Organic farmer on probabtion for pot plants

4/17/2014

MARYSVILLE, Ohio — The co-founder of one of central Ohio’s largest organic farms and a leader in the state’s farm-to-table movement lowered his head in court on Thursday and told a judge that he had damaged his reputation and hurt the causes he loves by growing hundreds of marijuana plants on the farm’s land in Union County.

“I gave up a lot of the good I’ve done,” said Adam Welly, co-founder of Wayward Seed Farm.

Welly, 33, will spend five years on probation for growing the pot, Union County Common Pleas Judge Don Fraser ruled.

Welly could also serve jail time if he does not fulfill the terms of his probation.

But Wayward Seed, which runs farms in both Madison and Union counties, will keep its land. Prosecutors had threatened to seize the 5-acre property where investigators found the plants, but agreed to let Welly keep the land as long as he pays a $10,000 fine.

Authorities raided Wayward Seed’s Union County farm last summer after investigators got a tip that Welly was growing marijuana there.