MEND Season 1 - Episode 19

Re-Building the American Dream...

Welcome back.  

This week we are excited to share with you the story and wisdom of Casey O’Neill - a second generation farmer residing in Northern Mendocino.

Casey lives on a multi-generational, family farm where he they cultivate roughly an acre of land.  Much of that - terraced fruit and vegetable gardens for their CSA, interspersed with the cannabis he, his wife & his parents grow within their 5000-sq ft permitted medicinal cultivation area they tend as well.  

He talks to us about what he sees as the two dominant perspectives within the current culture of cannabis - namely - Resource Extraction & the Homestead model - and which one he’s doing the hard work of fighting for right now.  

He tells us about his own journey….. From a degree in sociology… to the work of farming… and now onto policy…  and how that’s shaped him over time.  

We talk about the pivotal moment inside his own life that shifted him from a self-identified mono-cropper, laboring inside the outlaw farmer/prohibition model to his present-day work as an advocate and staunch activist on behalf of the small-scale/bio-diversified farm he sees as key to restoring the health, viability & sovereignty not only of this small, north coast region - but also to the larger world of farming, agriculture & humanity as well.

How he does not expect to see the rewards of his efforts any time soon - but what keeps him moving forward with them nonetheless.

He shares his hard-earned advice on what it takes to set up a truly functional farmers’ cooperative and collective - and what practical steps need be taken to make it work.  

And what he sees as our pivotal moment - - and our last hope - and what shall determine whether we are consumed by the industrial-corporate-agricultural model that has failed us in so many ways - or if we - the counter-cannabis culture shall rise above - and shift the Conversation - to the betterment of all.

This is capstone conversation for us here at MEND - and if we were to break down the entire ethos and drive of what we want you to walk away with inside this season - We would hand you this.  

Enjoy.  

To read some more of Casey’s words & wisdom (including the full article we read from @ the end) visit: http://www.theganjier.com/author/casey-oneill/

Or find out more about the California Center for Cooperative Development here : http://www.cccd.coop

MEND Season 1 - Episode 18

The Green, Green Grass of Home...

In this episode we speak with Bryan, a man from my home state of Indiana who, in his almost 30 year relationship with marijuana, spent 5 years working on various types of ganja farms in Humboldt County.  When Oregon legalized marijuana and offered licenses over the internet, he paid his fee and moved up to work on a small recreational grow.

He tells us the how and why he chose marijuana as a career path and assures us he is ‘in it for the plant’.  When we asked him if and/or what he misses about the black market, his quick response was precise and passionate.

We discuss the possibilities, both good and bad, in store for CA with legalization and the strict regulations in place for the marijuana industry.  

When asked what he believes the cannabis culture can offer to the world at large, Bryan tells us what Humboldt taught him that he didn’t learn anywhere else.  I’ll give you a hint, he refers to many of the farmers he knew in Humboldt as ‘Soil Builders’.

We hope you enjoy this conversation as we are winding down this season on the origin stories and looking towards where Humboldt’s marijuana culture is headed.

MEND Season 1 - Episode 10

Production, Pot Plants, Passions & Passports. (Oh My!)

Welcome to this - our Tenth episode of Mend!

This feels like a milestone for the two of us - as we intially envisioned compiling a grand total of 20 interviews for this - our first season of the podcast.   - so this would put us at the halfway point.

We’re continuing to enjoy the conversations and stories we unearth here so we’ll see how that number shifts as we journey forward.  

In this interview, we venture off the path we’ve trod thus far and sit down for a very candid and personal chat with Marie - a worker who has been on the production end of the cannabis scene, aka a “trimmer” for the past 8 years.  

We value deeply the perspective of the pioneers and originators of this tribe, but felt it necessary to examine some of the other aspects of this world as well.  

Here, you’ll gain a vivid portrait of a woman who has been able to  - among other things - travel, support her passions as a singer, a painter, and adventurer abroad.  She gives us a detailed accounting of the typical work day (a hint - not your typical 9-5) and season this particular job entails.  Plus get down to the nitty-gritty money bits - including how much one can make historically in this line of work - how that’s changing - and the great life she’s managed to carve out for herself as a result of this vocation - AND - living this fabulous life on a much smaller budget than you might expect.  

Marie shares with us how cannabis helped her overcome a debilitating addiciton to alcohol and cocaine in her early twenties.  We also dip into some controversial waters, too.  She shares her responses to those who see the Marijuana economy as one of Extraction - of merely taking without ever giving back.  

And we look toward what the future might hold for herself, but also the thousands of people like her who have relied upon this as a way of subsisting and bankrolling their dreams and passions in other walks of life.  

We’ve chosen to keep this talk raw and real.  

We don’t aim to portray perfect people here - but to provide a mic to learning, growing, imperfect folks - who are doing their best to navigate this time - with the tools at their disposal.