Maximum Yield's Industry News | Vol. 18 Issue 06 2019 by Maximum Yield

SPANNABIS 2019: BIGGER AND BETTER THAN EVER!

JUNE/JULY 2019

LEARNING AND GROWING TOGETHER SINCE 1998

MEET

CANNA AUSTRALASIA CANNABIS VS. ALCOHOL GREENHOUSE GASES IN SOIL ROBOTIC FIELD SCANNER

Feature & Contents

The State of Science in the Cannabis Industry Where are we when it comes to studying cannabis, and why arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t we further ahead? David Hawley identifies the barriers science faces in researching cannabis, and why the ball is in the licensed producersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; court to conduct experiments.

First Feed

Groundbreakers

08 From the Editor

28 Spannabis 2019 Wrap-up

10 Good to Grow

32 Sponsored Content: Canna Australasia

18 Industry Buzz

36 The Challenge of Reducing Greenhouse Gas in Soil 40 Cannabis and Alcohol: Inevitable Rivals 44 Largest Robotic Field Scanner 46 Is Your Business Card Working for You?

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Up until recently, cannabis was illegal almost everywhere, so research funding was non-existent. It is only now becoming the focus of intense scientific research.”

VOLUME 18 NUMBER 06 June/July 2019

Maximum Yield Industry News is published monthly by Maximum Yield Inc. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without permission from the publisher. The views expressed by columnists are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of Maximum Yield or the editor.

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from the EDITOR TG Toby Gorman

ven now, as cannabis products flood many markets, there is still little science on how tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) affects the human brain. What we do know is that, anecdotally, pot makes us feel good, soothes health issues, and, in some cases, alleviates diseases like Parkinson’s to some degree. The reason for gaps in this information is simple; up until recently, cannabis was illegal almost everywhere, so research funding was non-existent. It is only now becoming the focus of intense scientific research. In the pharmaceutical industry, it takes years if not decades for a drug to pass through trials. We may not need cannabis to be subjected to such rigorous trials, but we do need to understand it better. Here’s what we know so far. The major active ingredient in pot, THC, resembles chemicals naturally produced in the brain called cannabinoids. Anandamide is one of those cannabinoids produced by the body. It affects our mood, appetite, energy levels, and sense of time. Anandamide is important because it keeps brain function balanced and regulated through our neurotransmitters. When used, THC takes over brain regulation normally handled by anandamide. This is where it gets tricky because each person’s reaction to THC is different, which is why different strains have different effects on different people. This is why common advice is to “keep trying different strains until you find one that does what you want it to.” Is this good enough? At the fifth Emerald Conference, most speakers didn’t think so. As David Hawley, who attended the conference, explains in his article “The State of Science in the Cannabis Industry” on page 22, more science is needed. Hawley suggests that science and licensed producers team up to provide a better baseline of information, though he admits challenges remain. “Producers understandably aren’t enthusiastic about a research partnership where they lose part of their production and hurt their bottom line,” he writes, adding “by performing proper experimental design… yours could be the company driving the forefront of cannabis research which everyone else wishes existed.”

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LOOKING ?

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ARE YOU

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1 | CanGenX MANTIS

2 | Hydrofarm —

3 | BlueSky Organics

MANTIS Buffered Nutrients is a medical grade, all-in-one pHbuffered plant nutrient concentrate, specifically designed for use with cannabis. It replaces laborintensive plant nutrition regimens and the need for pH adjustment with one convenient product. The concentrate delivers the optimal ratio of macronutrients to plants throughout the entire life cycle, in addition to maintaining a stable pH (within 5.2- 6.2). Being 200-times concentrated once properly diluted, the one-liter bottle yields 200 liters of nutrients solution.

Introducing the next generation of dirt pots, redesigned with the commercial grower in mind. Hydrofarm has partnered with RediRoot to create Commercial Dirt Pots — fabric planters designed for the commercial grower. Available in bulk packs and featuring a sturdy, topstitched rim for easier filling. Commercial Dirt Pots are recycled, recyclable, and BPA-free. Commercial Dirt Pots come in 14 sizes, from one gallon to 200 gallons, and the seven most popular sizes are also available with handles for easy lifting. Commercial Dirt Pots feature no root circling and breathable fabric for superior drainage and aeration.

Myco-grow is designed to give cannabis plants a massive root system. Myco-grow is a customized blend specifically designed to work in conjunction with the cannabis plant by rapidly colonizing and expanding the root system. According to BlueSky Organics, product trials have resulted in root systems from 100 to 1,000 times larger than untreated plants at the same growth stage. MYCO-grow is the newest product from the innovative plant scientists and master growers at BlueSky Organics.

Buffered Nutrient

— cangenx.com

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Commercial Dirt Pots

— hydrofarm.com

Myco-Grow

— blueskyorganics.com

4 | CANNA Rhizotonic

For more than 20 years, CANNA Rhizotonic has held the title of Holland’s No.1 organic root stimulant. With advanced oligosaccharide chemistry and bio-growth additives, it accelerates new root growth, thus reducing the growth cycle significantly in fast-growing plants. It protects against sickness by armor plating plants against pathogens. Rhizotonic contains a carefully integrated and balanced formulation of the finest Norwegian seaweed extracts, no less than 60 bio-growth stimulants, plus essential B vitamins boost overall plant growth, guaranteeing a superior, more powerful plant for bigger harvests. — canna.co.nz

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5 | CANNA Classic

A keystone to CANNA’s success in the horticulture industry is the outstanding performance of professional CANNA Classic Vega and CANNA Classic Flores two part (A&B) ready-to-use nutrient range. Use Classic for plants grown in all hydroponic systems and mediums where the required nutrients must be added to the irrigation water. CANNA Classic ensures healthy, lush green growth and heavy yields by precisely controlling the uptake of nutrients during the growth, flowering, and fruiting stages of fastgrowing plants. — canna.co.nz

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6 | Phenom Lighting

640W LED

Phenom Lighting’s 640W LED is a start-tofinish overhead lighting solution for commercial horticulture. The product has a PPFD level of 1,506 umol/m2/s at six inches above canopy. Phenom offers broad full-spectrum white light output via 3,500k Samsung LED diodes with a boost of red in the 660nm spectrum. From UV to deep reds, it’s a proven spectrum to produce high yields at the highest quality. The 640W is suitable for commercial multi-tiered gardens. — phenomlight.com

7 | Mite Buster Pro

Mite Buster Pro is a patented vacuum attachment specifically designed to eradicate spider mite webbing on a flowered plant before the webbing kills the plant or further stunts its growth. Often, spider mite infestation goes unnoticed until the later phases of the plants’ flowering cycle. Mite Buster Pro provides gardeners with extra mite-free days or weeks at the end of the flowering phase, without the need for pesticides or other chemicals simply by vacuuming up the mites and their webbing. — mitebusterpro.com

8 | Bud Box Grow Box

The Bud Box is a complete cannabis cultivation system that fits anywhere in your home (you can even use it as a TV stand in the family room). Growers can produce up to a pound of cannabis in three months. Bud Box comes assembled, delivered, and ready to go. It includes everything a cultivator needs (including LED lighting, nutrients, and ventilation) to grow and cure a cannabis crop, including a lock to keep kids and pets out. —bud-box.ca

SUNSHINE® MIX #4 - CULTIVATION MIXES Sunshine® Mix #4 products are professional, all-purpose growing mixes for all types of indoor or outdoor container crops. These specialty performance mixes are designed for controlled-environment crops that need increased drainage. They are ideal for growing plants in a wide variety of container sizes, from small cell packs to large pots and fabric containers. Sunshine® Mix #4 mixes are also the optimal choice for cutting propagation.

