BC Craft Farmers Co-op === [00:00:00] Robin Puga: I am on the call today with Nadine and Tara from the BC Craft Farmers Cooperative. And for those not familiar, they are a cooperative of small to medium sized cannabis producers in British Columbia. Thank you for joining us today here on H4AW. [00:00:20] Nadine Furnell: Thanks for having us. [00:00:21] Robin Puga: Now this is the first time we've had you on the show before. And we've talked, I think, with another cannabis co op many years ago when it was just first getting legalized. I know that this industry has evolved over many years and, it's really a new landscape, I think, for a lot of us, uh, here in, in Canada. [00:00:42] Robin Puga: Can you maybe start out, uh, one of you with just giving us a, a sort of lay of the land? What does the cannabis production landscape look like in British Columbia and beyond? [00:00:56] Tara Kirkpatrick: I'll maybe give you just a small little background history about us, and then, yeah, we can get into the lay of the land on cannabis. How does that sound? Sure, that'd [00:01:05] Robin Puga: be awesome. [00:01:06] Tara Kirkpatrick: Yeah, uh, the BC Craft Farmers Co op was established in 2020 under the BC Cooperative Act, and we're actually volunteers, and we represent licensed craft cannabis farmers. [00:01:20] Tara Kirkpatrick: processors, independent retailers, consumers, supporters, and uh, sector leaders. Our mission is to help maintain BC's international brand as one of the world's top cannabis producers. Help BC craft and medical cannabis farmers transition into Canada's new legal market and to ensure that our consumers and our patients can access fresh locally grown cannabis in the legal market. [00:01:57] Tara Kirkpatrick: So that kind of gives you a little nutshell. Yeah, no, [00:01:59] Robin Puga: that's a great, uh, great elevator pitch for the, for the co op and why it exists. Um, I, I mean, I think some listeners, uh, might have had experience, uh, in the last few years in Canada going into one of the cannabis stores. Yeah. Uh, myself included. And, uh, purchasing some cannabis. [00:02:23] Robin Puga: Now, are, are we buying this from your producer members? [00:02:29] Tara Kirkpatrick: Well, we're really hoping that you are. That's one of our main things. Projections is to always focus on B. C. craft cannabis. Um, we're world renowned, like when you're wondering kind of, you know, the background behind cannabis. Uh, we are world renowned in B. [00:02:47] Tara Kirkpatrick: C. So that was one of our top goals when, you know, we started with legalization coming about. We got world class farmers here in B. C. And we wanted to bring them out and, um, legally transition them over to help preserve, you know, what, you know, um, nationally, like I said, what we're famous for. Every small town has that legacy craft grower in it. [00:03:13] Tara Kirkpatrick: So, you know, there's a lot of history behind cannabis in BC. [00:03:17] Robin Puga: So what happened during that? Cause we really have seen this evolve in the last 20 years, uh, from being really illegal, like the Vancouver green squad running around busting up homes and tearing out grow, uh, basements and stuff like that, uh, to now hundreds of stores throughout the lower mainland, all across British Columbia. [00:03:43] Robin Puga: What did that transition look like for. Bc and and farmers. [00:03:52] Tara Kirkpatrick: Well, it's been a really hard transition for the farmers That's for sure. We're five years in you know, we're still getting our legs under the ground here Um, there's been a lot of Problems within the system and there's a lot of things that we advocate for that they can do so much more better in the system to when it comes to, um, the biggest one that we find they did was they did this big legalization and this is when I'm going to let Nadine take hold here, but they forgot to educate the consumers. [00:04:23] Tara Kirkpatrick: So this is a great chance for Nadine to really jump in on. This is one of the biggest things is to educate the consumers, right, Nadine? [00:04:32] Nadine Furnell: Thanks, Tara. Um, yeah, that's, you know, I've been saying that since legalization is that, you know, it's great that they legalized cannabis, but they did so in a way that the drive was to high THC and where, you know, as a medical farmer, um, you know, Tara started the legacy in the legacy as a medical farmer. [00:04:55] Nadine Furnell: Um, you know, fought that fight because that was the first piece that, you know, the, the act, the health act was changed to allow individuals to choose what medication, um, choose their own medication and not be forced, you know, to buy the big pharma and that allow cannabis into the picture as medication. [00:05:16] Nadine Furnell: And so that Tara would have to probably know a better idea on that, but I think that wasn't that long ago. Um, maybe early two thousands, I think they changed that could be a bit earlier. Um, um, I'm not, I'd have to, um, look back, but, um, so when the co op was founded, there's over 6, 000 medical licensed medical farmers in British Columbia, only 100 have transitioned to the legal market because it's just that. [00:05:45] Nadine Furnell: Difficult. There's so many rules and regulations and and may I speak freely on the show? Of [00:05:53] Robin Puga: course. [00:05:54] Nadine Furnell: Okay. So my interpretation is that, you know, we pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed for legalization and they said, okay, fine. We'll give you legalization, but you've got to do this, this, this, and this. [00:06:08] Nadine Furnell: And it's, you know, we're talking like half a million dollars minimum investment. And so some of us did and they went, Oh, okay, well, let's see how we can make it even harder for you. So now we're going to do the entire stream through the government. Um, so, um, farmers have their own warehouse coffers who control the warehouse, control the skews, control the rules, control the regulations, and have their own retail stores. [00:06:37] Nadine Furnell: Um, so, many, many, many farmers have gone out of business, um, you know, and legalization's only been, what, six years. Um, more than, more have fallen off than have. And that are successfully operating today. Um, and so what we found that with the retailer, because there was no education, um, to the consumer, um, rolled out with this is that it was THC, THC, THC, oh, you want high THC, high HC. [00:07:07] Nadine Furnell: Well, we don't really want granny going into a retailer and get knocked off a rocker. Granny just wants to, you know, be able to not have, you know, sore joints throughout the day. Right. Right. But, um, but, you know, and that's, and so that's for where I, that's my passion is education. I'm a medical farmer for my own medical reasons. [00:07:28] Nadine Furnell: Um, met cannabis is my medicine. I've been in six motor vehicle accidents. Um, I have three medications that were prescribed to me, uh, one opiate, um, but all three combined had 10 pages of side effects and cannabis has. To side effects you get hungry and you get tired. [00:07:50] Robin Puga: Yeah You know god invented weed and man invented booze. [00:07:56] Robin Puga: Who do you trust? But [00:07:57] Nadine Furnell: well, that's yeah I mean we could go on all day I [00:08:02] Robin Puga: do want to ask though Because you started to talk a little bit about big pharma and like who? Who are those big players in this industry on your website? Also, you mentioned, you know, there's 1, 200, 000 square meters of legal indoor and outdoor cannabis cultivation, but less than, less than 0. [00:08:22] Robin Puga: 2 percent is, uh, craft cannabis farmers. So who are those huge corporations involved in this? [00:08:31] Tara Kirkpatrick: Well, first of all, we're, uh, small based farmers. We don't allow big corporations into our cooperative. We're small based. But you're right. When legalization first started, let's start with Tweed right off the get go. [00:08:43] Tara Kirkpatrick: Like, that was one of the big, huge ones. Since then, that company's went under. Um, they sold that big chocolate hershey factory. to put Tweed in business. And now, uh, six years in, they're out of business and we're manufacturing chocolate bars again. Um, let's talk about, uh, Aurora Cannabis. They put in a big facility, I think near, uh, Edmonton, Alberta airport. [00:09:08] Tara Kirkpatrick: And again, you know, Uh, another big player down. There are lots of big players out on the market that have went down where they go under receivership and other players buy them and then they launch under another name. Um, but our mandate really what we really want to promote here in BC is supporting that local little crafter. [00:09:28] Tara Kirkpatrick: Um, that craft weed, we do not want to see our consumers going in and buying weed, uh, made in Ontario. That really defeats the purpose of, you know, the BC what we're famous for, right? Right. So we see a lot of that in the supply chain, right? Because like Nadine pointed out, if the liquor distribution's controlling the supply chain, you know, they're going to buy where, you know, Ontario's, uh, we, that sort of thing. [00:09:56] Nadine Furnell: Yeah. And so no, sorry, just to clarify, maybe. Um, so when we say a small craft farmer, um, craft and the other words you may hear in the industry is micro cultivator. So in order to be micro classification, when legalized came on board, it was 2100 square foot. Yeah. Yeah. [00:10:19] Tara Kirkpatrick: It's thousand 100 square feet. That's all a little micro facility like mine is allowed. [00:10:25] Tara Kirkpatrick: Is that's it. That's all I'm allowed to grow within that space where these big LPs have huge spaces are 50, [00:10:32] Nadine Furnell: 000 square feet, kind of, and you lose, you lose the craft, you lose the quality, you lose, you lose. So, you know, from a craft farmer perspective, we are small batch, we are hand trimmed, we are Take care. [00:10:45] Nadine Furnell: Bye bye. Um, you know, properly cured and stored and things like that. So, you know, I mean, I can open a jar of my own stuff from 2020 and it doesn't look as pretty cause you know, the boat, what is it, the. Uh, photosynthesis, I guess, you know, but, but it, it, it busts as fresh as the day it was harvested, right? [00:11:10] Nadine Furnell: So when you buy from the other, we call them, you know, the big five, um, you literally break it up with your hands. There's freshness is gone. Quality is gone. Um, you know, even, even potency, um, can be affected