Must-read local business coverage that exposes the trends, connects the dots and contextualizes the impact to Buffalo's economy.

Todd Giolando, owner of Derby's Three Cord Ranch, where cannabis is grown on Thursday, July 14, 2022.

Todd Giolando started growing hemp in 2018 for his daughter. 

Nikita, 12, has Down syndrome and the hemp seeds help with her digestion, Giolando said. 

Now, Giolando – at Three Cord Ranch, his small family farm in Derby – is among the first 200 New York farmers growing recreational marijuana. His product will supply the first licensed recreational cannabis dispensaries in the state, slated to make their first sales before the end of the year. 

The licenses allow them to cultivate marijuana and sell it to processors or dispensaries that will then sell to the public for recreational use.

Giolando was awarded his cultivator license from the state in May. He's growing nine types of marijuana in 12 greenhouses and set up his planting schedule so he will be able to harvest from August through December. 

His homemade greenhouses are lined with cannabis plants of varying sizes growing in black pots. Giolando put a chair in each greenhouse, so he can sit and take in the earthy scent. Though he doesn't smoke marijuana himself, he said being around the plants makes him feel better. 

A view of cannabis growing in a greenhouse during a tour of the Three Cord Ranch in Derby on Thursday, July 14, 2022.

The transition from growing hemp to marijuana was a "science experiment" that involved a lot of research before getting a plant in the ground, Giolando said. 

"You don't just throw seed in," he said. "It takes a lot of work, a lot of love." 

A vital part of Giolando's operation is Miranda Sherman, a Niagara County Community College student studying horticulture with an emphasis in cannabis. 

Sherman said she saw getting into the recreational cannabis industry as a way to make a living doing what she loves – gardening and farming. She started working with Giolando this year, and he is preparing to offer her an equity stake in the company, he said. 

But growing marijuana will not be a long-term business for Giolando, he said. His goal is to use the money from growing for a couple of years to stimulate his hemp business, Buffalo Botanicals. 

He has a 500-acre farm where he grows hemp, though this year he is renting the land to a neighbor to grow corn. It was too expensive to grow hemp this year, he said, and he wanted to focus his resources on getting his marijuana business off the ground. 

"We're not giving up the industrial hemp," Giolando said. "We want it to grow because it's a sustainable, green-energy product, it's plant based, nutrient dense. It simply it has to be brought to the front.

New York State offered the first growing licenses to small hemp farmers, bringing "significant economic opportunity for small farmers across the state," Office of Cannabis Management Chief Equity Officer Damian Fagon said Thursday during a tour of Giolando's farm. But after the two years, the state will open up licensing to everyone, meaning big corporations will be able to set up shop in New York and dominate the cannabis market. 

A cannabis bud at the Three Cord Ranch in Derby. 

"They gave us two years," Giolando said. "We're gonna make the best of what we can do in two years and hope for the best."

However, Office of Cannabis Management Executive Director Chris Alexander said he believes small farmers will still be able to compete with the big corporations because of their head start and the sheer size of New York's future cannabis market. 

"Instead of having the foundation of our adult use market be those big operators, we allow small farmers to get their foot on the ground so that they can develop products, they can develop the techniques and the skill set to compete," Alexander said. "So I think that's really the biggest thing that we could have done, give them an actual opportunity to compete at this level."

The state is also awarding the first dispensary licenses to New York business owners who have been impacted by a marijuana-related criminal conviction. Applications for those licenses are expected to open in August. 

Must-read local business coverage that exposes the trends, connects the dots and contextualizes the impact to Buffalo's economy.

I cover technology and startups for The Buffalo News. A North Tonawanda native, I returned to Buffalo in January 2022 after five years of reporting in Central New York and Wisconsin.

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The list of local Western New York farmers licensed to grow the first batches of legal recreational cannabis in New York is growing. 

As retailers and new entrepreneurs make the move toward the sale of recreational marijuana and products with higher THC levels, they are in limbo – awaiting regulations from the state and preparing for the application process expected to begin sometime this summer.

Todd Giolando, owner of Derby's Three Cord Ranch, where cannabis is grown on Thursday, July 14, 2022.

A cannabis bud at the Three Cord Ranch in Derby. 

A view of cannabis growing in a greenhouse during a tour of the Three Cord Ranch in Derby on Thursday, July 14, 2022.

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