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9 | Hydrofarm — Procidic2

If your grow is valuable to you, protect it with Procidic2. Procidic2 is a systemic, broad spectrum bactericide and fungicide specifically created to protect medical cannabis and hemp throughout the growing cycle. Use it all season to prevent and control powdery mildew, bud rot, and root rot. Procidic2 is safe to use up to the day of harvest, with no maximum number of sprays per season. It qualifies for exemption from EPA registration (FIFRA 25b) and is approved under Washington State Department of Agriculture Organic Food Program for use in organic production. Use it on cannabis and hemp and apply as a standalone or mix with other inputs. — hydrofarm.com

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10 | Switch Grow

11 | True Liberty Bags

This unique thin-profile, commercial-duty Sundisk Modular LED flowering light can be customized to any array to match your specific grow method, whether large or small scale. Each module has a built-in mini power supply, runs independently, and can be rebuilt after its rated life span. The Sundisk series are suitable for damp growing environments as they are IP66-rated, while providing excellent energy efficiency and reliability.

True Liberty Bags are the original all-purpose home and garden bag. Their industrial-strength bags are made to resist bursting and puncturing. Used by people from the household hobbyist to the commercial level grow operation, there is a bag size available to meet any need. Curing, storing, keeping harvested crops fresher for longer, decarboxylation, biomass disposal, and preventing unwanted odors or cross-contamination, True Liberty Bags are Made in the USA from BPA-free and food-grade nylon.

Solutions Sundisk Modular Light

— switchgrow.com

Home and Garden Bag

— truelibertybags.com

12 | CANNA Coco

CANNA’s coco line is a proven winner when it comes to plant growth. The next generation CANNA Coco A&B Cocoponic nutrients combines grow and bloom nutrients into one A&B mix. The nutrients have a biotrophic effect and are so advanced they anticipate exactly what the plant needs. CANNA’s Coco Professional is a top-selling substrate laden with essential Trichoderma for rapid growth. CANNA Coco coconut substrate guarantees a six to 10 per cent higher yield potential. — canna.co.nz

13 | Hydrofarm â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

14 | LEDTonic Z2

Aptus is proudly 100 per cent formulated and manufactured in the Netherlands bringing lessons learned through years of internal commercial agriculture research into the home, hobbyist, and commercial greenhouse production environments. Aptus operates with products utilizing silicic acid plus microelements, l-amino acids plus nutrients, and targeted mineral nutrition to prevent antagonism between the different fertilizer components. Altogether these methodologies make up the Aptus Approach of utilizing the rules of nature to avoid problems preventing manifestation in your garden. Ask more from your garden and get it with Aptus Plant Tech products with industry leading concentration, ease-of-use, and remarkably visible results.

A new company in the industry, LEDTonic caters to hobby and craft growers by producing an efficient horticulture grow light. The Z2 combines a balanced spectrum with a high light output at a fantastic price. Extensively tested, the Z2 is optimized to provide the best bang for the buck. The light draws 50 watts of power but produces 871 PPFD at 12 inches and 530 PPFD at 18 inches inside a grow tent.

Aptus 1L Bottles

LED Grow Light

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; ledtonic.com

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; hydrofarm.com

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17 18 16

15 | Canarm Greenchoice

16 | Ushio Hilux Gro DE

17 | Fearless Gardener

18 | Baüx Industries

Canarm’s Greenchoice LED grow light can increase your yield by up to 15 per cent. It’s suitable for plant growth, solution and soil cultivation, indoor gardens, potted plants, planting, farms, greenhouse cultivation, watersoluble planting, and more. The Greenchoice light features variable intensity with variable color spectrum for all your growing needs and it has a customizable spectrum (red, blue, orange UV, IR, and white) to help plant growth through all stages of development.

Ushio America has introduced 600W versions to their Hilux Gro DE HPS and DE MH products. Growers can now maximize potential in smaller spaces or increase supplemental lighting efficiency. They’re rated for use in open fixtures and optimized to run on 600W electronic ballasts. Hilux Gro lamps feature the highest output and efficiency at 600W DE HPS (1150umol), 600W DE MH (1040umol), and the same optimized spectrum as Ushio’s 1,000W lamps.

If you’re looking to remove cannabis odor from your home or grow space, the POG ozonator is perfect. It can be used in other ways as well, including to disinfect, kill fungus, destroy airborne viruses, eliminate odors, and even prevent the growth of bacteria. The POG will work quietly in the background, purifying the air you breathe and the surfaces you’re in contact with. Control the spread of unwanted odor causing germs, fungus, and bacteria without the use of any chemicals or sprays.

Baüx Industries grow tents provide a complete grow kit solution tailored for the indoor growing community. They’re made for everyone from novice to expert growers and come in three sizes: 2x4, 3x3, and 5x5 feet (all are 80 inches tall). Each kit contains the tent, an inline plastic fan, dual outlet timer, charcoal filter (200 CFM), ducting, a pair of rope ratchets, four onegallon fabric pots with saucers, two four-inch hose clamps, and a fullspectrum LED light.

Grow Light

— canarm.com

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HPS & MH

— ushio.com

POG Ozonator

— fearlessgardener.com

Grow Kits

— bauxindustries.com

industry BUZZ BCfresh Announces New Board Member

BCfresh has appointed produce veteran Dawn Gray to its board of directors. Gray has been in the global produce industry for 40 years and will bring a wealth of experience along with a fresh perspective to the Canadian company. Previously, Gray worked with several of the top produce companies in the world including the Oppenheimer Group, Turners and Growers ENZA International, Frieda’s Inc., and Sunkist Growers, among others. “Adding a talent of Dawn’s caliber to our board is the next step as we continue to expand and grow our fresh produce business. Her experience, leadership qualities, and industry relationships are a huge benefit to our organization,” says Murray Driediger, president and CEO of BCfresh. BCfresh says Gray’s hard work and outside-the-box thinking have earned her the respect of industry leaders. This past year, Gray received accolades from the Produce Marketing Association’s (PMA) Center for Growing Talent with the first Women’s Catalyst Award.

CannaCon Hits Motown in June

Detroit will again host a CannaCon show after last year’s successful debut in the Motor City. This year’s event runs from June 21-22 at Cobo Center in downtown Detroit. By all accounts, the 2018 Detroit show was a massive hit, so expect another great businessto-business expo with amazing products and innovations from cannabis industry leaders and innovators. The scheduled educational seminars include cannabis business planning from startup licensing to exit strategy. David Rozanski, the CEO of Rozbud Consulting, will present that seminar. Also, Jin Zhu, the president of Sunscape LED, will discuss how craft cannabis companies can flourish and be sustainable. Detroit CannaCon will also include a marketplace of products and services that can be purchased on site from manufactures, distributors, and wholesalers. Recreational cannabis became legal in Michigan in November, 2018, while medical marijuana has been legal since 2008.

DETROIT CANNACON

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Produce Innovation Award

BrightFarms Wins Innovation Award at Growth Forum

BrightFarms recently took home the Innovation Award (Produce) at the 2019 Supplier Growth Forum that was held in Rogers, AR. The award comes on the heels of BrightFarms launching salad sales in Ohio Walmart stores, where the product reaches the store within 24 hours of harvest, providing the freshest produce that is grown without pesticides. BrightFarms produces baby greens grown hydroponically in vertical farms. “Everyone at BrightFarms was thrilled to win Walmart’s Innovation Award. We are enjoying working with Walmart in their successful efforts to grow their grocery sales, and I’m grateful that consumers in the Columbus metro area will soon have access to our delicious baby greens.” says Paul Lightfoot, BrightFarms CEO. “We look forward to the opportunity to continue to grow with Walmart in additional markets in the future.” Business magazine Fast Company recognizes BrightFarms as “One of World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies.”

