California has been the pioneering state of cannabis cultivation and innovation for over a century, and the legalized recreational was long overdue. Since then, the largest counties and cities have seen a wide range of positive changes in every aspect tied to usage. Most notably are the amount of shops and delivery services, and the best benefit to everyone whether they consume it or not is that law enforcement can focus on matters that are truly criminal and serious. Major wins all around.
As consumers this has been a dream come true, and it’s awesome to be able to experience so many benefits and developments firsthand as adaptations rapidly occur. But what if you want to get involved in the business side? There are so many angles to approach “cannabiz,” where do you begin?
I worked at a huge farm in the Santa Barbara area for a while last Summer. I was doing a lot of general caretaking of the plants close to the time of harvest. It was a great experience, but I learned that I would personally rather work in the sales and final product aspect. I also have my eye on CBD.
These are just a few things to consider, but this brings me to my main point that you have a lot of resources to make your way into those fields or do way more because the education and training is more abundant than ever.
One institution in particular to look out for is Natura, a huge facility that will open its doors later this year. They just secured a remarkable $91 million in funding from private entities, and is on track to be the “largest vertically integrated cannabis campus” according to Global News Wire.
The CEO and founder, Ori Bytton, says “Natura’s first campus will be the largest, most high-tech, and sustainable operation of its kind in the state for contract manufacturing, education and end-to-end services. Natura’s innovative new platform is centered around the needs of growing cannabis brands and entrepreneurs. Our goals are to manufacture products that are high-quality, clean and safe, to help businesses scale, not fail, and help companies build trust in their brands.”
Their 260,000 square-foot facility (over 6 acres) will allot Natura the space for on-site cultivation in addition to manufacturing operations, marketing strategies, brand building, consulting, and education. Everything you could want to learn about, including entrepreneurs that already have businesses and want to scale them, is available here.
Sustainability is also a fundamental part of their operations, so we can expect progress in this field and new trends that can help more sustainable practices spread beyond Nutura’s facility into other forms of agriculture or other manufacturing industries far beyond cannabis. It seems that Nutra has done their homework on virtually every aspect of the current cannabis industry.
Their first campus is located in Sacramento, so that may be a turn-off for all of us in Southern California. It makes sense to be near the state’s capital for legislative reasons, and also closer to the Bay Area and Silicon Valley which are crucial for logistics and technology as we all know. In the near future there will be more information on their website about how to get involved, so make sure to keep an eye on this exciting development.
