Cannabis crop more valuable than hay and apples combined in Michigan

While the draft copy of the CAOA that the senators have shared is a promising step in the right direction, there is concern about a potential presidential veto. When the CAOA is formally introduced, if it gains support in the House of Representatives and the Senate, President Biden may still veto the bill. Just hours after Sen. Chuck Schumer introduced the draft CAOA, when questioned about the legislation, the White House Press Secretary commented that, “nothing has changed. There’s no new endorsements of legislation to report today.” The lack of clear presidential support is not entirely unsurprising given previous statements on the issue. The President has voiced support for decimalization, but during a spring briefing, the Press Secretary indicated that the President “supports leaving decisions regarding legalization for recreational use up to the states.” While political support for cannabis remains uncertain, three things are certain: 1) The majority of Americans support some level of cannabis reform, 2) cannabis legalization efforts are spreading like wildfire, and 3) the lack of federal standards for cannabis is stunting the industry and the larger economy. If the federal government does not start to put out all the little fires that are igniting due to inconsistent testing standards, arbitrary restrictions, and patchwork legislation, there will be a lot of smoke to extinguish. Koral Fritz is a licensed attorney and Professor of Cannabis Business at Lake Superior State University.

Last week, Leafly, a cannabis discovery marketplace, released its inaugural Cannabis Harvest Report, the first look at cannabis crop data, insights and projections across the 11 states where Americans can purchase both adult-use and medical cannabis. In Michigan, with 487 licenses so far distributed, 189 metric tons of cannabis are produced annually, according to the report, bringing in $736 million to the state and its farmers. That makes the cannabis crop the third most valuable crop in the state, second to corn and soybeans. That's more than the values of the hay and apple crops combined.

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Findings show the cannabis crop is the third most valuable crop in Michigan, worth more than the value of hay and apples combined. Graphic provided/Leafly

In partnership with Whitney Economics, Leafly’s investigative team gathered and analyzed crop data from the 11 states with operating legal adult-use and medical cannabis markets and found that cannabis has become a major agricultural commodity that supports thousands of American farmers and farm communities, including 13,042 licensed farms in the aggregate. On an annual basis, those growers harvest 2,278 metric tons (5,022,990 pounds) of cannabis, making it the 5th most valuable crop in the nation. With a wholesale harvest value of $6.2 billion, America’s cannabis harvest ranks above cotton and below wheat, based on USDA data for 2020. Only corn, soybeans, hay and wheat bring in more money to American farmers.

In each of the 11 states with adult-use retail stores operating, cannabis ranks no lower than 5th in terms of agricultural crop value — often within two years of the first store opening. Legal cannabis is the single most valuable agricultural crop in Alaska, Colorado, Massachusetts, Nevada and Oregon, the study found, but according to a press release, it remains completely uncounted and ignored by state agriculture officials. In Alaska, the state’s cannabis crop is worth more than twice as much as all other agricultural products combined. "The Leafly Cannabis Harvest Report is an unprecedented national accounting of cannabis as a crop — and what we found was astounding," David Downs, the report’s lead author and Leafly’s California bureau chief, said in a statement. "America’s adult-use wholesale cannabis crop returned a mind-boggling $6.175 billion to farmers last year, ranking it as the fifth most valuable crop in the United States. "Yet, due to federal prohibition, America does not treat cannabis farmers like farmers," Downs continued. "They are subject to more state and federal taxes, regulations and stigma than any other type of farmer. These barriers hurt small legacy farmers the most. This plant is helping generate wealth, employment, and community investment around the country, and our legislators need to recognize the opportunity cannabis presents for Americans today." Only officially state-licensed cannabis farms were counted in the report. Leafly followed the USDA's approach, ascertaining production amounts for the most recent 12-month reporting period in each state, and multiplying that production by wholesale prices in each state to arrive at the crop’s value. Leafly has been gathering cannabis employment and sales data since 2015 with its annual Jobs Report, filling an information gap created by a lack of data collection from the U.S. Department of Labor, which does not count cannabis jobs due to federal prohibition. Similarly, the USDA does not account for cannabis crops, and excludes cannabis farmers from all of its programs, due to cannabis’ status as a federal Schedule I drug.