Agricultural Diversification – Cabernet to Cannabis

If you are a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon aficionado, expect to pay ever-higher prices for your favored wine. The price of Napa Cabernet grapes from the 2016 harvest was $6,943 per ton, 11% higher than the previous vintage. Over the hill in Sonoma, Cabernet brought $2,954 per ton. Sonoma’s priciest grape is Pinot Noir at $3,669. Overall average price for Napa wine grapes was $4,666 per ton, Sonoma $2,585, Lake County $1,664, Mendocino $1,532. The average for all varieties in these four counties was $2,955, an increase of 5.8% from 2015.

What does the future look like? Marijuana, of course!

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Organic Agriculture Report

California recently joined Oregon, Washington, Colorado and other states by making legal the sale and use of marijuana for no purported medical reasons. Whether this will eliminate the surreptitious growers illegally using private and public land and who poison the ground and water with chemicals and trash and divert water from streams in the midst of serious drought… well, we’ll see.

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Fear and Loathing and Mellowing Out

2hunter-s-thompsonGood news for fans of Gonzo Journalism. Hunter S. Thompson’s widow, Anita, has announced that she is using DNA from his private marijuana and hashish stash to promote a cloned product to his devotees. She claims to have kept his supply since his death in 2005.

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What’s the Difference?

IMG_0884“I’m sorry, but if you don’t have a prescription I’m not able to sell you medical marijuana.”

“OK, I’ll have some recreational marijuana, please.”

“Of course. Will that be cash or card?”

 

Reminds me of a business trip several years ago. Arriving on a late-night flight into a southern California resort town I took a shuttle to an off-airport, cut-rate rental-car operation. They could not find my reservation. Showing a printed copy of the confirmed reservation, including confirmation number, did not help. The clerk could not find my reservation. Exasperated and wondering what to do next, I asked, “Well, do you have any cars at all?”

“Oh sure, we have plenty of cars.”