TERRA TECH the cannabis MARKET LEADER!
TRTC CEO Derek Peterson: I didn’t want to be a one-trick pony, so I started looking for ancillary businesses. That’s when we started looking into urban gardening, making acquisitions and doing joint ventures with farms around the country that were growing flowers, and convincing them to grow food – herbs, produce and leafy greens, etc. We had good access points with major retailers, so it made sense for us to diversify.
Fast forwarding a couple of years from today, one reason we wanted to build a large sustainable hydroponic footprint was, yes, to grow food, but down line when the Feds do remove restrictions and begin to ease, you will be able to cross state lines with cannabis. Here was a way for us to build out an infrastructure ahead of time, put in an operating business that was shareholder friendly, and our ultimate goal was to release a brand of cannabis in the industry. We believe it is timely, and have worked on branding. We will probably be announcing some brands this year in anticipation of Federal regulators reclassifying cannabis from schedule 1 to less than schedule 1.
What are the risk-opportunity tradeoffs ahead?
Peterson: We are obviously looking at moving closer to the plant. We may not wait for a complete green flag from the Feds. We are trying to balance our entry to be in the market before competitors arrive. If Philip Morris comes in, or pharma companies, we want to grow for them. Look at the indoor cannabis farming that takes place in the U.S. now, warehouse farming, with high intensity lights. It’s not sustainable and it’s not scalable. It’s not the healthiest way to grow for people and the planet. The only way to grow cannabis on a large scale commercially and maintain quality is in closed, Dutch-style greenhouses. I want to make sure we have one in every major city.
You mentioned that you are developing a brand. How can you do that while the product is still federally illegal?
Peterson: The thought process is we will incubate that privately, test it privately, and then when we feel tolerance is there, introduce it. We can test market the branding through our club [permitted under California medical marijuana laws], introduce it into the High Times cup and other competitions. Meanwhile we can develop the brand protocols, begin to put best practices together, develop strains we want to carry, etc., and we can develop the branding around that. Everything we do with branding will be done under the private company with the ultimate goal of migrating into the public vehicle
