An Oakland couple shows why it might be good to let stoners grow their own weed supply.

Karissa and Region Lewis co-founded Full Harvest Farm, where they raise chickens, goats, and organic vegetables, after dabbling in marijuana cultivation, reported Grist.

Karissa Lewis said her mother, quoting the philosopher Howard Thurman, suggested that she ask herself what makes her come alive, and the couple realized their passion was pot.

ADVERTISEMENT

“So we just started growing copious amounts of pot,” she said.

Marijuana cultivation is a felony under California law, although growers are eligible for diversion if there is no evidence they intended to sell their crop.

Region Lewis said they soon began growing other crops when they were in season, and decided that farming was something they wanted to do with the rest of their lives.

“Most people call it the gateway drug – I call it the gateway plant,” Karissa Lewis said. “I haven’t started smoking crack, I’m not on heroin – but I do plant me a mean tomato.”

She said farming puts them in touch with their African roots, which she said is intimately tied to working the Earth.

ADVERTISEMENT

Six families now live at the Full Harvest compound, but even the livestock contribute to the operations.

“Goats like weed just as much as we do,” Region Lewis said.

However, they like the plant only in its vegetative state, so he lets them trim the plants.

ADVERTISEMENT

The livestock is allowed to roam free over the farm, but Region Lewis admits he and his wife have disagreed over caging them.

“She makes a very good point, and I’ve been able to experience it as far as going to other farms and seeing the chickens when they’re locked up and the other animals when they’re locked up,” he said. “They just don’t look as healthy as our chickens.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Karissa Lewis is more philosophical about giving the animals freedom.

“He’s formerly incarcerated, so he should be aware of what that does to somebody’s ability to feel free and nourished and alive,” she said.

Region Lewis said their farm offers a corrective course for the war on drugs – which he said was implemented to lock up black men like himself.

ADVERTISEMENT

“We’re never going to leave the roots,” Karissa Lewis said. “We will always grow pot.”

“That’s the way we came in, and that’s the way we feel like a lot of other folks can come into basically building a relationship to the Earth,” Region Lewis said.

Watch this video report posted online by Movement Generation: