A High Times veteran’s no-till living soil urban farming journey begins on a rooftop in New York City.

This article originally appeared in High Times Magazine’s 50th Anniversary Print Issue. Order yours here and get it delivered to your door.

Golden Jubilee

What an honor to contribute to the 50th anniversary issue of the oldest brand in cannabis! I worked almost twenty years as the senior cultivation editor of High Times and I suspect that I got my job in the spring of 2002 in no small part due to the high-quality cannabis I’d bring to the office and share at HT Bonghitter softball games.

I’d been growing for nearly a decade at that point and tried every which complicated way to make it happen – building custom hydroponics systems, growing in expanded clay pellets or rockwool, and even experimenting with aeroponics in which roots just dangle in a mist of nutrient solution – until one of my mentorsm Kyle Kushman, convinced me to convert to growing organically in soil.

After a while, between traveling to Cannabis Cups or working on assignments, visiting gardens large and small around the world, I wasn’t able to grow my own anymore. You simply can’t leave your plants behind for days at a time every month and expect to succeed as a farmer. Without enough time and energy to devote to a thriving garden, I put my personal growth aside and focused on sharing the information I learned from experts about cultivation and cultivars with the readers.

Along the way, I wrote many growing and strain-related articles, authored a couple of popular weed books, created the HT Seed Bank Hall of Fame and started a podcast called Free Weed. Then along came the pandemic and High Times and I parted ways. With the halting of travel, along with home growing becoming legal in NY, my ability and yearning to grow my own was rekindled and I seized the opportunity to put all that I’d learned into practice.

That spring, I tried my luck and germinated six plants on my roof deck in Brooklyn. Results were mixed. Even large containers in full sunshine all day long can get very hot and rooftop gardens are also exposed to strong winds that can snap stems and dry out leaves fast. Combine that with the Northeast’s typically wet Fall and the challenges piled up. The first two years I battled underwatering, powdery mildew, and bud rot but after a positive result and a decent yield in 2024, I decided to upgrade to a living soil bed to take full advantage of the benefits of natural farming.

Pros and Cons

I enlisted the help and expertise of my friend Andrew Zurica from @alwaysbloomingnyc, who owned the local grow store here in Brooklyn until Amazon put him out of business like so many other mom ‘n’ pops. Before that, he made a name for himself cooking the original smashburgers on his famous food truck called Hard Times Sundaes. He brings a chef’s passion and meticulous intensity to growing in living soil – “It’s just like a great recipe – you gotta have the feel for it and an instinct for the measurements. It’s like you’re building a cake or a lasagna and each layer complements the next.”

“Cannabis grown in living soil thrives because the undisturbed, microbe-rich ecosystem continuously recycles nutrients, producing superior terpene profiles, potency, and overall plant health. For me, this natural balance creates richer flavor, aroma, and quality than sterile or synthetic methods – plus ultimately it’s cheaper with less work and inputs. Once the biology takes hold, the soil feeds the plant on demand, balancing nutrients and buffering pH naturally.”

— Andrew Zurica

In the bed, I’m growing two KKSC (Kyle Kushman Strawberry Cough) plants from clones. The real Cough is my favorite flower to smoke, so it made sense to invest my time and energy into something I would truly appreciate. If I can produce enough to get me through until next year’s harvest, I’ll have a great winter and spring to celebrate the harvest. The only real drawback to the bed on my roof is that it’s too heavy and bulky to move indoors in an emergency.

The other four plants are in containers to hedge my bets. The containers aren’t large enough to sustain living soil, but on the plus side, I can move them inside temporarily if there’s extreme heat during summer or bad weather in the fall. We’ve had hailstorms, hurricanes and tropical storms over the years, leaving the plants in the beds at the mercy of Mother Nature. Luckily, they grow big and healthy and the steady wind on the roof tends to keep them strong and sturdy. I may even need to stake or trellis them if they get too heavy as harvest approaches.

• This article originally appeared in High Times Magazine’s 50th Anniversary Print Issue. Order yours here and get it delivered to your door.

The Set Up

The first step was unfolding and raising the bed off the dark surface of the roof onto wooden two-by-fours. This promotes runoff, keeps heat from radiating up into the soil, and allows air to circulate underneath. With the empty bed raised, Andrew and I start layering the mix. In the bottom three to four inches, we utilize pumice stone and some dead tree branches for the drainage layer to prevent water from pooling at the bottom. You can use lava rock, expanded clay pellets or chunks of biochar for this layer as well. An aeration layer comes next, with a few inches of rice hulls to ensure oxygen can get to the roots. On top of that, we build and mix our living soil core, primarily made up of a blend Andrew calls “30/30/30”.

This core blend is made up of 30% peat-based potting soil mix (We used BuildASoil Version 3.0), 30% aeration (rice hulls, biochar, pumice or composted bark), and 30% bacteria-based materials like compost and worm castings amended with some kelp meal and mycorrhizae. The last 10 percent is made up of minerals such as basalt, Montana Grow Volcanic Tuff, BuildASoil Big 6 Micronutrients, gypsum and oyster shell flour. These rock dusts supply a wide spectrum of trace elements such as iron, magnesium, calcium, manganese, silica and more that support metabolism and microbial activity while also buffering soil pH, making nutrients more available.

We mix all of that together with a shovel, along with a little extra mycorrhizae powder and Andrew adds a few hundred worms from his vermicompost pile. As he explains, “the worms will do the digging for you – creating air pockets and leaving behind their castings to improve soil structure, feed the roots and suppress diseases. The bed is not just dirt – it’s an ecosystem teeming with microbes, worms, and fungal networks. In fact, for about 20 bucks, a USB microscope lets you see fungal hyphae, bacteria, and protozoa in action, giving you a magnified window into your soil’s health.”

