Contributed to The Globe and MailKelly Coulter is a writer, environmentalist and farmers’ advocate. She has been involved with cannabis policy for more than 10 years.
But despite the novelty of the recently legalized industry, the stink of the status quo persists, literally and figuratively. Complaints about odour from cannabis facilities are on the rise as they increase in size and production capacity.
The scrap over smell is an early inflection point for where the cannabis industry wants to go. New entrepreneurs in this still-fresh field have the benefit of centuries of best environmental, social and business practices at their finger tips. They know the mistakes of other industrial and agricultural sectors, and they know the heavy prices they’ve paid for them. They know industrial agricultural has crushed small family farms and has become a leading polluter worldwide.
Indeed, the cannabis industry has a truly unique opportunity to address and face head on the issues that plague other industries and have been identified as not just bad for business, but also bad for society in its entirety – from sexism to inequality to our finite natural resources. Grappling and griping over minutiae like what smells are most offensive, what pollutes the worst, who deserves to grow how much and where – that just misses the forest for the trees.