Humboldt County's cannabis growers "are the smartest, the most resilient, and possibly the most stubborn individuals remaining," says Natalynne Delapp of the Humboldt County Growers Alliance, a trade group whose stated mission is to preserve, protect and enhance Humboldt's cannabis industry. "All of these businesses, whether you're a cultivation operation or a manufacturer or a retail, are up against challenges of becoming permitted and receiving their state licenses."
On this episode of Talk Humboldt, Delapp tells hosts Keith Flamer and Tom Jackson about her environmental background, how many cannabis farms are in operation today, and the landscape she occupies in her role as HCGA's executive director.
Talk Humboldt is a recurring feature where Dr. Tom Jackson and Dr. Keith Flamer, (presidents of Cal Poly Humboldt and College of the Redwoods, respectively) talk to people on the North Coast about their jobs.
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Jackson:
Well, hi everyone. I'm Tom Jackson, president of Cal Poly Humboldt, and I'm here again with my dear friend and colleague, Dr. Keith Flamer, president of the College of the Redwoods.
Flamer:
Hey, Tom. Good to see you as always.
Jackson:
You know, we have one of the best jobs in the world. We get to talk to so many different people in Humboldt County about the things they're doing.
And today we have a very special guest with us, the executive director of Humboldt County Growers Alliance, Natalynne Delapp. Good to see you, Natalynne.
Delapp:
Thank you very much for the opportunity.
Jackson:
We're glad you're here. How did you get into this business?
Delapp:
I came to Humboldt after graduating from Mira Costa Community College down in Southern California. I transferred to Humboldt State to get a degree in Environmental Science with an emphasis on public policy. I then had the opportunity of working with the Environmental Protection Information Center for eight years. So I participated in a coalition with other environmental organizations to help draft the first Cannabis Land Use ordinance. It was the first in the state of California.
Jackson:
Since it became legal, I'm guessing you've noticed some significant changes or challenges that are suddenly different than beforehand. Can you talk a little bit about a few of those?
Delapp:
From 1996 until 2015, we had laws, but there were no rules. What has happened in the last eight years has been bringing a substantial amount of preexisting operations all across the state of California into compliance.
And so all of these businesses, whether you're a cultivation operation or a manufacturer or a retail, are up against challenges of becoming permitted and receiving their state licenses.
And so here in Humboldt, we had over 2300 people signed up and admitted that they were part of the 215 era and that they wanted the opportunity to become legal in Humboldt County's realm. Here we are today and there has been a substantial reduction in total cannabis operations in the county.
Back in 2015, they estimated that there were perhaps up to 15,000 individual grows and today we have less than a thousand legal cannabis cultivation businesses.
And the sheriff estimates that there are fewer than 1000 illicit grows that remain. We've had an 87% reduction in cannabis in this county over the last eight years. That has both positive benefits for the environment, but it also has negative benefits for our economy. We are seeing the impacts of that on our community that are dramatic.
Flamer:
And so now you're really involved in the policy aspect of this business. And I imagine based on your schooling, you were taught to also look back and say, what could we have done better? So tell us, what could we have done better in terms of policy but also outcomes?
Delapp:
What I have learned in the last 12 years of doing policy is that it needs to be adaptive. There are always going to be blind spots that are unintended consequences. In Humboldt County in 2015. The concept was out of the forest and onto the farms. What that did is it brought cannabis to areas where it didn't use to exist. And so there are social impacts to that.
Flamer:
For example, what are the social impacts?
Delapp:
There are still people that do not want to see or smell cannabis in their neighborhoods. And when I say neighborhoods, cannabis is only allowed on parcels greater than five acres.
Jackson:
We're here today with the executive director of Humboldt County Growers Alliance, Natalynne Delapp. This is fascinating so far; I'm learning more about the industry, some of the side parts of the industry that I didn't really know existed. Where else do you see some of the trends leading us going forward?
Delapp:
I think that agriculture in general in America is seen as big agriculture. It's corporatized, efficient and it's fastest to market. What we have here in Humboldt County is a craft product, a farmer's market product, not a commercial product.
And so I always use the example of like an heirloom tomato grown by our small family farms.
Those tomatoes have a better flavor smell. They're fresher and they are probably more nutritious when it's grown in large batches. You're using pesticides, herbicides, it's tilled, it's done as efficiently as possible.
We're not trying to build and we are not willing to compete in a commodity market because we are not commodity cannabis here in Humboldt. We do not allow farms greater than eight acres. When we think of agriculture, we're talking about hundreds of acres of cultivation, and that's what we're seeing in the southern parts of our state where they're growing cannabis at scale. We're talking 150 acres of commercial production.
Flamer:
So how can we compete?
Delapp:
We can't compete. What we're looking for are customers and consumers who are looking for an artisanal product.
Flamer:
Understood.
Delapp:
And so that is where that value will be. But what we need is access to our customers. What California created, broke this supply chain between farmer and consumer. Our farmers who are producing this product don't know who their customer is. We are sponsoring legislation for farmer-direct sales at events.
Flamer:
So... like a farmer's market.
Delapp:
At a farmer's market-style event. We are cautiously optimistic that we can get this piece of legislation across the line. We need farmer-direct sales. Because of local control, 68% of the state does not have legal access to cannabis retail.
Flamer:
You said 68%?
Delapp:
68% of the state still can't access it in their hometown.
Flamer:
I didn't know that.
Jackson:
If you had a magic wand and could help rejuvenate the industry, what would you do? How would you use that magic wand?
Delapp:
Unfortunately, you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube. What I would like to see is that the legacy producing regions of the state are given the opportunity to have access to market, have access to their customers, have access to retail. We need streamlined regulations.
And I'll say this - as an environmentalist, whenever an industry group says we need to streamline regulations like your hair, like you flinch, like… “no”, but we could do things in a much smoother way from a regulatory standpoint.
The people who are left are the smartest, the most resilient, and possibly the most stubborn individuals remaining. And they really do care about this place and they want to make it work, but they just need to be enabled through our regulatory structures, through the state, and opened-up access to markets.
Jackson:
The executive director of Humboldt County Growers Alliance, Natalynne Delapp - thank you so much for your time today and for sharing information about the industry.
Flamer:
I have learned a lot, so thank you.
