Support Small Farms, Not Big Pharma
Von Kooi Family Farms enveloped with haze from the Dixie Fire, Fall 2021.
Von Kooi Family Farms is a hard-earned dream come true, and like many small farms across the country, we’ve found ourselves in a critical moment.
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 adjacent plots of land to accumulate an 80-acre property. He carved out the forest, 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 care for it and shape 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 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 became licensed 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. With 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, navigate 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.
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, the State penalized all hemp companies – not just those 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 public access to effective hemp-derived products that affected their sales. Follow the money and it’s easy to see who was responsible for the ban.
Since our livelihood was ripped out from underneath us, we have been struggling to hold onto the future of our family farm to leave for our son. We’ve made many sacrifices to stay afloat, and it’s time to share our message.
What We're Doing About It
In addition to several other subsidiary forms of income, we are launching this campaign 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 participation is a way to stand up against big business, maintain a family legacy, and provide healthful products to our community.
While we navigate the ban on selling our hemp products as they were originally created, we cannot legally sell you anything from our inventory. However, you can support this movement by purchasing this merchandise, other non-regulated products, and sharing our message.
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 government bureaucracy 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 in this campaign helps:
Recoup monetary loss
Pay back debts and liabilities
Keep 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
This is your opportunity to defend small farmers against big corporations and their plutocracy.
Gratitude
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 provide highly effective cannabinoid medicine, we still want to provide healthy, quality produce to our community.
Your help in simply just sharing our message is more than enough.
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.
With love and humility,
The Kooi Family
