The domestic marijuana market is slated to reach $35.8 billion this year, outpacing corn ($23bn) and soy ($17.6 bn) to become the country’s biggest cash crop, according to the Guardian. US Marijuana production has increased 10-fold since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 which resulted in tighter border controls.

We hear a lot these days about the hazards of industrial soy and corn, such as high input chemical fertilizers and genetically modified seeds, what are the pitfalls of increased marijuana farming?

While the article doesn’t state the relative acreage of pot to corn, or pot to soy, given what we’ve been paying our dealers in NYC (up to $560 per oz), it’s clear an acre of weed is worth a lot more than the same acre of feed - so we aren’t farming marijuana as intensely as we are other commodities. Also, pot farmers lack motivation to work that hard.