Pubdate: Sun, 08 Nov 2015
Source: Press Democrat, The (Santa Rosa, CA)
Copyright: 2015 The Press Democrat
Contact:  http://www.pressdemocrat.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/348
Author: Robin Abcarian
Note: Robin Abcarian is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times.

LIFE ON A SMALL MENDOCINO COUNTY POT FARM

WILLITS - It's not every day you get invited to a Mendocino County 
pot farm. For so long, the folks who grow medical marijuana have 
lived in the legal shadows, caught in a squeeze between local 
officials who say they can grow and sell the stuff, and the feds, who 
say they are drug dealers if they do.

But the four 20-somethings who run PolyKulture Farms want out of the 
cannabis closet. Like any organic farmers, they are proud of what 
they grow, proud of their methods and proud of their respect for the land.

"It's been in everyone's best interest to be quiet about what we do," 
said Micah Flause, 27, who owns the farm with his 25-year-old brother 
Zach; his girlfriend, Johanna Mortz, 28; and her 26-year-old brother 
Andrew. "But now we feel that we should introduce California to where 
this high-quality medicine is actually coming from. It comes from 
small farmers, not these big warehouses in the city."

Micah, Zach and Johanna had been growing marijuana near Chico, where 
Micah was studying soil science. They moved to Mendocino because the 
county is friendly to small growers, and is known for the highest 
quality cannabis. Andrew, a former commercial fisherman, joined them 
six months ago.

They have not come to this terraced hillside to get rich. They speak 
reverently about the medicine they produce, and about the patients 
whom they are helping. Right now, per county law, they are allowed to 
grow only 25 plants (or "trees," in the local parlance). A plant's 
yield can vary widely. Last year, Micah told me, one of his plants 
produced nine pounds of manicured flowers, though most of his plants 
yielded four to six pounds. Lately, the per-pound price has ranged 
from $1,200 to $1,500.

A few years ago, Mendocino County allowed growers to have 99 plants 
per lot, but the federal government threatened to sue the county, and 
the program was scaled back. However, with the prospect of legalized 
recreational marijuana on the horizon, Mendocino supervisors are 
reconsidering the 25-plant limit.

The PolyKulture farmers worry constantly about financial viability. A 
mortgage for their five-acre parcel was out of the question, so their 
families spotted them the $405,000 purchase price. They moved in last 
May, which means they got a late start on this season's crop. They 
planted clones, or cuttings, instead of seeds, and had to yank out 
their entire grow after it became infested with mites.

They work 12 hours a day, six days a week. On Sunday, they attend 
"Hash Church," an online broadcast about the business.

If they can grow the kind of high-quality, organic cannabis they 
envision - pesticide-free, outdoors, in soil (not containers), with 
home-brewed compost tea (not fertilizer) - they will be able to make a living.

"Marijuana has allowed this county to exist," said Julia Carrera, who 
picked me up in Ukiah and drove me to PolyKulture Farms. "It would be 
like Appalachia without marijuana. Economically, it would be dead."

Carrera is founder of the Small Farmers Association, a group of about 
650 marijuana growers in Northern California who are committed to 
sustainable, bio-dynamic farming. The association certifies its 
growers, educates them about the ever-changing legal landscape and 
works to ensure that the voice of the small farmer is heard in 
Sacramento, where lawmakers have just begun to create a regulatory 
framework for the medical marijuana industry, nearly two decades 
after California voters legalized it.

Carrera, 52, believes that many thousands of farmers are growing pot 
in North Coast counties, some legally licensed, many more not, but 
that most families use the proceeds as "patch income" to help them 
buy clothes for children and put food on the table.

It seems increasingly likely that recreational marijuana will be 
legalized in California. Small growers are worried, as well they 
should be, that moneyed interests are poised to wrest the business 
away from them.

"There are going to be battles," said Hilary Bricken, a Seattle-based 
attorney who specializes in marijuana law and has been advising 
California farmers and dispensaries about the new state laws, set to 
take effect in 2016. "People are not used to the typical political 
machine that accompanies rule making. I have had numerous 
conversations with people, and when I ask them if they know a good 
lobbyist that can gain access in Sacramento, they go, 'Why?' "

Plenty of reasons. Already, the state has created a preposterously 
complex system of 17 licenses related to the pot industry, as well as 
a scheme that would make it virtually impossible for growers like 
PolyKulture to retain control over the processing and distribution of 
the cannabis they have sweated to grow into those perfect, resiny 
buds with names like Lemon Chunk, Clementine and Blue Lime Pie.

Bricken said legislators are taking a page from the "tied-house 
rules" that govern the alcohol industry, where producers sell to 
distributors who sell to wholesalers and retailers.

"There's got to be a middle man somewhere in the chain," Bricken 
said, "and a lot of time that is done to create taxable events at the 
state level for revenue capture."

The New Marijuana Age has led, inevitably, to some unintended consequences.

Mendocino growers must surround their property with 6-foot-tall 
fences, and plants may not be visible from any roadway. Yet as 
Carrera and I drove away from PolyKulture Farms, hundreds of linear 
feet of undulating wood fences on dozens of properties virtually 
screamed, "We're growing pot here!"

I rolled down my window and the skunky smell of ripe marijuana 
blasted me in the face, a pervasive odor that, to some sensitive 
noses, is as noxious as pesticide.

To others, it's the smell of success.

"Even if the first wave of corporate takeover is devastating," Micah 
told me, "the small farmer will be back, and the finest cannabis will 
always come from small farms. I do have faith."

That's good, because I think he's going to need it.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom