Research:2022-01-30/Journal article/why-the-concept-of-terroir-matters-for-drug-cannabis-production

Why the concept of terroir matters for drug cannabis production

Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy

GeoJournal· 2022

Foundational treatment of terroir and landrace as analytical concepts for drug cannabis. Argues against fixist readings of terroir, treating it instead as a modern concept describing how environmental and cultural factors shape the typicity of an end product within a delimited area. Builds the bridge to landrace via shared characteristics: both result from interactions between physical and human factors, both are spatially and historically anchored, and the most distinctive terroirs are those whose products are issued from an autochthonous landrace. Reviews evidence from coffee, tea, hops and grapes that soil, climate, water source and biotic stress influence secondary metabolite profiles, then extends the argument to cannabinoid and terpene expression in cannabis, citing Bershaw's preliminary Oregon work on soil chemistry effects across cultigens. Surveys the world's cannabis landraces from Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal through Xinjiang, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Lebanon, Morocco, southern and east Africa, Jamaica and Latin America, noting that most landrace names are exonyms and that introgression from modern hybrids since the 2000s has put many at risk. Distinguishes site from situation in localisation, arguing that large cannabis production areas owe their existence less to biophysical optima than to politico-territorial control deficits, and that classic conservation policies struggle in regions with weak state capacity, no major corporate presence and limited conservation culture. Concludes that the legalisation green rush threatens to erode the genetic, cultural and sensorial diversity that illegality and isolation paradoxically helped preserve.

2022-01-30 2026-05-04 Why the concept of terroir matters for drug cannabis production Journal article Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy GeoJournal 2022 10.1007/s10708-022-10591-x https://www.geopium.org/why-the-concept-of-terroir-matters-for-drug-cannabis-production/ https://www.geopium.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Chouvy-2022-Why-the-concept-of-terroir-matters-for-drug-cannabis edit.pdf Foundational treatment of terroir and landrace as analytical concepts for drug cannabis. Argues against fixist readings of terroir, treating it instead as a modern concept describing how environmental and cultural factors shape the typicity of an end product within a delimited area. Builds the bridge to landrace via shared characteristics: both result from interactions between physical and human factors, both are spatially and historically anchored, and the most distinctive terroirs are those whose products are issued from an autochthonous landrace. Reviews evidence from coffee, tea, hops and grapes that soil, climate, water source and biotic stress influence secondary metabolite profiles, then extends the argument to cannabinoid and terpene expression in cannabis, citing Bershaw's preliminary Oregon work on soil chemistry effects across cultigens. Surveys the world's cannabis landraces from Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal through Xinjiang, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Lebanon, Morocco, southern and east Africa, Jamaica and Latin America, noting that most landrace names are exonyms and that introgression from modern hybrids since the 2000s has put many at risk. Distinguishes site from situation in localisation, arguing that large cannabis production areas owe their existence less to biophysical optima than to politico-territorial control deficits, and that classic conservation policies struggle in regions with weak state capacity, no major corporate presence and limited conservation culture. Concludes that the legalisation green rush threatens to erode the genetic, cultural and sensorial diversity that illegality and isolation paradoxically helped preserve.