Photos: Massive Mid-Michigan greenhouses churn out literal tons of weed along I-96

Ever notice those enormous greenhouses just off I-96 near Webberville? They’re filled with rows (and rows) of marijuana—and we got a chance to take a peek inside. 

WEBBERVILLE—Like many of Michigan’s small towns, the one-stoplight village of Webberville, about 20 miles east of Lansing, isn’t known for much besides its agriculture.

Corn, soybeans, and a few dairy and cattle farms surround much of the tiny, rural village. Diederich’s Berry & Produce Farm has the freshest strawberries in town; Choice Farm Market sells premium cuts of beef and other fresh, locally sourced goodies from local farmers.

And in the business park just off the highway, Ann Arbor-based C3 Industries fits in seamlessly, even with its several enormous greenhouses, a state-of-the-art processing laboratory, and enough marijuana on deck to keep the entire state of Michigan stoned for the rest of the year. 

Co-founder and president (and University of Michigan graduate) Vishal Rungta invited me inside the 125,000-square-foot cultivation and processing facility in Webberville for a tour.

So, of course, I’m bringing our MichiGanja Report readers along for the ride. 

The first stop was the clone room, where all the newborn plants stay before being planted.

Once they’re big enough, the plants move along to be planted inside one of the larger indoor cultivation rooms—or one of the several large greenhouses that are attached to the facility.

From there, some of the plants are harvested and bagged up to be sold—including at the High Profile dispensary across the street, which is also the only licensed pot shop in Webberville.

Some of the weed is ground up and loaded into pre-rolled joints. Other plants are processed further into a wide array of concentrates, vaporizer cartridges, and other cannabis goodies.

The Webberville facility is the main cultivation and processing facility for C3 Industries in Michigan—though the Ann Arbor-based cannabis company has expanded its operations in recent years to other states like Connecticut, Illinois, Missouri, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.

Rungta told me that as his cannabis company continues to expand, it’ll be difficult to match the rapid growth that his brands have had in Michigan, especially now that his Cloud Cover and Galactic products are lining the shelves at virtually every pot shop in the state of Michigan.

“If we could do every project in a type of setting like Webberville, we would do it in a heartbeat. The community has been so supportive,” Rungta told me. “When you can go into a smaller community and have an impact, it’s exciting. It feels like it means more to the community.”

The head of operations for the Webberville facility told me that he used to be a bigwig over at Kellogg—and that he brought some lessons in maximum efficiency with him to the weed game.

As it turns out, bagging up weed isn’t too different from bagging up Frosted Flakes.

Here’s me, cheesing it up in front of some weed after I was able to pick my jaw off the floor:

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