New Leafly ‘Cannabis Harvest Report’ ranks the crop at number 5 in the nation
America has begun to end its disastrous, centuries-old war on marijuana. We beat swords into plowshares. So what’s coming from the fields? The answer: America’s fifth most valuable crop.
The first Leafly Cannabis Harvest Report, released today, counted 13,042 cannabis farming licenses in the 11 constitutional states where retail stores are open. This unprecedented look at US pot production revealed that farmers were growing 2,278 tons per year. It’s an overwhelming number – enough to fill 57 Olympic swimming pools or more than 11,000 dump trucks over fifty miles in length.
With cannabis prices in the US state between roughly $ 500 and $ 3,000 per wholesale pound, you’re seeing a $ 6.175 billion harvest per year. According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) data, America’s legal cannabis crop is ranked fifth nationwide, ahead of cotton. Yet state and federal officials generally do not prosecute or acknowledge it.
Click here to download the ‘Leafly Cannabis Harvest Report 2021’ as a PDF
Pull back the curtain on the ban on cannabis
Why did we count the harvest? Because cannabis is as stigmatized as it is valuable.
USDA economists track annual yields, prices, and estimates for almost every commercial crop grown in America. But they don’t pursue legal cannabis because of the plant’s status as a List I federal drug.
Our goal with the Leafy Harvest Report is to quantify annual cannabis production in the operating states of adult consumption, just like the USDA’s Economic Research Service does for all non-cannabis plants. This is the first time anyone has done this, as far as we know.
Voters, lawmakers, and industry leaders need these basic facts to make informed decisions. The Harvest Report is the third in this year’s Leafly Reports series, including the Leafly Jobs Report and Leafly Seeds of Change: Strategies for Creating an Equitable Cannabis Industry.
A huge harvest, even bigger reporting results
Here are a few more findings from the report:
- Only corn, soybeans, hay and wheat bring more wholesale income into the country
American farmers annually. - Legal cannabis is the single most valuable plant in Alaska, Colorado, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Oregon.
- In each of the 11 states that operate adult retail stores, cannabis does not rank below fifth in crop value – often within two years of the first legal stores opening.
- In a surprising finding, Colorado’s seven-year-old legal cannabis growing industry produced more than California (627 tons for Colorado versus 514 tons for California). But this lead could not last. After years of slow growth, California’s licensed growing sector is finally picking up steam.
How Leafly counted the harvest
Leafly News senior editors David Downs and Bruce Barcott have partnered with Beau Whitney of Whitney Economics to summarize annual harvest dates from the 11 states with active, legal adult cannabis sales.
We followed the USDA’s method of calculating harvest value by taking the average wholesale price per pound in a state and multiplying it by the amount of cannabis produced in the state. In these 11 states, we counted crops that are intended for both adult and medicinal uses.
Freelance cannabis journalists Amelia Williams (Debunking Dispensary Myths, 2020) and Zack Ruskin helped with the research and reporting.
Read our full methodology on page 15 of the report.
It is time to treat cannabis farmers like first-class citizens
Prohibition, over-regulation, and over-taxation violate the constitutional right of Americans to be happy about cannabis growing and farming.
The federal government needs to legalize adult and grandfather cannabis in old cannabis farmers by introducing low fees and easy licensing procedures.
The Leafly Cannabis Harvest Report rounds up discrimination against cannabis growers at both the federal and state levels – years of scrutiny and millions of dollars in additional spending – just to get seeds into the ground.
Additionally, this $ 6 billion agricultural sector is underfunded and underinsured. Most farmers have to pay taxes in cash. 38 attorneys general have urged Congress to pass the SAFE Banking Act, which would increase public safety and tax compliance. Reform measures such as the SAFE Banking Act and in particular the MORE Act (which would be federally legalized) are long overdue.
Cannabis farming is older than our country’s union. And a more perfect union would recognize and respect the power of this plant.
click here by email Leafy cannabis harvest report for 2021 to your elected MPs or others.
Bruce Barcott and David Downs
Bruce Barcott is Associate Editor of Leafly and author of Weed the People: The Future of Legal Marijuana in America. David Downs is Leafly’s California office manager and author of Beyond Buds and The Medical Marijuana Guidebook.
See articles by Bruce Barcott and David Downs
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