Farms, not Pharms: CBD With A Mission

On November 12, 2020, I talked to Benjamin Joyce, CEO of Mission Farms to lean more about their company, their mission, why CBD is vital right now, and how they maintain a quality-centric balance at Mission Farms. 

Interview with Benjamin Joyce, CEO of Mission Farms

 

 

COMPANY INTRODUCTION TO MISSION FARMS

 

FROM OUR FARM, TO YOUR FAMILY:

You can probably relate to the start of our story. We have each had health challenges, or loved ones with health challenges, that the present pharmaceutical options weren’t helping.

Either we weren’t getting the relief we desired, the root cause wasn’t being addressed, or we had ongoing concerns with side-effects and overall health risks that came with contemporary treatments. Enter CBD.

 

 

WE DECIDED WE WANTED TO HELP MORE PEOPLE

We decided we wanted to help more people. Using new research and discoveries on how to increase and target the effectiveness of cbd, we began crafting blends of our CBD oil with essential oils and terpenes. The results were even better.

 

Read more in this blog post about how we chose our very special name.

 

CEO Benjamin Joyce, Mission Farms (third from left)

 

GIVING AWAY CBD TO THOSE WHO NEED IT MOST:

We donate our CBD products to Central Oregon Veterans Outreach, located in our hometown of Bend, Oregon (https://covo-us.org/), as CBD can be so helpful to veterans.

 

On November 12, 2020, I talked to Benjamin Joyce, CEO of Mission Farms to lean more about their company, their mission, why CBD is vital right now, and how they maintain a quality-centric balance at Mission Farms. 

 

Cannabis Law Report: Tell me about Mission Farms. 

 

Benjamin Joyce: Mission farms, is a farm family-owned CBD company. We launched a couple of years ago, and one of our co founders had been growing, award-winning hemp here in Oregon.

He was actually one of the very first people to farm in Oregon, and we wanted to create a way to provide this really high quality distillate that was coming from the farm to our family and friends, and ultimately our customers.

So we launched mission farms a couple years ago, and it’s growing very quickly. Our goal is really to provide a premium, highly effective CBD product to friends and family and customers across the country.

And we focus solely on using the high quality distillate that comes from our farm in Central Oregon —which is a fantastic growing region— with our volcanic soil. It produces amazing hemp, which we get great distillate from.

 

 

We also use unique high quality ingredients. We partner up with a local goat milk farm, because goat milk is a great carrier cream for CBD, and it also is effective. It complements CBD when used for skin rashes and eczema but it all starts with our choice of high quality ingredients. 

 

You need more organic essential oils as well, so it’s not just that ours tastes great, but people like then because of the particular terpenes that are in them. As you know, terpenes also work within the endocannabinoid system.

We select special essential oils that are high in the terpenes, producing really high quality products that are more effective, and people feel good again naturally.

 

 

CLR: Why the CBD space? What is the mission and vision behind Mission Farms? How does it align with your personal mission?

 

BJ: One of our co-founders had experience in farming and Oregon was one of the first states to legalize farming.

And he was one of the first people to do that, and so pretty quickly, he was producing award winning, winning hemp seeds from Oregon, considered to be one of the highest quality seed states in the U.S.

At the time, a number of us were friends. And we’re working on the farm, already growing, and we decided to create a way to get the high quality hemp. Period. And you’re wanting to get it into the hands of people, who would know the source of it.

The CBD market is unregulated, you know, and it can be difficult to trace the origins, where the CBD came from. At Mission Farms, we want to operate effectively in that unregulated market. We want to provide for consumers with a trusted source for CBD.

 

CLR: Please tell me about how Mission Farms specifically maintains transparency and accuracy beyond state regulations, both internally and externally.

 

BJ:

  1. First, we start by testing the soil.
  2. And then, as the hemp grows, we test again, but not just for potency, but for pesticides and chemicals also.
  3. Then we test the distillate.
  4. After it’s processed, then we test the final product again.

 

And so there’s four different testing times, in order to ensure all the way along that we have a pure, clean, natural product. That’d be one example.

 

CLR: I love that you brought up the the quadruple redundancy testing, because myself am a Florida Medical Cannabis Patient since I have Multiple Sclerosis. And I, like all consumers, count on these companies to have the best testing, and have all of the purity testing, all of it —not just potency. 

Speaking of consumers, mainly, there are two kinds of CBD/cannabis: (1) compassionate or people-centric, and (2) capitalistic or profit-centric. How do you reconcile the two in order to maintain a balance at Mission Farms?

BJ: People centric, but we continue to strive to stay people centric. You have to be profitable, or you will go out of business.