by improper storage. Um, so yeah, I just wanted to classify that that's what we consider micro now, the government has listened to us and they have proposed increase in square footage to allow micro to grow up to 10, 000 square feet, which, you know, you can do a lot more with 10, 000 square foot. [00:11:46] Nadine Furnell: As opposed to 2100, 2100 square feet is not even, you're not, you're barely keeping the lights on. Right. You know, by the time, you know, you're getting what, maybe a buck 50 a gram if you're lucky. At the end of the day. Wow. So, [00:12:03] Robin Puga: yeah, I mean, uh, uh, 10, 15 years ago, it was 15 bucks a gram, right? So, um, it [00:12:12] Nadine Furnell: still is at the store. [00:12:14] Nadine Furnell: The farmer's not getting that. So, [00:12:17] Robin Puga: um, let me just get back to the store for a quick sec, because you had mentioned, you know, there's this drive to high THC. Um, you're trying to educate people that, you know, high THC is not necessarily the, the end all be all. Um, when you go to the stores these days, it's, there's everything under the sun. [00:12:34] Robin Puga: There's, uh, you know, vaporized cartridges. There's, uh, drinks you can buy. Shatter, which looks way too scary for me to touch. Um, there's, like, all this stuff that, um, It looks quite processed. And who's doing that processing? I'm assuming it's not you for 1. 50 a gram. [00:12:58] Tara Kirkpatrick: Yeah, you're right. A lot of people have, they're called processing licenses. [00:13:03] Tara Kirkpatrick: And you can either process dried flower material, or you can process to extracts, like you said, then vaporizers that shatter, rosin. Um, I think even hash is included in there, like good old fast hash, right? Yeah. Back in the day we had finger hash, now it's all bubble hash manufacturing. So yeah, we have processors in the supply chain in the cannabis. [00:13:31] Tara Kirkpatrick: So your weed can be shipped off to your processors, they process it down to whatever form you want, and then again it's sold into the government supply chain. [00:13:43] Robin Puga: And sounds like there's quite a lot of hurdles to get into that government supply chain, which is really what we're kind of talking about. But it is what I'm starting to get a sense of, is it's not, it's not just people growing some weed and selling it, uh, and it ends up in, uh, stores around the province. [00:14:02] Robin Puga: Uh, there is kind of regulation at every single, uh, step here from the growing, how much you can grow, you need to get licensed for that to a license for production. And then I'm assuming there's still that like hurdle of how much for, for regulatory purposes, how much, uh, THC is in this versus CBD versus whatever new CB out there this month, but, um, yeah, uh, this has got to be a bit of a challenge for small to medium sized producers. [00:14:36] Tara Kirkpatrick: Cause every batch, every lot must be tested through a laboratory, Health Canada approved laboratory. And again, we're testing for, you know, everything from your, your molds to you name it, to make sure that it's safe for human consumption. So all the cannabis all the way through the supply chain, Goes through strict, you know, regulatory, lavatory, stringent measures to make sure that you as a consumer, when you're going to that store, know that product is safe. [00:15:06] Tara Kirkpatrick: That it's coming from a safe supply chain. Right. [00:15:09] Robin Puga: Okay. [00:15:09] Tara Kirkpatrick: It's tracked from seed to sale, basically, right? From harvest to sale. Yeah. [00:15:15] Nadine Furnell: And so, when the micro, you know, us little farmers, You can't just go to the farm and buy, you know, homegrown, well, it's not homegrown, but from a micro cultivator, unless they have a processing license. [00:15:31] Nadine Furnell: So that's the other piece. So you have, you know, the half a million plus just to grow it. Then you got your another half a million plus to process it, you know, and so, A big piece of the problem was that there was all these processors, and then not enough farmers, and, and it was all going to processing, and then, you know, well, look, there's, you know, ABC processors going out of business. [00:15:56] Nadine Furnell: Oh, sorry, Mr. Farmer, you're out 600, 000 because we never paid you. Oh, that was a big, huge, um, has been a big contributing factor to the state of the industry today is, um, by having their processing facilities, having that much pull and that the farmer basically can cut it off the, you know, It cut down the stock and then it's shipped in a temperature controlled environment off to the processor. [00:16:24] Nadine Furnell: Well, it's tested, pardon me, tested by the farmer, then shipped off to the processor. Processor accepts it, processes it, it's tested again. Then it's packaged and shipped in a controlled regulatory, controlled, temperature controlled environment to the distribution warehouse. So there's many, you know, and then you look at the transportation, logistics, and all those operating costs on the processor are passed off to the little farmer, hence the farmer gets a buck, a buck fifty a gram. [00:17:02] Robin Puga: So, um, [00:17:04] Nadine Furnell: don't forget the excise tax, right? I don't [00:17:07] Robin