The final layer on top consists of three to four inches of cover crops and mulch. Cover crops protect your soil’s surface, boost microbial life, and enhance long-term fertility. The cover crop blend I used consists of 60% different clover types along with flax, lentils, millet, vetch, buckwheat and peas. These young plants fix nutrients, including essential nitrogen, directly into your no-till bed as they grow and die off. We topped that with some straw and shredded leaves to help lock in moisture and protect microbes from the sun. Any lower leaves I trim off during defoliation get the “chop and drop” treatment, adding more green material to the crusty mulch layer.

Let It Grow

The clones and seedlings have taken root and now it’s time to keep them fed and watered. On a hot roof deck that receives full sun all day, this requires almost daily watering, especially as the plants grow larger and larger. I can’t rely on rain to do the work – only a thorough soaking from a big storm can let me off the hook for a day or two. The rest comes from hand-watering with collected rainwater or dechlorinated tap water that I pump up onto the roof through a hose into large containers.

I add plant food, in the form of BuildASoil Craft Blend in the spring and summer and BuildABloom in the fall, into the water to stir up a nutrient solution for instant results or sprinkle it directly onto the soil surface in order to water it in over time. A monthly top-dressing of kelp meal, worm castings or compost refreshes the nutrient bank as well. No bottled nutrient schedules, no daily pH checks – the biology does the balancing.

One issue I wasn’t expecting were Spotted Lantern Flies, an invasive species that arrived in the Northeast a few years ago from Eastern Asia. From personal observation and from anecdotal evidence, these bugs will soon become a larger problem for more ganja growers throughout North America as they have for grape farmers. They suck the juice from plants and multiply rapidly, making them a formidable enemy to our beloved “halfling’s leaf.”

In the meantime, I shake my plant branches and stomp the flies after they fall to the ground. I also try to pinch them against the plant stems when I catch the younger nymphs slipping. Hopefully, a predator of some kind is discovered soon to help curtail this slow-moving plague. I’d be interested to see if praying mantises, certain spiders or wasps, or maybe even chickens will kill and eat them? We can only hope.

As summer turns to fall, I continue defoliation of any lower leaves and branches that aren’t getting sunlight. This helps with airflow to discourage pockets of moisture that will attract mold, mildew and disease. I’m also top dressing with some bat guano in early September as a bloom booster. Bats consume insect shells and their resulting poop, revered by natural farmers for centuries, contains lots of phosphorus that’s essential for fruiting and flowering plants.

Check out my social media (@dannydankoht on Instagram) for updates on the garden throughout the late autumn and into harvest season. I’m proud to be now working as the cultivation section coordinator at Champs Trade Shows and I invite all cannabis business owners to come see me and a bunch of amazing cultivation brands at one of our many B2B shows across the United States.

Rooftop Cultivars

Strawberry Cough
High Times Top Ten Strain of 2005, 2012 SF Cup 1st Place Medical Cannabis, Denver 2015 Cup 2nd Place Sativa and more

Lineage: Strawberry Fields x Haze
Flowering time: 8-9 weeks
Discovered almost 30 years ago and popularized by Kyle Kushman, Strawberry Cough stands the test of time with a unique scent and buzz that keeps us coming back for more. The incense-forward smell and taste evoke cedar, sandalwood and bergamot while the sativa-dominant effects ignite racing thoughts and favor creativity and movement, perfect for a hike in the woods or a walk in the park.

Cuban Black Haze
Lineage: Northern Lights #5 x Haze
Flowering time: 10-12 weeks
This is the classic Haze that made uptown NYC famous. From Amsterdam via Florida, this cultivar exemplifies the original “Piff” terps that are described as smelling like Frankincense and cat piss and leaving behind the scent of an old church. The mood-elevating effect has no ceiling – smoke all day and keep getting higher!

Chicken n’ Wafflez
from Humboldt Seed Co. (Feminized)

Lineage: Jelly Donutz #117 x Purple Cartel by Xotic Flavors
Flowering time: 9 weeks
The only indica-dominant “new school” hybrid I’m growing, Chicken n’ Wafflez is showing tremendous promise as a keeper. Averaging 32% THC, I expect a potent and flavorful blast with some relaxing and body-soothing effects.

NL5 X Haze (Northern Lights #5 X Haze)
Winner High Times Cannabis Cup 1990, Mostly Sativa 1993 Seed Cup and many more

from Sensi Seed Bank (Feminized)
Flowering time: 10-11 weeks
The classic NL5 x Haze from Sensi Seeds has been winning awards since the 90s with a combination of earthy and piney scent and taste with hints of citrus and spice. This one is uplifting, social and sometimes even mildly psychedelic.

Quick Living Soil Bed Plan

1. Lift It Up: Elevate the bed on pallets, concrete blocks or two-by-fours for airflow and to keep heat from radiating up into the soil.
2. Build Big: One large bed holds more life than two small ones.
3. Layer for Life:
   • Base: 3–4 inches drainage rock (lava rock, pumice, or expanded clay).
   • Aeration: 3–4 inches of pumice or rice hulls mixed with bark.
   • Core: 1:1:1 ratio of compost, aeration material, and base medium with amendments.
   • Top: 3 inches of cover crops and mulch to hold moisture and protect biology.

This article originally appeared in High Times Magazine’s 50th Anniversary Print Issue. Order yours here and get it delivered to your door.

<p>The post Trees Grow in Brooklyn: A Rooftop Cannabis Garden Grown in Living Soil first appeared on High Times.</p>

The post Trees Grow in Brooklyn: A Rooftop Cannabis Garden Grown in Living Soil appeared first on Paradise Found.

Kate Nicklin and Graham Mateer, the directors of Commonbond Architects, an architectural firm in London, work in a self-built studio located in the garden behind their bungalow.

Nicklin and Mateer had an additional motivation for the studio. As the website AJ Building Library explains, the couple wanted “to explore the potential of using hempcrete as a breathable biocircular building material.”

“The main idea behind the project was to create something that felt permanent and not like a standard lightweight timber shed,” Nicklin told Dezeen, which noted that, in addition to hempcrete, Commonbound Architects also “used reclaimed materials and a timber frame to create the cuboidal volume, which is topped with a mono-pitched roof.”

