Yesterday was National Farmers Day, coinciding with the end of the harvest season. It's an exciting time of year as growers balance the prospect of a few more days of sun while nervously risking crop loss from declining temperatures.
Perhaps it's the abundance of produce in the grocery store that makes it easy to take for granted the contributions farmers make. It’s important that we take a moment to salute and thank farmers across this nation today.
As cannabis normalizes, its cultivation increasingly resembles traditional farming. Over the years, American cannabis has come from many places, but weed grown on openly cultivated land alongside other harvested crops is both relatively new and refreshing. Nowhere is this more evident than in New York, where the vast majority of cannabis is grown on traditional farms.
Nationwide, the New York cannabis market is perhaps the most advanced in this regard. The state awarded cultivation licenses to pre-existing farmers, not just business applicants. Observing the situation in New York, you can see the significant difference this makes. You are more likely to see a rusty John Deere tractor on a cannabis farm in New York than a barbed wire fence or a security guard with a gun.
At the time of legalization, the only indoor cannabis available in New York was from Multi-State Operators (MSOs), and retailers were reluctant to purchase from those they blamed for delays in the recreational launch. As a result, New York became the first market in the country where outdoor cannabis was truly given a head start. This has resulted in a network of about 200 small, farm-based growers supporting a rapidly expanding dispensary base.
Let’s be honest: outdoor cannabis isn’t as visually appealing as indoor cannabis. It may lack the vibrant color, dense nug structure, and strong "nose" (aroma) of indoor product. Though, sungrown cannabis offers us so much more, including a clear conscience. So, forgive us if we are grateful for this head start.
An eighth of indoor cannabis consumes nearly as much electricity as a single American household does in a day. While the practice of growing indoor cannabis was born out of necessity, it comes with tremendous waste and excessive cost. Sungrown cannabis grown in living soil like the way they grow at Hudson Cannabis affords us an opportunity to connect our passion for cannabis with a love for the earth in which it is grown.
We cannot source outdoor cannabis in every market where we operate, but we are certainly moving in that direction.