Let them do it if they want, but don't expect it to save small farmers. It isn't like vegetables - they're much better suited to farmers markets - and even there, you'll see some larger businesses (like Alvarez) do pretty well with that model. Fruits and vegetables can be fresher, and that's actually an advantage. Weed really has to be old and dried out, and there isn't really any physical property that you can delight customers with, it's just a plastic package. (I don't get around much, are smell jars still a thing? Haven't seen them.)

For that, the farmer has to drop what he or she is doing on the farm, and drive his box of packages out to Seattle, to stand around all day and smile and be a retailer, likely a job that doesn't strongly appeal to the average farmer. Or much more likely, since it's just old dried weed, the box can stay in Seattle and some part time city kid employee can do the smiling and read the fanciful descriptions of the effects off the packages. Very unlikely you'd be shaking any farmers' hands.

Best thing to save small farms, is find out who they are and buy their offerings.

@2 - The only real difference is that selling vegetables is seasonal where selling marijuana is year round. Selling year round means that farmers can have permanent retail facilities on site, they don't have to drag boxes of packages anywhere since buyers come to them.

You probably won't see the farm owners there selling their products but you do see people who are intimately familiar with them since they work for the farmer who grew the product. I like the idea of being able to buy plants, seeds, and cuttings for home growing, or finished products like we see in retail stores.

This would mean that farmers would have to agree not to undercut retailers prices for finished products, otherwise the farms could hurt the retail business much like the farms are being hurt by their inability to do retail.

There are so many aspects of this business in Washington state that make little or no sense whatsoever, to the point where I've seen people online using Washington as an example of how NOT to legalize marijuana, this schism between growers and retailers is just one of the glaring examples.