“Hempcrete offered an alternative construction which was good for self-building,” Nicklin added. “We like that it can be sourced in the UK and supports small-scale growers, we like that it creates a healthy environment to be in with no off-gassing and its breathable properties, that it sequesters carbon and is ultimately biodegradable.”

According to the Natural Building Alliance, a Colorado-based organization that champions natural building techniques, hempcrete is “a bio-composite building material that is created by coating and mixing particles of hemp hurd (also known as shiv – the inner woody core of a hemp plant) with water and lime and then allowing the materials to dry and harden into a natural insulation material.”

“Like traditional insulation, hempcrete can be the infill material to a wall structure or the insulation material for floors, ceilings, roofs, or windows. When it comes to walls that are framed using studs or heavy timbers, builders can use temporary formwork or permanent, permeable sheathing that is situated around framing to cast monolithic hempcrete walls,” the group explains. 

“Molding and casting walls involve a steady process of creating and mixing hempcrete in conjunction with a bucket brigade of helpers pouring, spreading, pressing, or tamping the hempcrete into formwork. Prior to casting and upon being dumped out of a mixer, hempcrete mixes typically look like crumbly oatmeal with no cohesion until builders squeeze and tamp the mixtures. When builders spread and press the mixture in formwork, they typically do it at a depth of four to eight inches at a time. When the formwork is full, the team of helpers can then remove and raise the slip forms for further assembly to complete the wall. For hempcrete installation that goes beyond the framing of one or both sides of the wall, builders can use spacers attached to the slip forms to extend the depth of the wall.”

Nicklin and Mateer began construction on the studio in May of 2020 and completed it last July. 

The RIBA Journal said that Nicklin and Mateer “had development in mind when, as project architects with 10 years’ experience at other firms, they bought the bungalow.” 

“We were always doing things on skinny little sites so we saw the potential,” Nicklin told the outlet. 

The RIBA Journal has more background on the studio:

“A decision taken even before the final form of the building was worked out was to use hempcrete, and the pair have become enthusiastic advocates for the biocircular material. Combined with a timber frame, it provides structure, breathable insulation and fireproofing, and is so easy to use that the architects could draft in equally unskilled friends to help, making for sociable construction. Outside, the vegetal walls are coated in thick gobs of lime render flicked on with a paint scraper and finished with many thin coats of chalky limewash. Laborious but economical, says Mateer, and another pragmatic choice for people with little hands-on building experience. It gives the small building with its overhanging, monopitch roof a soft but weighty character quite distinct from a typical garden shed. Rustic roughness is also melded with some refinement: oak-framed windows – with triangular mullions inspired by a medieval house at the Weald & Downland Museum – are beautifully made, again by the architects. Even so, stepping through oak doors at either end brings surprise. 

“Daylight fills the sunken rooms through garden-facing windows, set above built-in bench seating, from which ribbed oak wainscotting extends around the base of subtly textured painted hempcrete walls. Reflections from a pond dapple the soffit of the overhanging roof outside – a deliberate recreation of the effect produced by puddles on the balcony of the couple’s last flat. Small windows in the back wall are placed on the outside face to make the best of the west light.”

The studio is a testament to hemp’s versatility as a material –– whether for building supplies or consumer products. A company in Ohio signed a deal with a processor earlier this year to provide raw material for hemp-based bioplastics.

The post U.K. Architects Show Off ‘Hempcrete’ Studio first appeared on High Times.

The post U.K. Architects Show Off ‘Hempcrete’ Studio appeared first on Paradise Found.

A hemp producer based in Dayton, Ohio has a new customer for its crop after the firm signed a deal with a processor in nearby Michigan to provide raw material for hemp-based bioplastics. Under its new contract with Detroit-based Heartland Industries, Ohio Hemp Company will provide hemp fiber to produce bioplastic that will eventually become auto parts manufactured by a Belgian firm.

Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine signed legislation to legalize hemp in the state in 2019, the year after Congress legalized the crop on the national level with the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill. TJ Richardson and Justin Helt, the owners of Ohio Hemp Company, were among the first farmers in the state to farm the crop. They planted 11,000 cannabinoid hemp plants in 2020 to take advantage of the then-booming CBD market.

After the CBD market began to retract, Richardson and Helt pivoted to growing hemp plants bred to produce grain and fiber, rather than CBD and other cannabinoids. Because of the versatility of hemp, the company still had opportunities with the crop to explore.

“My grandpa always says that hemp is the most exciting new thing in agriculture since soybeans in the 50s,” Helt told agriculture news source Farm and Dairy. “That gives you a little perspective on how often something like this comes along. We see a huge trajectory path for this crop to grow in the state.”

Richardson and Helt knew from the time they launched their operation that there are a multitude of uses for hemp. After transitioning away from CBD hemp, the partners began looking for businesses near Ohio that were using the crop in their products. Before long, Richardson and Helt discovered Detroit-based Heartland Industries, a hemp processing facility founded in 2020. In 2022, the company began a partnership to provide hemp fiber to Ravago, a Belgian bioplastics manufacturer. 

Tim Almond, chairman and co-founder of Heartland Industries, said that from the beginning, his company and the farmers it works with faced challenges as they learned to grow and work with the crop.

“It had been illegal for 80 years, a lot of the knowledge and planting equipment has been either lost or transitioned to corn, soybean and wheat,” said Almond. “Farmers didn’t know what technology would work. So we had to understand how to plant the crop all over again.”

Heartland Industries uses the hemp fiber grown by Ohio Hemp Company and other farmers in the Midwest to manufacture small hemp pellets known as nurdles. After this initial processing, the nurdles are transported to Ravago, where they are mixed with plastic nurdles to produce a bioplastic composed of 70% plastic and 30% hemp fiber. The bioplastic is then used to manufacture parts for the auto industry.

“Everybody wants to have a product that’s better for the environment, but it’s hard to do it if it compromises the cost and it compromises performance,” Almond said. “We found a happy balance with the plastic manufacturing world where we can use this ingredient at 30% in the recipe, and we could see cost savings, we can see weight reduction, we can see performance maintaining the same, but most importantly we can see the reduction in carbon footprint.”

