Why is Kevin Jodrey so revered among the world’s best cannabis growers?
Is it his strong work ethic combined with decades of cannabis cultivation experience, commitment, and transparency?
Maybe it has something to do with his involvement in the U.S.’s initial CBD research or his tireless work mapping cannabis genotypes.
It could also have to do with the fact that Jodrey cultivates some of the best cannabis you’ll ever experience through his grow facility Wonderland Nursery, all while providing a wide variety of cannabis genetics and expertise to the Emerald Triangle in Humboldt, California.
Consultant, educator, speaker, cultivator, Emerald Cup judge – the list of high-level cannabis experience goes on at length.
So you could say Jodrey is a cannabis legend for all of the above, which is why Green Flower is so excited to feature him as one of 14 experts in the upcoming online Cannabis Business Essentials Certificate Program.
Kevin Jodrey’s Cannabis Evolution
It all started when Jodrey was a kid on the East Coast. He remembers his old neighborhood as basically a drug trafficking zone, where he was exposed to cannabis at an early age.
And even then cannabis genetics were a factor at the front of his mind. “I was able to access genetics through all the seeds from all the material that was coming through the neighborhood,” he recalls. “And I started cultivating in probably 1980, 1981. I started indoor in ‘89.”
The initial attraction to cannabis, for Jodrey, were the personal effects. “I liked the effect, and I was enthralled by what happened when you consumed it and how it took your mind in all these directions,” he says.
However, the more time Jodrey spent with the plant, and as he eventually took his cannabis career to the West Coast, his perception of cannabis continually evolved.
“I became interested in how it was used medicinally and started to see cannabis being used in a medicinal form in a way that was undeniably real,” Jodrey explains. “And it started to give me an appreciation for the complexity of cannabis in a way that I hadn’t seen prior.”
Essentially, he’d realized that he was only scratching the surface and began to appreciate the plant more from a scientific point of view, inspired by its complexity and survivability.
And now Jodrey’s all about sharing that appreciation “so that others can see what a phenomenal plant we have in our world which we can use for so many purposes,” he says.
“It’s the most complex plant in the plant kingdom. Nothing has more chemical activity occurring within it than cannabis, so it’s a higher-level plant to me. It almost makes me wonder, does cannabis drive us to work with it or do we drive cannabis?”
The relationship is confusing, Jodrey continues, because cannabis is the most widely dispersed plant on the planet. “And mankind made that happen. They took these things with them wherever they traveled, wherever they moved, and then developed it to work for their purposes, be it fibrous, be it medicinal, be it spiritual – and everything was contained in that.”
For Jodrey, it’s inspiring to consider cannabis from this big picture perspective all the way down to the bare-bones science. “It’s like a never-ending hole of discovery you tumble into, and it piques my curiosity in a way that I know I’ll never be able to fully satisfy, which is what I like,” he says.
“I don’t think I’ll ever mine the true depth of cannabis, and the desire to mine the true depth would really limit what we do because part of it is that mystery.”
Cannabis As A Global Opportunity
As more countries around the world come online with new cannabis laws, it also means a lot of opportunity for people who want to get involved in cannabis cultivation and genetics.
“You’re going to need people trained and skilled to operate outdoor operations, indoor operations, and greenhouse operations,” Jodrey says.
Much like what we saw with the computer industry, people from many different backgrounds are finding their niche in cannabis, and different industries are getting involved as well.
Jodrey talks about how as other industries get involved, bringing in new technology and tools, it will further enhance the need to create a credible education process that covers every aspect of what is quickly shaping into a mega-industry right before our eyes.
Avoiding Inefficiencies & Mishaps With Cannabis Training
One of the biggest challenges the cannabis industry faces early on is keeping up with high demand.
The industry is so young that many operations are still developing and streamlining their processes.
This especially includes coming up with standardized training programs that will prepare leaders and teams, quickly getting everybody on the same page.
Jodrey covers a lot of detail in his new course “The Business of Cannabis Cultivation,” which is just one part of Green Flower’s upcoming online Cannabis Business Essentials Certificate Program.
The cultivation portion, featuring Jodrey, covers:
- How to Become a Respected Cannabis Cultivator
- How Much Capital is Needed Without Federal or Bank Lending?
- Investment Opportunities
- How to Deal without Banks
- Cost-Benefit Analysis of Indoor vs Outdoor Grows
- Harvesting Operations
- Key Employee Roles
- Scaling Your Cultivation Business
- Basic Seed to Sale
- Distribution Services
- State and Local Compliance
- How to Cultivate Outside State Line
- World-Wide Cultivation
- Where Do We See Cultivation in 10 years in the U.S. and World-wide?
- How Do You Prepare for Legalization in the United States?
Green Flower’s online Cannabis Business Essentials Certificate Program is a set of 14 courses led by industry-leading experts that will give anyone the playbook to find success in the cannabis industry today.
This upcoming Green Flower certificate program will include courses on winning a cannabis license, cannabis cultivation, processing and manufacturing, lab testing and analytics, retail, distribution, the business of industrial hemp, securing real estate, regulatory compliance, marketing, sales, accounting, human resources, and investing.
Once you start to understand the bigger picture, Jodrey emphasizes, it makes it a lot easier to do your specific job, especially when you understand how what you do impacts people downstream from you. You realize how important your work is and it creates a level of integrity through the entire production chain.
“As a career operator, the ability to share my experience hopefully assists those who aspire to build a career in the industry we call cannabis,” Jodrey notes. “Green Flower provides the platform and the support that allows me to deliver these lessons in a most professional way. Our goal is to help make it possible for those we teach to go forward equipped with the knowledge to achieve their objectives and take the industry to places we could only have imagined in our dreams.”
