Over the years, the cannabis industry has found substantial success in marketing itself as an alternative medicine. While true, it seems that our cultural association with cannabis, that it’s natural and beloved by hippies, has spilled into our understanding of how the cannabis industry impacts our planet.
So, exactly how much water do cannabis farms use? It seems like it should be a relatively easy question to answer, but it isn’t. Recent data is spotty, and typically only exists for legal grow operations.
A commonly referenced statistic on water usage within cannabis grow operations comes from a 2021 study from the Journal of Cannabis Research, which found that on average, one cannabis plant needs 6 gallons of water per day. For example, an outdoor grow facility (of roughly 100 square feet) uses an average of 22 gallons per day during a grow season, which lasts about 150 days.
The study also found that, compared to other crops within the American agriculture industry, cannabis crops use significantly more water. According to the report, the production of wheat, corn, soybeans, cotton and rice uses less water than both indoor and outdoor cannabis grow operations.
For even more context, it takes about 3.2 gallons of water to grow one almond, another commodity crop known for its massive carbon footprint.
While I mentioned earlier that data on cannabis water use typically centers around legal grow operations, some research has revealed the environmental impact of illicit operations as well.
In California, researchers at the Berkeley Cannabis Research Center found that unlicensed cultivation centers use even more water than licensed cultivation centers, stating “unlicensed cannabis accounts for significantly more cultivated area than licensed cannabis farming and therefore has a much larger water demand footprint. Because unlicensed cannabis farms often have little to no water storage on-site, water is extracted from watersheds on demand.”
Extracting water from places like watersheds or streams poses a different set of environmental stresses, particularly during droughts. And considering the climate that we live in, water conservation would ideally be an essential component to our agricultural industry.
Naturally, the demand for cannabis continues to rise alongside cannabis legalization; unleashing a new era of manmade environmental problems. Water usage is only one part of the environmental impact created by the cannabis industry. Other factors like pesticide use, electricity, land use and plastic use are other environmentally damaging aspects of cannabis cultivation.
It would be foolish to ignore the natural consequences of this industry, especially while it’s still in its infancy.
This article appears in Feb 16-22, 2024.