To maximize efficiency, Heartland Industries originally began partnering with farmers in Michigan to source the hemp the company needs. But as the hemp fiber market grew, it also started working with growers in nearby states including Indiana, Illinois and Ohio.

In 2022, Ohio Hemp Company began growing and researching dual-purpose hemp that produces both fiber and grain. Last year, the company grew 100 acres of the crop. Thanks to the new contract with Heartland Industries, Helt and Richardson plan to plant 200 acres of dual-purpose hemp this year.

The hemp grower’s new agreement is a purchase contract to provide hemp fiber to Heartland Industries on a non-binding, year-over-year basis. Ohio Hemp Company is in the process of adding new infrastructure to support its expanding operations. The firm is building a new processing and storage facility, as well as researching new varieties of hemp.

Helt said that the new contract with Heartland Industries and other developments at his operation are signs of the growing demand for hemp in the region.

“It means everything to the growth of this company and to the growth of the industry in (Ohio) to have a major processor (with) a great demand,” said Helt. “All the different pieces of the puzzle are finally coming into place to create an entire industry from front end to back end, from the plant in the field all the way to the end consumer. It’s beautiful to see.”

The post Ohio Company Signs Deal To Grow Hemp for Bioplastic appeared first on High Times.

The post Ohio Company Signs Deal To Grow Hemp for Bioplastic appeared first on Paradise Found.

Senate Bill 5376 was recently passed in the House in Washington state on Feb. 29, which would establish new rules for cannabis waste if it became law.

Currently, cannabis waste (specifically roots, stalks, leaves, and stems that aren’t considered to be “dangerous”) is dumped into landfills and produces methane gas as it decomposes. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 50% of landfill gas consists of methane, which is 28 times more effective than carbon dioxide to trap heat in the atmosphere.

SB-5376 aims to reduce the amount of cannabis waste, and methane gas, that is being produced in Washington landfills. If the law is signed by Gov. Jay Inslee, it would allow cannabis cultivators and processors to sell that plant material with 0.3% THC or less to the general public instead. According to a report from The Spokesman-Review, public buyers could use plant waste for composting or use it to make certain hemp products such as hempcrete, which can be used to make hempcrete or insulation, or hemp fiber products like clothing or animal bedding.

Seth Shamberg, who is the operations manager at Blue Roots Cannabis, a Spokane County-based producer and processor, told The Spokesman Review that they dump an estimated 2,200 pounds cannabis waste material into the landfill every month (approximately 26,400 pounds of material per year). “Usually, we mix it with dirt, cocoa, wood chips, all kinds of (organic material),” said Shamberg. “There isn’t anything recoverable once it’s been ground and mixed like that.”

The material fills up a 40-yard container dumpster, and costs $600 for each one. “This doesn’t do our society any good to be continuing to fill landfills, especially when it’s being mixed with nonorganic garbage piling up or being put into plastic contractor bags before it’s dumped,” Shamberg explained.

Current law in Washington state requires that processors mix cannabis waste with 50% other materials such as paper waste, cardboard waste, plastic waste, or soil. Many processors utilize cat litter or mulch wood chips.

According to Zero Waste Washington executive director Heather Trim mixing in non-cannabis material with cannabis waste only further contributes to the production of methane gas. Trim estimates that nearly 500-1,100 pounds of cannabis is dumped into landfills each week during the growing season in Washington state (based on approximately 1,000 licensed growers).

Trim added that SB-5376 is supported by a House Bill 1799, which was passed in Washington state in June 2022. The bill aims to “reduce methane emissions by diverting organic materials from municipal landfills where they would decompose and create the gas.” Currently, the goal is to require residents and businesses to remove organic material from the garbage and have it collected by an “organics collector or composting facility.”

According to SB-5376, cannabis waste can’t be reused if it’s considered to be “dangerous.” This includes both its THC content, but also any pesticides that were used during the cultivation process. Any materials that are toxic or flammable would not be permitted.

During the sale process, it must be available to the public “on an equal and nondiscriminatory basis.” All purchases and details, including the quantity, price, and name of person or organization who purchases the cannabis waste, must be reported to the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board as well as the Department of Agriculture. “It would be nice to see the [Legislature] start to give more detail to some of the cannabis policies that we have in order to give us the opportunity to better rectify the issues that we face,” said Shamberg.

At the House meeting on Feb. 29, Rep. Shelley Kloba offered support of the bill, which she described as creating “a circular economy.” Cultivators would potentially be able to earn extra revenue, and those who buy the waste can benefit from reusing the products, while all parties help reduce waste in the landfill.

However, Rep. Leonard Christian expressed his opposition due to personal negative memories of how cannabis affected his youth. He explained how his mother worked as a cross country trucker and would leave money for he and his siblings. Unfortunately, his sibling would use the money to buy cannabis, leaving Christian only able to obtain food at school. “I’ve seen it wreck a lot of lives over the years,” said Christian. “It’s just not for me, and I’m not going to vote for a marijuana bill.”

A recent report published by Health Canada in January shows that the country has disposed of 3.7 million pounds of cannabis since legalization began in 2018. The disposed cannabis wasn’t waste however, an expert believes it was mainly product that was either too old or had too little THC to be sold. “There is no demand for old and low-THC products, so manufacturers of finished products are not buying this biomass as inputs,” said industry consultant Farrell Miller. “It’s likely low-quality material with no value. As consumers become more savvy with packaging dates on dried cannabis products, this trend will only continue.”

The post Cannabis Waste in Washington State Would Be Diverted from Landfills Under New Bill appeared first on High Times.

The post Cannabis Waste in Washington State Would Be Diverted from Landfills Under New Bill appeared first on Paradise Found.

The University of California, Berkeley (UCB) recently published a scientific brief in February regarding illegal water use for cannabis plants.

Entitled “Water Use: Cannabis in Context,” the brief was conducted by individuals at the Berkeley Cannabis Research Center, which is part of the College of Environmental Science Policy & Management. The Cannabis Research Center has been reviewing cannabis water use since 2017, and the most recent brief is split into four sections posed with a question.