But, you know, the people tend to focus on people as part of our origin story. Every single one of us —co founders, either either individually or as a  member of our family— had some type of medical issue that was being treated with traditional pharmaceuticals.

A pharmaceutical offers whatever side effects. With CBD, people had discovered an all natural way to find relief and help you feel better.

Naturally, the discovery that CBD was an all natural alternative to, in some cases, dangerous pharmaceuticals. And when you experienced that difference for yourself, when you see that difference in a family member, that is what brings tremendous hope and a sense of mission for other people.

I think that the thing that keeps us going —because it’s been a startup is difficult enough— is being in an unregulated, rapidly changing industry, which is difficult and keeps us going. I’d like to start with PTSD.

The wife of a veteran with severe PTSD contacted us and says,  ‘My husband was sleeping through the night for the first time in a decade and I can’t tell you the difference, it’s amazing.’

Or there’s the woman who has fibromyalgia who says ‘The only time I’m not in pain during the day is when I’m in one of your relief CBD goat’s milk bath.’

And that’s my moment of relief every day, and so that’s our encouragement. That’s what keeps us going.

And in order to keep going, we have to stay profitable and enjoy. We just try to manage the business wisely and effectively so that we can continue to provide an effective product to customers.

 

 

CLR: In the June edition of CBD Business Times, 34% of respondent consumers have been using more Cannabis and CBD since the 2020 COVID-19  crisis began. In case of of our current crisis, Cannabis and CBD have been deemed, or defaulted to being, an essential service.

Why is quality CBD crucial right now more than ever? 

 

BJ: I think if you look at all the studies that are coming out, the degree of stress that people are under right now is unprecedented. The calls that are coming in to suicide hotlines are overwhelming, so we have a lot of a lot of stress and anxiety and obviously CBD, is an all natural way to treat that is unmitigated.

Of course when when when people are under stress as well that has other health effects on our body, and can inflame pain for example effects. 

Thankfully, CBD is a natural product that helps with pain and sleep, and with stress and anxiety, and this year is an opportunity for people who are experiencing those things to try an alternative to pharmaceuticals that might not be as helpful.

So that’s a good thing we’ve moved primarily direct-to-consumer, so we haven’t been distracted by retail locations on the globe.

We’re going to continue to provide shipped directly to customers who want to give CBD a try for the first time, or who have already found that it’s really helpful for them.

 

CLR: What has your business impact been? Are you doing anything new or differently? How have you evolved?

BJ: The main thing that we’ve done is that we have increased the amount of CBD the concentration of CBD and majority of our products.

We’ve lowered prices… we’ve been able to save some money on processing, and we decided we wanted to pass that savings on to the consumers.

We’ve been able to increase the concentration of CBD, and lower the prices, and just try to provide make our products more available to people and more effective for them.

 

CLR: Do you see any areas for improvement or suggestions for the rapidly expanding U.S. CBD space? 

BJ: Testing standards. They’re really aren’t any consistent standards, from state to state for testing, and labs are often allowed to have significant variance in their testing.

And so, that’s not helpful at all, because we want one consistent, accurate testing from lab to lab, and from state to state. The consumers deserve that. 

I think there could certainly be requirements for companies on posting their testing, making sure that they’re meeting standards.

But, you know, the way that capitalism works is that companies who aren’t willing to be compliant will get weeded out, which is a good thing. 

 

CLR: What future impact does Mission Farms actively strive to make in the growing national CBD space?

BJ: We want to innovate in order to provide the highest quality, most attractive products possible.

When we launched our product, we were really one of the very first companies to be selecting specific terpenes and adding those into products, in order to enhance them. Now a lot of companies do that, and the next frontier is beyond terpenes to other cannabinoids.

We want to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to the science and technology that’s being developed, so that we can continue to provide the most effective product possible. 

CLR: What advice can you offer to other CBD companies and brands? 

BJ: I think my advice my challenge would be, let’s do well by people, and by consumers. 

Let’s not wait, or, you know, for the government to put all the regulations in place to do the right thing, because consumers. The media are doctors, ever-watching. This is the industry to these companies and so let’s do the right thing.

Let’s do well by the people that we’re seeking to help and to serve, and not depend and wait for the government to tell us to do the right thing. I think that that’s really important. 

CLR: What advice can you offer to CBD consumers?

BJ: I think, to consumers, I would say there’s always the tendency to just get the least expensive product possible. The cheapest food, like fast food, isn’t the best food for our bodies. It isn’t going to help our bodies.

The same is true when it comes to anything that we put into our body. CBD products demand that consumers do research… and also, just be attentive to what you’re putting on your body.

It’s going to be worth it to take care of your body in the long term. You have to be your own health advocate, with CBD or otherwise. 

To check out the brand for yourself, click here.

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