The opportunity represented by the green rush attracted many people and fortune seekers. The potential of the cannabis industry was clear since the beginning, and many reports highlighted how profitable such a sector could be. At the same time, suddenly regulating an entire industry that used to be illegal brought many challenges to the table, especially with regards to running a profitable cannabis operation and not be submerged by the many operational expenses. The problem ultimately lies in the fact that manufacturing biomass on a scale is a whole different story than any other types of business. A crop can be subjected to many elements, from pests and pathogens to adverse climate conditions. All of those require growers to be as flexible as possible and adapt the process to the challenges that come up along the way. However, according to Drew Wilmeth with Boots on the Ground Cannabis Consulting, since the inception of the cannabis industry, there has been a disconnect between growers and owners that prevented many operations from thriving as they should. “As money started to come in together with corporations, there has been an expectation that did not meet the reality,” he says.
Corporately training
“Cannabis growers know and have learned how to use agricultural equipment as the industry grew, but they are not corporately trained. On the other hand, oftentimes owners and investors do not understand the product, and they don’t understand farming. This is the major disconnect in the industry. I have seen owners asking why cannabis was being trimmed and thought that it was a waste of money, so they stopped doing that. Unsurprisingly, that product was sent back because it didn’t meet any standard.”
The main reason for such a disconnect, according to Drew, is that owners expect their growers to follow SOPs constantly and to never diverge from that. “But this is just not how it works,” he points out. “For example, if you are flying an aeroplane, you might run into strong winds, clouds, or even rain, and you need to make adjustments in order to keep the plane in the sky. It works in the same way as cannabis. At the same time, some growers have created too high expectations for investors and owners, and when these growers move away from the SOPs and do not get the promised result at the first try, they usually get fired and another grower joins in. And this is another entire issue as there are so many different ways for growing cannabis that you will hardly see two growers doing the same thing. This means that the new grower would most likely go through a hard time to please the investors.”
Trust your growers
Therefore, there is a way for the industry to put an end to this disconnect. “You must trust your growers,” Drew remarks. “you must build a relationship with them and trust them. The most important thing shouldn’t be to be the first in the market. You have to take your time to set up the operation properly, give the grower trust to do his thing. But mainly, this shouldn’t be about the money. This should be about people and help them with safe and healthy medicines. This is also why I think that corporations should better understand the product, and the only way to do it, is to actually consume it. The cannabis companies that are succeeding right now have people at on the board that are consumers, that understand the product and what is necessary to put into the market.”
Thus, Drew concludes with a remark. “The green rush has made many of the people in this industry blind and made them forget what’s really important at the end of the day: helping people. This is what cannabis has always done, and this is what we all should strive for.”
For more information:
Drew Wilmeth
Boots on the ground cannabis
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