regarding industrial hemp to better understand the assumptions held by different stakeholder groups. This was done using Latent Dirichlet Analysis (Topic Modeling) in the R Statistical Software. Topic models for each category were generated, and used to inform a literature review exploring the social, economic, and political dimensions of the emerging industrial hemp industry.