Boyd Crowder
Teem MiCr0B35
Last July, the city of Los Angeles bore witness to its first ever farmers' market for medical marijuana. For a population that prizes both locally grown produce and the dankest dope, this was a highly anticipated affair, as evidenced by an opening weekend turnout in the thousands and a deluge of local and national media coverage.
Organizers of the California Heritage Market promised wholesale prices for a wide array of weed-related products supplied by growers and manufacturers who were on-site to answer customers' questions. The vendors themselves, some of whom lacked relationships with LA dispensaries, had the chance to reach consumers directly while expanding their profit share (by circumventing dispensary middlemen). Patrons reported immense satisfaction with the Market's features, including "substantially reduced costs," greater variety within a single venue, and "accurate information" about the process of how their medicine is made, according to Cheryl Shuman, spokesperson for the Market and a nationally known cannabis entrepreneur.
Expanded transparency into pot farming methods is of growing interest to consumers now that legal cultivators are beginning to diversify their crop away from environmentally catastrophic indoor-grown bud in favor of sun-grown, organic varieties. But the demise of LA's experiment suggests it may be a long time before most Americans can stroll to their local farmers' market and pick up some fresh weed on a lazy Sunday.
The social benefits of a pot farmers' market are arguably no different from those cited by advocates of the regular ones your parents dragged you to as a kid. The idea is to buy locally grown produce instead of less sustainable products shuttled from afar (like some NorCal-supplied LA dispensaries), support local businesses instead of corporations, and get legit facts from the actual farmer of your herb instead of an aloof, blazed bud-tender—or in your vegetables' case, an underpaid and therefore indifferent grocery store employee.
Read More:
http://www.vice.com/read/are-marijuana-farmers-markets-coming-to-a-city-near-you-326
Organizers of the California Heritage Market promised wholesale prices for a wide array of weed-related products supplied by growers and manufacturers who were on-site to answer customers' questions. The vendors themselves, some of whom lacked relationships with LA dispensaries, had the chance to reach consumers directly while expanding their profit share (by circumventing dispensary middlemen). Patrons reported immense satisfaction with the Market's features, including "substantially reduced costs," greater variety within a single venue, and "accurate information" about the process of how their medicine is made, according to Cheryl Shuman, spokesperson for the Market and a nationally known cannabis entrepreneur.
Expanded transparency into pot farming methods is of growing interest to consumers now that legal cultivators are beginning to diversify their crop away from environmentally catastrophic indoor-grown bud in favor of sun-grown, organic varieties. But the demise of LA's experiment suggests it may be a long time before most Americans can stroll to their local farmers' market and pick up some fresh weed on a lazy Sunday.
The social benefits of a pot farmers' market are arguably no different from those cited by advocates of the regular ones your parents dragged you to as a kid. The idea is to buy locally grown produce instead of less sustainable products shuttled from afar (like some NorCal-supplied LA dispensaries), support local businesses instead of corporations, and get legit facts from the actual farmer of your herb instead of an aloof, blazed bud-tender—or in your vegetables' case, an underpaid and therefore indifferent grocery store employee.
Read More:
http://www.vice.com/read/are-marijuana-farmers-markets-coming-to-a-city-near-you-326
