Advanced Nutrients' controversial banner for protesting against hydroponic hijacking

Sep 4 2009

On the day that the Man burns at the legendary Nevada Burning Man event this year in the Black Rock Desert, partiers will see a giant marijuana bud banner flying overhead.

The huge banner, which has already flown over Seattle Hempfest and San Francisco, features a glistening marijuana flower, along with lettering that asks the question "Want Big, Sugary Buds?"

The controversial banner is the brainchild of Michael "Big Mike" Straumietis, co-founder of international hydroponics nutrients manufacturer Advanced Nutrients.

"We fly this banner to protest the hydroponic hijacking of our industry by a cadre of good old boys who ration information, goods and services to orchestrate a takeover of hydroponics commerce that hurts growers, retailers and vendors," says Straumietis.

Ever since he went public with his protests, Straumietis has drawn widespread applause for his documented claim that five hydroponics companies (Hydrofarm, Sunlight Supply, General Hydroponics, Botanicare and Technaflora) have used waste and abuse to interfere with the free flow of hydroponics information, goods and services.

Straumietis notes that Americans spend hundreds of millions of dollars per year on hydroponic equipment and supplies and the majority of those materials grow medical marijuana.

"I hear serious complaints about the good old boys hydroponics hijacking," Straumietis says. "From sick and dying medical marijuana patients discouraged from growing their own medicine because the good old boys ration and deny access to hydroponics information. From hydroponics retailers sick of the good old boys interfering with the open market. From hydroponics inventors and manufacturers indignant about the good old boys blockading access to the hydroponics marketplace."

Unlike the Burning Man Project, in which tens of thousands of people show up to co-create a desert democracy community every year, the good old boys' hydroponics hijacking runs the hydroponics industry like a medieval kingdom, Straumietis charges.

"These powerful hydroponics companies and distributors act like brutal dictators," Straumietis says. "Medical marijuana is legal in 13 states, but the good old boys refuse to test or design their products for marijuana, which limits the effectiveness of marijuana medicine. They won't let customers, hydroponics stores or hydroponics magazines discuss marijuana. They deny information and access to growers, companies and vendors."

Straumietis notes that ever since Advanced Nutrients was founded in 2001, it has chipped away at the good old boys' near-stranglehold on hydroponics commerce by creating a new generation of scientifically-designed nutrients and supplements that greatly improve the yield and potency of medical marijuana.

Tired of "dirty tricks" and monopoly tactics from the good old boys, Straumietis created his airborne bud banner that's half the size of a football field. The flying sensation made its eye-popping debut over the Maximum Yield Indoor Gardening Expo in San Francisco on July 26 and it also flew over Seattle Hempfest in August. After Burning Man, the banner flies over Southern California on Labor Day weekend.

"The energy, cooperation and passion of Burning Man will flourish in the hydroponics industry when we force the good old boys to stop their hydroponic hijacking," Straumietis says. "I issued a million dollar challenge for the good old boys to use their best nutrients against mine and see who grows the biggest, most potent buds. They're afraid to accept my challenge. But I will not rest until the good old boys have stopped harming patients, retailers and vendors."

Source: http://www.advancednutrients.com