Justin Schoonover
A conversation with our Head of Cultivation.
“I really like helping people. This is a new industry that’s going to grow. With that we get to create a new business that will give people jobs, help support families and households, and lift up local communities.”
We figured that you might want to get to know a little bit about Justin Schoonover, our Head of Cultivation. So I sat down with him last week, and talked about his past, the start of Deschutes Growery in Oregon, our present plans, and a little bit about the future.
LG: “Of course the first question that everyone always asks me is “What made you go into cannabis? So, I’ll jump on the bandwagon and ask you the same thing.
JUSTIN: Well, like a lot of kids in our generation, I was diagnosed with ADHD in MIddle School. However, for whatever reason, my parents refused to put me on the medicine that the doctor prescribed. Then, I discovered that Cannabis allowed me to calm down and concentrate more. So I started self-medicating, albeit younger than I should have been.
Then, I was 22, I was in a horrible snowboarding accident, resulting in traumatic brain Injury that required me to re-learn how to walk. That’s when I became a Medical Cannabis patient for the pain and anxiety. I started growing cannabis for myself, then I started growing for other patients. This was my entry into the Cannabis Market.
My growing grew till I had both an indoor and outdoor grow on a farm near Bend, Or. Then, about 5 or 6 years later I was approached to help start Deschutes Growery, as the Head of Cultivation.
We turned an old warehouse into our facility and became the second licensee in the State. Our concentration was cultivating in live soil, growing the best genetics, efficiency and sustainability. We were doing something right because we suddenly started to win all these awards for our flower.
LG: Now, Oregon was one of the first states to legalize Cannabis and has seen its share of growth, plateauing, and even a dip in the industry. How did you manage to stay successful through all of that?
JUSTIN: Yea, we successfully rode the waves of the cannabis boom in Oregon. I would say it was because of a few factors; first being early in the market and getting established allowed us to have all our large expenses paid for. Secondly, it was our concentration on efficiency. So when the market fell, because we already had everything on track and in place and we were cost-efficient, we were able to go into reserve mode and cruise through it all.
We’ve got a lot of great ideas for the future, some that enhance current experiences, but a lot that will be totally new, and that’s what’s really exciting.
LG: You talked about the importance of efficiency. So what’s your overall strategy in cultivation?
JUSTIN: I'm all about creating a biomass scenario that fills the space. Not only horizontally in a room, but vertically as well, maximizing every bit, top to bottom. When I did that,I found that I was using less HVAC, had less cooling needs, and was able to control humidity a lot better.
I’m also all into live soil. It gives you the best results, but it also can be very forgiving. You’ve got a lot of systems in a facility going on at once, and whether it’s human error or equipment failure you have a wider range of forgiveness, thus less chance of loss.
LG: With all things that are involved in cannabis cultivation, what intrigues you the most.
JUSTIN: I really enjoy how it’s fast paced. You can watch your efforts grow and see the results quickly. You take all that energy and attention, it can even be human energy, and gets transferred into a plant. Then that energy gets transferred to people, it brings them in, brings them together.
Seeing how the whole process comes together is amazing. You know you hear the phrase, “seed to sale” in the industry, and it’s fine to think like that. But for us it’s bigger than that. It’s almost like “seed to soul”. Every part of cannabis is an experience. That’s how we think of it.
I also still really like helping people. This is a new industry that’s going to grow. With that we get to create a new business that will give people jobs, help support families and households, and lift up local communities.
There’s a lot of excitement about the plant, and we’re going to be tapping into that.
LG: So then with all this excitement, where do you believe the industry is going?
JUSTIN: I've always drawn a pretty tight correlation to the alcohol industry, prohibition, and bootlegging.
When prohibition was repealed, big money came in and created big brands. But moonshine stills in the hills were still producing — that's sort of where cannabis is right now.
Big money has already started coming in and taking over. But just like in beer, there will be a draw to the craft market. Craft beer over Coors light. There's always gonna be a Coors Light drinker out there, someone who wants the cheap six pack or the cheapest high.
However, we're creating a product with more integrity, and we’re going to educate the consumer on what we're doing and why we're doing it that way. There’s a large section of consumers, especially younger ones that want the brands they associate with to have shared beliefs and ideas.
That’s one of the great things about LoveGrow. Here we have founders that are all of the same beliefs — socially, and environmentally — with a dedication to responsibility, to our consumers, and our employees.
LG: So, what’s the road map for the future?
JUSTIN: Passionate innovation. And what I mean by that is that I truly believe that inorder to create real innovation and make waves in an industry you have to love it and live it. Sure you can have innovation without the passion, but it falls short. When people create with passion, there’s a connection at a human level, it’s not something you can quantify, but it’s something you feel, that you experience.
We’ve got a lot of great ideas for the future, some that enhance current experiences, but a lot that will be totally new, and that’s what’s really exciting.