Puga: know what that is, but okay, let's see. [00:17:10] Nadine Furnell: Kara can explain because she's very familiar with that. [00:17:13] Tara Kirkpatrick: We could talk for hours, Robin, if you really wanted [00:17:15] Nadine Furnell: to. The excise tax is 15 percent handling fee that the provincial government has put on every single product that leaves the processing facility. [00:17:28] Nadine Furnell: Much like you would have a little Stamp, you know, those stamps on packages of cigarettes, like a duty paid duty paid. Now, they, the provincial government has allowed direct delivery in British Columbia. So meaning direct from the farmer, if the farmer has a processing license, but they still want their 15 percent handling fee for not handling anything. [00:17:52] Nadine Furnell: So where is the incentive to go direct delivery when you're just, you know, [00:17:58] Robin Puga: yeah, [00:17:58] Nadine Furnell: um, [00:18:01] Robin Puga: Before we get too far away from, uh, the landscape, Um, now we've really, I, I feel like we've gotten a pretty good sense about how things are handle handled today. Um, you did talk a bit about BC's, international reputation, and you know, it, it is, it has been for decades. [00:18:20] Robin Puga: Mm-Hmm. , BC weed has been known throughout the entire world. You go to Amsterdam and you go into a cafe, and you can see it on the menu. bc BC bud. Um, uh, how did BC get to have that? Type of a reputation. Why? Why British Columbia [00:18:38] Tara Kirkpatrick: is our world class legacy farmers here in British Columbia. We're known to grow top notch you eat like, [00:18:44] Nadine Furnell: Oh, [00:18:45] Tara Kirkpatrick: so that's how I [00:18:47] Nadine Furnell: think a lot of it comes down to, um, you know, you look into cannabis tourism and it's the people, places and things. [00:18:54] Nadine Furnell: And British Columbia is uniquely That she waited, um, in the growing in our, in, you know, our, we have a longer, um, growing because it was all outdoor before, right? Nothing was processed or, you know, grown inside. Um, and so we have the, the environment. To grow. We have beautiful, pristine valleys with clear mountain run water and, you know, just the written richness in the soil. [00:19:24] Nadine Furnell: Um, that's really, and, and the passion of the farmers that, that have cultivated it for hundreds of years. That's what's, you know, brought, um, because we care what, what people, you know, we want to be known for. You know, for BC, but you don't want to come in to BC and go, Oh, what's that? Oh no, that's Alberta, bud. [00:19:44] Nadine Furnell: Sorry about that. So yeah, a lot of it is the people, places and things and the passion of the farmer and where it's grown. And so, [00:19:54] Robin Puga: um, well, one question I also had, I mean, uh, BC has also been kind of, uh, forefront in, uh, legalization, um, protests and stuff along that lines. I think, you know, Mark Emery, I don't know if you consider him a friend or foe to BC, small producers, but is, uh, is legalization Are you in a better spot today? [00:20:25] Robin Puga: Well, I [00:20:25] Nadine Furnell: think [00:20:25] Tara Kirkpatrick: yes, we are. I'll [00:20:26] Nadine Furnell: plead the fifth. [00:20:33] Tara Kirkpatrick: Um, yes, I think we are in a better spot today. And this is something that I've advocated for years and have always done, is I know now my children, if they were smoking a joint, will never be prosecuted. Serving a criminal record, hooked in jail, over smoking a little bit of cannabis. That's what happened to old timers like us, back in the day. [00:20:57] Tara Kirkpatrick: The ones that have really fought for this legalization, and our medicine in particular, and our right to have it. And when I see, you know, how many people went to jail over things like that, that's never going to happen again, you know. So that's one of the things where I see we're ahead of the game here. [00:21:15] Tara Kirkpatrick: I also see now we can open up a lot more research because that was taboo as well. We couldn't do this medical research when it comes to cannabis. The genie's out of the bag, man, out of the bottle. We know we're using cannabis oil for kids with epilepsy, we know we're using CBD for so many other things, um, it's been used as a medicine since the beginning of time, even when we dug up the Egyptians, we have found cannabis within them. [00:21:46] Tara Kirkpatrick: Same with the Chinese culture. All of our medicines had cannabis in it. years ago before big pharmas come on site. So I see that is a real bonus with legalization that research that's going to be done and helping the medicals as well So I see them as bonuses with the legalization Awesome. [00:22:07] Robin Puga: All right. [00:22:07] Robin Puga: Well, uh, I am Very curious to talk more about the co op. So, uh The co op you mentioned was established in 2020 uh Tell us how that came about. What was the You The climate that led to this group of people coming together and why choose the cooperative model? [00:22:29] Tara Kirkpatrick: As, uh, all, you know, everybody was on the medical side, uh, black market, a lot of people call it. [00:22:36] Tara Kirkpatrick: We didn't want to see all of our farmers left behind. So that's exactly why the co op was