Hydrofarm Announces New President

Leading hydroponics distributor Hydrofarm recently appointed Terry Fitch as the company’s new president. Fitch brings a vast array of previous work experience after working for more than 20 years at CocaCola where he managed manufacturing, supply chain, as well as marketing. He also has five years experience building, managing, and designing large hydroponic grow operations in Colorado and Arkansas. “Terry is the ideal executive to design and lead the future of Hydrofarm’s business,” says Hydrofarm chairman and CEO Bill Toler. “He has taken the Fortune 100 processes of analysis and measurement and applied them to large hydroponic grows, which has driven higher yields, lower costs, and better-quality products.” Hydrofarm also manufactures hydroponic equipment and products with nine distribution centers across North America. Naturally, Fitch is excited to join the team. “I am very pleased to join Bill and the very talented team at Hydrofarm,” Fitch says.

Global Vertical Farming Market to Reach Nearly $10 Billion

By 2025, the world’s vertical farming market size is expected to reach $9.96 billion, growing at an annual compounded rate of 21.3 per cent for the next five years, according to Grand View Research. Increased use of Internet of Things sensors for producing crops will spur market demand over that period. The market will also be driven by more automation and increasing use of big data and predictive analytics for maximizing yields. Experts predict vertical farms in Europe will grow significantly thanks to expansion of small-scale and commercial greenhouses. New growth will also come from escalating production of biopharmaceutical products, which is anticipated to drive the market higher. With more consumers demanding organic produce, vertical farms thrive because most don’t use pesticides. According to the Organic Trade Association, organicindustry sales in America increased by about 11 per cent in 2018.

Samsung Makes Photon Efficacy Lighting Breakthrough

Samsung Electronics has unveiled an industryleading enhancement to its mid-power LED package that provides photon efficacy at 3.10 micromoles per joule (μmol/J) which the company says is the highest among midpower white LED lighting packages. The LM301H will help indoor growers get far more yield. “This breakthrough in photon efficacy will go a long way in helping indoor farm owners to maximize plant growth and quality, as well as their profits,” says Un Soo Kim, senior vice-president of the LED business team at Samsung Electronics. “We are committed to continue innovating white LED solutions optimized for healthier plant production as we solidify our leadership in the horticulture lighting industry.” Now lighting manufacturers can use 30 per cent fewer packages in each luminaire to achieve the same efficacy level as the previous version of the LM301H. This allows for smaller and lighter lamp designs, along with lowered manufacturing costs.

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industry BUZZ Cannabis Industry Provides Boon for Lighting Companies

Signify N.V. is lighting up in terms of sales thanks to cannabis legalization. The company (formerly called Philips Lighting N.V.) has seen increased demand for horticulture lighting with marijuana being legal in Canada, Uruguay, and many states in America. Legislation changes and surging consumption have led growers to find more controlled and energy-efficient lighting options. “Where it’s legal, we participate,” says Eric Rondolat, CEO of Signify, a spinoff of Amsterdam-based Royal Philips NV. “Worldwide we see an evolution in the thinking of cannabis production. We have seen big growth in cannabis being legalized lately and we see that also through our activity.” The horticulture lighting market is set to expand to $6.2 billion by 2023, up from $2.1 billion in 2017, partly driven by the legalization of cannabis, according to consulting firm Markets and Markets. German rival OSRAM has stakes in several horticultural lighting specialists and recently bought Austin-based startup Fluence.

Maximum Yield Welcomes Extraction Expert to Advisory Board

Maximum Yield Publishing is pleased to announce Dustin Powers has joined our advisory board. An open-source fanatic, Powers, who hails from the Seattle area, is the GoodLifeGang leader and a cannabis lover. Since dropping out of college, Dustin has pioneered multiple breakthroughs in the marijuana industry. From the beginnings of ethanol extraction to pesticide remediation, he has made a name for himself as one who shares his knowledge with others. He worked directly under GreyWolf of SkunkPharm for 18 months, then consulted for three years, and ended up founding future4200.com to give more people free access to cannabis process knowledge. The GoodLifeGang is a discount membership club built on permaculture principles for marijuana processors. It’s making waves in the industry as likeminded members “level up together” in the rapidly growing GLG. Maximum Yield is glad to have Powers’s extraction expertise on board with those products becoming legal in Canada in October.

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HEXO Makes Deal to Acquire Newstrike

If all goes according to plan, HEXO’s friendly buyout of Newstrike Brands will be official as of May 24. In April, the companies announced HEXO had entered into irrevocable hard voting support agreements with shareholders of Newstrike representing approximately 38.3 per cent of Newstrike’s issued and outstanding common shares. The deal is valued at $263 million and gives HEXO the capacity to produce approximately 150,000 kg of high-quality cannabis annually. The transaction also provides HEXO access to four cutting-edge production campuses totalling close to 1.8 million square feet of near-term cultivation space and diversified growing and production techniques. This is in addition to HEXO’s 579,000 square-foot facility for a manufacturing and product development centre of excellence in Belleville, Ont. The deal received regulatory approval from the Canadian Competition Bureau. HEXO also recently announced that Steve Burwash is taking the reins as interim chief financial officer.

Vegalab Wins “Best Fertilizer Company” Award

American agriculture company Vegalab took home the award for “Best Fertilizer Company” at the inaugural National Hemp Expo, held in Louisville, KY. A key factor for Vegalab winning was the fact that the company’s fertility and crop protection products are sustainable, all natural, and safe for human consumption; perfect for growing hemp that will be used for CBD extraction. On the other hand, growers using poisonous synthetic pesticides on their crop run the risk of those pesticides showing up in processor testing on CBD products. “Growers and industry leaders who had the opportunity to learn about our products during the expert panel and by stopping by our booth, agreed that Vegalab’s soft chemistry products are a perfect solution for hemp growers,” says Vegalab CEO David Selakovic. Vegalab’s pesticides are highly effective against targeted organisms, non-toxic to beneficial organisms, and safe for the environment.

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THE STATE OF

SCIENCE IN THE CANNABIS INDUSTRY Where are we when it comes to studying cannabis, and why aren’t we further ahead? David Hawley identifies the barriers science faces in researching cannabis, and why the ball is in the licensed producer’s court to conduct experiments. by David Hawley e need science. We need science. We need science.” This was the messaging repeated by speakers at California’s “W fifth annual Emerald Conference, an event focused on discussing the latest in cannabis production and analytics. This mantra is the response to two fundamental problems facing the cannabis industry. The first of these problems is that no one knows the mechanisms for how this plant affects humans. There are some basic understandings about the human endocannabinoid system observed via anecdotal studies, but little in terms of clinical trials based on science. The second challenge to the science of cannabis is that it is incredibly difficult to legally conduct a scientific study on cannabis in the United States. Being federally classified as a Schedule 1 drug, most research facilities cannot study cannabis.

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In an effort to drive the state of cannabis knowledge forward, researchers instead seek out partnerships with licensed cannabis producers that might yield some mutually beneficial results. In concept, producers are often very receptive to this type of partnership — it is seen as a potential opportunity to be on the forefront of the hottest new technology or production strategy that could give them an edge in an extremely competitive market.

In an effort to drive the state of cannabis “ knowledge forward, researchers instead seek out

partnerships with licensed cannabis producers that might yield some mutually beneficial results.”

In practice, partnerships between scientific researchers and cannabis producers are very challenging, as the two parties tend to have different objectives. Scientific studies generally demand quite a lot of time, space, and meticulous management of the experiment. If a study is exploring various doses of a given treatment, this can often result in extremely stressed, low-yielding plants, to the point of crop loss. While this may have been part of the experimental design, producers understandably aren’t enthusiastic about a research partnership where they lose part of their production and hurt their bottom line.

What Makes a Study “Scientific?”