First, “How much water does cannabis use relative to stream flow?” explains that cannabis water use in regions along the Northern California coast and semi-inland areas (primarily Humboldt and Mendocino County) represents a “small fraction” of surface water supplies year-round, and especially during the months of July, August, and September. However, cannabis grows aren’t spread out evenly amongst these areas, with many farms gathered near one another. In those areas, “cannabis water demand represents >10% of available supplies during the dry season.” Researchers also make an important note that the watershed samples they refer to include demand mainly from unlicensed farms.

The researcher’s second section addresses the comparison between water demand between unlicensed versus licensed farms. “Unlicensed cannabis accounts for significantly more cultivated area than licensed cannabis farming and therefore has a much larger water demand footprint,” researchers explained. “Furthermore, because unlicensed cannabis farms often have little to no water storage on-site, water is extracted from watersheds on demand, which tends to peak in August.”

Ultimately, unlicensed farms consume much more than licensed farms throughout the year. “Water demand for unlicensed cultivation therefore exceeds that of licensed cultivation to an even greater extent in the driest time of year when stream flow is lowest,” the authors stated, recommending that incentives be provided for licensed farmers to be able to obtain or retain their existing licenses while “increasing off-site stream storage” to use as irrigation during the summer months.

The third section explores how much residents in Humboldt and Mendocino Counties consume in comparison to the amount of water that licensed grows utilize. Researchers studied 91 watersheds and found that resident’s demand for water usage far exceeded that of licensed cultivators by 97%. “On average, licensed cannabis farm demands are one-tenth the amount of water as residential demand,” the brief states. “Water demands for other forms of agriculture in the region far exceed those of cannabis and residential use.”

Finally, the last section examined water used licensed cannabis grows and found that those cultivation sites only used 4% or less of streamflow in the month of August, some even without additional water storage. “If licensed cannabis farms had enough water storage capacity to accommodate at least half of their annual water demand, there would be no watersheds among those sampled exceeding 2% of their estimated streamflow availability,” the authors concluded. “If licensed cannabis farms had storage capacity equivalent to their annual water demand, licensed cultivation would not require more than 1% of available flow in any sampled watershed.”

The release of this brief is well-timed to educate voters as spring approaches, which is also when they will have the opportunity to choose, approve or reject the Humboldt Cannabis Reform Initiative (HCRI) which will appear as Measure A on the upcoming ballot. If approved, it would severely hinder local growers by banning them from making any changes to their farms. A report analyzing the HCRI was prepared for Humboldt County Board of Supervisors by the Humboldt County Planning Department in March 2023, explaining the harms of such a measure. “HCRI has been written to effectively discourage existing permit holders from modifying their permits in any way,” the report stated. “This includes adding infrastructure intended for environmental protections or modification of activities or site configuration to adapt to the evolving industry. These restrictions affect the smallest of farms permitted in Humboldt County to the largest cultivation sites.” 

More recently, former Board of Supervisors member Mark Lovelace, who has spent the past seven years advising other California counties and cities on cannabis regulations, wrote an op-ed for Times Standard urging voters to vote no on Measure A. “Based on my professional analysis, I believe that Measure A will deal a devastating blow to the small cannabis businesses it purports to want to help,” Lovelace wrote. “The measure will impose an unrealistically small limit on the size of any new cannabis farms and will deny even the smallest ‘craft’ farmers any opportunity to grow or adapt their operations within Humboldt County. With cannabis prices continuing to fall, small farmers will be assured of making less money every year until they are no longer viable.”

Lovelace described the measure as “grossly uninformed and demonstrates a deep lack of understanding of the cannabis industry and basic economics.” Measure A cites any grow larger than 10,000 square feet (which he describes as slightly larger than the average suburban lot), is a “large grow.” Additionally, the average size of all licensed Californian cultivator lots are more than 27,000 square feet, 93 cultivators are larger than 100,000 square feet, and nine include more than one million square feet.

In addition to other important points of defense of local cannabis growers, Lovelace summarizes the effect that Measure A may have on small cultivators. “Measure A would put Humboldt County’s small cannabis farms at an extreme disadvantage against large growers elsewhere in the state, rendering them largely unviable in an increasingly competitive industry. I urge Humboldt County’s voters to vote NO on Measure A,” Lovelace concluded.

The post Report: Unlicensed Cannabis Grows Use More Water Than Licensed Grows in California appeared first on High Times.

The post Report: Unlicensed Cannabis Grows Use More Water Than Licensed Grows in California appeared first on Paradise Found.

A Humboldt County cannabis grower will pay at least $750,000 to settle a dispute with state water and wildlife agencies over alleged environmental violations at a 435-acre cultivation site in California’s famed Emerald Triangle. In the settlement agreement, licensed weed grower Joshua Sweet and his companies, The Hills LLC and Shadow Light Ranch LLC, admitted to violations of state water regulations over a period of several years. 

“It is critical for all cannabis cultivators to be environmentally responsible and protect California’s water supply and water quality,” Taro Murano, program manager for the State Water Board’s Division of Water Rights cannabis enforcement section, said in a statement from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). “Sweet chose to operate his business while ignoring regulations designed to protect the environment. He must now remediate the environmental damage he caused and pay a significant penalty. No one should get a business advantage by ignoring the law and harming the environment.”

The settlement calls for Sweet to pay $1.75 million for the violations, which include illegally diverting and collecting water from unnamed tributaries of the South Fork Eel River that cross the property. According to the settlement terms, $1 million of the fine was suspended, but Sweet will be responsible for paying the additional $1 million if remediations to the property are not completed as agreed.

Multiple Environmental Violations at Cultivation Site

The settlement cites several violations, including building an unpermitted pond on a waterway to collect water for irrigating cannabis plants. Other violations include the destruction of wetland habitats and stream channels, converting oak woodland to cannabis cultivation and failure to work with state and local officials to satisfy permitting requirements.

