The CND meeting was followed by a weekend-long conference and trade show dedicated to sustainable cannabis production sponsored by FAAAT (For Alternative Approaches to Addiction Think and Do Tank. Panels covered human rights, environmental issues, gender disparities, medical use, hemp technologies, cooperative business models, and youth. Missing, however, were the voices of young people and representatives from developing countries. Unlike any other cannabis conference/trade show, FAAAT provided awards for cannabis businesses based on sustainability.
Konopex’s Hemp Beer (John Veit)
Tony Silvaggio, a Humboldt State University sociology professor and contributor to Where There’s Smoke : The Environmental Science, Public Policy, and Politics of Marijuana, began the conference with a bit of a downer. He explained that California’s registration fees and regressive taxes have incentivized large-scale grows while putting smaller, sustainable cultivators out of business. Like many panelists, Silvaggio’s conception of sustainability goes beyond environmental concerns. “There are sustainable communities, sustainable economies, sustainable agriculture,” he said. “It is a very expensive term.”
While he didn’t win any awards, the most innovative and potentially impactful hemp product was presented by Canada’s Carl Martel, who invented batteries made from carbonized hemp waste that can potentially be used to power vape pens, eliminating a major source of cannabis-related toxic waste.
While not on the ballot, Italy’s Serena Caserio and Virgilio Catanzano from Nonna Canapa should have received some votes for their comic book about a grandmother recounting the history of cannabis. Each book comes with a hemp seed stuck to a bookmark. After presentations in schools, children are then to take the book home, read it with their parents, and plant the seed in their gardens.
It was the general consensus that too much plastic packaging surrounds cannabis products. Konopex, a Czech company, supplied free hemp beer all weekend and vowed to stop using single-use plastic cups.
Voir en ligne : High Times