Cannabis could be the answer to the question of how struggling winegrape and dairy farmers in Northern California are going to survive financially. Sonoma County's retiring agriculture commissioner, Tony Linegar, predicts more farmers with smaller operations will start setting aside some of their land to grow legal cannabis as a way to offset declining prices for their primary products.
Linegar tells the Press Democrat the legalization of hemp is helping remove some of the stigma surrounding cannabis among naturally conservative farmers, and adopting the attitude that pot is just another crop.
The Sonoma agriculture commission estimates the per-acre value of Sonoma County cannabis was nearly 500-times higher than wine grapes in 2019, since it takes far less land and water to make a return on investment.