California’s new marijuana regulations will hurt small farmers, two lawmakers say

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In a bid to protect family farms, two California legislators are seeking revisions to the state’s marijuana cultivation regulations.

State Sen. Mike McGuire and Assemblyman Jim Wood support a 1-acre cap on grow sites to prevent small farmers from being pushed out by corporate farming operations, the Los Angeles Times reported.

A cap of licensed marijuana farms at 1-4 acres was originally proposed in the draft regulations, but the California Department of Food and Agriculture did away with the stipulation in the rules that go into effect Jan. 1.

The final rules recently released by the state have no cap on the size of cultivation sites.

According to the Times, the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the CalCannabis Cultivation Licensing Division that “this last-minute revision rolls out the red carpet for large corporations to crush the livelihood of small family farmers who should be given a fair chance to succeed in a regulated market.”