Help Us Save The Farm
Von Kooi Family Farms enveloped with haze from the Dixie Fire, Fall 2021.
We’ve been hanging on by a thread for years, and now we’re asking for your help. Von Kooi Family Farms was a hard-earned dream, but now it’s in jeopardy of being lost.
THE STORY
We are a small, family-owned and operated farm built from the ground up – literally. Over the course of 15 years, Kris Kooi, owner and operator of Von Kooi Family Farms, turned raw, wildfire-stricken land into a working farm in Concow, California. In 2009, there were no roads, no wells, no working farmable space, but the vision was there.
In those fifteen years, he purchased four plots of land next to one another to accumulate an 80-acre property. He carved out the forest and built roads, dug wells, masticated wildfire debris and flattened three acres suitable for farming. He fed the soil with cover crops and organic fertilizer. He poured blood, sweat, and tears, including every spare dollar, back into that land.
Kris has always seen himself as a steward of the land – privileged to be able to care for the land, to shape it and mold it, to benefit future generations and honor the Konkow peoples who once called that same region home.
He molded that land into his dream – a legacy farm, to serve those who have been marginalized for using cannabinoids as medicine. To serve those who realized that pharmaceutical companies were doing more harm than good, and that effective medicine can arrive right out of a seed.
In 2021, Von Kooi Family Farms became a self-sustaining, regenerative farm utilizing solar power and organic practices to cultivate high quality hemp nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. We got licensed to be hemp product manufacturers, seeing the value in being vertically-integrated and having our hands in every step of the process from seed-to-sale.
We became first-generation farmers with the hope to grow safe, valuable, and effective therapeutic products to support consumers suffering from various ailments, from chronic pain, to cancer, insomnia, crippling anxiety, and more. We succeeded in that mission, developing products using full-spectrum hemp extracts, grown organically on our farm.
It was October 2021 when new California legislation pulled the first rug out from underneath us, right as we were harvesting our first hemp crop for smokeable flower. We had already invested thousands of dollars in cultivation, licensing, packaging and marketing for that product. But having no other choice, we shifted our focus to a goal that was waiting on the backburner: a farm-to-can cannabinoid-based functional beverage line using our own ingredients.
And so Creek Water Botanicals was born. Creek Water Botanicals became the nation’s first farm-to-can hemp beverage company, using rare cannabinoids to produce functional effects for the consumer using minimal ingredients and maximum therapeutic potency.
With any large endeavor, we faced numerous challenges. We had to maintain farm operations, capitulate through government red tape, and overcome financial barriers to bring a brand new product of its kind to market while navigating an industry we were unfamiliar with. After all of the challenges we faced, we successfully launched our beverage with our 2-person team. Within a year, we secured distribution from one of the oldest beverage distributors in Northern California and gained over 100 retail locations across 4 states. Creek Water Botanicals was found at grocery stores, bars, restaurants, convenience stores, festivals, wellness spaces, concerts, and more, often becoming one of their top-selling CBD drinks.
This mom-n’-pop business handled farming, processing, manufacturing, branding, marketing, sales, warehousing, distribution, bookkeeping, shipping, and customer service all with a two-person team.
Just as we were gaining momentum (and at the same time expecting our first child), the unimaginable happened. In September of 2024, Governor Newsom declared an ‘emergency regulation’ on all hemp-products containing any trace amount of THC. There was no warning, no time to pivot; we had a warehouse full of prepackaged, canned beverages and our entire life savings invested in it.
Overnight, our products were pulled from shelves and our income ceased. Though we had operated legally under both CA AB-45 legislation and the federal Farm Bill of 2018, we were penalized alongside other hemp companies exploiting the loopholes of THC percentages.
It was clear who was behind the ban – alcohol sales have been dropping significantly since the introduction of hemp beverages. Big Pharma has seen a decrease in sales as the hemp and cannabis industries become more readily available and people are finding more natural alternatives to treat their ailments. Big Marijuana companies were frustrated with restrictions on cannabis-derived products and their perceived ‘lack of’ regulations on the hemp-derived product sector that affected their sales. All you have to do is follow the money to see who was responsible.
Since our livelihood was ripped out from underneath us, we have been struggling to maintain our ability to repay loans as well as hold onto the future of our family farm to leave for our son. We’re at the eleventh hour and we are finally reaching out for help before our land is foreclosed and the dream is lost forever.
WHAT WE’RE DOING ABOUT IT
We are launching this fundraiser to help bring awareness to the injustice that the hemp industry and small farms across the country are facing as big corporations move to kill the family farm. Your donation will help us continue to stand up against big business, maintain a family legacy, and provide healthful products to our community.
Because we are now banned from selling our hemp products as they were originally created, we cannot legally sell you anything from our inventory. However, you can support us by purchasing this merchandise or making a donation.
LIMITED-EDITION FUNDRAISER MERCHANDISE
Artist and illustrator Madeleine Greeson of Sister Yarrow has partnered with Von Kooi Family Farms to create these limited edition designs to help stand up against big business and defend small farmers.
Be a part of this crucial moment in time not just for this small family-owned business, but for all of the family-owned businesses across the country that are drowning from the weight of big corporations and billionaire oligarchy.
WHAT’S NEXT
Turning towards the future, we are setting our sights on transitioning from hemp and all of its legal complexities to planting an apple orchard to benefit future generations to come.
Your support helps us:
Pay back time-sensitive loans to avoid foreclosure
Pivot from hemp into apples
Keeps family farms alive in a time big corporations are moving to eradicate our sovereignty
Preservation of land, small farmers, and regenerative agriculture in a time where farm land is disappearing to development
Stick up to Big Pharma, Big Alcohol, and Corporate Marijuana and let them know we don’t buy their bullshit
We have until the end of the month to come up with $50,000 to avoid foreclosure on our farm. Now, we don’t expect to fund that goal entirely with just this fundraiser, but if we can make a dent in it, we will keep being scrappy to cover the rest.
This is a one-time opportunity to make a huge difference for us small farmers of Butte County.
Your donation will be used to:
(Immediate)
Pay towards the $50,000 loan
Payment towards other debts and taxes owed
(Long-term)
Keep the land and operations intact to transition to apple orchard
GRATITUDE
We cannot thank you enough for your participation in the defense of small legacy farms everywhere and for helping us hold the vision of a farm-forward future.
When our products were pulled from shelves and our website sales shut off, we received an outpouring of support and messages of disbelief. We set out to make peoples’ lives better with our medicinal products and it’s clear that we succeeded with that endeavor. We were humbled by how many people our products had impacted and we are calling on those same people to help us carry our dream forward. Our family has decided that farming is our best way to give back, and even though the government changed our ability to cultivate a crop with highly medicinal properties, we still want to be of service to our community by providing organic, quality food.
If you are unable to donate financially at this time, simply just helping to share our message is more than enough.
We will continue to be transparent and keep everyone updated about progress throughout the fundraiser and beyond.
Thank you for helping us hold the vision of Von Kooi Family Farms as a beautiful apple orchard for future generations to cultivate and cherish.
With love and humility,
The Kooi Family