Yvonne West, director of the State Water Resources Control Board’s office of enforcement, said that Sweet and his companies did not have the authority to divert water on the property and use it for cannabis cultivation. According to an email from the water board to nonprofit news outlet CalMatters, Sweet took about 16.2 acre-feet of water, approximately enough to supply about 49 households for a year, for a total of three ponds on the property between 2017 and 2020.

“This case represents years of hard work by dedicated staff to remediate damage to streambed channels, wetland habitat and oak woodlands,” said Nathaniel Arnold, acting chief of law enforcement for CDFW. “The settlement also speaks volumes to the egregious nature of this case and should send a strong message to those working outside of state regulations to cultivate cannabis. Our natural resources deserve to be respected.”

Included in the settlement agreement is a $500,000 payment for water rights violations, a record penalty for such a violation in the state of California. The defendants are also required to remove unpermitted ponds and restore wetlands and waterways as part of the agreement.

Grower Says Penalty Is Unfair

Sweet believes that the fines are unfair and excessive and that the case could have been handled differently.

“If the full penalty and remediation costs were due today it would take everything I own,” Sweet said in a statement to CalMatters.

“Although I will follow through with my end of the settlement, I do not believe this is fair or just, and I believe I have already suffered way too much,” Sweet said in the emailed statement. 

“Even during our court-mandated settlement conference, they were asked why they would go after a small independent businessman with these type of enormous fines usually reserved for huge corporations that destroy ecosystems,” he added.

But state and local officials defended the settlement, saying it is justified by the actions taken at the property.

“The ordered penalties are modest given the scope of damage, the length of time the site has been left unremediated and considering the unjust enrichment or benefit to Mr. Sweet from running a business for several years without going through the necessary permitting process,” said Jeremy Valverde, assistant chief counsel at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, in a statement emailed to CalMatters.

Joshua Curtis, the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board’s assistant executive officer, said that Sweet and his businesses “for years resisted our attempts to cooperatively work on restoration and recovery of those resources, leaving formal enforcement as our only option.”

“This was an ongoing use by Mr. Sweet and the penalties are over an approximately four-year period for unauthorized diversion and use of water to support cultivation,” said West of the water board. “Five hundred dollars a day, multiple violations over a four-year period, does really add up. And then again we did have the additional types of violations at play here as well.”

The post Humboldt Weed Grower To Pay $750,000 for Environmental Violations appeared first on High Times.

The post Humboldt Weed Grower To Pay $750,000 for Environmental Violations appeared first on Paradise Found.

The Delaware state House legislature passed a bill on Tuesday that would allow people to have their bodies composted rather than buried or cremated.

According to the Associated Press, the practice known as “natural organic reduction” was passed by a vote of 37-2 and now goes to Governor John Carney’s desk for ultimate authorization or denial. 

This bill would not allow people to just toss their dead relatives on their backyard compost pile willy-nilly. The process would still have to be undertaken by licensed morticians and otherwise approved handlers of dead people so as not to create a very uncomfortable and smelly situation for neighbors and such. 

The process of human composting, according to the Associated Press report, takes about 30 days or more depending on the process and is performed in a large tank where the body is mixed with wood chips, straw and other organic materials much like traditional compost of non-human materials. The mixture is exposed to warm air, turned periodically and after full decomposition it would be returned to the family of the deceased to be used in the garden, to plant trees, vegetables or whatever they please. 

“At the time of laying in, our staff places the body into a composting vessel surrounded by a mixture of wood chips, alfalfa, and straw carefully calibrated for each individual,” said Recompose, a Washington-based human composting service on their website. “Much like the moment when a body is interred into the earth during a burial, the laying in represents a moment of transition. The vessel is closed and the transformation into soil begins.”

Chief sponsor of the bill, Rep. Sean Lynn told the Associated Press that the practice is considered a “gentle, respectful, environmentally friendly death care option.”

“Natural organic reduction is a sophisticated process that applies cutting-edge technology and engineering to accelerate the natural process of turning a body into soil,” Rep. Lynn said to the Associated Press.

If the bill passes the governor’s desk, Delaware would become the eighth state to legalize human composting behind Washington, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, California, New York and Nevada. Rep. Lynn said that soil testing in these states of compost made from human remains has shown the soil to be “high quality and regenerative.”

This practice has been hailed by environmental activists as less energy-consuming than cremation and more environmentally friendly than other traditional burial methods, especially those that utilize chemicals like formaldehyde. The process also does not add to the need for more cemetery space, which a Georgia cemetery owner estimated to be over 1 million acres of land in the United States alone. 

“My first reaction was: Why haven’t we done this before? It’s not really a new idea. It’s just new-ish that we’re applying it to humans.” said Jennifer DeBruyn, an environmental microbiology professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville to CNBC in February of 2023.

The language of the Delaware bill would preclude human remains from being used for composting should they contain any radioactive implants such as those used to treat cancer without the need for surgery. Remains confirmed to have certain infections such as Ebola or neurodegenerative disorders such as mad cow disease would also not be eligible under the law if passed. More specific regulations are slated to be developed over the next year if the bill is passed. 

“We’ve got 29-year-olds in Miami signing up. Young people are going to teach us how to die better,” said Micah Truman to CNBC, CEO of Return Home, a Seattle-based human composting facility.

One might think this process would be cheaper than traditional burial services but it can actually be a bit more expensive given the cost of materials. For instance, Recompose charges about $7,000 for their human composting services whereas the average cost of cremation in the same state is about $6,028 according to Choice Mutual. Burials do tend to cost a bit more in most states, however. 

Seeing as how this is High Times, I would be remiss if I did not mention, in writing where my legal representatives can see it, that after I die I would like my body to be composted and used to grow cannabis plants, peyote cacti and psilocybin mushrooms.

The post Delaware Bill Allowing ‘Human Composting’ Goes to Governor’s Desk appeared first on High Times.

The post Delaware Bill Allowing ‘Human Composting’ Goes to Governor’s Desk appeared first on Paradise Found.