Put simply, a scientific study produces results that have a quantifiable degree of certainty to them. For instance, if a study finds that one of their experimental treatments was “statistically significant,” this usually means there was more than a 95 per cent chance that the observed result was indeed due to the applied treatment, and not due to random chance. This 95 per cent certainty is the most common threshold for considering something statistically significant (though there are exceptions where this threshold must be much greater than 95 per cent), and the threshold used in a study is always clearly stated in a scientific report. To achieve this degree of certainty, studies employ randomization and replication to account for potentially confounding factors that could yield misleading results. Proper randomization and replication are essentially what experimental design is and is what separates a science experiment from an anecdotal comparison.

Designing a Growth Chamber Experiment

To understand the types of confounding factors that could generate misleading results in an experiment, let’s consider an example of an experiment conducted in a walk-in plant growth chamber where we want to compare the influence of two different light spectra on plant yield. One light is yellow in appearance, and the other appears cyan. Inside our chamber, we have a wire rack on the left, and a wire rack on the right. Both wire racks have four tiers that we can grow plants on. Designed as a highly controlled environment specifically for plant production research, the interior environment is theoretically homogenous. There are multiple sensors throughout the chamber constantly monitoring the environment — temperature, relatively humidity, vapor pressure deficit, air speed, and CO2 concentrations are accounted for. The plants being grown in the chamber are genetically very similar, being cloned from the same mother plant. All the plants are anchored in the same inert rooting substrate and fed from the same nutrient reservoir that is constantly monitored for pH, electrical conductivity, and dissolved oxygen content. As we proceed with our study, comparing the influence of two different light qualities on yield in this environment, there should seemingly be no other factor influencing our result. In practice, it is incredibly difficult to achieve a totally uniform environment, and it is generally accepted that no environment ever achieves this theoretical perfect uniformity throughout. More often, there are many tiny inconsistencies in environment that have the potential to add up to a problem for your study. In this case, perhaps the positioning of the CO2 probes provided an excellent reading of average CO2 within the chamber but didn’t capture the fact that the concentration of CO2 was greater closer to the floor than the ceiling. In addition, maybe the fertigation lines that feed the left side of the chamber developed a level of algal contamination high enough that the algae were consuming many of the nutrients in the fertigation solution before it reached the plants being studied. In this hypothetical situation, the plants towards the bottom of the chamber and on the right side of the chamber would be pre-disposed to achieving greater yields; they are developing in a comparatively CO2 and nutrient-rich environment, despite the efforts made to homogenize the research chamber. Maximum Yield

BOTTOM LOW-MID HIGH-MID

“To achieve this degree of certainty, studies

employ randomization and replication to account for potentially confounding factors that could yield misleading results.”

Having identified what we think are possibly confounding factors in our production environment, we can determine how to best introduce the factor we’re actually trying to study: “Light Quality.” Indeed, for all intents and purposes, our “treatment” is just another influencing factor. In this case, that factor is called “Light Quality,” and it has two levels: “yellow” and “cyan.” Our objective here is to systematically intermingle our factor of interest with the other two factors we’ve identified to be potentially at play in our chamber. For example, we want to make sure that in the “bottom” level of the “Height” factor, we’ve got some “yellow” Light Quality and some “cyan” Light Quality.

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“SIDE” RIGHT “Light Quality Yellow Rep 1”

TOP

The same rationale applies to interLEFT mingling Light Quality amongst the Side factor. We “Light Quality should end up with Cyan a layout that looks Rep 1” like Fig. 1. By systematically “Light Quality randomizing the Yellow replicates of our Rep 2” factor of interest, we can account for whatever influence “Light Quality our confounding Cyan factors may have on Rep 3” our result. At a conceptual “Light Quality level, here’s how Yellow this works: when Rep 4” analyzing yield data from this experiment, each factor would initially be analyzed separately. Analyzing the influence of “Height” in this study, all the data for each level of Height would be averaged and then compared to each other. Since each level of Height has an equal number of Cyan and Yellow Light Quality plants, the Light Quality factor doesn’t make any difference in our Height factor analysis; any variability introduced by Light Quality is accounted for and nullified in this comparison. “HEIGHT”

Proper experimental design assumes that random, often mysterious confounding factors such as these are inevitable, and so randomization and replication is used to account for the influence that these factors may be having on your study. Back to our growth chamber example, we can try and identify factors that we don’t expect to meaningfully impact our study, but we acknowledge the possibility that maybe there’s something about that factor we don’t understand. Remember, at the start of this study, we don’t know that there’s going to be a problem with algae in the fertigation lines on the left side of the chamber, nor that our CO2 concentrations are uneven. Instead, we identify that our experimental plants are spread through the chamber. Some plants are up high, some are down low, some are on the left, and some are on the right. From this, we identify two potentially confounding factors: “Height” and “Side.” Since we’re growing plants on four tiers, the factor known as “Height” has four levels: Top, Mid-High, Mid-Low, and Bottom. Since we’ve got a set of shelves on the left and a set of shelves on the right, the factor known as “Side” has two levels: Left and Right. It could easily be argued that there could be another factor called “Depth,” in which we try to account for variability from the front to the back of the chamber. For the sake of brevity, we’ll pretend that Depth doesn’t exist in this example.

Next, the factor of “Side” can be analyzed. All the yield data from plants on the Left Side of the chamber are averaged, as are the data from the Right Side of the chamber. These averages are compared to determine if there was a significant difference in plant yield based on which Side of the chamber they were grown on. Again, the influence of Light Quality is nullified by the fact that both Sides of the chamber are balanced in Light Quality Levels. Finally, Light Quality can be analyzed. Yield data from all the Yellow Light Quality plants are averaged, as are the yield data from the Cyan Light Quality plants. Comparing these averages, we can identify if the Light Quality factor had a significant influence on yield.

“Light Quality Cyan Rep 2” “Light Quality Yellow Rep 3”

FRONT VIEW

“Light Quality Cyan Rep 4” Fig. 1

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TECHNOLOGY

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In practice, it is incredibly difficult to “ achieve a totally uniform environment,

and it is generally accepted that no environment ever achieves this theoretical perfect uniformity throughout.” In the spirit of keeping this article about the principles of experimental design and not the arithmetic, I’ve not discussed here exactly how to tell if averages that you compare within a factor (for example, the average yields between the Left Side plants and Right Side plants) are significantly different or not. The short answer is that it has to do with the variability surrounding each of those averages, and how much the variability between the two averages overlaps with each other. To learn the details, you’ll want to study up on standard error, standard deviation, and p values. In designing our chamber study this way, we’ve eliminated the potential for confounding factors to influence the

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effects our factor of interest has. It may seem like overkill, but by accounting for as many potentially confounding factors as we can, we achieve a level of credibility and certainty in our results that would otherwise be unattainable. This article is only a brief introduction into strategies on proper experimental design. The takeaway message to producers here is that if you’d like to execute a scientific study, be mindful of all factors that could influence your results. Do this, and yours could be the company driving the forefront of cannabis research which everyone else wishes existed. Dr. David Hawley completed his masters and PhD programs at the Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility, University of Guelph. David’s research explored various aspects of photobiology, including photosynthesis, morphology, and secondary metabolism relating to global food security and cannabis production. David is now the senior scientist at Fluence by OSRAM.

