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Rainbow farms
Freeform art at The New Rainbow Farms LLC features colorful images while thousands of people celebrate the Spectrum Cup festival Aug. 6. In Vandalia, Mich.
A lady stops for some refreshments at a food stand at the Spectrum Cup festival Aug. 6 in Vandalia, Mich.
Vandalia man continues legacy of hemp advocates killed in 2001 FBI siege EDUCATING PEOPLE ON POSSIBILITIES, BENEFITS OF HEMP
One southern Michigander is continuing the legacy of a Vandalia farm originally owned by two men who, in the early 2000s, were killed by the FBI by honoring their beliefs that marijuana should be legal and hemp utilized in nearly all industries. “This place here is why we have medical marijuana in Michigan today,” current owner, Gary Healy said. He purchased the property, called The New Rainbow Farms LLC (formerly Rainbow Farm), in 2012 and has since been cleaning up and acquainting himself with the property and the possibilities of the plant. “The magic of this place,” he said. “When you pull in, off the road, the sense of freedom, acceptance, it’s unbelievable.” Now, after nearly a decade of preparation and experimentation with hemp, he is ready to spread the word to people outside of his corner of the state. “I always wanted to do what I’m doing now but I didn’t want to end up like the last guys,” he said. “I slowly took my time and built it up quietly.” In partnership with over 100 patents all over the world, Healy wants to “make the best farmers on the planet” by educating them on how to replace harmful products with hemp. He is creating a worldwide program for people to learn of its benefits and prospects. “It’s a whole program that I’m working from seed, to manufacturing, to textile,” he said. But the 34-acre property that is now operating legally, and successfully, was once owned by stoner legends Tom Crosslin and Rolland “Rollie” Rohm. In 1993, the couple opened Rainbow Farms to the public, offering campgrounds and concerts in advocacy of the decriminalization of marijuana and in opposition of the War on Drugs – a global campaign for drug prohibition led by the U.S. federal government in its 50th anniversary this year. Annual festivals like HempAid and Roach Roast began in 1996 and drew thousands of attendees, even offering voting registration tables and petitions, according to Healy. “This was all to expose the benefits of marijuana,” he said. “There was a lot of good things that they were doing, but marijuana was still illegal.”
Guests included famous entertainers/advocates like Tommy Chong – yes, from Cheech & Chong – and Merle Haggard, who has since passed away. High Times magazine listed the farm as the 14th Top Stoner Travel Spot in the world in 1999. “They wanted their activism to be powerful and they wanted to be known for that,” Dean Kuiper said in his book “Burning Rainbow Farm: How a Stoner Utopia Went Up in Smoke.” Though Crosslin and Rohm made their income from real estate – and never sold marijuana – their association with the movement caused a clash between them and local officials that Healy said he feels to this day. “The same people on the board were the same people 20 years ago,” he said. “We’re fighting the same fight that (Crosslin and Rohm) fought back then.” Nonetheless, festivals hosted in the late ‘90s were not drug free. In April 2001, a 17-year-old high school student crashed his car into a school bus at 10 a.m. about 40 miles from Rainbow Farm, according to an Ozy article. There were minimal injuries to those on the bus but the driver, who died, wore a Rainbow Farm wristband. His best friend said they used both LSD and marijuana at the festival, but left about eight hours before the crash; the driver had no signs of being under the influence. Tension rose amid the accident. When Crosslin and Rohm created a statewide ballot initiative to dissolve marijuana laws, local officials launched a campaign to seize the farm as property used for a drug crime, according to Kuiper’s book. Crosslin and Rohm were arrested in May 2001 for growing marijuana and Rohm’s 11-year-old son, Robert Rogers, was placed into foster care. The two men skipped their court date, choosing to hunker down at the farm. They set all the property’s structures on fire. After a 5-day siege led by the FBI, Crosslin and Rohm were shot. Controversy remains about whether the two men were justifiably killed by the government. Ironically enough, Rohm’s son was later adopted by the Cass County prosecutor of his dad’s case, Scott Teter. However, the national attention their death garnered quickly ended with their endeavors in the marijuana movement when a week later, “the world stopped turning” – singer Alan Jackson wrote - on Sept. 11, 2001. The remaining farm was sold in pieces to prevent festivals and similar events from ever happening again. It worked … but only for so long. The property cycled through several owners until Healy found