YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
Flora Farms is riding the wave of newly legalized recreational marijuana sales in the state, with President Mark Hendren predicting sales growth of 2.5 times. It’s a significant addition to its medical cannabis business that launched in 2020. GMO, which stands for garlic, mushrooms and onion, is currently the company’s best-selling flower product, Flora Farms officials say. The company grows its products at a cultivation center in Humansville and sells them at its four southwest Missouri dispensaries and at those operated by others statewide.
SBJ: What makes GMO special?
Emily Cross (retail marketing manager): This is a strain that tests very potent very consistently. It has a beautiful growth structure that is what most cannabis connoisseurs are looking for: beautiful, dense nugs [and] a frosty, trichrome exterior. It’s going to give them a nice, stinky aroma profile that is very appealing to your average consumer.
Mark Hendren (president): We just won the statewide award for strain of the year with GMO [from] Greenway Magazine.
SBJ: What’s the impact that GMO has on users?
Cross: Often with all cannabis, it’s coming down to what do you want to feel. For GMO, what you’re wanting that for is a very potent head high, some body relaxation, maybe a little bit of pain relief. You want to be able to have a very nice, relaxing time. It’s usually great for evening use and then something that can take you all the way into … having a good night’s sleep. You’re just going to have a nice night the whole way.
SBJ: Is this an indica or sativa strain of marijuana, and can you describe the differences between the two?
Cross: Indica. When it comes to effects, your indicas are going to be a lot more relaxing. They’re going to give you a bit more body relief. Your sativas can be energizing. You might feel an uplift in mood; you’re going to feel more creative, more chatty, whereas an indica you’re more likely to speak less and less the more you smoke of it.
SBJ: What’s the importance of being a locally based cultivator in southwest Missouri?
Cross: My family has been farming in the southwest Missouri region going back generations on both sides. To have a new agricultural opportunity like cannabis move into the area has made it for someone like me, who had to go off to the city to get a better education, ... have an actual job opportunity in the area that’s not only a good job, it’s a job that’s going to continue to grow with me … it just has created opportunities that I didn’t ever expect to find here.
SBJ: In the larger agricultural industry, we’ve recently seen the trend of people wanting to know where their food comes from. Is that a similar deal with cannabis?
Cross: Absolutely. It’s a huge deal with cannabis. It’s something that a person puts into their body. To have the knowledge that the type of people who are growing it, packaging it, selling it ... these are people, just like you, who have a love and a passion for the plant. They are growing it, caring for it and selling it to you in a way that is understandable, approachable and trustworthy.
Alair Springfield is first Missouri franchise for Canada-based company.
