It was fairly recent that the government finally put regulations in place regarding control of cannabis cultivation odours. (Submitted photo/B.C. Craft Farmers Co-op)

By Jennifer Olson

advocacy

Farmers Co-op champions small producers amidst corporate dominance and regulatory challenges

Oct 9, 2023 | 7:00 AM

Before the legalisation of cannabis in 2018, all Canadian cannabis producers were small farmers operating in the illicit or medical cannabis market.

Seemingly endless and expensive regulatory hurdles and challenges have made it difficult, if not impossible, for these experts to transition into the legal market, while large companies and corporations continue to stake their ground in the sector.

The B.C. Craft Farmers Co-op has a mission to provide British Columbia’s small and medium-sized producers and processors with a safe, accessible, and sustainable alternative to the illicit market. By doing so, they help to provide medical and recreational consumers around the world with high quality cannabis, in turn helping to maintain B.C.’s top position as an international cannabis leader and innovator.

Co-op secretary David Hurford explained there is a systemic advantage that larger cannabis companies have over smaller producers.

“By keeping the [regulatory] file within Health Canada, you have a culture there that’s very comfortable in terms of dealing with large pharmaceutical companies and large corporations,” he said.

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“When does Health Canada ever have to deal with small farmers? Maybe around food protection, but Agriculture Canada is also involved. Then, there’s this new layer of demand for corporate return on profit. Large corporations have teams of lobbyists that try and control government regulatory structures, this happens in any industry. The government warned about large monopolies and conglomerates dominating the sector, creating problems if small businesses didn’t transition.”

Another disadvantage to small-scale producers is facility size requirements. While many farmers are licensed, there are restrictions on how much product they can grow.

“Health Canada published the total approved yield for licensed facilities. They looked at both large producers and micro producers. They’ve issued hundreds of licences to micro cultivators, but they’re only 2,100-square-feet each. So, you have to look at the total square footage of the production they’re actually approving, not the total number of licences. Micro farmers have been approved for 0.9 percent of all the cannabis production approved by Health Canada in the first five years of legalisation. Less than one percent [of approved production space] has been allocated to small micro farmers,” Hurford noted.

“When I look at the taskforce report, I see that the big companies have 99 percent of the production space and that small micro farmers have less than one percent. That’s a huge problem. And then, if you look at that 99 percent, it’s about five or six companies that own that. Five or six companies that own probably 50-60% of the market share, and who knows what percentage in retail these days?”

Unlike other industries dealing with monumental regulatory changes, the government is providing no assistance or support to cannabis farmers needing to transition to the legal market.

“Usually when the government changes a policy that affects a lot of people’s lives through no fault of their own, they will feel an obligation to mitigate the impact and help people through a transition,” Hurford pointed out.

“Certainly, the most dramatic example was during COVID. We also see it with the environment; they’re shutting down coal plants. Thousands of coal workers are unemployed, through no fault of their own. The government provides hundreds of millions to transition the workforce. Forestry is also in trouble, the industry is changing. So, they provide $75 million dollars to help that industry through the transition. B.C. cannabis farmers are some of the best in the world. The government has brought in a bunch of new rules to disrupt the way the farmers were doing things for decades, and expect them to adapt with no support or incentives.”

Hurford’s insights are shedding light on the inequalities within the current regulations for cannabis producers. Corporations dominate while craft producers struggle to survive in their field. Through advocacy and policy reform, the BCCFC strives for fairness, diversity and equal representation, recognizing that small-scale farmers deserve to thrive within the legal market.

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info@westernbuzz.ca