'I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,' Inside one of Missouri's largest marijuana farms
JOPLIN, Mo. — A once clandestine industry is now a billion-dollar cash crop in Missouri -- and this is harvest season. We visited one of the state's largest marijuana farms, and saw how they bring the crop to market.
Derek Mayfield loves his job.
"This is a dream job. I've wanted to do it since I was a teenager," said Mayfield.
He's the fertigation lead for Honey Green — a state-licensed marijuana cultivator — at their Joplin facility.
"I deliver the appropriate amount of food to the plants themselves, and initially crop steer each individual strain to the best of its ability," said Mayfield.
And this is when his work pays off.
"It's very rewarding, especially when we have a beautiful run, a beautiful harvest," said Mayfield.
This seven-acre field contains over 3,000 organically grown plants, and it'll take hours of labor to harvest them over the next few weeks.
"It's just a perpetual harvest from late August until, honestly, until about Thanksgiving it's steady," said Mac Briggs, Honey Green cultivation partner.
And according to the Missouri Cannabis Trade Association, that harvest means big bucks for the Show Me State. The association reports a $1.4 billion market, generating $241 million in sales tax annually.
"We're harvesting a couple of thousand pounds a week right now," said Briggs.
Briggs says by the end of harvesting, this field will likely have produced 15,000 to 20,000lbs of cannabis.
"Fifteen to twenty thousand pounds out of one single harvest would be a Missouri state record by a lot probably for one harvest," said Briggs.
To do that, they need a team.
"There's about 50 of us harvesting full-time," said Briggs.
That's out of a staff of roughly 100 at Honey Green's Joplin facility. Statewide, it's estimated that more than 20,000 people are working in the cannabis industry.
"Last year was the first real year of numbers in the state, and this state saw about $1.4 billion in total sales, that's just your total sales, but you want to take into account all of the construction that every single one of these operations around the state has brought in, all of the different ancillary businesses," said Briggs.
Mayfield says the work isn't always easy, but it is something he looks forward to.
"Living the dream, one hundred percent. I wouldn't trade it for the world, and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else," said Mayfield.
