NPR Explores How the Budding Cannabis Industry Worries Food Farmers and Wine Producers
Tomato and cannabis. [Photo by Kym Kemp]
But a cannabis farm moved in next door and the fungicide Joseph has traditionally used could drift–impacting her neighbor and ruining his crop. Because of state law’s governing the sale of marijuana, even an extremely tiny amount of fungicide or pesticide could make his product unsaleable. The author says, “Unlike food crops, cannabis can’t be sold if there’s any trace of fungicide or pesticide in it.”
Joseph says that without the fungicide she was using, “We may lose crop because we can’t protect it.”
The whole NPR article is here. The piece presents an interesting situation, in which cannabis farms are forcing nearby food farms to use fewer or different chemical solutions to their plants’ problems.
One food farmer explained, “Trying to accommodate the cannabis growers is really difficult for us, the growers who have been here who have a food crop.”
With traditional food/wine farmers pitted against cannabis cultivators–where will consumers and lawmakers land? With those who provide food and our culture’s traditional intoxicant–wine? Or with those who are using less chemicals to produce their product?
And, even more interestingly, will laws developed for cannabis growers eventually expand to affect traditional farmers?
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Food is more important than pot. An established food farm should not have to change due to the dictates of the grower state. If some grower told me, who is growing food, to stop using my legal fungicide, I would make sure the pot grower never harvested.
Planting 6 male cannabis plants along the border line wouldn’t help with neighbor relations any, but would escalate the battle and really piss off the cannabis profiteers worse than the fungicide has already.
Stuber… you’re missing it man. The pot shouldn’t have more constriction than yourFOOD. And it’s only a matter of time til the state puts that level of regs on your farmers.
Go vote for trump. He’s a real farmers friend Ha,Ha,ha
Actually trump is. He is pro cannibis and pro farmer….
Trump didnt pass the cop bill…aka 64
Can someone run some winco produce through the same testing protocol as cannabis? What would they find? I would, but it’s so damn expensive.
I agree but CBD really cures alot of conditions without the plant we’ll never be able to help people with certain diseases my living will says no chemo or radiation only immune system or CBD
No Marijuana is more important; You can eat the seeds . Omega 3 and 6. Cannabis is the Best plant on Earth !
🕯🌳🤯
More than a year ago I had a conversation with a Trinity county bureacrat on this very subject. He felt that Trinity county and other rural counties were going to weather the legalization process because of the strict regulations on pesticides, herbicides and fungicides where commercial grows in concentrated agricultural areas would have too many contaminants to pass state testing.
From the story I’m not clear why these neighboring farms have curtailed their (fill in)icides for the sake of the cannabis operation. I can’t imagine big ag is going to yield it’s use of chemical farming anytime soon.
But they certainly can work together to minimize the chances of damage to other growers. If they take the attitude of wanting to work together and let go of it always being about themselves. Maybe abridge methods of application or type or wait until the wind is right or use the periods before pot plants would take up measurable amounts. I must say I was a bit surprised about it too because farmers have not often been so amenable to private citizens or organic farmers but maybe there’s regulations and liabilities regarding damaging other farmers crops. Especially farmers who have big bucks to spread around which most food growers do not.
Or do not use pesticides or fungicides to make food people eat. Is this a requirement in order to feed the masses to poison our environment, our waterways (oh that’s right they steal our water) and our wildlife. What a shit double standard and thankfully the majority of my produce is grown by people I know.
That’s a double-edged sword. I certainly have the luxury of sourcing my food and I produce my own and buy local organic, but the fact is ‘conventional’ farming has produced an abundance of food the likes of which the world has never experienced.
Lagalletuce the voice of reason good job.
They certainly can work together and I’d expect good neighbors with smaller farms will do just that with varying success, but in the more agricultural dense areas like the central valley a multi-thousand acre almond orchard, or the like, is not going to curtail it’s methods… and even if they do the next farm over won’t… or the next…. or the next.
It does seem strange that Weed has to be clear of poisons , but food not so much .
Guess thats why its called the sacred herb, the Herb superb, the Vine Divine
So someone decides to grow cannabis next to an ag farm that they know uses pesticides/fungicides and then the ag farm needs to accommodate the cannabis farmer? They should have done their research and got to know their neighbors ahead of time before growing cannabis.
i dont like the idea that just because i was here first means i win. there needs to be some sort of compromise
Yeah that didn’t work out for Native Americans. So why should it for chemical farmers
Typical Legal grower bullshit. It’s ALWAYS about them. Ruin peaceful neighborhoods, no problem. Create constant noise, hey too bad. Dusty back and forth traffic all day every day, fuck off. Stink up the neighborhood, just move. Even though they know they’re supposed to cover lights from sundown to sunset, don’t bug them.
