Lompoc (United States) (AFP)

Traditional farmers and cannabis growers are at loggerheads in one of southern California's renowned vineyards, where the grass rush triggered by the legalization of this drug leaves a scent of bitterness, especially among winegrowers.

Since November 2016 and the law authorizing the recreational use of marijuana throughout California, winegrowers and many residents of Santa Barbara County complain of being invaded by unwanted neighbors, whose cannabis would not only stoke the atmosphere but would also upset their way of life.

"This is the biggest threat to the wine industry I have seen since I arrived here 25 years ago," says Stephen Janes, manager of Pence Vineyards, about 200 km northwest. from Los Angeles.

In question: the dazzling development of farms cultivating cannabis, which have already colonized several hundred hectares thanks to a particularly flexible regulation in this county.

Millions of marijuana plants, each of which can be worth millions of dollars, literally flourished on the slopes of the Santa Ynez and Santa Maria valleys, alongside the vines.

Further south, in the small coastal town of Carpinteria, greenhouses hitherto dedicated to horticulture are now home to cannabis, to the chagrin of some residents.

"Now I have to wear a mask when I go out in my garden and my grandchildren do not visit me because of the smell," sighs Joan Esposito, who arrived 36 years ago in the city.

- "Cannabis dominates the market" -

In the hills of Santa Rita, famous for their pinot noir, a string of hoops covered with white tarpaulins stretches out of sight among the vineyards. This is again the precious cannabis.

"It does not look like anything we knew and it happened very quickly, nobody had anticipated the visual impact," says Kathy Joseph, owner of the Fiddlehead cellars and Fiddlestix vineyards. "Now it's cannabis dominating the market, in more ways than one," she says.

Wine growers, avocado producers and other traditional farmers complain of having to adapt their practices to the requirements of cannabis, in particular incompatible with the use of chemical pesticides.

"This is a nightmare," laments Ms. Joseph, against which a neighbor has complained, accusing him of endangering his grass by the treatments it sprays on his vines.

"I've been doing wine for 40 years, and as wine growers, we have strict controls," she says. "But this year, I'm probably going to lose my $ 50,000 chardonnay crop because I had to use a pesticide that is not as effective against mildew."

Asked by AFP, the organization representing some 900 cannabis growers in the county did not react.

Officials in Santa Barbara County, which sets the regulations governing the cultivation of soft drugs, for their part acknowledged that local authorities should have better frame the development of this market.

"I am very concerned about the impact of cannabis farms in the open air in the Santa Ynez Valley," said one of them, Joan Hartmann, who is working on corrective measures. .

- Odor control? -

Graham Farrar, president of the Association of Responsible Cannabis Producers, swears that his colleagues are doing everything they can to foster good neighborly relations. They install odor control systems and contribute to the local economy, he says to AFP.

"The community supports cannabis" and the smell is not a problem, he sweeps away. "A lot of people who talk about smell do not like it (...) because they think cannabis is immoral," says Farrar.

The argument is difficult to pass in Stephen Janes, which denies any opposition in principle to cannabis. Like his colleagues, he just wants to be able to continue his business without the smell of hemp contaminating the tasting rooms.

"The (wine) industry has been here for 40 or 45 years and contributes $ 1.8 billion to the local economy (...) I do not think it's fair that another industry comes in and forces us to change our ways, "he pleads.

Others prefer to leave without waiting to see if the situation will improve. This is the case of Maureen Foley Claffey, who grew up in Carpinteria and whose home is now surrounded by cannabis.

"All this has drawn neighbors against each other, I have already lost friends, and now I'm losing my house."

© 2019 AFP