River Valley Growers, a cannabis grower in Western Massachusetts, has filed a lawsuit against neighboring produce farmer Nourse Farms claiming the defendants contaminated the plaintiffs’ cannabis crops and land with pesticides, The Boston Globe reports.
The lawsuit — believed to be the first of its kind for the industry — alleges that pesticides sprayed by the large-scale blueberry and vegetable farm next door ruined River Valley Growers’ 2022 bumper crop of 47,000 pounds of cannabis, and stymied several subsequent crops, amounting to about $17 million in total losses.
“It has been a nightmare. The repeated incidents of pesticide overspray have all but put River Valley Growers out of business. We had a bumper crop in 2022 that had to be destroyed and haven’t been able to plant since. We simply don’t know whether or when we can safely plant again.” — River Valley Growers statement, via The Boston Globe
Licensed cannabis growers in Massachusetts have to maneuver much stricter pesticide provisions than general produce farmers.
River Valley Growers said the deal to sell its 2022 crop fell through when the grower’s product was flagged by a testing lab for pesticides, even though the company hadn’t used any pesticides on its crop because the cannabis was meant to be distilled into concentrates.
The Massachusetts Department of Agriculture Resources investigated and found that pesticides from Nourse Farms had drifted onto the cannabis cultivator’s crop and that the berry farm “did not operate in a careful manner,” the report said.
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