[HN Gopher] Cannabis pollen dispersal across the United States
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       Cannabis pollen dispersal across the United States
        
       Author : PaulHoule
       Score  : 41 points
       Date   : 2024-12-19 10:17 UTC (12 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nature.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nature.com)
        
       | contingencies wrote:
       | Nature's gonna nature.
       | 
       | The fallacious line of thinking that one can fully isolate an
       | outdoor planting is the more interesting issue this touches on, a
       | skeptical take is that this fallacy continues to exist in
       | regulation only for its utility of abuse by large companies
       | seeking to profit from the commercialization of sterile GM crops.
       | 
       | I'm sure the upper echelon of commercial weed growers typically
       | have a far higher education in landscape ecology than the
       | captured regulators.
        
         | lukan wrote:
         | "The fallacious line of thinking that one can fully isolate an
         | outdoor planting"
         | 
         | Who thinks that? It is about reducing unwanted pollination. So
         | if you know the wind will come strong from this area and lots
         | of hemp field are there, you can maybe protect your plants some
         | time of the year, or know beforehand, that an area is not a
         | good spot for you.
        
           | indrora wrote:
           | Monsanto, at one level or another. While they pinky-promise
           | to not sue, if their corn gets into your corn and you replant
           | the seeds, they've fought about it in court to mixed results.
        
             | colechristensen wrote:
             | Almost nobody replants their own corn. Almost all corn
             | planted is an F1 hybrid, the first generation of a cross
             | between two varieties. Subsequent generations perform very
             | much worse. This is a natural thing not an engineered
             | thing, many plants on the first generation cross between
             | two varieties perform much better.
             | 
             | Most corn is also patent encumbered, but that is less of
             | the reason.
             | 
             | Soybeans are actually different and before all of the
             | patented genetics people did sometimes replant their own
             | grown seed.
        
             | to11mtm wrote:
             | I thought Canola (which is a disturbing plant in general
             | for food use) was their big hitter for that sort of thing?
        
         | beardedwizard wrote:
         | But the cannabis industry is mostly large companies capturing
         | regulators and litigating genetics, so I'm not sure the
         | distinction is accurate.
        
           | PaulHoule wrote:
           | In New York the cannabis industry is still largely grey
           | market.
           | 
           | I have been trying to quit, we finally cut up the plants that
           | we had from last year and put them in jars and sent them away
           | but then somebody shows up with a jar of something they grew.
           | 
           | I don't think I'll ever buy weed from a dispensary because
           | between being able to grow a few plants for myself and
           | getting weed from friends who also grew it for themselves as
           | well as knowing people in the industry (leaders in the trade
           | association) it keeps showing up.
        
       | kramer2718 wrote:
       | This is a largely political problem. Cross pollination does not
       | affect the utility of commercial help-only its legality. You can
       | study wind dispersal, etc, but at the end of the day, the problem
       | is a bunch of clueless old men.
        
         | diggan wrote:
         | > This is a largely political problem
         | 
         | Is it? "leading to contaminated seeds, reduced oil yields, and
         | in some cases, mandated crop destruction" sounds not like a
         | political problem, or you mean the causes for those things are
         | political?
        
           | mholm wrote:
           | These issues at least partially stem from the politics
           | surrounding cannabis. 'Mandated crop destruction' is
           | absolutely a political problem, because it's just driven by
           | seeds cross pollinating into plants that exceed the arbitrary
           | political limit. Oil yields and contaminated seeds are not
           | specified, but might be due to similar arbitrary
           | restrictions, rather than actual issues with the product
        
         | brutal_chaos_ wrote:
         | Isn't it also a problem for breeders? I would think pollenation
         | could cause issues for indoor as well as outdoor crops,
         | especially specific strain breeding and understanding
         | pollenation patterns would help mitigate some of that.
        
       | openthc wrote:
       | Another thing that happens to outdoor grown cannabis is pesticide
       | contamination. Even if your farm is a good distance from some
       | commercial agriculture, if they spray it can, and does,
       | contaminate your crop -- which for regulated cannabis requires
       | destruction. Literally burning (or composting) thousands of
       | dollars of product.
       | 
       | And if the pesticides test are hot on the cross-contaminated
       | cannabis; how much is on those apples three fields over?
        
         | to11mtm wrote:
         | Wouldn't composting risk having the pesticides go into the next
         | crop further contaminating?
         | 
         | Although, to your point, they can just sell it to the nearby
         | farms growing stuff we eat that isn't tested the same way...
        
       | jcarrano wrote:
       | Yet corn hybrid production, which requires strict controls on
       | pollination, is made to work. Is there a difference with hemp
       | pollen or is the problem on the regulatory side?
        
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       (page generated 2024-12-19 23:00 UTC)