This morning, finds The Old Hemp Farmer enjoying beautiful Middle Tennessee Fall weather and his usual cup of “Java” with some Siriana Costa Rican Cacao infused with Tennessee Homegrown’s finest Cannabis extract. Today the weather is great but the future conditions may not be so favorable, according to the Wooly Worms we will supposedly have a hard, snowy Winter in our neck of the woods. And correspondingly most of the Cannabis business analysts are predicting the same for the high CBD and THC industry, it’s not going to be cold and snow but there will be a glut of material both CBD & THC and a contraction of sales that will cool down profits. When everyone was spending a lot more time secluded indoors the sales of Cannabis products soared across the board and a lot of businesses (especially Delta 8 and Delta 9 THC) were actually for the first time in years, profitable. So how did these Cannabis companies react to their newfound windfall? A huge amount of these Cannabis entities increased production, which probably sounded like a good idea at the time. Especially if you didn’t drill down see why people were consuming more Cannabis. “When the going gets tough, the tough medicate!”
Fast forward to the Spring of 2021, and now people are starting to emerge and engage in more group outdoor activities so the consumption of Cannabis starts to drop to the pre-pandemic levels. Now in the 3rd quarter of 2021, Cannabis sales are 20% lower than at this time in 2020. Which has caused Cannabis Corporations to hemorrhage more money than ever while their stock prices plummet. This year, Charlotte’s Web and 4 other cannabis firms made Inc.’s top 250 best-led companies list. Drill down and look at these Cannabis companies’ balance sheets and every one of these companies is losing a pile of cash. So if the best led Cannabis Corporation are losing money what does that say for Corporate Cannabis? A prominent Cannabis Consultant stated “Corporate Cannabis is not the problem. Corporate Cannabis has always signed my engagement and paid their retainer” No doubt, they did and I’m not sure if Corporate Cannabis is the problem but right now, it isn’t the solution, either. Remember for every well paid Cannabis Consultant or Executive, there are scores of farmers and investors that lose their shirts. So right now there doesn’t seem to be very much “smart” money in Cannabis and that might be because no one truly knows where Cannabis is headed, legally, research wise or ultimately what the consumer really wants. As always Hemp Dawgs and Hemp Puppies keep one eye on the weather and the other eye on the market.
Corporate is the problem. Cannabis, although not the solution, makes the problem slightly easier to ignore… but corporate culture, and more specifically late-stage capitalism, is the problem. Late-stage capitalism, considering money to be basically a game-piece that can be created, erased or redefined at will, leads everyone to think that money really does grow on trees and all it takes is a little luck in the market. That leads to market distortions or outright bubbles, which leads to people losing their shirts, yep. In this case I think cannabis is indeed in a bubble environment, much like the dot-com bubble. Most of the people invested in dot-coms lost their shirts… some of them managed to luck out and pick Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Google, or another winner out of the hat and are now fantastically wealthy. The same will happen with the glut of unnecessary cannabis companies. They’ll go bankrupt, and their investors will lose everything they invested. As every investment prospectus ever has warned in fine print at the bottom of the page: All investments involve risk, including the risk of losing your entire investment. Past performance is no guarantee of future performance. etc, etc, etc.
That being said, I’m sure as hell invested in the parent companies trying to expand their control of the already-large “vice market” into cannabis too. I just didn’t invest based on hype, I invested years ago based on a jaded view of a once-great civilization in decline. As that civilization declines, its citizens lose hope in the future and begin abusing substances and generally disregarding that future, which accelerates the decline. We’re heading down the same path as ancient Rome, about all I can do is buckle up and try to survive the ride. Hopefully I’m wrong and I lose my entire investment… of course, if I do, other investments will do better because I’m wrong and it balances out. Yay for the simple, standard practice of diversification. Anyway, time for my medicine…
Plunging temperatures will finally make a “House Call” to Middle Tennessee bringing with it the first hard freeze of the Fall season. Temperatures in the mid 20’s will take down all but the hardiest of crops. In years past, Lee Crabtree and The Old Hemp Farmer would be racing with the killing Frost to finish our Late Sue, now thankfully we have migrated to some Cannabis genetics more suited to our particular micro-climate and this year’s wonderful looking crop has been harvested and already prepped for processing. After growing out about 20-some high CBD Cannabis cultivars, we finally have a couple “Moms” that work as well as can be expected in the harsh, high humidity environment of Middle Tennessee. Quite frankly, it has taken far longer than Lee and I ever anticipated to get the Cannabis quality, quantity, pest resistance, harvest efficiency and economics that we wanted. Who knew that matching Cannabis Cultivars with the right longitude, latitude, rainfall and nutrient needs with a specific terroir would be that difficult? Well, it is.
