On a beautiful day in March, twenty-three of us sat in Old Town Petersburg, Virginia, listening to Marco Thomas teach the principles and practices of natural farming. 

The spot was Marco’s urban farm beside the Appomattox River. His wife Nikki has an adjoining salon business. We were a diverse group in every way. There were experienced and new growers, young and old, folks from down the block and from afar. We were all drawn to this spot by Marco’s mastery of ways to produce your own food and herbs of the highest quality, at low cost.

Blending Sustainable Practices 

Marco’s wizardry uses the powers and methods that nature itself reveals to those who know how to look and listen. He blends Korean Natural Farming, JADAM Organic Farming, the Soil Food Web work of Dr. Elaine Ingham, the horizonal soil approach of Leighton Morrison, and his own creativity and experience as a builder and aquaculturist. He has woven these threads into a compelling set of methods that anyone can apply. 

Marco asked our group, “Who here is interested in applying these methods to cannabis?” 

All hands shot up. Smiles spread all around. We instantly felt connected. 

He then walked us through a discussion and demonstration of ways to collect and use indigenous microorganisms to build soil health and productivity. In this approach, the grower feeds the biology that makes soil nutrition available to the plants. The plants can then take up what they need when they need it. 

He showed us how to use “weeds” from our yards and gardens to make fermented plant juice as fertilizer; how to lower costs further using microbes we could collect, to make and use JADAM liquid fertilizer; how other inputs, such as fish amino acids and JADAM herbal solution, were available for our use with just a little knowledge and effort. Even natural pesticides and a beneficial potion, Oriental Herbal Nutrients, were brought within our grasp by the end of the class.

Bringing Regeneration Home 

Today Marco has moved on to raising rabbits and chickens with self-warming, living soil and an aquaculture setup that feeds and waters his plants and animals, while providing a beautiful little pond and waterfall oasis on a city lot that was long fallow, ravaged in the nineteenth century by war and in the twentieth century by deindustrialization. 

Marco’s vision for his place in Petersburg is an urban farm and farmstand, where he, his family, and neighbors can share their produce and show visitors how it’s done. 

“Petersburg is an old city, one of the poorest cities in Virginia. I’m not saying that in a negative light, I’m not above it, it’s my place. My wife and I, we could move anywhere.” Marco said. “But Petersburg needs people like us to stay and rebuild the city. It’s happening. We’re part of that. It’s a food desert today, but we’re working on that, from the ground up. Part of my role is teaching people that even with small city lots, you can grow your own healthy food, some of it at least. We have friends growing now who will someday share their food through our farmstand.”

The Growth of a Grower

As a cannabis grower, Marco has evolved over the decades in ways that many experienced growers will recognize. From first naïve efforts dropping seeds in the dirt outdoors in the 1990s, through the full gamut of hydro setups and salt nutrients, to super-soil in the era of the early internet growing forums, to living soil, he has kept working and improving quality, while lowering costs. 

Now he is in the avant-garde of regenerative methods with his blend of approaches to diverse, healthy microbial life. His methods teach us how to close the circle with our own grows. We can learn to rely on creativity and local resources, rather than a one-size-fits-all recipe and bottles of products we don’t really understand. 

A wider audience is paying attention. Starting with his IG page, Microbes by Marco  (@Marco_is_Growing), and moving on to a widely watched, weekly YouTube show with co-host Bryan Wachsman, the Bryan and Marco Show, he has built an online community of natural farming devotees who willingly share their expertise and experiences. And why wouldn’t the world pay attention to a grower whose methods have been rewarded with the Grand Champion entry in the 2023 National Cannabis Competition?

Marco won “Best Overall” for his flower entry, Divine Pine, his selection from a collaboration between the breeders Beleaf Seeds and In House Genetics. He continues to work on his lines while holding the grand champion’s belt. The proof of his methods is in the flowers he grows.

Marco shows the future can be bright for breeders and growers in Virginia. And why not, given that his spot is just a few miles upstream from the place where the first English settlers grew cannabis in their New World, and received the sacred tobacco plant from indigenous people who had farmed the area’s fertile soil for thousands of years?  

Looking ahead, Marco expressed, “What we want to do is continue to educate. I like to see the grow shops, the hydro shops, and the cannabis businesses that want to do right by the community bringing in the natural farmers. I want to grow and show that simple methods, plants feeding the plants, feeding the microbes, and keeping it simple lets you grow your food and your herb at low cost. I value self-sufficiency as the way to sustainability. I don’t want people to think they can’t grow because they are running out of bottles of nutrients they don’t understand. We gotta have more education.” 

Even a poor, post-industrial urban place like Petersburg can become fertile ground for sustainability.

As  Virginia political leaders discuss and debate the Commonwealth’s approach to adult-use production and sales, and also work on economic development in impoverished southside Virginia, they would do well to consider how natural farming can help with both policy problems. 

To those of us there at his workshop, Marco represents the wider, longer view of wellness. There are products that can help individuals with their life challenges and quest for happiness, for sure. But the real path to wellness—the path that makes good products possible, the path that leads to longer-lasting health--starts with soil, water, and air. Our agriculture and medicine should support, not threaten this path. Cannabis growers and lovers can lead the way. Marco is showing us how.