SPANNABIS 2019 etter B s t e G t s e The B

milton by Rich Ha

The world’s biggest hydroponic and industry show does it again. Industry News’s Rich Hamilton was there to take in the action, innovation, and mingle with the biggest names in the business.

his year saw the return of the infamous and arguably the best cannabis and hemp industry expo in the world… the mighty Spannabis! Held in Barcelona, Spain, it seemed like the entire industry from every corner of the world had made the pilgrimage to Europe for the show, which has evolved to become so much more than just the “fair” it was originally billed as back when it began 16 years ago. Held from March 15-17, 2019, the show was a huge success from start to finish. Spannabis is the definitive trade show for the hemp and cannabis industry worldwide and the undisputed meeting point for the entire European cannabis scene. Its long and varied history culminated in this year’s 16th annual event, which represented all corners of the cannabis and hemp sector, showcasing the latest, greatest, newest, and most loved brands alongside the newest innovation and opportunities in every channel of cannabis business, culture, and lifestyle.

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Official figures reported an attendance of more than 25,000 people, which is another record for the team at Spannabis. With more than 4,000 professionals and 300 exhibitors from leading brands worldwide in attendance, Spannabis is working to help the hemp and cannabis scene to break free from the shackles and stigmas that it has become stuck with, instead representing the truths and benefits. An ethos that is helped along by the showcasing of a multitude of mind-blowing products and ideas that this amazing plant can lend its attributes to. This plethora of products includes everything from textiles to cosmetics, medicine to food and drink, and beyond.

AN EVENT FOR TRUE ENTHUSIASTS Spannabis is first and foremost a public event for the hemp and cannabis enthusiasts and consumers, with stalls and stands selling everything imaginable across a floor space that has seen some huge expansion into the outside area for this year. However, many who attended were also involved within the business side of the industry and so to complement the main event we saw the fifth year of the International Cannabis Business Conference (ICBC) running on March 14th before the main Spannabis event kicked off at the neighboring Audtori de Cornelia. The ICBC has become one of the world’s biggest B2B cannabis industry events, with attendees from more than 50 countries. It offers the perfect place for the meeting of minds and networking possibilities between established cannabis businesses, investors, and enthusiastic entrepreneurs alike. The highlight of this sister event was without doubt a performance and talk given by musical artist and pro-cannabis supporter Damian Marley, son of the late, great Bob Marley! Both his musical performance and hosting skills at the after party and the talk that he gave at the conference itself, asserting his “interest in the legalization of cannabis and its industry,” were easily the two most anticipated features of the ICBC event. This event is a brilliant addition to an already-full schedule of events and is a must in the annual cannabis industry calendar.

SPANNABIS CONTINUES TO GROW Like any good major festival event, the entertainment side of Spannabis continues to grow and become more curated year on year, featuring a full itinerary of music performances all weekend long that are honed to perfection to fit in with the overall atmosphere and vibe of the show. Housed on an outdoor stage and coupled by the varied refreshments and beautiful sun-kissed skies, it really was sublime. Acts were varied, including an eclectic mix of music, representing not only musical and ethnic diversity but also cultural unity in celebration of all thing hemp and cannabis. Spectators were treated to a weekend of dubstep, reggae, roots, ska, progressive psytrance, chill, electro, rap, dancehall, drum ’n bass, and jungle to name but a few of the ingredients in the musical melting pot. It all played out beautifully serving as the perfect soundtrack to the perfect weekend. As well as the recreational side of the entertainment there was also the chance to get educated on the relevant topics making news in the cannabis world today. Spannabis attendees had direct access to the seventh edition of the World Cannabis Conferences at the Cornelia Auditorium, where they could listen to talks given by experts from all fields of the cannabis world including the fields of science, medicine, and politics as well as leading figures from across the spectrum of the cannabis business industry. Discussion covered a range of relevant topics including international legalization, the future of the industry, and the latest discoveries relating to both medicinal and therapeutic use of cannabis. Attendees had a chance to really be a part of the debate, with the opportunity to ask questions of the speakers following each talk. As with every other year, the event closed out on the Sunday with the now famous and prestigious Spannabis awards, where all exhibiting companies had the opportunity to enter their most prized products into the relevant category to be voted on by hundreds of professionals during the show. Categories included best seed bank, best nutrient, best cultivation product, and best paraphernalia product. Celebrating these successes was a great way to finish off the event on a high.

SPANNABIS IS THE DEFINITIVE TRADE SHOW FOR THE HEMP AND CANNABIS INDUSTRY WORLDWIDE and the undisputed meeting point for the entire European cannabis scene.”

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AS WELL AS THE RECREATIONAL SIDE OF THE ENTERTAINMENT THERE WAS ALSO THE CHANCE TO GET EDUCATED on the relevant topics making news in the cannabis world today.”

Set against the backdrop of the beautiful city of Barcelona, rich in history and culture, Spannabis remains the world largest hemp expo and trade show. This is a well-deserved title for an event that you can tell takes itself seriously due to the quality of event that it puts on year after year. A perfect balance of music, education and like-minded people made for an unmissable event for all hemp enthusiasts, as well as anyone who has an interest in the lucrative potential of the business market that is the cannabis industry. Seriously, the bottom line is that Spannabis knocked it out of the park this year, it couldn’t have been better. The only thing left to ask is, “What will next year hold?”

Rich Hamilton has been in the hydroponics industry for more than 20 years and enjoys working on a daily basis with shop owners, manufacturers, distributors, and end-users to develop premium products.

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The fact that countless professional growers in more than twenty countries rate us the No.1 brand in plant technologies, and that our products are offered in more than 95 per cent of all grow shops around the globe, seems to us as an adequate proof that our philosophy bears fruit.

The Pioneer of Tomorrow… On the Proving Field of Today

Team spirit and love for the plant are just a few keywords that characterize CANNA’s business philosophy. It must be obvious that CANNA is much more than just a producer of fertilizers. Unique in growland is that we keep the whole production process in our own hands. From development and research to the unique environmentally friendly production line and our extremely rapid delivery department. As the only producer of nutrients, CANNA has its own laboratory and research areas where specialized scientists daily unravel nature’s secrets. We think that by keeping as many factors as possible in our own hands, will we be able to offer a product of a consistently high quality.

Closer to the Future with Every Step

Based on decades of experience with growing and intense collaboration with other pioneers, CANNA has assembled an enormous reservoir of knowledge that cannot be matched

in growland or even beyond. This rare combination of professional knowledge and enthusiasm has, for years, led to a series of very high-quality products. No single CANNA product is simply placed on the market. Only when we are 100 per cent certain that a product will have an optimum performance do we bring it onto the market. But for us that is still not enough. To be sure that there will be no unpleasant surprises, we also need to be certain why something works. In addition, we first undertake an extended investigation with people in various countries who are in the growing business, to list all the possible conditions. Therefore, we shall never launch a product into the market too hastily. However, tempting as that may sometimes be in a market where the issues of the day all too often lead to short-term hype.

The Essence of CANNA

We believe that the serious expert knows how to estimate the value of our professional approach. We believe he who takes the grower seriously treats the development of a new product with equal seriousness. And that is not a process that you can complete within a few weeks. For CANNA, research is also of essential importance. After all, this has extensive consequences for the end user. Therefore, we take as long as is necessary for the development of a new product — two years on average. A period in which a team of highly trained specialists tirelessly sifts all aspects of a new product. That we place so much emphasis on this means we can stand four-square behind our products. And that does not end when a product has passed over the counter. After-sales service is for us an indispensable part of the business. We keep in close contact with end users via our dealer network and take their problems extremely seriously. Feedback from the field is not only a welcome addition to our research. The greatest satisfaction derived from our work is still always a client who is satisfied with their result.

