Franco Loja of Strain Hunters dies at 42

On 2 January 2017 an official notice from Green House Seeds informed us that Franco Loja, one of the members and breeders of Strain Hunters, had died at 42.

Of Italian origin, Franco was part of Green House - the renowned Dutch cannabis seed company owned by Arjan Roskam - which is known for sharing information on strains and cultivation through its Youtube channel.

GH was awarded many times at different events, developing tens of strains while running their Coffee Shops in Amsterdam. In 2008 they founded the Strain Hunters collective.

SH developed a series of documentaries about landrace varieties and cannabis cultivation all over the world, visiting exciting places like Morocco, Colombia, Congo, the Caribbean...Franco and Arjan filmed hundreds of cannabis plants on their natural environment, meeting farmers and telling us the main aspects of cannabis cultivation in each country. They also developed an interesting range of Strain Hunters seeds, offering new genetics that represented the different expeditions in one way or another.

Franco was a great traveller, he was constantly moving from one place to another, and it was not strange to see him visiting farms in Canada, sleeping in an African taxi and relaxing in some club in Barcelona in the same week.

He was a very active member of the cannabis community, always ready to share a good joint and information at the countless fairs and events that he attended. For this reason Franco had lots of friends and fans, humbly sharing his passion with anyone ready to spend some minutes with him.

Franco died of Malaria on the 2nd of January while he was coming back from a trip to Africa, where he had been doing CBD extractions. We had the luck and pleasure to know him and work together, so we are deeply sorry for this loss and would like to express our condolences to his family, friends and partners.