Meet Nathaniel Pennington, Founder and CEO at Humboldt Seed Company

Nathaniel has been breeding cannabis and working to restore rivers and salmon populations in Humboldt County for over 20 years. In this episode, Nat shares his passion for sustainability, saving rivers, supporting tribal and local communities, and extracting terpenes from cannabis for their divine aroma. His company develops quality seeds from the best of NorCals decades of homegrown, multi-generational genetics.

He believes creative breeding is the way forward for craft farmers and is passionate about ensuring that cannabis remains a plant for the people and not a corporate commodity. Pennington’s hope is that Humboldt Seed Company’s Pheno Hunt Program will deliver the strains of the future, providing medicinally valuable stable seed lines and specialty strains that will invigorate the market.

Before taking on his role at Humboldt Seed Company, Pennington worked in salmon genomics, which gave him the background to understand the need for unbiased cannabis genomics research. Pennington founded Humboldt Seed Company in 2001 to provide strong cannabis genetics to the community that wouldn’t require pesticides or fungicides. With a deep foundation in Humboldt County and a strong affinity for community, he has founded several nonprofit organizations, most recently Nature Rights Council, an environmental organization led by Humboldt’s indigenous youth. Pennington was instrumental in the negotiations that led to the agreement to remove four dams that blocked salmon runs on the Klamath River, thought to be the world’s largest river restoration project.