At Home All Over the World

It’s not only in the growrooms and greenhouses of the world that CANNA is at home. In addition to its original headquarters in Breda, Holland, CANNA found a second home in Made back in 2012. Since then, it has been one of the most technologically advanced nutrient factories in the world. All the formulas are now manufactured here, each one translating the founders’ dream into the perfect solution for each different hydroponic substrate. Yet, CANNA Made is more than a production facility. It is also one of our CANNA research centres. What are these? Locations around the globe where growers and researchers can come to discover the fascinating appeal of the nutrients conceived in Breda — on test benches and experiment cells, with grower training courses and yield improvement programs. A chance to explore the CANNA brand with all the senses — offered by the CANNA research centres all over the world. As you can see, CANNA’s founders dream of the perfect hydroponic nutrient has always driven us — throughout our history. And we get closer to achieving it every day. With every concept, every development, and every formula. Along the way, we follow a plan, an ideal that unites us all. Many people would call it a principle. We refer to it simply as the CANNA Philosophy.

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reducing

THE CHALLENGE OF

GREENHOUSE GAS IN SOIL

Research has shown carbon sequestration in soil is an effective way of removing carbon emissions from the atmosphere. Now it’s a case of getting farmers on board to help control greenhouse gas levels. by Lee Allen Photo Credit: UC Davis

“ WE NEED TO REMOVE

CARBON DIOXIDE POLLUTION FROM THE AIR

in a way the world has never seen before.”

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ne of agriculture’s major opportunities to help mitigate the effects of climate-warming gases lies in management of soil to increase organic content — and thereby remove carbon from the atmosphere.” That’s the word according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). Those researchers advocate carbon sequestration in soil as the most promising method, in combination with crop rotation and low or no input of pesticides, herbicides, or industrial fertilizers. The group also notes that “long-term studies by the Rodale Institute suggest such systems don’t simply conserve, but build significant quantities of soil organic carbon through an enhanced abundance of mycorrhizal fungi.” Now, working under a three-year, nearly $5-million grant from the state’s Strategic Growth Council, the John Muir Institute at the University of CaliforniaDavis wants to add credence to that theory by researching scalable methods of soil amendments — things like crushed rock, compost, and biochar — to sequester greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide in the soil.

Again, quoting the experts from the UCS: “Scientific evidence suggests that organic and near-organic farming systems achieve greater carbon sequestration and other benefits compared with conventional systems and call into question the long-held view that no-till practices result in significant accumulations of carbon.” UC Davis Chancellor Gary May calls the issue of mitigating harmful effects of climate change “one of the world’s most pressing challenges” and feels that by leveraging the state’s collective ingenuity in agriculture, academia, and government, that progress can be made toward finding needed solutions. As principal investigator, Benjamin Houlton, the Muir Institute director, bears the brunt of the challenge. “We need to remove carbon dioxide pollution from the air in a way the world has never seen before,” he says. “We’re currently on a path toward hitting a 1.5-degree rise in global temperatures since pre-industrial conditions, (and are) already starting to see the dangerous impacts in terms of extreme weather conditions and rising sea levels.

Biochar

Compost

Crushed rock applied

“Farmers have a huge incentive to use these materials —

WHETHER THEY CAPTURE CO2 OR NOT — BECAUSE THEY CAN SAVE MONEY AND GROW FOOD MORE EFFICIENTLY.”

In addition to dealing with a huge amount of carbon dioxide that has accumulated in the air from past activities, the models tell us we have to cut carbon emissions by half each decade moving forward. And currently the amount of carbon dioxide we need to pull out of the air each year is roughly equivalent to what the US generates annually. To avoid the most dangerous climate impacts, we need to get rid of around a hundred billion tons of carbon dioxide globally — some say twice that amount — something that humanity has never done before.” The current project should help those efforts. “Amending soil with natural materials helps restore soil health and boost crop yields, and at the same time it captures carbon dioxide and locks it away so it doesn’t cause climate impacts harmful to people, ecosystems, and the economy,” says Houlton. Professor Houlton is keeping watch over a partnership made up of farmers, ranchers, tribes, small businesses, industry, and community groups — 29 treatment and control sites throughout the state — in support of both agriculture and natural resource efforts working collectively to significantly sequester carbon.

From croplands in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys to the Imperial Valley and on ranchlands from Marin County to Southern California, researchers are adding pulverized rock, compost, and biochar to see which does what toward reducing carbon. The concept isn’t new. “It goes back to the 17th century when farmers added salt and gypsum and other kinds of crushed rock to their soil, and compost has been used since the early Mayan cultures,” says Houlton. “It’s just that these procedures have never been evaluated through the lens of their capacity to grab CO2 from the air.” In his opinion, “Farmers have a huge incentive to use these materials — whether they capture CO2 or not — because they can save money and grow food more efficiently. Some of these technologies have been evaluated small scale in certain environments, but we don’t have enough research on what happens when you implement on a large scale, one that would be user-friendly to farmers. Use of these materials could reduce costs as well as cut water and fertilizer expenses and increase crop yield by up to 50 per cent by some estimation. There are a lot of incentives for farmers to do this.”

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Co-principal investigator Whendee Silver, a University of California Professor and lead scientist for the Marin Carbon Project, says, “earlier research points to some promising avenues to capture and store carbon through the use of soil amendments. We found that adding organic waste (food and green waste and livestock manure) as a composted soil amendment would save the equivalent of 28 million tons of CO2 using just five per cent of our state’s rangelands.” Silver is an integral part of the multicampus/multi-partner consortium led by UC Davis and the UC Working Lands Innovation Center working on the challenge of finding ways to capture billions of tons of carbon dioxide and bringing net carbon emissions in California down to zero by 2045.

“Amending soil with natural materials helps restore soil health

AND BOOST CROP YIELDS. AND AT THE SAME TIME IT CAPTURES CARBON DIOXIDE AND LOCKS IT AWAY.”

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Working with numerous partners ranging from the California Collaborative for Climate Change Solutions to the Almond Board of California, at project’s end the consortium plans to deliver ‘the most promising shovel-ready soil amendment strategies’ aimed at capturing CO2 in the soil. “California, the world’s fifth-largest economy, a major agricultural producer with a substantial dairy industry, is a great model that could well go beyond our state’s boundaries,” Houlton says. “Even though our demonstrations of technologies at scale are just getting underway, we’re already talking to groups outside the state and outside the US to bring them into our demonstrations. If we can do it in California, it can be done nearly anywhere in the world when you bring together key stakeholders to work together to collectively capture carbon.”

Lee Allen is an award-winning reporter based in Arizona who loves to backyard garden.

HOL O C D AL N A S ABI N N CA

e l b a t i v e in

s l a v Ri

As consumer consideration of cannabis and the available product lines expand, there’s little doubt consumers will consider cannabis options and that may put alcoholic beverage consumption at risk in the near future.

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by Lee Allen

W by many. Taken in combination, they are being

eed and wine. Taken separately, they are enjoyed

enjoyed by an ever-increasing number of pleasure-seekers known as dualists. Now, a recently released research report says that “although legal cannabis is currently only a fraction of comparable alcohol sales, our market trend research shows the risk to beverage alcohol producers is expected to grow as the acceptance and consumption of cannabis increases.” The two-year-long study of consumers of both products in the US and Canada, titled Beverage Alcohol, Cannabis, and the Changing U.S. Consumer — the Risks and Opportunities to Consumption Behavior, shows that as many as 40 per cent of adults age 21 and over consume cannabis where legal and “cannabis presents substantial opportunities across the consumer spectrum, especially occasions that alcohol cannot or will not play,” according to Jessica Lukas of BDS Analytics in Colorado. “Consumers will continue to look to cannabis products over alcohol for occasions when they are feeling creative, need to get motivated, or are seeking health/medical/wellness benefits.”

