Feature Story
Scouting the Perfect Genetics and Cultivation Team
Who do you want joining your cultivations’ dinner party?
by Clayton Stallings, The EVOLUTION Magazine
Scout & Seed may be the newest genetic hunting cultivation to hit the Missouri scene, but scouting for seeds and genetics is nothing new for this team. From the moment founder James Christensen first got his driver’ s license, he was hitting the road to chase his first cannabis genetic connections.
“ I go back with these genetics to the early 2000s when I was moving packs from Northern California,” explained Christensen.“ My first run was to Northern California as a 16-year-old in 2001. I had just gotten my driver’ s license and told my parents I was at a sleepover while I really drove from Phoenix to Northern California and back. It was pretty gnarly. My best friend in the world’ s older brother had moved up there and had a farm with Mandelbrot and Ras Truth, with Emerald Mountain Legacy, and they were growing OG Kush and Sour D. My buddy’ s brother maintained the seed bank after Mandelbrot passed away.”
Many years later, when Arizona passed legal medical cannabis, Christensen’ s reputation in the legacy market was harnessed to carry the culture into the state’ s first legal greenhouse in 2014.
In 2019, his team landed a retail license and an MIP in Missouri, but they knew it wouldn’ t be sustainable without a cultivation license. After several years, they finally secured their new genetic-hunting cultivation license with a powerhouse of industry team leaders.
Every newly commenced cultivation facility in the Missouri market has ONE full year to bring in clones during what the state calls their“ Immaculate Conception” phase. It is rare to see cultivators already sourcing seed genetics during this first year, when it is much easier to bring in clones from cannabis plants that have already proven their worth. Although Scout & Seed did take advantage of this immaculate conception of clones, they were already popping seeds from day one of operation.
Since the goal was to scout out the best seeds and the best qualified cultivation experts, what better name than Scout & Seed? Each one of the Scout & Seed team leaders boasts not only an extensive resume but also deep connections in global genetic hunting circles.
Christensen is the perfect Martha Stewart dinner party host of the Scout & Seed team. He not only cultivates the“ legacy” culture through his seed genetic relationships but also scouts out the ideal guests( team) to be around for the perfect cultivation dinner party. Who would you want to be sitting at your cultivation facility’ s dinner party table?
You definitely want a cannabis professor at the dinner table. One to cut through the bioscience BS you see all over the internet with wannabe growers and AI misinformation. If you take a quick look at St. Louis Community College at Meramec’ s website, you’ ll see that Sarah Moore( Scout & Seed propagation manager) not only aims to do that as a cannabis cultivation professor for the college, but she is also the one who created the curriculum for the class.“ Our program at Meramec focuses on the cultivation of cannabis and hemp and also manufacturing cannabis products,” explained Moore.“ It aligns best for our horticulture degree. What sets our program apart from other schools is the hands-on learning portion and labs in our classes. Not only do we have new state-of-the-art facilities for our students, but the horticulture program also has its Hemp Cultivation License from the USDA, which allows our students to work with real hemp plants.”
Sarah Moore, propagation manager for Scout & Seed.
( Photo by Clayton Stallings)
Meramec’ s horticulture program is the highest-enrolled horticulture program in the nation. Because Meramec’ s administrators and staff work closely with the Saint Louis area’ s cannabis horticulture industry, most of the program’ s students either have job offers lined up after graduation or gain a job in the industry while enrolled in the program.
28 November 2025