From the get-go, The Old Hemp Farmer has wondered why wheat or soy bean crops look so uniform and vibrant while high CBD Cannabis crops, unless raised from Clones, look like it had 3 to 5 phenotypes. I found the answer to this conundrum, it takes time. For over three centuries, farmers in America have been tinkering with seeds, equipment and fertilizer/amendments while developing rules and regulations to develop a strong market for their crops. Legal Cannabis is still less than 10 years in the U.S. so expecting Cannabis to be fully developed agricultural endeavor is unrealistic. Also the legal environment for Cannabis is in its infancy, as well. Something that should be thought about a little more by the people that are clamoring to enact or change Cannabis laws. Nothing has been more fraught with ineffective or futile laws than the Cannabis industry, its the poster child for the law of unintended consequences. Rarely does Cannabis legislation ever turn out the way that the people who crafted the Recreational or Medical laws intended. Food for thought for those folks who are lobbying for Cannabis laws to be changed or enacted. Anyway as always Hemp Dawgs and Hemp Puppies keep one eye on the weather and the other eye on the market.
I call that the "law of unintended consequences "
When I was a cattlemen my mom had 59 years of king for temperament
Her cows are so gentle now that they often come looking for her when they have a problem…such as a lost calf, difficult birthing etc.
Unfortunately our cannabis business has a way to go and I’m sure the corporate interests will find some eager helpers in our legislature…Here in Oklahoma
"A COMPARISON OF HARD RED WINTER AND HARD RED SPRING WHEATS 1940
The Argentine, Danubian, and Russian wheats are considered t o be very variable in quality, whereas the Manitobas and hard winters are rather uniform in quality. . . . A miller stated t h a t 35 percent was the maximum quantity of hard winter he could use i n his milling mixture, 65 t h e maximum of Manitoba wheat, 35 the maximum of Argentine wheat, and 10 percent the maximum red durum. . . . Another miller stated his mixture varied according to the relative price and availability of the various types of wheat, b u t that usually it ran about as follows in percentage: 10 domestic, 50 Manitoba, or (25 Manitoba and 25 hard winter), 30 Argentine, and 10 Danubian wheat.”
Wheat still was variable then, to the point where bakers would try and get away with using the local variety to lower cost, add No 1 Manitoba to increase desirable quality. And wheat is a staple that is eaten by most every day. Not sure if marijuana consumption would ever get refined to the point of being a homologous crop.
This morning, finds The Old Hemp Farmer enjoying his usual cup of organic Indonesian medium roasted coffee with some Siriana Costa Rican Cacao infused with some of Tennessee Homegrown’s finest Cannabis extract, wondering what happened to the beautiful Middle Tennessee Fall weather. Since it’s a little inclement outside, it gives moi an excuse to pontificate once again on the Cannabis industry. Today’s topic is something that Cannabis Professionals and Companies rarely discuss in public, which is how hard it is to attract and keep quality employees. This is one of the reasons that Tennessee Homegrown has expanded slowly. Lee Crabtree and I simply don’t want to hire someone if we can’t give them a good living wage with opportunities to advance. When speaking with my fellow Cannabis professionals, one of their biggest challenges is finding qualified people with a good attitude and work ethic with multiple skill sets and keeping them. Too often they complain that many of the people they hire just don’t pan out because they are either lazy, stupid or have really bad attitudes, so they are continually searching for people to hire. Many of these new Captains of the Cannabis industry are declaring that people just don’t want to work anymore. That’s an easy idea to entertain and embrace but maybe the problem isn’t them, it might be you.
