Environmental Sustainability – Not just a marketing term at Orange State Cannabis
So how do we do provide our Customers a product second to none without aiding or abetting in the demise of our Planet Earth? OK, tall order. We can’t think of very many processes that don’t consume resources, so the real question is, what can we do to minimize our impact?
Outdoor Op
So let’s start with our growing techniques – if you are going to grow in dirt (vs. hydroponic), well then, you’ll need, you guessed it, dirt! – but don’t ever call it dirt around our growers, ‘cuz that pisses them off – they prefer ‘Soil’ – well, excuuuuse me! – Orange State mixes its own dirt, I mean soil, from locally sourced ingredients. Mulch, peat, animal compost and some other proprietary goodies that elevate this ‘dirt’ to ‘soil’ all come from within 50 miles of our farm, and is mixed on site to our specifications. Properly blended, this soil will hold water to minimize over-watering, and provide nutrition to minimize fertilizing. That’s good for the plant, and good for the planet. And by the way, healthy plants are minimally stressed by pests. That is why our outdoor plants use Zero, None, Nada, pesticides! Ever!
Indoor Op
Growing indoors is a different story – our indoor crop, like any other farm’s, needs close monitoring due to the pest-friendly environmental conditions. This is even a bigger deal for us when you consider that our land-race strains aren’t ‘Super-Crossbred’ to tolerate pests. But unlike almost all other indoor growers, we’re committed to the elimination of any chemical intervention. How? Through the development of healthy plants and a partnership with Sound Horticulture’s predatory organism program. So if you run across a farmer who doesn’t know the difference between a P. persimilis, and a M. longipes, well, you need to ask more questions about what’s going into his product.
Packaging
And to wrap it all up, no pun intended, we are committed to minimize our carbon footprint right down to our packaging. While the Big Box growers use the marketing ‘sparkle’ of glass and hard plastic to package their goods, we know that these packages are never again reused to repackage bud, rather, large amounts of energy are used to remelt and ‘recycle’ these materials. And that’s why we will always use thin film packaging -the smallest footprint of any sealed disposable package. So until the day comes that you can return hard packaging to the producer/processor for reuse, when you pick up a glass packaged product you’ll probably think “Damn, that’s a lot of Carbon for a little bit of Weed!’. Now, to be completely transparent (pun fully intended), Orange State Cannabis will package ½ and full ounces in glass -upon request of the retailer-.