Catching up on episodes, sorry for the lag.

On the future cannabis as it relates to permaculture…

Or rather should we consider the future of permaculture as it relates to cannabis?  Cannabis might become recognized as the missing link in permaculture;  a versatile plant that has a vast array of connections to many systems in a permaculture design.  Imagine permaculture without something like comfrey because the state made it illegal decades ago, and no one has espoused how to use it in a system until today.  Game changer.

So will permaculture change or cannabis change?  When we consider that permaculture is a design science, a method, a process, a way of thinking,  I doubt cannabis will change permaculture as said design science.  Cannabis may however draw more and more people to permaculture, regenerative practices, and through its connections take permaculture to another level.

As cannabis markets expand, the demand for strict testing will also expand; so much that it may become a truism that products produced regeneratively are some of the only products that survive some of the rigorous testing we are seeing currently.  This could become a boone for regenerative horticulture and agriculture practices in general that spread into other markets.

As the uses for cannabis also expand, nuances in the growing, management, and treatment of various products could dramtically slow down the expanding markets surrounding cannabis;  i.e. Farmer “A” grows regenerative sungrown medicinal THC cannabis flower on his farm, next door farmer “B” grows regenerative sungrown CBD cannabis flower, and up the road farmer “C” grows acres of sungrown regenerative Hemp for seed, bee pollen, and biomass.  Everyone’s excited!   Now, what happens when C’s crop pollenates A&B’s?  It’s ruined.  What happens when farmer “A” does an open pollination (or reverses fems) to make next years breeding seeds and it makes farmer C’s successive crop “hot” above the legal thc limit and it must be destroyed.  These are issues that will need to be openly discussed in communities embracing cannabis cultivation and solutions that respect personal freedoms will be hard coming and will take time.

I think injecting cannabis into permaculture may potentially save cannabis from the big ag model of bottle-necking diversity as it comes closer to ubiquitous legality.  Diversity of the gene pool, diversity of effects, small growers discovering cannabinoids we haven’t even heard of yet, discussions about these concerns and realizing the value in this plant;  this can be where permaculture has the potential to be the force multiplier that draws knowledge, awareness, and people to permaculture and away from the big ag/better living through chemistry/military industrial complex relic system that still dominates.

food for thought.