In 2001, Nathaniel Pennington made his way to the Humboldt County courthouse in California to obtain a business license. He remembers feeling nervous as it was still early in the game to be involved in the cannabis industry. When he discovered that the name Humboldt Seed Company was available, he was asked what he did for work. His response? “I make all different kinds of seeds.” The name Humboldt Seed Company (HSC) was directly inspired by the county itself, which has long been known as the hub for the best cannabis in the world, according to Pennington. “Growing up on the East Coast, everyone knew that the best weed came from Humboldt County. Even in high school in Philadelphia and New York, I was aware of this place on the other side of the country called Humboldt.”
At the age of 18, Pennington moved to California and immediately fell in love with Humboldt County. While it was always a given that he would end up growing some weed, back then, cannabis wasn’t a viable career option. “If I had gone and shouted it from the rooftops, I would have been arrested,” he recalls. In addition to breeding cannabis as a hobby, Pennington also worked on some of the largest river restoration projects in history. This is why HSC’s values are deeply rooted in environmental and social justice, which aligns with Pennington’s background as a salmon biologist. “I’ve always been interested in both things, to be honest. My work with salmon taught me a lot that I have applied to my breeding strategies. One of the last grants I wrote was a genomic study, and we received $100,000 to study the difference between spring and fall salmon. We found the difference, and spring salmon were added to the endangered species list. It was really cool stuff.”
A year after Pennington’s move, California voted in favor of Proposition 215, also known as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, which legalized medical marijuana. The interesting part, according to Pennington, is that even in those early days, he was already known as the go-to guy for seeds. “People would call me in December, January, and February, asking, ‘Hey, can I compensate you? What do you want for these seeds?’ At first, I didn’t want any money. I would just say, ‘Bring me a six-pack and we’ll hang out.’ But eventually, my girlfriend at the time pointed out that I didn’t need any more beer, and I started accepting payment offers.” However, his initial goal was never to make a profit or build a large business. While Pennington modestly admits that he was in the right place at the right time, he also saw a lot of careless breeding and knew he wanted to make a difference. For him, it was important to have uniform plants when working with farms or being a farm himself. As he puts it in a hipster journalistic writing style, “You want to have uniform plants, man.
