'Clean weed' creating organic buzz among cannabis users, growers
SANTA CRUZ -- While organic fruits and vegetables are common at the grocery store, a clean cannabis movement is sprouting up as more and more marijuana users look for healthy alternatives
Forty-year-old Manny Alvarez is what you'd call a boss, which is why every morning you'll find him checking in on his star employees - all 400 bajillion of them.
"I find it fascinating," he said looking at a bin full of composted dirt. "There are more microbes in a teaspoon of soil than there are stars in our galaxy."
Alvarez and his partner Terry Sardinas are part of a growing number of California cannabis farmers who only produce "regenerative weed," or "clean weed."
"Regenerative agriculture essentially is just using nature to grow plants," he said.
Instead of chemicals and pesticides, Alvarez uses insects and worms found right in his Bird Valley Organics farm in Santa Cruz.
It all started when Alvarez, a third-generation farmer, stumbled on a book about regenerative agriculture. Soon, he was making his own compost and planting cover crops, known to increase fertility.
Eight years later, his cannabis plants are not only healthier but more potent than ever.
"We'll have other minor cannabinoids that are prevalent that are not just your THC, or CBD, which everybody knows," he said. "We pull off cannabinoids like CBG, CBN, and CBDA and in high amounts."
His clean weed has attracted more than just insects. On a sunny October morning, Alvarez was showing his new hybrid cannabis flower to Ryan Courtney, product director for cannabis wellness company Rose Mary Jane.
Courtney said that in the last couple of years, regenerative weed has become one of the most in-demand items at his dispensaries.
"A lot of our customers are patients," he said, "So they cannot afford to have chemicals or any other additives and the last thing we want to do is add anything unnecessary to their product and to their experience."
While the regenerative movement is still in its infancy, Alvarez hopes it gains traction in the near future, as more and more people look for healthier options.
"If you care about your body, and you happen to smoke cannabis, you should probably care about the cannabis you're smoking too," he said.