Cannabis companies by and large haven’t addressed issues like working conditions, hours, pay and finally, job classifications. Too many Cannabis companies act like working in Cannabis is a privilege, when too often its hard and repetitive work for relatively low wages. The coolness factor of being around Cannabis gives away quickly to reality that it’s a job that is too often is dead end with unlimited duties. At lot of Cannabis companies, you are expected to do everything. The following is a typical advertisement for employment at a Cannabis Company,
“We need friendly, reliable, hard-working individuals to join our team! The job will consist of sales, customer service, maintaining the store, handling cash, credit card transactions, cleaning, restocking, pulling and shipping orders, and any tasks the direct supervisor might have. Must be above 21.” I’m sure these Cannabis companies will have no problem finding people willing to do anything and everything to get into the business but keeping them might be a different story. The high turnover rate of employees is becoming an increasing problem in the Cannabis Industry. Let’s face it, working in the Cannabis industry isn’t nearly glamorous as we’d like to believe and once people see the Cannabis business as it is, they quit. In Canada, during the last year more people left Cannabis jobs than got hired. Now granted some of this job loss was downsizing but some of this was also job fatigue. Cannabis continues to be a labor intensive industry and if we as Cannabis professionals, we can’t attract and retain a quality workforce, we will continue to have growing pains. Anyway as always Hemp Dawgs and Hemp Puppies keep one eye on the weather and the other eye on the market.
I personally have loved everyday in the business, but always worked with/for friends.
Conditions have been abysmal, sleeping in tents or rvs, cold showers, dirty all day, digging, brush clearing, heavy rocks, hard work. What everybody needs!. But I do see nationwide, a lazy youth, not willing to hold a shovel, no less use it. It is a scourge in that they will never realize the feeling of accomplishment it brings. The only model I see that works is a percentage of proceeds. It makes them try hard, we coddle them along, but they do work.
P.S. - I am looking for a grow sponsor or partner for Michigan 2022. Anyone interested PM me, PLEASE
Plenty of money to be made off the $50 eighths the corporate cannabis boys sell.
Problem is the guys at the top want a massive slice of the pie, and taxes and regulations and graft (especially in places where there’s a VERY limited number of licenses available, favoring big money, by hook or crook).
Big operations have so much less labor per gram than small grows (everything that can be automated is automated, irrigation to trim to processing).
It’s not us, it’s them.
There is no shortage of labor. There is a shortage of MBA’s willing to pay square wages/benefits and who can accept they won’t be able to afford that summer home and that farming is a lot of work for sometimes modest returns.
There’s guys running entire 100 light grows successfully making $15/hr with no benefits.
The MBAs and culture vultures believed they could retire early off legal weed. They are unwilling to compromise on that and view labor as “uppity, lazy, demanding”…a tool to be squeezed, not people with lives.
Somehow prices went up and quality went down, and wages stagnated. Someone’s to blame and it ain’t John Q. Trimmer or “millenials”.
Old people looooove to complain about the “youth”. It’s kind of their thing. “The kids today don’t want to work 2 shit jobs and ruin their body doing hard labor to spend half their check on rent” Fuck that noise.
Its funny, you can watch old videos of the boomers parents saying the same thing about them as they are saying about millennials. Almost word for word in some cases. Its gold.
I just didn’t invest based on hype, I invested years ago based on a jaded view of a once-great civilization in decline. As that civilization declines, its citizens lose hope in the future and begin abusing substances and generally disregarding that future, which accelerates the decline. We’re heading down the same path as ancient Rome, about all I can do is buckle up and try to survive the ride. Hopefully I’m wrong and I lose my entire investment… of course, if I do, other investments will do better because I’m wrong and it balances out. Yay for the simple, standard practice of diversification. Anyway, time for my medicine…
