Research:2022-11-23/Journal article/moroccan-hashish-as-an-example-of-a-cannabis-terroir-product

23 Nov 2022 Journal article

Morocco· Rif Mountains

Moroccan hashish as an example of a cannabis terroir product

Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy

GeoJournal· 2022

Develops operational definitions of terroir and landrace and applies them to cannabis cultivation in the Rif region of Morocco. Argues that hashish produced from the kif landrace meets the typicity, originality and reputation criteria of a terroir product, with the Rif as a delimited area where Berber communities have built up a collective production knowledge over a system of physical, biological and cultural interactions. Treats terroir as historically modern rather than fixist, and traditions as partly invented and reconstructed. Distinguishes site from situation as localisation factors: large-scale cannabis production requires both a biophysical site and a political-territorial situation marked by relative isolation from central authority, conditions the Rif has long met. Traces the etymology of balad, bled, beldi and beldiya to show that territory, terroir and landrace are expressed through variations of a single Arabic root in Moroccan Darija. Examines the contested historical-zone narrative and the five douars said to have been authorised under Moulay El Hassan I, drawing on Bellakhdar's 2021 proposal of Aït Aaksi, Griha, Ighmad, Azila and Talarouak. Concludes that the kif landrace cultivated before the 1960s no longer exists in unmodified form, that the introduction of hybrids in the 2000s and the 2021 therapeutic-cannabis legalisation are accelerating introgression, and that an appellation-style protection coupled with legalisation is the most plausible route to conserving the landrace, the agroecosystem and the regional economy.

Source DOI PDF

2022-11-23 2026-05-04 Moroccan hashish as an example of a cannabis terroir product Journal article Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy GeoJournal 2022 10.1007/s10708-022-10791-5 https://www.geopium.org/moroccan-hashish-as-an-example-of-a-cannabis-terroir-product/ https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-022-10791-5 Develops operational definitions of terroir and landrace and applies them to cannabis cultivation in the Rif region of Morocco. Argues that hashish produced from the kif landrace meets the typicity, originality and reputation criteria of a terroir product, with the Rif as a delimited area where Berber communities have built up a collective production knowledge over a system of physical, biological and cultural interactions. Treats terroir as historically modern rather than fixist, and traditions as partly invented and reconstructed. Distinguishes site from situation as localisation factors: large-scale cannabis production requires both a biophysical site and a political-territorial situation marked by relative isolation from central authority, conditions the Rif has long met. Traces the etymology of balad, bled, beldi and beldiya to show that territory, terroir and landrace are expressed through variations of a single Arabic root in Moroccan Darija. Examines the contested historical-zone narrative and the five douars said to have been authorised under Moulay El Hassan I, drawing on Bellakhdar's 2021 proposal of Aït Aaksi, Griha, Ighmad, Azila and Talarouak. Concludes that the kif landrace cultivated before the 1960s no longer exists in unmodified form, that the introduction of hybrids in the 2000s and the 2021 therapeutic-cannabis legalisation are accelerating introgression, and that an appellation-style protection coupled with legalisation is the most plausible route to conserving the landrace, the agroecosystem and the regional economy. Morocco Rif Mountains