In nearly every state, you can sign up for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) networks and get fresh veggies delivered to your doorstep. The kale and cucumbers that come in those weekly cardboard boxes support hard-working local farmers and are often cheaper than the organic grocery aisle. But soon those wholesome snack packs will include a different — and more buzz-worthy — type of green.
In the coming years, California farmers — working in a state where medical marijuana cards are notoriously easy to get — plan to roll out America's first crop of marijuana CSAs, stocked with seasonal produce and freshly harvested pot. The boxes will include, for example, potatoes, collards, tomatoes, and cauliflower, along with a bud of the week, says Casey O’Neill of HappyDay Farms, which grows six strains of cannabis and dozens of other crops on 20 acres in Mendocino County.
Like traditional CSAs, "we'll rotate it by season and by what's fresh," says O’Neill, who has partnered with Flow Kana, a Bay Area app in which users can upload their medical marijuana cards and order small-farmed weed delivered to their homes. "People will get a chance to say, 'Hey, I really liked that OG Strawberry [pot], send more next time. Or, 'I really hate kohlrabi.’" He aims to launch the service by 2018.
As laws to legalize recreational pot hit the ballot in California and four other states this November — and as bigger companies move to cash in on the green gold rush — "this could be a once-in-a civilization opportunity for small farmers," O’Neill says. HappyDay Farms runs a small, farm-based medical marijuana collective and, as regulations become relaxed, O’Neill plans to sell directly to customers on a larger scale. The CSA boxes will include four grams of marijuana "flower" — enough to roll eight joints (or two Snoop Dogg-sized ones) — for $50, he says. At least three other Bay Area cannabis farms have teamed up with Flow Kana on the CSA-style model, calling it a smoking-hot deal for both food and weed aficionados.
The boxed veggies that accompany the bud aren’t just for snacking while you’re in munchie-mode. Like a traditional CSA, the packages are designed to educate members about produce, and connect them with their communities and the land. Packages include recipes for seasonal dishes and customers can also request eggs, nuts, and honey. Some farmers are already dreaming up weed-to-food "pairings," much like wine. "There’s been some preliminary work on cannabis pairings with meals. It’s something people in the Bay Area are looking into," O’Neill says.
And the marijuana itself is treated with the same seasonal approach as the rest of the produce: Outdoor weed, which is grown in fields under the sun like any other crop — instead of in greenhouses with lights — is generally harvested in early October. The terroir of the land affects the flavor of "sun-grown" bud, which ranges from piny to fruity, skunky to sour, farmers say.
Pot laws, which are constantly changing, are a buzzkill for many farmers. But O'Neill and other California growers are able to skirt some of those rules by playing with words. They claim to accept donation-like "reimbursements" — not payments — for medicine from collective members, who must provide copies of medical marijuana cards before signing up. O’Neill also sells cannabis at a farmers market booth, next to stands of carrots and peppers, six to eight times a year. "We’re shaking off ails of prohibition and coming out into the light."
Other states haven’t caught up to the farm-to-pipe (to fridge) model. In Oregon, where recreational weed hit shelves last October, pot farmers are burdened by tricky and sometimes archaic growing and distribution laws. "There’s a movement that pot should be treated like tomatoes — that you should be able to just plant it, take care of it, and consume it," says Matt Goldberg, an attorney at Emerge Law Group, which focuses on marijuana business and tax law in Portland.
"But it’s too highly regulated at this point for the CSA model to work here. If I have a cannabis farm that’s licensed by the state of Oregon, I most likely won't be growing and selling anything but cannabis yet," he says. Farmers must, for example, separate pot plants from other crops with a barrier and navigate restrictive urban distribution rules, making CSAs a challenge.
"But I think it’s all going to go in that direction in five years," Goldberg says. "Oregon is interested in developing a craft cannabis industry modeled after craft beer. We want to be the Napa Valley of cannabis — and lawmakers are on board."
Pot is also poised to become a cash crop for technology firms in Oregon. The number of tech jobs statewide soared to a 10-year high in 2015, the same year recreational weed sales began, offering a potential boon for both marijuana growers and tech firms. Portland’s so-called "Silicon Forest," which includes more than 70 tech firms, is already becoming a hub for cannabis breeding, growing, and distribution technology, experts say.
In California, Flow Kana delivers small-farmed weed to medical marijuana users in Oakland and San Francisco, and its founders say the locavore philosophy has already hit the cannabis industry. "It’s like food. People care who grows it and where it’s coming from. They want it to be from a farm with values they connect with," says Flow Kana co-founder Adam Steinberg. Many of the farms the company has partnered with sell sustainable, sun-grown, eco-friendly bud.
Other weed farmers in California are pushing for laws that allow a CSA-style sales to anyone over 21, much like small vineyards. "With wineries, if you have fewer than 5,000 cases a year, you can do direct sales. We just want to be able to do that, too," says Nikki Lastreto, co-founder of Swami Select cannabis farm in Mendocino, which has also partnered with Flow Kana. "Cannabis is the economic backbone of this county — we’ve been growing for generations," she says. "People who join CSAs know they’re getting premium, small-farmed quality. It’s like the difference between cheap wine and wine that’s been cultivated for decades."
Ultimately, growing pot isn’t much different than kale or cucumbers, O’Neill says. "It's a connection to the earth. We do it for the love of the plant."
Natalie O'Neill is a journalist from Portland, Oregon. She also writes for the New York Post, Vice, and Thrillist.
Editor: Erin DeJesus
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