Sun-grown cannabis, living soil, and the growers building a regenerative future while federal money flows everywhere but their fields
This past June, President Trump signed an executive order expanding a pilot program the USDA had already funded, routed through conservation programs like EQIP and the Conservation Stewardship Program, which pays farmers for building soil health. Across row crops and rangeland, regenerative agriculture has moved from a fringe idea to the fastest-growing banner in farming.
Almost none of that money will reach a marijuana farm.
Because the plant remains federally illegal, state-licensed cannabis growers cannot draw federal conservation dollars, cannot be certified USDA organic, and do not appear anywhere in the executive order’s plans. Hemp is the exception that proves the problem: since the 2018 Farm Bill, hemp producers have been eligible for USDA organic certification and for the same conservation programs the order expands. Same plant, same soil, same practices. What decides whether a farm can access federal help is a THC threshold.
The crop with arguably the most to gain from a soil-first turn is the one Washington still won’t name.
So the work is happening without Washington, carried by third-party certifiers and the small farms that seek them out.
The order came wrapped in the language of the Make America Healthy Again campaign, and it landed in the middle of something that is genuinely growing worldwide. Jacob Policzer, chair of the board at the cannabis certifier Sun & Earth and director of science and strategy at The Cannabis Conservancy in Denver, keeps an eye on the broader numbers. “It does seem to be growing about 15% annually,” he says. “One of the things I saw that was really inspiring, and kind of what we’re seeing on the ground as well, is something like 86% of young farmers entering …
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Author: Rolando García / High Times