formed. So that we could come together collectively and preserve. Our cannabis, preserve our heritage, all of that. So that's really what brought all of us together and why it's still our main mandate to stick together and to bring everybody in. [00:22:58] Robin Puga: And I saw, um, your list of activities that you're involved in, uh, involved with at the cooperative. Um, you list, uh, government advocacy. Uh, shared purchasing, uh, organized education, uh, in networking events, uh, collaboration within the industry, and, uh, job creation plans and economic development. These are some, some pretty, you know, significant, uh, activities for the cooperative to be involved in. [00:23:26] Robin Puga: Uh, do you want to tell us a little bit how, how that all works? Like how it gets coordinated and, and, uh, And you do the work again. [00:23:35] Tara Kirkpatrick: This is Nadine. This is where Nadine's going to take it. She runs membership. A lot of these, these programs, right? So let Nadine have this. [00:23:46] Nadine Furnell: Thanks, Tara. Um, okay, so we'll government advocacy. [00:23:51] Nadine Furnell: Um, we have a few of our board members, Tara included. Um, who sit on a government panel with, um, heads of three or four other cannabis organizations. And they are the ones that sit in front of, you know, the Ministry of Agriculture, um, you know, the Liquor Distribution Board, um, and so they meet once a month, maybe once every couple months. [00:24:18] Nadine Furnell: Um, yeah. And so, so there's that piece that the industry works on collectively, um, our advocacy takes it that much further, um, and that, you know, we've been advocating for the farmer, you know, number 1, increase in cap, number 2, excise tax, um, you know, number 3, um, what was the other one? Um, farm [00:24:47] Tara Kirkpatrick: gate sales, [00:24:48] Nadine Furnell: farm gate sales. [00:24:51] Nadine Furnell: And so these are things that you know, we know as an industry, this is where we are an industry and that I guess that's where I should probably lead from this is we are an industry, unlike no other industry we are a massive industry. Um, you know, like I said, you have your logistics, you've got your packaging, your supply chain, your accountants, your lawyers, all, all the things. [00:25:15] Nadine Furnell: And, um, we're not taken seriously as an industry. We're not accepted as business. There's still so much taboo, the stigma, um, and so by educating people. You know, we're hoping bit by bit, we can, you know, chisel away at that stigma, um, and, and, you know, so the feds legalized it left it to the province to regulate it, who then in turn left it to the municipalities to implement it. [00:25:41] Nadine Furnell: So we have three levels of governments that. Are not always on the same page. So it's very difficult to find any resolution. Um, so we've actively worked and built our, our government partners and we have some pretty significant partners, um, provincially and federally. Um, you know, that work with us on, they call it the cannabis file, um, along with our indigenous partners, of course, um, you know, we cannot have have cannabis without our indigenous partners. [00:26:14] Nadine Furnell: Um, and so, so just, you know, really having those hard conversations calling, you know, requesting the meeting, you know, getting the meeting is, is the hardest part, really, um, and so, and then just taking those meetings and, you know, we don't, we don't fufu around the bush. It's straight up. Look, we're dying. [00:26:35] Nadine Furnell: Like by the dozens every day, and those are the conversations that we're having with the government on all levels, you know, for advocacy. So if that kind of covers the advocacy piece. [00:26:47] Robin Puga: Yeah, yeah. [00:26:48] Nadine Furnell: Um, and then, um, what were the rest of the numbers? Well, you had shared purchasing. Oh, shared purchasing, yeah. So, we have, as part of our membership, we have what's called supporter members. [00:27:01] Nadine Furnell: So, supporter members are basically anyone in the cannabis industry that is not a farmer, processor, or retailer. [00:27:07] Tara Kirkpatrick: Right, Joe. [00:27:08] Nadine Furnell: Hey supply chain. Yeah, so supply chain. So for example, we're just working. Um on um on a Uh, we call it a deal working on a a contract with uh, one of our um Member supporter laboratories or member pricing for their laboratory testing. [00:27:28] Nadine Furnell: So one of the things we strive for is consistency in lab testing. Um, there's a lot of inconsistency across the board with lab testing. Um, And so, um, so by that, that gives our members, so we bulk purchase that so we, you know, promise we're going to provide X amount of, of, of lab testing, you know, every 30 days. [00:27:55] Nadine Furnell: And this is the price that you're going to give to our members as opposed to, well, I'm Joe Blow and I need it now it's, you know, 1, 150 for that full Health Canada panel testing, right? So we've, we work on deals with our supporter members. Um, we also have another, um, something else in the works with a, um, he's a broker for export. [00:28:18] Nadine Furnell: Um, because that's a whole other piece is the export. And, you know, believe it or not, Germany and Israel have been more