Cannabis is in danger of going the way the rest of agriculture has gone: toward monoculture, centralization, and restrictive patenting.
The Open Cannabis Project (OCP) was established by industry leaders to resist these forces and to protect the genetic diversity of the Cannabis plant as well as the economic diversity of the cannabis industry.
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has started granting patents on cannabis varieties. Agricultural patents are generally bad for the environment, for farmers, and for the future of crop plants themselves.