There’s something unusual in the air at Northern California’s cannabis farms: optimism. For years, California’s legal cannabis farms have been devastated by the one-two punch of crashing wholesale prices and extremely expensive regulatory requirements. That’s caused hundreds of farms to go out of business, but this year’s fall harvest has brought a new sense of hopefulness.
Farms in Northern California’s Emerald Triangle, which was once home to a thriving cannabis farming economy, have sold out of cannabis this fall after years of struggling to sell their cannabis. The wholesale price of cannabis, which largely determines if farms can live or die, appears to have stabilized in California. And small farms are finding new, creative ways to stay in business.
“I feel the tide is turning in our favor at long last,” said Judi Nelson, the owner of Sol Spirit Farm in Trinity County. Nelson told SFGATE that for the first time since 2019, she recently completely sold out of her inventory.
To be clear, pot farmers aren’t expecting to go back to the booming days of a decade ago, when California’s medical cannabis market allowed farmers to easily turn a profit growing pot on even the smallest homesteads. The Emerald Triangle, a three-county region that includes Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties, is still a shadow of its former self.
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