This article originally appeared in the February 2017 print edition of Cannabis Business Times. To subscribe, click here.

The need for organic standards and generally enhanced transparency in legal cultivation is dire. In many Western states, including Colorado, pesticide use continues to be a major issue that appears a long ways away from being completely addressed. While pesticide use is not 100-percent about being organic, the issues are tied together, and the opportunity to give consumers better information and products is real – just as real as the opportunity for cultivators and processors to command a higher price for such products.

The Organic Cannabis Association (OCA) was founded by John-Paul Maxfield of Waste Farmers because he saw via his Batch: 64 brand the lack of standards available to the industry and the companies that serve it. The mission of the OCA is to create and implement rigorous organic standards in the cannabis industry because no such standards have been available to legal cannabis cultivators, upstream processors or any products developed explicitly for use in cannabis production. The OCA can help those companies derive a benefit from being organic just as we see in other industries like food and wellness.

In 2016, the OCA ran a bill through the Colorado legislature that would have created an organic program for cannabis in Colorado. The program still is in progress; we have a group of more than 40 organic, horticultural and agricultural experts from around the world participating on a committee to create the first cannabis-specific organic standards. We are presenting similar language for the 2017 legislative session and are optimistic that it will pass.

To read the full article in Cannabis Business Times' February edition, click here.