A hemp-based battery manufacturing company is coming to a town in Wisconsin with a goal to hire former employees of Energizer.

Portage, Wisconsin-based Wisconsin Battery Co. (WinBat) makes batteries out of hemp instead of graphene, for use in devices like hearing aids. Earlier this month, WinBat announced that it has acquired 17 acres of land in the Portage Industrial Park to develop its battery plant. According to a Dec. 21 press release, development will focus on:

• Industrial batteries: Creating energy storage solutions that enhance the efficiency and reliability of solar and wind power systems and maximize efficiency of connections to the grid.
• Hemp carbon batteries: Innovating a sustainable alternative to lithium-ion batteries by utilizing hemp carbon as a key component. These batteries will offer improved energy density, longer lifespan, reduced environmental impact, and utilize domestically produced raw material thus addressing the national security risks associated with global lithium sourcing.

WinBat CEO Jeff Greene said Portage will serve as an ideal place to build a new renewable energy battery power plant, given the skill set that former Energizer employees already possess.

“Obviously having 400 to 500 trained employees that are knowledgeable in the battery makes that area seemed right for a new battery company,” Greene told WMTV. “Most of the folks we’ve talked to, cautious optimism is kind of where we’ve gotten them to. They had fear and I think we’ve turned that fear into cautious optimism.”

The Wisconsin Battery Co. is a research, development and manufacturing company owned by the Sustainable Communities Corp., which is dedicated to advancing energy storage solutions that contribute to a more sustainable and clean future.

Greene said he got the idea when he was lobbying for a Florida-based hemp company that asked him to find the top five ways in which hemp fiber could be best used. “The people (in Portage) have been fantastic,” he said. “We have asked and received tremendous support from the people helping us. I am very blessed that the response has been so exciting.”

Gaining Local Support in Portage

The company gained local support. The City of Portage supports the goal to move forward with the plan. At a Dec. 7 Common Council meeting, city officials gave Greene 90 days to come up with a building plan.

Portage Mayor Mitchel Craig is cautiously optimistic, after Energizer decided to leave Wisc

“This is going to be huge for the city of Portage,” Craig said of the new plant that’s planned to open in the city. “The Energizer plant employed 225 people, and it is projected that within six years they will have 600 people working at this new facility.”

Wisconsin Battery Co. will focus development on the production of hemp carbon batteries as a sustainable alternative to lithium-ion batteries as well as the production of industrial batteries, which make energy storage solutions for solar and wind power systems more efficient and reliable.

The company plans to grow and hire 600 employees within the first six years of operation. Their goal is to start where Energizer left off, creating batteries to be used in hearing aids. The long-term goal is to produce two innovative batteries that will offer improved energy density, longer lifespans, and reduced carbon footprint.

More information will become available in the upcoming months. Greene and Mayor Craig will hold a press conference at 2 p.m. on Jan. 9, 2024, in Portage, where they plan to share more information about the project.

The company is focusing operations in Portage now, but will consider building another plant in Fennimore, where Energizer is also closing down another manufacturing plant.

Why Hemp for Batteries?

“Nothing outlasts the Energizer,” but hemp may do exactly that: Hemp advocates say that hemp batteries last eight times longer than lithium batteries, outperforming graphene for a fraction of the cost. Battery makers process hemp’s woody pulp, formint it into carbon nanosheets, which they used to build supercapacitors that behave better than graphene, the industry gold standard

Much of the energy used to extract and process battery components like lithium comes from CO₂-emitting fossil fuels.

The “Hemperor” has been telling us about these benefits all along, which also apply to the manufacturing of batteries. “Government and oil and coal companies, etc., will insist that burning biomass fuel is no better than using up our fossil fuel reserves, as far as pollution goes; but this is patently untrue,” Jack Herer wrote in The Emperor Wears No Clothes, citing several sources.

“Why? Because, unlike fossil fuel, biomass comes from living (not extinct) plants that continue to remove carbon dioxide pollution from our atmosphere as they grow, through photosynthesis. Furthermore, biomass fuels do not contain sulfur. This can be accomplished if hemp is grown for biomass and then converted through pyrolysis (charcoalizing) or biochemical composting into fuels to replace fossil fuel energy products.”

Replacing graphene for use in batteries is just another way hemp can be used for more sustainable energy. 

The post Hemp-Based Battery Maker Aims to Hire Laid Off Energizer Employees appeared first on High Times.

The post Hemp-Based Battery Maker Aims to Hire Laid Off Energizer Employees appeared first on Paradise Found.

An advocacy group in Delaware is enlisting volunteers to clean up their community –– and then clear their mind. 

Called “Joints for Junk,” the program works exactly like it sounds: in exchange for a round of trash clean-up, the Delaware Cannabis Advocacy Network awards the volunteers with a joint of legal cannabis.

“People preregistered, showed up, signed a waiver and we gave them a joint,” says Zoë Patchell, president of Delaware Cannabis Advocacy Network, told the Delaware News Journal. “And, actually, nobody took the joint and left. It was a really positive, inspiring day.”

The group held the first “Joints for Junk” event in the fall, months after Delaware legalized recreational pot for adults. 

According to the Delaware News Journal, the event –– held in Millsboro, Delaware –– ”drew more than 50 volunteers over the age of 21 with each getting a pre-rolled joint, which was donated by members of the nonprofit group.” The outlet said that, under the new state law, “anyone can gift an adult up to an ounce of marijuana.”

“It was probably one of our best turnouts for a community service project,” Patchell said, as quoted by the Delaware News Journal. “There were a number of new people we had never met before, and a few of them even became members.”

“It was a really positive reception,” Patchell added. “We just told them we were here to make Millsboro more green.”

Delaware legalized adult-use marijuana in April, when Democratic Gov. John Carney allowed a pair of bills to become law. Carney had previously vetoed legislative proposals to legalize marijuana, but he stood down this year when Delaware lawmakers passed the measures with veto-proof majorities.