Speaking recently at the Unified Wine and Grape Conference in Sacramento, BDS president Liz Stahura told the group “there are going to be instances when consumers substitute, when they complement wine with cannabis, and companies that will do the best are the ones who find ways to co-exist.” Brandy Rand, who represents co-researcher International Wine & Spirits Research (IWSR), a data source for the alcoholic beverage industry, says “though not yet mainstream, cannabis adoption is certainly growing in states where legal (11 have approved adult recreational usage and 34 have given cannabis approval for medicinal purposes), posing a risk to the beverage alcohol industry in the future. Faced with the fact that for the third year in a row, total beverage alcohol consumption declined by 0.8 per cent in 2018, slightly worse than the 0.7 per cent slip the year prior, Rand says “it’s clear that Americans are drinking less overall, likely a result of the continuing trend toward health and wellness, especially the aging baby boomer population, the largest group of legal drinking-age consumers.” Beer, long the nation’s favorite, was one of the bigger losers, falling 1.5 per cent in 2018 after recording a 1.1 per cent decline the previous year. Wine sales last year were up a very modest 0.4 per cent with another 0.3 per cent increase predicted for this year. The concept of cannabis crossover is “a nuanced and complex subject,” says Rand. “We have a new, young industry that has no leading brands today, but as consumer consideration of cannabis and the available product lines expand (and as more become recreationally legalized), there’s no doubt consumers will consider cannabis options and that may put alcoholic beverage consumption at risk. “Alcohol brands need to pay attention to those who consume their products, recognizing that while not every dollar spent on legal cannabis is a dollar taken from alcohol suppliers, it’s critical for beverage alcohol companies to prepare today to meet consumer’s needs as the markets mature and overlap,” she adds.

According to researchers, legal cannabis will have a long-term impact on beverage alcohol that is not seen today because cannabis has yet to go mainstream. They’re not giving the beverage industry a sky-is-falling report, but an actual roadmap to identify both risks and opportunities for their industry based on consumer behavior. Lukas says she believes future industry expansion will come in the form of drinks. “You’re going to see a confluence of your industry and our industry in 2019. Micro-dosing allows this to be a possibility.” She also noted CocaCola and Anheuser-Busch InBev have already announced financial support to develop cannabis-infused non-alcoholic drinks.” Anheuser-Busch has committed $100 million in a joint venture with a Canadian cannabis producer to follow the trail of infused beverages.

“

Consumers will continue to look

to cannabis products over alcohol

for occasions when they are feeling creative, need to get motivated, or are seeking health/medical/wellness benefits.” “Our tracking in Canada parallels what we see in the US,” she said. “The difference is we haven’t yet hit a point where use in Canada has been legal long enough to chart the same kind of trajectory we see in the States — but I will tell you that consumer behavior on other major issues is almost an identical match, so we’re expecting a similar story in Canada.” Supporting predictions of a promising future, Lukas cited her firm’s research showing 25 per cent of respondents had used cannabis in some form in the last six months with 71 per cent doing so for recreation, 56 per cent using it for health or medical issues, and one-third saying they use it for both. In this same group, 68 per cent had drunk alcohol (with 30 per cent saying their alcohol consumption had decreased since they began consuming cannabis).

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From an age group standpoint, younger males were more likely to consume both alcohol and cannabis where the older generation leaned more toward adult beverages. “What’s interesting is that baby boomers’ cannabis consumption is more medically motivated than social,” says Lukas, “but 60 per cent still

“

According to researchers, legal cannabis will have a long-term

impact on beverage alcohol

that is not seen today because cannabis has yet to go mainstream.”

consume cannabis to relax and enjoy life, so you can’t discount the fact that just because they’re more medically motivated doesn’t mean they don’t have occasion to consume for social and/or recreational purposes. And while millennials tend to make an impact by being dualists in their consumption, the future lies in Generation Z, the group just now aging to 21 in the US and 18-19 in Canada where both alcohol and cannabis are legal. That group represents a small sub-set today, but the future of tomorrow’s consumption. Adds Lukas: “Our prediction is that by Year 2022, some people who now regularly drink alcohol, will be drinking some form of cannabis-infused beverage and that cannabinoid beverages will soon represent a billion-dollar market starting to compete with the alcoholic beverage industry which today represents $160 billion in US sales. It’s still a small market, but that’s why the term ‘long-term’ matters because the impact will get bigger as consumers seek out occasions choosing cannabis over alcohol — or pairing the two and drinking less.”

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WITH BIG GROWTH, COMES BIG CHANGES AND EVEN BIGGER OPPORTUNITIES. MJBizCon 2019 will bring more exhibitors, more speakers, more sessions and even more professionals in the industry together than ever before.

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MEGA ROBOTIC SCANNER

DELIVERING CROP DATA IN THE DESERT

A massive, high-tech scanner is being used in the Arizona desert to provide a plethora of data on sorghum crops. Lee Allen explains how the technology will provide plant biologists with key insights about Sorghum’s phenotype and growth development. by Lee Allen Photo credits: University of Arizona

nless you’re talking to a Texan, bigger isn’t always better — until you’re trying to collect and generate big data faster and faster in order to develop new crops more quickly; crops that can be used for energy, food, feed, and fiber. They’re doing just that in the Arizona desert outside of metropolitan Phoenix, home to the world’s largest robotic field crop scanner housed at the University of Arizona’s Maricopa Agricultural Center. There, on a test plot the size of a football field, you’ll find a 50-foot-tall German-made scanner mounted on a 30-ton steel gantry that moves along steel rails over an acre and a half of sorghum. The high-throughput phenotyping robot senses and continuously images the growth and development of the crop, generating an enormous data stream of high-resolution input — up to 10 terabytes per day. Its camera and scanner array includes 3-D lasers focusing on plant architecture, thermal infrared camera imagery that captures temperature changes, paired color cameras that reconstruct the plant’s life cycle, visible and near-infrared scanning for structural and compositional data, and a fluorescence camera that records photosynthetic responses to light in a dark-adapted canopy. “Wow” would be an understatement because this unit saves thousands of man hours in data collection (a one-acre scan in 75 minutes). And it provides not only speed, but accuracy, with its high-resolution images under one square centimeter (about the size of a pea). 44

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“

The LemnaTec Scanalyzer is the largest field crop data acquisition platform in the world;

the vanguard of systems integrating phenotype with genotype for improving agricultural production.”

“While the Maricopa Agricultural Center may look like a farm, it’s really a precision laboratory and having the field scanner here is part of our transformation into the next phase of agriculture,” says Shane Burgess, Dean of the UA College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and director of the Arizona Shane Burgess Experiment Station. “The LemnaTec Scanalyzer is the largest field crop data acquisition platform in the world; the vanguard of systems integrating phenotype with genotype for improving agricultural production.” Covering a little more than 1.25 acres planted with lines of cultivars and hybrids of sorghum, upwards of 40,000 plants are scanned for numerous variations in plant height, leaf surface area, biomass, heat and drought tolerance, and other responses to local conditions. “The system was installed here because we’re the best location in the US to do drought and heat studies,” says precision agriculture specialist Pedro Andrade-Sanchez, who is in charge of field deployment of the sensor system. “This climate, the natural conditions of the low desert, is why we’re here, managing the environment to provide the best conditions to image these crop materials.” While Andrade directs the georeferenced seed placement as well as the instrumentation, power, and a very large data pipeline, agronomist Mike Ottman in the School of Plant Sciences handles the growing of the sorghum. “We know the genes,” says Ottman. “What we don’t know is the phenotype, the physical characteristics of the crop. In the past, a field worker with a clipboard and keen observation would take notes on these things. Now we can track a crop with a scanning instrument that will take our notes for us, characterizing all of the plants rapidly a couple of times a day — and far more objectively.” The scanner is part of the US Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy in a program called TERRA (Transportation Energy Resources from Renewable Agriculture). The goal of the multi-institutional effort is to identify the crop’s physical traits (phenotypes) that are best suited to producing

