Pubdate: Fri, 27 Feb 2015
Source: Willits News (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Willits News
Contact:  http://www.willitsnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4085
Author: Adrian Baumann

MENDOCINO GROWERS TO LAUNCH MARKETING CO-OP

With at least six bills currently in legislature, and the deadline 
for new bills fast approaching, the Emerald Growers Association (EGA) 
is pushing for the North Coast's state senator, Mike McGuire, to 
introduce legislature that would classify marijuana as an 
"agricultural product." And the organization is no longer just 
focusing on political action; they are spinning off, or starting up 
depending on your point of view, a separate strictly economic entity 
called the Emerald Grown Marketing Co-op.

This Sunday, March 1, at Harwood Hall in Laytonville, the 
organization will be formally launched as a farmer-owned "marketing 
co-op," basically an association of farmers who agree to pay into a 
central pool of money to share the costs marketing and other 
infrastructure-think of a grain-elevator co-op in the Mid-West.

The co-op has already been actively involved in organizing the recent 
seed exchanges that have been happening in Mendocino County, events 
at which marijuana farmers can openly trade seeds of different 
strains to try to diversify their crops.

Explained Casey O'Neill, who is helping run the co-op, "Emerald Grown 
will help its farmers network and represent the quality of Heritage 
Cannabis to legal providers throughout the state. As demand for 
high-grade connoisseur continues to ramp up, Emerald Grown will be 
there to support rural, heritage farmers."

Also discusses was the possibility of eventually sharing the cost of 
a centralized space for marijuana processing. A location which would 
have adequate security, and could allow for the kind of organization 
that would assure a more steady work force than the haphazard 
migration of trimmers who currently manicure the region's largest cash crop.

Qualifications for becoming a "farmer owner" of the co-op include 
being a farmer, and paying a $1000 membership fee to the EGA trade association.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom