Chilecito: A Valley In The Andes That Defeated Mega-Mining And Embraced Sustainable Cannabis
By Nicolas Jose Rodriguez and Rolando Garcia.
In the early 2000s, the people in Argentina’s Chilecito Valley became a symbol of environmental resistance with their rally cry of “Agua sí, oro no” (Water yes, gold no). The area’s residents vehemently opposed a large-scale mining project that sought to use millions of cubic meters of glacier water. The mining company finally abandoned its plans in 2007.
Then in 2018, the people in the Chilecito Valley turned their focus towards sustainable cannabis cultivation, embracing an environmentally friendly economic alternative to mega-mining.
The Best Wine…And The Best Cannabis
In an exclusive interview with Benzinga Cannabis, Benjamin Enrici, CEO of Agrogenetica Riojana talked about how cannabis is transforming the Valley. Founded in 2009, this mixed-capital company is part of a network of local greenhouses that provide plants and training to local farms.
“We are in La Rioja, a small province, with a dry climate and lots of sunshine which is excellent for growing and processing pharma-grade cannabis. We see medical cannabis as an alternative for local producers, to command higher prices for their goods,” says Enrici as we walked through the numerous greenhouses filled with experimental cannabis genetics from around the world.
Benjamin Enrici – Photo Courtesy of Agrogenetica Riojana.
“We already make some of the best wines in the world, why not cannabis?” said the agronomist referring to Argntina’s world-renowned wines like Torrontes, Malbec, Tempranillo and Cabernet Franc, among others.
Made In The Chilecito Valley
Rather than centralizing production, the company connects a network of small and medium enterprises in the Valley with cannabis companies and investors, looking to conduct genetic experiments in controlled conditions.
Growing, processing and testing cannabis in controlled environments is hard, but being in the desert makes it a bit easier. Between the average temperature, humidity and absence of rainfall give mold, yeast, bacteria and plagues a hard time. Add those conditions to the skillset of local agronomists, farmers and organic cultivation methods, the result is a giant cannabis lab.
Condors, parrots, finches and earthcreepers swirl around the greenhouses and lab where plants are reproduced in-vitro, dried and tested. The background sets the scene of a cowboy movie or a cactus convention as plants line up with shrubs, up and down the hills surrounding the Famatina glacier.
Chilecito’s Problem
The Chilecito Valley is undergoing a process of extensive mechanization of olive and nut production, which requires less labor resulting in less jobs.
In addition, and counterintuitively, mechanization is making operations more expensive for small and medium farmers who …