Spray fungicide or insecticide on your own property, OH NO YOU CANT DO THAT AND RUIN MY CROP OF CANNABIS.
The controversial issue of pesticide drift affects all organic farmers, not just cannabis. It also affects people living near spray operations. This was a major issue for grape farmers long before cannabis, and a reason numerous environmental groups went after wine growing operations in Napa and Sonoma in the late 1990s. Unfortunately we had little effect and the problem persists today. The fact of the matter is that most pesticides applied with pressure sprays drift, and they drift long distances. Would you want your kids exposed to this. It sounds like you would from your reply.
C’mon, all legal growers are not the same. Just as all traditional market growers don’t pollute, peel timber off hillsides to let it rot, etc. You know good people in all parts of the industry (and bad actors in all parts, too) Be fair and you’ll build coalitions not dig divides.
Sorry, have a bad taste in my mouth right now. Hopefully in a couple of years the bad players will be ‘weeded’ out.
// “…the ag farm needs to accommodate the cannabis farmer? ” //
It’s been the CA law (well before this) that when farmers spray pesticides, etc., there be no (ZER0) drift from the spray onto other properties. It’s not a new law. It’s just that until a cannabis farm moves in next door and the product gets tested, it’s unusual to get caught for not following the law. Now it will be more common. That’s what’s getting the ag farmers pissed off – their lack of care is now recorded and reported.
It would seem only right that the farmer shouldn’t do anything that impacts adjacent properties. If he’s getting fungicide drifting onto his neighbors crop maybe he needs to rethink his use and application. What if I had my house there and my organic veggies?
here is the way it goes. you are not allowed to do something on your property that harms someone on theirs. farming with chemicials that can not be contained is a hazard which if it causes harm or loss to another makes you libial for any damages . so these large ag farmers need to either control their posions or pay for the damages to their neighbors crops. there is presidance for such rulings already on the books.
hey ,,,who gives two rats back sides for what happens to the farmer,,,i get my veggies from the store,,,,an screw them pot growers as well,,,i get my reefers from the pot stores,,,,,,,sons-of-motherless-doggies,,,when ya’ll gonna learn any dam thing,,,HARDEE HAR HAR,
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA—In a landmark case, an organic farmer in Western Australia state is suing his neighbor for allegedly contaminating his crop with a genetically modified organism (GMO), GM canola.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/02/organic-farmer-sues-gm-farming-neighbor
Marsh lost the lawsuit in a May 2014 ruling from the Supreme Court of Western Australia and was ordered instead to pay court costs of about $804,000.
Farmers who have not purchased GMO seeds and find the crops growing on their land face potential litigation from the seed producers for patent infringement.
In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court handed Monsanto a major victory when it dismissed the 2011 case Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association et al. v. Monsanto that meant to stop the company from suing farmers who inadvertently found themselves accused of patent infringement when their land gets contaminated by Monsanto seeds.
Just another reason to keep cultivation of MJ in the hills and out of the valley
no doubt… red pill … zoning something for logging only just means its going to get maxam’d anyway
Small Victory: Organic Farm Allowed to Sue for Wafting Pesticide Contamination
They sued the Paynesville Farmers Union in 2009 under charges of negligence and trespassing, but the district court threw out the suit.
The Appeals Court, in its recent ruling, disagrees. According to the Star Tribune, “It said that thrown objects and even bullets constitute trespass, and that the state Supreme Court has ruled that beekeepers can collect damages for pesticide-contaminated bees that destroyed their hives.”
https://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/small-victory-organic-farm-allowed-to-sue-for-wafting-pesticide-contamination.html
Another reason for everyone to avoid poison ☺
California Organic Farm Sues Neighboring Farms for Pesticide Pollution
The pesticides apparently were applied correctly and did not blow onto the organic field, which would be illegal. Instead, all involved think they were picked up by fog, which can turn pesticides into liquid and carry them off days after they were sprayed.
However, under state code, a pesticide sprayer’s responsibility to stop chemicals from drifting into other fields ends after the pesticide is applied, the report said. As the pesticide was applied properly and did not blow away during the application process, the commissioner’s office found no violation on the part of Western Farm Services.
On Tuesday, a Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge agreed and issued the injunction against Western Farms to stop spraying nearby farmland if the pesticide might carry over to Jacobs Farms. The case will be heard again later this month.
