ON THE RECORD
Nicholas Schou
Nicholas Schou is an award-winning investigative journalist and author of several books, including Orange Sunshine and Kill the Messenger, his writing has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, The Atlantic, and other fine publications. If you have tips or stories about Montecito, please email him at newseditor@montecitojournal.net.
The Heart of Dankness
O
A long--simmering conflict over cannabis odor and pesticide use continues in Carpinteria n a recent afternoon, Hans Brand steers his electric golf cart-type vehicle from the main office of his Carpinteria cannabis farm to a sprawling greenhouse that seems big enough to fit a football field inside it. Inside the structure, at any given moment, Brand’s farm, Autumn Brands – the moniker is a mashup of his family’s name as well as co-owner Autumn Shelton’s – is growing thousands of marijuana plants in various steps of development. Because of the gentle climate and some basic technological innovations, Brand is able to churn out six cannabis harvests per year whereas most outdoor grows are limited to one or two annual growing cycles. Autumn Brands is easily one of the largest marijuana farms in California, and yet it isn’t until we step inside the greenhouse that I notice the infamous scent – many Carpinteria residents would call it an odiferous stench – of
We are pleased to announce the affiliation of
MATT ROWE, CIMA® Financial Advisor Vice President, Wealth Management D 805.730.3363 matt.rowe@raymondjames.com
with
flowering cannabis. Brand proudly points to a large airduct that surrounds the greenhouse like a curtain; it is pumping air mixed with essential oils that counteract the smell of the cannabis terpenes inside. “With that system, you can’t smell a thing outside,” he tells me. Inside the greenhouse are row after row of tiny plants called clones; once the clones begin to take root, the farm must tag and track each plant as it processes through different growing stages using a state-mandated track and trace system called METRC. The farm must account for any plants that fail to grow or are damaged before reaching the flowering phase, when they are removed from non-stop light and subjected to light-deprivation, which mimics the change from summer to autumn and tricks the plants into flowering. “Every plant gets a tag and as it moves through the greenhouse we can always track where it’s been all the way back to the mother plant,” Brand says. “When the plant is four or five months old, we move it to the greenhouse to flower with 18 hours of light. Only plants that reach this flowering phase will eventually be reported to and taxed by the state. We move the 500 plants onto the manifest, and within three days we must have an individual blue METRC tag on each plant. The tag stays with the plant for its whole life,” Brand continues, “so if a plant dies in the greenhouse we have to take that number and tell the state this plant died. We take it out of rotation to destroy it, but we have to hold it for a week so if they want, the state can come and look at it.” Autumn Brands is an industry leader when it comes to not just mitigating odor and responsibly tracking
A football field full of cannabis at Autumn Brands
Autumn Brand’s odor mitigation system
its plants, but also in terms of basic crop-growing efficiency. A nearly invisible watering system brings just enough moisture to the soil of each plant; there are no sprayers, so the greenhouse is the opposite of humid. And although there are several fans placed around the greenhouse, none of them are turned on. “Some growers insist that cannabis plants need to have all this wind to grow, but that’s not true,” Brand insists. “These plants are really remarkably easy to grow.” Inside a nearby warehouse, recently harvested plants are set aside to dry, a process that removes most of the plants’ actual weight. Once separated from their stalks, the trim-ready buds
MEDICARE ANNUAL ELECTION PERIOD
Granada Building 1216 State Street, Suite 500 Santa Barbara, CA 93101 O 805.730.3350 raymondjames.com/mattrowe Raymond James & Associates, Inc., member New York Stock Exchange/SIPC. 20-BR3GD-0078 TA 2/20
16 MONTECITO JOURNAL
Concerned?
We Can Help!
Call Us Now: (805) 683-3636 “Life seems to go on without effort when I am filled with music.” – George Eliot
CA License # 0773817
are dumped into large plastic bins, then weighed and distributed to one of 18 surgical mask and glove wearing Latina wowen who busily trim the flowers with identical pink scissors. Music is blasting and the women snip away at a rapid clip; large, well-manicured buds are packaged as individual eighths of an ounce, the smaller buds are set aside to be rolled into pre-rolled joints that are also produced onsite. Every last speck of weight must be accounted for, so there are security cameras in the trimming room and a full-time employee who keeps measure with a scale. “Everything starts with him and comes back to him,” Brand explains. “It has to be the same weight or else you have a problem.” Each trimmer has a two-week goal; if they exceed it, they receive a twoweek raise. Everyone can do it fast, but we also care about quality.” Brand tells me that the remaining marijuana trim is sold to a third party which then produces it into vaping extracts. Thanks to the ongoing controversy over vaping-related respiratory illness caused by additives used by unscrupulous manufacturers to dilute the extract, vape cartridges are just a small fraction of the farm’s
ON THE RECORD Page 424 12 – 19 March 2020
