HappyDay: Emerald Cup Harvest Ball

Casey O’Neill is a cannabis and food farmer in Mendocino County who has been writing newsletters about his efforts to provide sustainable produce and marijuana. We feature his column once a week.

     This next weekend is the Emerald Cup Harvest Ball in Santa Rosa.  I’m excited to go and see everyone, but the feeling is bittersweet when I think back on the earlier years of the event.  So much has changed over the years, and I miss the days of Prop 215 and the Collective model.  I miss sharing herb and conversation, big mason jars on the table and available for sampling.

      I used to judge the Cup, starting at the tail end of the Area 101 days, moving through the year at the Mateel and on into the shift to Santa Rosa.  I remember the feeling of excitement as the event grew, as cannabis started to become normalized, as the dream came true.  The second year it happened in Santa Rosa, we brought the farm to the fairgrounds, veggies and cannabis on the table just the way we always hoped it would happen.

      The response was phenomenal and we loved the experience.  I think back on it and am glad that at the time I didn’t know what was coming, because it would have shattered the innocence of the moment.  Those times live on in my memory with the sweetness of life gone by, yet they also hold a candle of hope for times to come.  I have seen how it could be, and I’m holding on to see if it can be again.

      The state regulatory paradigm changed a lot of the way things were, and it’s not for the better.  As is so often the case under corporate capitalism, it is very difficult to be a small business in the current cannabis reality.  The overhead costs are massive and the taxation adds up to as much as half of the total cost when each step in the supply chain is counted.

      Local governments place taxes on the different steps of the industry; in Mendocino the cultivation tax is 2.5% of gross receipts (a tax on total cannabis income, not one adjusted for expenses).  State cultivation tax will rise on January 1st to $161.28/lb, excise tax at retail is 15% of sale, and local jurisdictions can also institute sales taxes.

      The regulatory arena is no less obtuse and complicated, with local permitting, state permitting, Water Board permits and Department of Fish and Wildlife permits to name a few.  In Mendocino, the CEQA process has been so complex that I have dozens of hours and thousands of dollars into it with no clear end in sight.

      I keep thinking about the difference between vegetables and cannabis in terms of regulations, and the difference in the supportive way that the Department of Agriculture staff relate to my vegetable farm vs. the suspicious manner in which state and local governments seem to treat cannabis farms.

      When we harvest cannabis, METRC (the state track-and-trace system) requires that we weight the wet weight of the plants.  Then, during processing, each of the dry components are weighed and subtracted from the total.  The explicit assumption is that the difference in the final totals between wet and dry weights can be accounted for with water weight, which the program assumes is a constant.  But here’s the thing; plants will weigh differently on a dewy morning or a rainy morning that they will on a dry one.  Water weight is only constant if the plants are indoor.

      The program is designed for indoor cultivation to the point that each outdoor garden on our farm is labeled as a “room” in METRC.  The absurdities continue, with a requirement that all waste (leaves, sucker branches) that is removed from a plant be weighed and tracked, along with the final stumps, and then deposited in a locked compost pile.  When bureaucrats and corporations design a system without on-the-ground knowledge, the ridiculousness can pile up fast.

      The Emerald Cup has marked the culmination of the season for me in each of the last 10 years, and this year’s Harvest Ball will be a chance to catch up with friends and see folks that I don’t see often.  I’m glad for the opportunity, but also dread the inevitable conversations about how broken the system is, how stupid the regulations are, how much of a time-suck and pointless process some of the things are.

      As much as I’m frustrated about bad regulations and over taxation, I still love the sense of community and solidarity.  I love talking about farming, about different strains and techniques.  I love the sharing of the herb, the gathering.  I’m excited to see everyone, to celebrate the culmination of the harvest and to participate in the collective energy of the community.  As always, much love and great success to you on your journey!