NorCal growers face crisis

In many places the cannabiz is booming, but not for farmers in the country’s most celebrated growing region. A collapse in wholesale prices, coupled with high taxes, ongoing regulatory issues and climate change has many Emerald Triangle farmers wondering if they can survive.
The Press Democrat

• Premium flower from the region used to wholesale for up to $2,000/pound. This year farmers are hearing it could go as low as $700, close to the cost of production. They’ll likely also struggle to offload product they had stored from last year.
• The market has been flooded with product from much larger farms in Monterey and Santa Barbara counties.
• Of course they’re also undercut by the unlicensed market, which is still about twice the size of California’s $3B+ legal market.
• Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has allocated $100M in grants to help small-scale growers. 

Read the whole story.

Related:

• MJBiz has a feature on how growers are coping with climate change.
• Theo Whitcomb wrote a superb piece about a tensions over the water supply in remote Siskiyou County where there is a community of unlicensed Hmong growers.
  Undark