inviting of BC cannabis than BC provincial government. [00:28:31] Tara Kirkpatrick: Cannabis is being shipped overseas. [00:28:34] Robin Puga: Wow. [00:28:36] Tara Kirkpatrick: Than what's staying within our own country. [00:28:39] Robin Puga: Yeah. [00:28:39] Tara Kirkpatrick: So yeah, export membership. We always work on member engagement. [00:28:44] Tara Kirkpatrick: We work with so many other societies to, uh, uh, work together on projects. Like when we're doing our summit and things, we call on our business partners, like tourism, uh, job development, like work BC, all types of, uh, community partnerships. We do, uh, we love that you're in the Kootenay because again, the Kootenays are. [00:29:07] Tara Kirkpatrick: Very strong. We've got a great group of growers out there in the Kootenays. We want to give a big shout out to them. And again, you know, using community partners like Community Futures, organizations like that, that really help within our cannabis industry. Because we're so stigmatized, like banks don't even want to deal with us, but credit unions love us, you know, things like that. [00:29:31] Tara Kirkpatrick: So we work really hard as volunteers and bring all our team together. And if you got 10 minutes in your day and can do this for the co op, Oh man, that's awesome. Let's get this job done. So that's the beauty of the co op is everyone's got a voice and we're collectively working together to find best deals in the market, that sort of thing for you. [00:29:52] Robin Puga: And so what does that look like? Your membership on boasted 200 plus members who are you've kind of talked about a bit. But, uh, you know, what is there? Uh, how much does it cost for a membership fee? What's their engagement? How do they stay connected? [00:30:10] Nadine Furnell: So we just recently reduced our membership fee to 99. [00:30:14] Tara Kirkpatrick: Okay. [00:30:16] Nadine Furnell: It was 420 plus tax, which was, which has always been the lowest, um, of the associations around. Um, however, we listened to our members and this industry is the state that it is. And we felt that we were more powerful with the numbers. Rather than the, you know, financial piece, um, and so we reduce significantly reduced our membership rate, um, just recently, um, which has brought, you know, a good calling of, of, um, of members. [00:30:51] Nadine Furnell: And then, you know, we announced we have special lab testing, right? So that in itself will encourage people to, to join up just specifically for that savings on, on the lab, on the lab testing, right? Or maybe they have a lot of. [00:31:06] Tara Kirkpatrick: Moving your product, like if they first get a license and they don't have a processor, we can, you know, hook in with processing, direct delivery, there's, there's so much that the membership offers right now. [00:31:20] Nadine Furnell: Basically, we have a conversation when they, we onboard them and say, you know, what is it that you're looking for? What is it that you feel we can do for you? What is it that you need from us? And we take the time and we listen to each member and, you know, I mean, we can't do everything, but at least if we know what the problems our members are currently facing that allows us to strategize and where, you know, we want to spend our efforts because we are all volunteers. [00:31:46] Nadine Furnell: We are only a board of directors. for, um, you know, many late nights for this mama over here. [00:31:55] Tara Kirkpatrick: We do lots of zooms too. We feature a town hall at least, you know, once every couple of months. So if you're a new member or an old member, you know, you can just zoom in on that night, meet everybody at town hall. [00:32:08] Tara Kirkpatrick: We do a big summit every year, a big gathering. And, uh, that's always on our special 420 day, of course, and everybody in the industry comes and, uh, melting of the minds, we'll call it, uh, where we get to, you know, uh, discuss, talk about problems in the industry, find solutions, advocate, come collectivates together and, uh, things, issues we're going to go after for the year. [00:32:35] Robin Puga: And so, um, you, you landed on the cooperative model, uh, was there some champion of cooperatives or did you work with a co op developer? How did, how did co ops come into your, uh, into your frame of reference there? [00:32:50] Tara Kirkpatrick: Yeah, well, the like minded thinking were farmers. Farmers have been crop sharing and cooperative from day one. [00:32:56] Tara Kirkpatrick: So, and we also worked with BC cooperatives when we first started out to help us, uh, Guide us in our rules and things like that. And, uh, we're, we're currently still actively a member and we love meeting other cooperatives like yourself to work with and support each other. And, and, uh, so yeah, definitely. [00:33:17] Robin Puga: Cooperation among cooperatives, the old, uh, cooperative identity principles there. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Um, okay. Well, uh, I was kind of, yeah, I mean, I was curious to kind of understand how co ops got in there because I'm always interested to hear, uh, people putting new applications or new industries who are tapping into co ops, but it does feel like this is really an evolving thing. [00:33:43] Robin Puga: Yeah. Uh, industry. This is not something, you know, it doesn't feel like it's well established in the sense of like, you've got 50 years of collaboration behind you. This is, we're really like charting waters here. [00:33:59] Nadine Furnell: Yeah, very new. And yeah, uncharted waters for sure. [00:34:03] Robin Puga: Well, it's, it's, it is really neat that you've reached for the cooperative model. [00:34:07] Robin Puga: As we've seen time and time again, people reach for the cooperative model, looking to, um, work together to, to fill a collective need. Uh, and here, uh, really does sound like the small to medium sized, uh, producers, um, and processors are, you know, this is, you're kind of on your own. And if you're not together, you're [00:34:33] Tara Kirkpatrick: on, you're on your own and that's exactly why the co op developed, you know, so that we're all together, uh, kind of put it in perspective, like the fruit growers in the Okanagan right now, you know what I mean? [00:34:45] Tara Kirkpatrick: So, um, collectively, like you said, you have to come together to make sure that you guys stay together and continue on. [00:34:55] Nadine Furnell: The viability of the industry. [00:34:58] Robin Puga: Sure. Well, I was just going to ask. So, what does it look like for you in 10 years? For cannabis producers in British Columbia? And maybe I could, you know, ask you two different sides of that question. [00:35:12] Robin Puga: What does it look like if things go your way? And what does it look like if you continue to be stigmatized? [00:35:19] Tara Kirkpatrick: We were hoping if it all goes really great and perfect world, we'd have farm gate stores as you're driving through every community. So our tourists, when they come to see our world renowned cannabis, they can find it on every little farm gate store sort of idea. [00:35:37] Tara Kirkpatrick: That would be in a perfect world. Do you know what I mean? Um, yeah, uh, Nadine, like what, what, what would be the perfect world? [00:35:46] Nadine Furnell: Well, I mean, the perfect world I think would, is if the, well, the provincial government at the very least stepped out of it and let organizations like ourselves and our indigenous partners, um, you know, run, run this, this file within the province. [00:36:06] Nadine Furnell: Part of the problem. The other part of the problem is that no two provinces are aligned. So you have the federal, you know, health Canada telling you one thing and then you have, what, how many, 10, 11, 12. provinces now, um, you know, none, not no to our line. So for, just for example, I'm a medical farmer, licensed health Canada, medical farmer in BC. [00:36:32] Nadine Furnell: I cannot sell it, do it. Nothing. I just, for my own personal medics, medical reasons. In the Yukon, it's flip. The medical farmer can do whatever they want. It's everyone else that can't. So, you know, some consistency across the board would be really helpful to, for, for the industry to, you know, to, to grow. We can only grow so much in our own province, right? [00:36:59] Nadine Furnell: And where the rest of the country isn't aligned, we go to the international market. We'll go who wants, You know, graph cannabis, BC graph cannabis and, and, um, and they're paying a pretty pay pretty price as well, you know, so, um, but yeah, I deal, you know, in a perfect world, um, it would be recognized as medicine, um, across the boards. [00:37:27] Nadine Furnell: Uh, big Pharma took a step down and, you know, knew their place in, in, in medicine. Um, this plant was put on this world. God knows by who or how or what it's here, and it has the exact same endocannabinoid system as every being with a spinal system. So that's not by chance, you know, there's a reason why this plant interacts with our body. [00:37:50] Nadine Furnell: Systems, right? So, um, that might, that would be my, my dream is to, you know, to see that medical piece, you know, given, given it's, uh, you know, given it's, it's day and it's rightful place. Um, but, but the education piece. is, you know, there's, you can have a high THC, you can have a low THC, but high terpenes and it's way better than, uh, like 31 percent THC. [00:38:15] Nadine Furnell: So, you know, there's lots of that education and, and the, and the retailers are, you know, there's more and more of the consumer is pushing. Or, you know, they want to know terpenes. They don't want to know THC. They want to know when was it harvested, not when it expires. You know, that kind of thing, right? So, we're getting there, slowly but surely. [00:38:37] Nadine Furnell: Um, you know, baby steps, but, you know, there's certainly a long way to go. It could and should be, you know, a very, I wouldn't say lucrative market, um, but, you know, it's a big enough pie that enough, if everybody wanted to get into it, they would do okay. [00:38:56] Robin Puga: Now, are there the Pfizer's of the world in this market? [00:39:01] Tara Kirkpatrick: Oh, yeah. Yeah, they got big pockets. Let's be honest. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah at a deficit. They would still keep them lights on It's like Pfizer and, uh, like, I hate to say it, but it's almost like the, the liquor industry, when you look at the big top producers, like, and very, very few small crafters, that's kind of where the cannabis industry is heading today. [00:39:26] Tara Kirkpatrick: So, You know, we've got to keep striving to keep our craft products on the shelf and we need consumers, uh, um, as well being educated that maybe if they had a choice realizing if I buy this, this is supporting a craft farmer and locally my province versus if I buy this at the store, that's all of our money leaving our province and we're not supporting our people. [00:39:50] Tara Kirkpatrick: Right. So, uh, yeah. But that's kind of how I see it heading. And so it's really, you know, we're going to dig deep. We're five years in and we're going to keep on digging deep for our rightful place on the market. [00:40:04] Robin Puga: Uh, I think what kind of sparked us getting in touch was, uh, the potential to talk about the upcoming provincial election. [00:40:12] Robin Puga: Now you did mention just a few minutes ago, um, that, um, you're, you really would like the province to kind of, you know, Step out step out. What is that? What does that mean? What do you like? What are you asking for? Uh, and yeah, out of the next election. [00:40:29] Tara Kirkpatrick: Yeah, well, what we're asking for. Yeah, right off the bat is we're asking for an independent review, right, on, uh, our whole supply chain here in B. [00:40:42] Tara Kirkpatrick: C. So many are left with no options but to cease operations under the mountain of provincial fees, taxes, and red tape. Eggs and, uh, along with other businesses have also closed and moved to other provinces. So an independent federal review of the Cannabis Act also led To improvements that us at the B. C. [00:41:04] Tara Kirkpatrick: Farmers can do because they listen to us and they realize there are problems. There are problems within the B. C. Supply chain, so we are asking for, you know, an independent review because the B. C. Policies have created unfair circumstances where the provincial government is cannabis regulator, sole purchaser and retail competition to ensure B. [00:41:29] Tara Kirkpatrick: C. Is not abusing this privilege position. So an independent, an independent review is required to reverse consequences that may have been unforeseen when originally cannabis legalization was drafted over six years ago. So we're asking all of our forerunners right now standing at the gate from, yeah, all three of them, can they answer that question yes or no if they'll start with an independent review of our supply chain and the provincial government. [00:42:02] Robin Puga: Thanks. Uh, I guess we're probably at time. Uh, is there anything else that we should touch upon before we wrap it up here? [00:42:16] Tara Kirkpatrick: Um, I don't know, just any time, you know, we can reach out to you, Robin, or you reach back to us, we would love to stay in connection with you and, and keep you in the loop of the cooperative and maybe even sway you over, you know, keep you As a supporter or a membership, come join the fight. [00:42:34] Robin Puga: Well, I mean, that's a good, uh, segue. Uh, how do people become members? [00:42:40] Tara Kirkpatrick: They can hop on our website and right away they can click on the website and fill out the application and become a member immediately. They can speak with people like me and Nadine that will happily take your name and info and everything about you and, and, uh, send you an invoice, 99 for your membership. [00:43:00] Tara Kirkpatrick: Um, first time members, uh, Nadine, please correct me because you look after all of that. They do pay a 24 or 5 membership share. [00:43:11] Nadine Furnell: 25. Yeah, I was going to mention that there is a one time 25 share purchase, and I think that goes back to why the cooperative model and how the cooperative model and, and so that is something that's been in place since day one is that 25 Share purchase, we kept it small, but, you know, just to put a bit of skin in the game and, and then people felt that they really are a part of and they do, you know, it's not a lot of money, but it gets you your voice and, and, um, and, you know, and we make, you know, there's certain things that we have the authority to decide as a board, but many things we go to our members. [00:43:50] Nadine Furnell: For and so that's what gives you the benefit of being with the cooperative is we don't make many decisions without consulting with our member base. [00:44:01] Tara Kirkpatrick: Yeah, members always first. [00:44:02] Nadine Furnell: Yeah. [00:44:03] Tara Kirkpatrick: Awesome. [00:44:05] Robin Puga: Well, uh, again, thank you both for your time today. It's been really enlightening to, uh, get a real good sense about how this whole industry works, which, uh, although I am a purveyor upon occasion. [00:44:21] Robin Puga: Uh, I am, uh, yeah, uh, grossly under informed as to how everything has evolved over the last six years since legalization. So, really appreciate your time today. And, uh, yes, we will be following up for sure. [00:44:35] Nadine Furnell: Well, thank you so much for, for reaching out to us and, and for your time as well. [00:44:41] Tara Kirkpatrick: We really appreciate it, Rob, and your time that you spent with us here today. [00:44:44] Tara Kirkpatrick: It's been a real pleasure. [00:44:46] Robin Puga: Awesome. Thank you. [00:44:47] Nadine Furnell: Thanks.