“These two pieces of legislation remove all state-level civil and criminal penalties from simple marijuana possession and create a highly regulated industry to conduct recreational marijuana sales in Delaware,” Carney said in a statement at the time. “As I’ve consistently said, I believe the legalization of recreational marijuana is not a step forward. I support both medical marijuana and Delaware’s decriminalization law because no one should go to jail for possessing a personal use quantity of marijuana. And today, they do not.”

Carney stressed that he remained opposed to legalization.

“I want to be clear that my views on this issue have not changed. And I understand there are those who share my views who will be disappointed in my decision not to veto this legislation,” said Carney. “I came to this decision because I believe we’ve spent far too much time focused on this issue, when Delawareans face more serious and pressing concerns every day. It’s time to move on.”

State House Rep. Ed Osienski, the sponsor of the two bills, celebrated the breakthrough, which made Delaware the 22nd state to legalize weed for adults.

“After five years of countless meetings, debates, negotiations and conversations, I’m grateful we have reached the point where Delaware has joined a growing number of states that have legalized and regulated adult recreational marijuana for personal use,”Osienski said in a statement. “We know that more than 60% of Delawareans support the legalization of marijuana for adult recreational use, and more than two-thirds of the General Assembly agreed.”

Osienski also saluted Carney for allowing the bills to become law.

“I understand the governor’s personal opposition to legalization, so I especially appreciate him listening to the thousands of residents who support this effort and allowing it to become law,” Osienski added. “I am committed to working with the administration to ensure that the effort to establish the regulatory process goes as smoothly as possible.”

The law allows individual communities in Delaware to opt out and ban weed within their jurisdictions. 

Members of the town council in Millsboro did just that in September, when they unanimously passed an ordinance that bans the cultivation and sale of marijuana within their city limits.

At the first “Joints for Junk” event held in November, volunteers “collected [trash] from the area surrounding the Millsboro Town Center ― the same place where the Town Council voted against marijuana just six days prior at a Nov. 6 public hearing,” according to the Delaware News Journal.

Patchell said that the group wanted to “show everyone that cannabis consumers care about the community and a lot of the negative stereotypes are simply not true.” 

“We care just like everybody else,” Patchell said. 

According to the Delaware News Journal, six teams were “deployed in fluorescent yellow vests to pick up any garbage they found using large garbage bags of the same color” from 10 a.m. to noon.

“While there were no issues reported with their first ‘Joints for Junk’ project, some residents came out from their homes to ask what was happening as they saw the brightly dressed volunteers roaming the neighborhood,” the outlet said.

The post Delaware Group Offers ‘Joints For Junk’ To Fight Trash Pollution appeared first on High Times.

The post Delaware Group Offers ‘Joints For Junk’ To Fight Trash Pollution appeared first on Paradise Found.

California legislators have approved regulations for water companies to begin purifying sewage water for people to drink.

In a state with over 39 million residents regularly stricken by years-long droughts, water companies will soon be permitted but not required to recycle toilet water, extensively treat it, and send it right back to kitchen sinks. California is the second state after Colorado to approve such measures.

“Water is so precious in California. It is important that we use it more than once,” said Jennifer West, managing director of WateReuse California, an advocacy group 

“After 13 years of steady advocacy, fundraising and outreach by WRCA, California is posed to adopt statewide regulations for Direct Potable Reuse,” a portion of the WatReuse California website reads. “It is a major milestone for the state and WRCA as DPR regulations have long been one of the primary objectives of the association. 

According to an article by the Associated Press, California has actually been using recycled waste water for quite a while just about everywhere besides kitchen faucets. Waste water is used to make ice skating rinks, to water crops and if you’ve gone skiing in the mountains surrounding Lake Tahoe your skis were likely gliding over – you guessed it- recycled sewage. So much for ‘don’t eat the yellow snow.’

The new regulations dictate that water companies will be required to treat the waste water for all pathogens and viruses, even if none are detected. This differs from traditional purification which only treats the water for known pathogens. The waste water purification process also strips the water of its minerals, which have to be added back in at the end of the process unlike regularly treated drinking water. Darrin Polhemus, deputy director of the division of drinking water for the California Water Resources Control Board said this will likely make the recycled waste water taste better than traditionally processed drinking water.

“It’s at the same drinking water quality, and probably better in many instances,” Polhemus said to the Associated Press.

The regulations took over ten years to develop and underwent thorough, extensive scrutiny by several teams of scientists before they were approved ahead of the Dec 31 deadline set by state law for the California Water Resources Control Board to approve the new regulations.

It turns out this new development in water purification is actually somewhat arbitrary when modern water treatment practices are considered. According to Joaquin Esquivel, chair of the Water Resources Control Board, waste water is often treated and then pumped into rivers. That river water flows into neighboring water districts where it is used as regular drinking water.

“Anyone out there taking drinking water downstream from a wastewater treatment plant discharge — which, I promise you, you’re all doing — is already drinking toilet to tap,” Esquivel said to the Associated Press. “All water is recycled. What we have here are standards, science and — importantly — monitoring that allow us to have the faith that it is pure water.”

These somewhat icky realities of current water treatment practices notwithstanding, public perception of waste water treatment will almost certainly be a tall mountain to climb for water companies. According to the Associated Press, a waste water treatment center in San Jose is offering tours to the general public to educate the public about the process and ease any concerns they may harbor about the water they will soon be using to cook, bathe and drink. Kirsten Struve, assistant officer for the water supply division at the Santa Clara Valley Water District told the Associated Press this water is already being used to irrigate parks and soccer fields and such.

“We live in California where the drought happens all the time. And with climate change, it will only get worse,” Struve said. “And this is a drought-resistant supply that we will need in the future to meet the demands of our communities.”

Water companies across the Golden State are gearing up to begin treating waste water as soon as possible. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, for instance, plans to produce up to 150 million gallons per day of treated waste water, according to the Associated Press. In fact, nearly half of San Diego’s drinking water is slated to come from treated waste water by 2035.

The post California Approves Rules for Making Drinking Water From Sewage appeared first on High Times.

The post California Approves Rules for Making Drinking Water From Sewage appeared first on Paradise Found.