May 10, 2007
https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/california-organic-farm-sues-neighboring-farms-pesticide-pollution
Organic farmer wins $1 million lawsuit
October 1, 2008
https://abc7news.com/archive/6425818/
August 2018 Monsanto loses lawsuit and $289 million
https://blog.nomorefakenews.com/?s=Monsanto+Loses+lawsuit+and+%24289+million&submit=Search
April 2019 Bayer and Monsanto are facing the music
https://blog.nomorefakenews.com/?s=Bayer+and+monsanto+are+facing+the+music&submit=Search
“As most of you know, Bayer now owns Monsanto. To make it happen, it forked out $66 billion in 2018. Among the new parent’s problems? Lawsuits against Monsanto’s best-selling herbicide, Roundup.
Catch this, from fiercepharma[dot]com: “Recently, in a key bellwether trial, a U.S. federal jury in San Francisco found Bayer liable for plaintiff Edwin Hardeman’s non-Hodgkin lymphoma [caused by Monsanto’s Roundup] and awarded him $80 million in damages. Bayer said it plans to appeal, as it is doing with a [similar] California state suit that awarded the plaintiff $78 million. Still, there are more than 11,200 other similar suits [against Roundup], according to Bayer’s last tally.”
The Big Pharma Takeover of Medical Cannabis https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-08-12/big-pharma-takeover-medical-cannabis
Yeah it’s ridiculous that big agriculture can rape the land steal all the water and spray whatever they feel like. I can’t believe people will still sit there and defend glyphosate and try to justify it’s use on our foods. Grow your own produce if you have the resources too. There’s no need to support Monsanto or bayer.
You would think that the food a lot people rely on to feed their children would have more stringent testing requirements than that of an intoxicating flower intended for recreational use by adults 21 and over.
Don’t worry. Once the purge happens and all the smaller permitted cannabis growers are entered into METRC and then plowed under we will see pesticide testings relaxed for the remaining mega-farms. I mean…Does anybody expect that won’t happen? C’mon, now- be honest! THAT is exactly how big business works…please wake up
I have been saying this too. Pretty much a given that most if not all cottage style farms that entered the permit program will be over regulated to death then the big corps will lobby and change the regs so they can spray whatever they want. The only reason why it’s so over regulated is to make it difficult for small folks to play. That’s just one aspect of it another is over production that’s inevitable like in Oregon. Tons of the legal growers in Oregon switched to hemp because it became too difficult to sell product and be profitable. Alot of people will lose their asses like in 2017-2018 when the price dropped to 500. Anyway the moral of the story is the only way to play within a corrupt system is if you are in a position to influence the regulations and have vast amounts of resources, a way to write the rules essentially. Mom n pop business’s are dying all over the country due to corporations like Walmart and Amazon. Soon everything will be owned by the same people if it’s not already. The cannabis industry was founded and forged by folks who went against the grain and didn’t listen to rules or laws but were directed by their own moral compass. If rebels, outlaws, and counterculture folks didn’t break the rules in the first place there would of been no push for legalization or legal industry to begin with. The legal industry was created to tax an existing illegal idustry and to control it. If there was no rule breakers from the start no illegal industry then there would never be a legitimate market or industry. It is a shame that people sold out and the industry went mainstream but that’s what happens with all good things.
That’s correct when the corporations have control ,you will see a lot of the rules and regulations disappear
Most definitely these super strict testing laws for cannabis will last about exactly until all the old farmers are weeded out and the second the corporations corner the market we’ll be hearing about how unreasonable and unrealistic they are and will be rolled back. Wait and see
If your toxic sprays are impacting your neighbors; YOUR deadly choices might be the problem.
Legal Cannabis production and testing is raising awareness for the bad things in our food, like pesticides and heavy metals. Cannabis farmers were forced to start cultivating without harmful pesticides, is it so bad that food producers are to follow?
The testing standards for Cannabis are so ridiculously stringent that even if the farm next to the Canna Pharm is Organic, it still may affect the cannabis. The testing standards for Tobacco, is essentially non existent. Tobacco farms even use Radioactive fertilizers.. and are still not tested to the extent of Cannabis.
https://www.epa.gov/radtown/radioactivity-tobacco
This is just one more reason Cannabis Pharming belongs in the Timber lands..
Traditional farmers will be affected by thier cannabis neighbors..
The over testing of Cannabis is short sided.. and much of it is not based on facts…
What other crop is tested to the extremes of cannabis? None.. not even tobacco with all its super misuse of fertilizers and pesticides..
If anything, It’s empowering the Original Market by increasing the price of “legal” products..
And I Echo the sentiments of NoLonger.. Once the Ma and Pa smaller operations are put out.., the restrictions will be lifted.. Another Attempt of the BCC to demonize the Industry and push out the Indy cultivators.. I actually don’t want to see Big Cannabis start bullying traditional farmers.. with bullish standards.. No doubt there are major problems with the poisons of modren Ag.. Food production is important.. And a nessessity. Cannabis production shouldn’t be allowed to go into traditional farming areas and start pushing the food farmers around..