“No Love Lost”: The Meaning Of Community
Our community is fractured—a mix of hustlers, healers, business owners, and vultures. No matter who you are, nothing strips the ego faster—or leaves you feeling more vulnerable—than having to admit your only option left is asking for help, and find out what community really means.
That’s where one licensed producer in New Mexico, Farm Flourish finds themselves right now—wedged between a cliff and a volcano: renew the license and fight for another year, or liquidate before it expires and the inventory gets trapped in BioTrack.
When a producer’s looking to exit, there are usually two paths. You send out the SOS, hold a fire sale. If you're lucky, the right people respond—someone sees the value, you make a few new allies, a few sales, catch a second wind, and you’re back in the fight.
Or the toxic players show up first. And the market reminds you: some crops only move when they’re on Clearance. And it’s not always because the product’s bad—after harvest and production, it’s hard to switch gears and throw on a sales hat. You can only hear “no” so many times before even getting in the car becomes a drag.
That’s what burns most people out. Not just the crop losses or permit delays—it’s the constant uphill climb. The situations don’t get easier. You just stop flinching.
And when it’s time to sell, the same questions always come up: “What do you have in inventory?” That’s a lot easier to answer when your system isn’t bloated with old, expired, or phantom stock. Is it bulk? Packaged? Tested? Every detail chips away at your clearance price.
Making the decision to walk away is never easy. But having a community, a network, can bring clarity. And truth is, once most people exit, they suddenly see all the mistakes they made—and get the itch to jump right back in.
Because hustling isn’t just what you do. It’s what you’re built for.
Its easy to say what a community should be, in truth its really what you make it. Sometimes it means just doing what can, when you can. Learn more about succession planning—and Farm Flourish—on our site.
