Appellation
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An appellation, in full an appellation of origin, is the geographical name of a country, region or locality used to designate a product from that place whose quality or characteristics are due exclusively or essentially to its geographical environment, natural and human factors included. The definition is that of the Lisbon Agreement of 1958, which protects a registered appellation against usurpation or imitation, even where the product's true origin is stated or the name is used in translation.[1]
California provided for appellations of origin for cannabis in its 2016 legalisation. Its Department of Food and Agriculture has since written regulations for them.[2] The geographer Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy has argued since 2020 that the kif and hashish of Morocco's Rif, made from the kif landrace, should receive a protected designation of origin.[3]
Place, product and specification
Under the Lisbon Agreement the country of origin is the country whose name forms the appellation that gave the product its reputation, or the country in which the region or locality of that name lies.[1] California's cannabis law keeps a plain statement of origin apart from an appellation. Its first provision lets a licensed cultivator name the county or city of origin when all of the cannabis was produced inside that county or city, as defined by political boundaries. Its second provides for appellations of origin, which include standards, practices and cultivars for cannabis produced in a geographical area.[4]
Chouvy ties the appellation of origin to the idea of terroir. He uses the definition of terroir drawn up by France's agricultural research and appellation institutes, INRA and INAO, with UNESCO: a delimited geographical area defined by a human community that, over its history, has built up distinctive cultural traits, knowledge and practices founded on interactions between the natural environment and human factors. He classes kif and Moroccan hashish as terroir products because they come from a tradition, have a reputation and are specific to their region of origin.[3]
A protected designation of origin requires a precise written specification, the cahier des charges, before it can be granted. For kif and hashish Chouvy proposed that it define the raw material (the kif landrace) and the methods of cultivation, harvest, drying, sieving of the trichomes and pressing. It should be drawn up with the cultivators who hold the knowledge.[3] In 2024 he argued that appellations of origin are the best intellectual property protection available for landraces and terroir products, because what needs protecting is tradition and collective ownership, not innovation and individual ownership. He added that neither appellations nor plant variety protection laws can control how third parties use a landrace, although appellations can help to protect landraces through the agro-ecosystems that go with them.[5]
A state programme in California
Appellations for cannabis were first introduced in California by Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, which voters approved in November 2016. The act required the Bureau of Cannabis Control to set up a process by which licensed cultivators could establish cannabis appellations; the authority later passed to the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA).[2] The statute required the CDFA to establish the process by 1 January 2022.[4]
The law sets two conditions on every appellation. Cannabis may be sold under an appellation only if all of the cannabis in the product meets the appellation's requirements and was produced in its area. An appellation may be approved only if it requires planting in the ground in the canopy area and excludes both structures such as greenhouses and hoop houses and any artificial light in the canopy area.[4] Only licensed outdoor cultivators may petition to establish one.[6]
The CDFA released proposed regulations on 20 February 2020 and has since completed two rounds of rulemaking. The first regulations were approved on 23 November 2021. The second round, released on 2 February 2024, requires all cultivation activities, from planting to drying, curing and trimming, to take place within the appellation's boundary.[2] In October 2026 the department was still finalising parts of the programme and was not accepting petitions; it expected to open the programme to them in late 2026.[6] Outside the state programme, Chouvy in 2022 called the Mendocino Appellations Project in the Emerald Triangle of northern California the most advanced geographical labelling process for a cannabis terroir.[7]
Proposals for the Rif
Law 25-06 of 6 May 2008 sets out Morocco's distinctive signs of origin and quality. By 2015, 37 Moroccan products had received a geographical indication, an appellation of origin or an agricultural label under it.[3] In his 2020 proposal Chouvy argued that smoking kif and Moroccan hashish made from the kif landrace should be added to that list with a protected designation of origin (appellation d'origine protégée), alongside organic and fair-trade labels. He calls trade names such as Ketama Gold and Double Zéro historic Moroccan appellations.[3] Morocco's Law 13-21 on the licit uses of cannabis was published in the official bulletin in August 2021.[8]
In 2022 Chouvy wrote that the criteria for defining and delimiting the Rif's cannabis terroir, or terroirs, were complex and contested, because of identity, economic and political rivalries. The criteria he listed include history and tradition, the so-called historic zone and five douars, what remains of the kif landrace, techniques of cultivation and production and claims of indigeneity.[7] The five villages are said to have been authorised to grow cannabis by Sultan Hassan I (r. 1873–1894). Chouvy writes that no written historical source appears to name them and that the claim rests on a foundation more mythical than historical. He considers it probably a case of invented tradition. The five that Jamal Bellakhdar has tentatively named all belong to the Senhaja de Srair confederation, three to the Ketama tribe and two to the Aït Seddat. Ketama lies at the centre of the circle they form.[7]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 World Intellectual Property Organization. "Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration of October 31, 1958, as revised at Stockholm on July 14, 1967, and as amended on September 28, 1979". WIPO Lex. Retrieved 16 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 California Department of Food and Agriculture. "Cannabis Appellations Program: regulatory archives". CDFA. Retrieved 16 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Chouvy, Pierre-Arnaud (2020). "Le kif, l'avenir du Rif ? Variété de pays, terroir, labellisation, atouts d'une future légalisation". Belgeo (in français) (1). doi:10.4000/belgeo.41353.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 State of California. "Business and Professions Code, section 26063". California Legislative Information. Retrieved 16 October 2026.
- ↑ Chouvy, Pierre-Arnaud (2024). "International property rights for Cannabis landraces and terroir products. The case of Moroccan Cannabis and hashish". International Journal of Drug Policy. 129 104479. doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2024.104479.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 California Department of Food and Agriculture. "Cannabis Appellations Program". CDFA. Retrieved 16 October 2026.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Chouvy, Pierre-Arnaud (2022). "Le cannabis marocain, du territoire au terroir". Les Cahiers d'EMAM (34). doi:10.4000/emam.4742.
- ↑ "Loi n° 13-21 relative aux usages licites du cannabis" [Law no. 13-21 on the licit uses of cannabis] (PDF). Bulletin Officiel (in français) (7010) (Édition de traduction officielle ed.). Rabat. 5 August 2021. Retrieved 15 October 2026.