GROWING SYSTEM

In September, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 67 into law, which set the stage for the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s (CDFA) Cannabis Appellations Program. Once the program begins to accept petitions, it will establish the world’s first cannabis appellations.

It’s a whirlwind of change for an industry that, until just a few years ago, was mostly illegal in the United States. In the eyes of the federal government, Cannabis is still a Schedule I narcotic, the same category as LSD and ecstasy.

But for cannabis growers in California, creating appellations has been a dream. Ask any grower in Northern California’s Emerald Triangle, composed of Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity counties and other mostly rural cannabis-producing areas in its vicinity, and they’ll claim that their cannabis is special. It’s from somewhere, and that’s what makes it unique.

Bridging the Gap

Until recently, it’s been mostly cannabis consumers dealing in hearsay as