high-energy sustainable biofuels, then matching those plant characteristics to their genes, speeding up breeding to deliver improved varieties to market. Fellow researcher Jeff White, a plant physiologist, is using the various remote sensing capabilities of the scanner, its thermal imagery, fluorescence, and 3-D capabilities, to measure plant characteristics like leaf area. He also checks out crop simulation models, combined with real-time phenotyping data from the field helps to infer things like transpiration and plant/ water interactions. White’s part in the research is to ensure data collected correlates with known characteristics of the crop’s growth and development. Initially intended to measure plant traits best suited for the production of domestic high-energy sustainable biofuels, the scanner is essentially a huge reference tool that could ultimately be scaled down for a myriad of objectives and breeding applications in other crops like green leafy vegetables and grains. “The conditions allowing us to phenotype for the most important traits for Arizona agriculture are right here,” says Karen Schumaker, the university’s School of Plant Sciences director. “Ultimately, we will be able to examine more than just leaf characteristics in a field. Sometime in the future, we should be able to use this methodology for seed germination and below-ground-root-systems breeding for drought. This sorghum experiment is just the start.” Researchers at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis are also a part of this project, acting as the digital pipeline to the University of Illinois where the TERRA-REF Field Scanner data is stored and manipulated. The center is working under a four-year, $8-million Department of Energy project looking at sorghum as a globally attractive biofuel possibility. One official statement noted:“By understanding the phenotypic and genomic variation of bioenergy sorghum, we will lay the foundations for deploying computationally-enabled breeding strategies that will generate high-yielding sorghum hybrids… to be optimized for the US sorghum bioenergy belt (and) making this crop a leading feedstock source for biofuel production.” Maximum Yield

business card Over the years Donald Cooper has been asked to judge several business card competitions and what heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s discovered is that many business cards completely miss the mark when it comes to accomplishing the very purpose for which they were created. So, here are his thoughts on how to create a much more effective business card. by Donald Cooper 46

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ur objective is simple… to create a business card that is an actionablemarketing document. A card that clearly communicates who you are and what you do in a way that creates confidence and gets you more business. Now, some people argue that business cards are an archaic waste of money and trees in this electronic, smart phone-toting age… and they’re wrong. If for no other reason, you give out business cards in order to get the other person’s card. Don’t you remember baseball or hockey cards when you were a kid? To get a Mickey Mantle you had to give up your Roger Maris. For the young folks reading this, they were famous baseball players. If you ask people for their card in today’s cynical world, they may think that you’re going to use it to pursue them to the ends of the earth. But, if when you meet someone, you respectfully hand them your card they will, most often, automatically take out theirs and offer it to you. Then, if it makes sense, you can use the information on their card to gently and responsibly follow up with them if you have a product or service that will be helpful. I collect lots of business cards and I really shouldn’t because they just get me too worked up. Most of them are mediocre and some are downright terrible. So, let’s look at the basic elements of an effective card to see how yours might be improved. Take out your business card right now and check it out as you read on.

Your Business Card’s Message

To be an actionable-marketing document, your card should communicate: • The name of your business, your name, and your title or position.

• What you do and for whom you do it (your target customers); if you serve a specific niche market. • How you do it wonderfully or differently. • How to contact you.

More than 80 per cent of the cards I see leave out some of this critical information. Many of them offer no clue as to what the company actually does. Even if you’re with a division of a large and famous company, it’s still important to make it clear which division you’re with and specifically what it does. Include your job title. This one is controversial… but it shouldn’t be. People want to know who you are and what your position is. Trust me, they want to know. Lots of folks tell me that titles aren’t important or that “everyone in our company is equal” so they leave this important information 48

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off their card… and it’s a big mistake. Everybody in your company is not equal… get over it! People want to know if they’re dealing with a salesperson, a marketing VP, or the CEO. The president of a large graphic design company, with whom I was co-judging a business card competition a few years ago, lists his title on his card as “Chief Oyster Shucker.” This is cute, but he’s not in the oyster business, so this is just nuts! And, he was judging other people’s business cards for Pete’s sake! The “for whom you do it and how you do it wonderfully or differently” part can be communicated through a slogan, positioning statement, or even a well-thought-out company name. For example, if your business name is ‘Speedy Muffler King,’ ‘Cheap Liquor’ or ‘10 Minute Manicure,’ you’ve already communicated a lot of information, whereas a name like ‘International Digital Enterprises’ probably needs some clarification.

Clarify What Your Business is About

That’s where your logo, company slogan, or positioning statement comes in. Properly done, those business card elements should help clarify what you do and how you do it wonderfully, so they should be included. If you’re a member of an important industry association, their logo should be on your card. This makes you an “insider.” If you have an earned degree that’s relevant to what you do or, if you’ve won an important industry or company award, include that. If you’ve been in business for 150 years, add that. These things all create confidence and make a connection. Make sure that your address, phone, e-mail, and website info are all included and big enough to be read by people over 50. Include your area code with your phone and fax numbers and, if you do business internationally, also include your country code. Make it easy for people to find you and do business with you. You’d also be amazed at how many cards I get that have no address on them. These are often folks who operate home-based businesses and they’re so ashamed that they leave off their address. Big mistake! Three other people who work out of their home are the Queen, the Pope, and the President of the United States, so stop being ashamed of yourself. If I do business with someone and they screw up, I want to know where to find them and, if they don’t give me their address, I think they’re actually planning to screw up and they’re trying to hide. Some folks in sales and service positions (especially real estate agents) have their picture on their cards to

make a more personal and memorable connection… and it seems to work. Management and executive cards, on the other hand, almost never have photos on their cards. If you’re going to use a photo, do us all a favor and pick one that was taken in the last 20 years, so that we don’t get such a big shock when we actually meet you! How on earth do you get all this information on a business card? Here’s a tip: don’t waste half your card! Use both sides. The front of my card states who I am and how to reach me and the back states exactly what I do, including our most requested titles and the logo of the Global Speaker’s Association, to which I belong. Use the back of your card to list, in point form, some of the ways that you can be helpful, or the industries that you serve.

Instead of bullet points, use little checkboxes and folks will mentally check off all the ways that you can help them. People who disagree with me on this say, “But I leave the back of my card blank for people to write on.” But if you write on the back what they need to know to do business with you, they don’t have to write anything. And, trust me, if you put a little thought into it, you can write better stuff about you than they can.

The Design of Your Card

Have your business cards, logo, letterhead, and any other promotional material all professionally and congruently designed by an experienced graphic designer. They’re all part of your brand communication and getting them right doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Ask friends who have great looking “stuff” who they used. Most printers have graphic designers on staff, or know where to find them. Two more design “goofs” to avoid are: • Type font that’s so small that no one can read it…and,

• Printing in colors that don’t stand out against the background. Right now, I’m looking at two cards that have black type on a dark blue background and light grey type on a light blue background. They’re simply illegible. To make it even worse, they’re both printed in a very small font size. Don’t let graphic designers talk you into a card design that can’t be easily read. You’re looking to do business, not win an art contest.

The Card Stock

Choose the best, heaviest card stock available, with a nice soft sheen to it. If your printer offers only the standard flimsy card stock, find another printer. It’s your reputation that’s at stake. The extra cost is worth it. If you buy 1,000 business cards for $30, printed on crappy embossed paper, you didn’t save 50 bucks… you just wasted $30. Let’s be blunt here. When you hand someone one of those awful thin cards with bad printing, what you’re saying is, “Here’s a cheap piece of crap to remember me by!”

business card

So, there you have it…the simple steps to a better business card that’s an actionable-marketing document. A card that effectively communicates who you are and what you do… and gets you more business.

Donald Cooper, Donald Cooper, MBA, CSP, HoF, is a Toronto-based international management speaker and coach. Donald has been both a world-class manufacturer and an award-winning retailer. donaldcooper.com Maximum Yield

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