his place in its history. But Rogers maintains an active role in the farm. “He’s quite an influence on what we do out here,” he said. “It should have been his.” He said Rogers owns a small percentage of the company. Healy is not only continuing Crosslin and Rohm’s legacy of festivals, but their belief in hemp too. He said it has a promising ability to replace things like cotton, plastic, concrete, and even eliminate the need for pesticides with hemp-based soil. “I’m trying to put a place together where I can teach everybody at once to make smarter farmers,” he said. “If we can grow 50 million acres of hemp next year, we could get to carbon zero.” He said doing so can heal pollution from greenhouse gases. To put that in perspective, about 220 million acres of corn were grown worldwide last year. Healy said it’s “not too far-fetched.” One man he is partnering with in the Middle East is the largest denim developer in Pakistan – but denim comes from cotton. Healy is trying to convert him to hemp. “(Cotton is) the worst thing in the world to grow,” he said. “Herbicides and pesticides, (they’re) just killing our soil. (Hemp is) better for the planet, it’s better for everything.” He said it naturally remediates soil. “You grow hemp one year, and that soil is robust again,” he said. “You’re good for the next 100 years.” He spent most of his time over the last decade developing a 16-compound organic soil mix made from hemp, via “trial and error.” He said it is ideal, and clean, for all kinds of plant growth. “All organic, water only, anybody can grow the medicine they need,” he said. “Not everybody can afford to spend a high dollar at the dispensaries.” Healy said it will become available in September. “You can use the soil and you can grow the best medicine you can ever imagine,” he said. His efforts do not end there. He is working to establish six hemp processing facilities in the country by next year. He said these facilities will make hemp into materials useful to humans – like clothing, soil, plastic and even hempcrete. Hempcrete is a replacement for concrete that Healy said is “eight times stronger, three times lighter, mold resistant, fire resistant, (and) insect resistant.” He said he is working with Minnesota transportation officials to get it infused in all the roads and sidewalks. Hemp can also be used to replace plastic, according to Healy. “Anything you see made of plastic, we can make with hemp plastic right now,” he said. About 10 miles from Healy’s farm, in Marcellus, he bought the Centennial Hall to create a green zone that will become an “entire cannabis complex” with dispensaries, gymnasiums and other storefronts. He is working to establish training sessions there, too. “I was working with Michigan State University to set up a hemp curriculum to be taught worldwide,” he said. “A lot of these third world countries are becoming legal.” In 2020, Healy reignited the occasion Rainbow Farm was known for: festivals. He has hosted six so far, and with each one, he said more vendors and guests were in attendance. “It’s hard to describe, it’s different for everybody, but it’s a place where you can come and just be yourself… everybody is one people here.” Not only do the festivals celebrate Crosslin and Rohm’s memory, but some faces seen in old festival photos can also be spotted at today’s festivals. “One of the guys… was here every day until two days before they killed the guys,” he said. “And now he’s back and he’s here every day again.” Healy offers family-friendly events, too, like one last year on Halloween and another this year for Easter. His most recent festival, called Full Spectrum Cup from Aug. 5-8, drew almost twice as many vendors as the one before. Healy said consumption of marijuana, through food, smoke or other methods, can be beneficial to humans because cannabinoids – the compounds found in marijuana – are molecules naturally found in the brain, organs and other parts of the body. Healy said replenishing that source can help people thrive. “If you know what to use to program (your body) – CBD, CBG, THC, the right combination for optimal health – your body operates like it is supposed to,” he said. Healy can attest to that. He learned that years after a severe accident in 2007 left him debilitated. “Broke my neck, broke my back, broke myself into pieces,” he said. He said he faced heavy drug doses and little to no movement for the rest of his life. “It was insane, I was stuck in a wheelchair,” he said. “That was my future.” He said he “slowly but surely” worked himself out of the chair and into a walker. When he bought the farm, he was still walking poorly with a cane for assistance. “Through marijuana, I don’t take any opioids,” he said. “I’ve never been healthier in my lifetime.” Even with rods in his body, he can function in great health thanks the green leaf.
Issue 3 | summer 2021
Gary Healy pictured here second from left in 2020 at The New Rainbow Farms
