Dr. Bronner’s CEO Joins the Cannabis Industry, Bringing His Ideals with Him
Dr. Bronner’s is a true American success story demonstrating the very best things about our country. Started by an immigrant soap-maker, the company is still run by members of the same family and generates more than $100 million a year producing organic, fair trade soap. The company has placed a cap on executive pay, ensuring that higher-ups don’t earn more than 5 times the wages of the lowest paid workers and about a third of its profits go towards charitable endeavors, including efforts to legalize cannabis and hemp. Current CEO David Bronner has been arrested twice for hemp, once for planting seeds in the lawn of the DEA and another time for locking himself in a cage with hemp plants in front of the White House. It shouldn’t come as a shock that David has joined the cannabis industry and that he is bringing the same ideals that have fueled Dr. Bronner’s into his cannabis venture with Flow Kana, as 7×7 reported:
Convinced he was working with “the real deal,” that led to the launch this month of Brother David’s, Bronner’s nonprofit and ecologically responsible cannabis brand of sun-grown from around 14 partner farmers, many of those same small farmers he met through Flow kana—all Sun + Earth certified organic, responsible, and sustainably.
The goal here is to create market demand for the kind of cannabis that—some day—will carry a USDA-certified organic label and compete for shelf space with coffee beans, kale, and chocolate grown by co-ops stewarding the land and paid a fair wage.
“Point of sale is the most effective vehicle for communication,” Bronner said. If a customer asks about responsible weed, the budtender can point to the Sun + Earth label and say that the cannabis is pesticide-free (California regulations allow some pesticides on commercial cannabis), and can say that the farmer is using responsible practices and is paid a guaranteed wage for the crop that won’t go below an agreed-upon floor even during bust cycles when the market is flooded.
LEGALIZE CANNABIS.
— Dr. Bronner’s (@DrBronner) May 28, 2019
David Bronner, who I have had the pleasure of meeting once, like many of us, have grown weary of corporate control over the cannabis industry, squeezing out small farmers and mom-and-pop operations. It is great to see someone that has kept true to his progressive values in a mainstream business sector bring their talents to the cannabis space. Hopefully, customers will seek out Sun + Earth certified (and similar) products and support people like Bronner. More entrepreneurs and companies will then follow suit as doing good things will also prove to be good business.
To learn the latest about the cannabis industry, there is no better place to be than the International Cannabis Business Conference. Next up: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, this September 15-16. Get your early-bird tickets today.
