By Jon Hiltz

 

As the new dawn for marijuana continues to rise, the flower industry is getting more paranoid about cannabis crops overtaking their existing growers’ interests.

Cultivators in California, Colorado, and all over the U.S. are known for growing some of the most beautiful and vibrant flowers the world has to offer, but an increasing number of growers are contemplating the switch from bulbs to buds.

Jim McCann is the founder and executive chairman of 1-800-Flowers, and he has gone on record as saying that cannabis crops threaten to overtake the United States’ limited greenhouse real estate.

Back in May of this year in an interview with Fox Business, McCann revealed that the flower delivery giant was concerned about growers they knew of who were questioning if cannabis was a better choice. Many of these were growers with enormous greenhouse facilities located in recreational marijuana states like Colorado.

McCann played the role of Chicken Little again this week when he told Fortune Magazine that his company had spent the last ten years creating a comprehensive network of quality cultivators. McCann fears these efforts will go to naught as demand for cannabis increases.increases.

Judy Laushman is the Executive Director of the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers, and she told Marijuana.com that she has heard of no such threat for the moment. “In my experience, I have not heard that yet.  Maybe that will change, but no one has asked us how to switch or where to go for information.  Maybe growers are talking amongst themselves, but we have several social media services, and an online bulletin board and I haven’t seen it ever come up.”

Whether it’s real or imagined, McCann is not wrong to be examining this with care.  A recent article in Forbes magazine cited that the marijuana market will grow to $7.1 billion this year.  That is 26% growth from 2015 driven by sales of recreational weed in states like Colorado.

The article also pointed out that recreational marijuana sales in Colorado almost reached $1 billion in 2015 compared to the $351 million sold in 2014. That’s a growth of 184%, which was higher than products including Dasani Water and Oreo cookies, the latter of the two being a favourite of cannabis enthusiasts everywhere.

So it may seem that McCann is coming off as a worry wart of sorts and trying to protect his interests, but the numbers don’t lie. Further to that, recreational weed is sure to get a boost this coming November, with cannabis on the ballot in a record nine states, five of which are voting to legalize recreational marijuana.

With traditionally high risk and low profit margins associated with farming, savvy farmers have always understood the value of growing with Economic Efficiency on their limited plots of land. Delivery services and other distributors such as 1-800-Flower will continue to keep a close eye on the cannabis industry, but in the end, if crops get overtaken to some extent it will be the result of natural market forces working to produce optimal value for all parties involved.

Perhaps Jim McCann should adopt the “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” attitude and consider cannabis delivery as part of his company’s great list of products and services. He’d probably start selling a lot more “flowers.”