By Naked Mary Jane
We have five years of full-blown cannabis legalization under our belt here in Carpinteria. And oh my! How it has changed our little bit of paradise. Our town delighted in a prominent cut flower industry just a few short years ago. Our green valley grew many more acres of avocado and citrus, with a smattering of hoop houses growing flowers, lettuce, and orchids. The arrival of our new cash cow industry changed that. Now, as I hike up the mountain trails and look down on our small valley, I see the significant changes cannabis has made to our landscape. The reflection of acres of added greenhouses that cover our agricultural land is blinding. I wonder when the greenhouses will merge with the sea and become one mass of silver-blue as the sun magnifies the reflection of stainless steel, glass, and plastic.
Brent Flaaten
Big Canna, Little Carp
And Here’s Why
giant MSO- multi-state operator) are just a few of these operating in the Carpinteria Valley. These companies are not headquartered in California, and only one has its corporate offices in the United States. These are multistate, multi-national cannabis companies growing marijuana right here in our valley, using our resources to dominate the industry. These big canna companies partnered with some of Carpinteria’s most prominent family flower growers to convert existing agricultural operations to marijuana crops a few years ago. This created a massive financial foothold for Big Canna to play in our small valley. It gave way to the birth of Carpinteria’s new Cannabis Industrial Complex, edging out smaller farmers. According to Leafly, one of the cannabis industry’s leading news sources, marijuana has become the 5th largest cash crop in the United States, worth an annual production of 6.175 billion dollars (Leafly Report: Cannabis Fifth Largest U.S. Crop, 11-4-21). This puts the crop ahead of cotton and peanuts, and only corn, soybeans, hay, and wheat top cannabis’s cash crop numbers. In other words, this industry is a cash cow for cannabis companies who do business here in our valley with large-scale agribusiness eclipsing small farm businesses.
My family farmed the lower hills and valleys of Carpinteria and Ojai–avocados, lemons, walnuts, apricots, and plums. The scenery was green, the air smelled of soil and sage. Strawberries were sweet to the taste, and avocados were dense and buttery with their oil. Locally grown produce was sold in our grocery store. Traditional practices like dry farming and outdoor cultivation were the norm. Greenhouses in our valley were few. So the arrival of Big Cannabis Industrialization to Carpinteria is not the change I had envisioned when I I did not vote for some major corporations with Canadian cast my vote to legalize adult-use cannabis in 2016. Turns exchange-backed budgets to take over our farm community. out, it’s nothing like my little brother’s grow from the seventies. I voted for the wellness solutions the plant has to offer all of us. I voted for a new, legal industry in Carpinteria that would What is Big Canna? Companies like Cresco Labs (publicly embrace new businesses in our ag community. And I had traded CRLBF: OTC US), Glass House Farms (publicly hoped that these newly formed enterprises would be led traded, OTC: GLASF), and Calyx Peak Companies (a by local, diverse groups of people traditionally left behind Continued on Page 10 Winter 2021 Cannabis by the Sea
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