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In prior posts, we’ve jumped into why cannabis is so critical for medical purposes. We also discussed what we can do about helping the industry. Now we’re going to focus on how we’re going to accomplish that objective.

Technology challenges

Over the past 2 decades, Internet of Things (IoT) solutions have proliferated across many industries. Somehow, cannabis was left substantially behind. IoT solutions integrate a massive number of sensors (generally low cost and long-lived) and tightly integrate them with operational monitors and controls. Let’s break that problem down into three components: sensors, controllers, and integration.

Sensors prices have been dropping over the past decade – but not for growers. For example, the accepted room environment monitor frequently costs a few hundred dollars (which is completely out of line with industrial trends). Separately, controllers (e.g., actuators and solenoids) have also experienced significant price drops. Unfortunately, hydroponic and HVAC controllers are still exceedingly expensive. Lastly, most vendors provide either hardware or application software. Very few can provide a seamlessly integrated experience.

An optimal solution requires a fresh perspective. The starting point should not be shaving a few dollars off of a $500 room sensor or a $750 solenoid. We need to start with leveraging cost-effective sensors and controllers. Beyond the hardware, the most critical part is the integration. For cannabis growers, that integration needs to include hardware, software, user experience and grower expertise. With the grower and their plants at the center of the design, sensor data and controller automation will remove their pain points.

Solutions start with people

To build a fresh solution, the most critical people to include are the people experiencing the problem. In this case, you need to start with direct involvement with growers that keep their hands on plants. They can provide real data on real problems. The grower’s perspective needs to be coupled with experienced technologists. While technologists that have been steeped in horticulture are helpful, we’ve found that the technology team will benefit from tapping their extremely broad experiences to help break established patterns. Those varied experiences will provide fresh perspectives for experimental solutions.

As that technical team starts to build solutions, their experiments need to focus on native integrations that link directly to grower’s pain points. By demonstrating solutions to growers quickly, they will ensure it’s meeting their needs rather than wandering in the technology jungle. If it doesn’t accomplish the grower’s objective, isn’t cost effective, fails to integrate easily, or isn’t sustainable, the approach can be discarded so the team can start the next experiment.

The integration of user experience and analytics are the ultimate “game changer”. Let’s face it, a grower won’t relish digging through millions of rows of data from sensors to determine if there’s a problem lurking somewhere in one of their rooms. By applying analytic principles, the system can automatically address issues and issue alerts for problems it can’t address. By keeping the grower in mind, you can design a solution that fits on their phone and helps them focus on only their most critical exceptions at the facility, room, or plant level.

Our key belief is the importance of growers. Many evolving AI solutions are focused on displacing the grower. Our focus is to listen to and involve the growers. By helping them refine and automate their best practices, we feel they will increase their yields faster with less risk. As with most industries, there’s a place for AI. However, the complex ecosystem required to grow plants will require years to fully manage. Why accept the higher risk and defer the rewards?

Pushing forward: plants and growers are the center of everything

How will I maintain my focus going forward? That’s easy to answer. It’s all about the grower and their plants. The hardware, software, integration methods, analytics and mobile technology are all fascinating areas. However, they only have context and meaning when the grower and plants are at the center of it. I’ll be maintaining a singular focus on their success. That’s going to require lots of connections, conversations, feedback and solution experiments.

You can find the results of those discussions on our “Grower’s Corner”. That series will focus on specific problems and how we address them. Check out our articles on that thread and join the discussion.

We’ve found that touring a cannabis grow operation is a unique experience. It’s far different from traditional indoor grow operations for vegetables and ornamentals. While there are lots of commonalities, each grower also has their unique approach. Some of the differences are obvious. Other differences require a discerning eye. The closer you look – the more differences you find.

During one of our first tours, we were shocked by the amount of variability between plants. Even within the same cultivar, a controlled environment, and timer-based hydroponic system, plant health varied widely. Some of the plants were flourishing while others were clearly losing the race. In a mixed cultivar room, the differences are even more dramatic. Since many growers use either manual watering or a timer-driven drip system, we observed that it accentuates the differences between cultivars and individual plants.

Looking through a geek’s lens

As we reviewed various grow operations, we noticed the lack of state-of-the-art technology. Most growers are tied to manual processes or using timer-based systems designed for vegetables. While there are a few that are starting to head toward artificial intelligence (AI) driven solutions, the advances require time to develop before industry adoption can start. Oddly, many of those solutions are using cameras to assess the status of plants, but not closing the loop for automated actions to improve the plants. Very few systems are using “internet of things” (IoT) solutions to drive automated actions. IoT solutions have been used extensively in logistics, aviation, manufacturing and healthcare. How did cannabis growers get left behind?

We also observed that growing a consistently high-quality crop requires a lot of finesse and fine tuning. Each plant is unique, and a myriad of environmental factors create an extremely complex and interdependent system. If you change one thing (or have an environmental surprise), the impact can ripple through the rest of the grow cycle. This makes it extremely difficult to truly optimize your growing techniques through data-driven A/B testing.

Lastly, sensor capabilities (which should be the foundation of data-driven optimization) are incredibly diverse. Some are low-cost, inaccurate, and only share data when you walk past the plant. Others are extremely advanced, difficult to calibrate, and too expensive to fully instrument an entire grow operation. It’s almost like a highway system that abruptly transitions from the Autobahn to dirt roads. For the few cost-effective sensors, very few software providers have been able to coherently aggregate the data and provide an insightful, simple application to help growers manage their complex environments. Again, how did cannabis growers get left behind?

How can we advance the solutions?

We applied a new lens to the growers’ challenges. A large part of that requires listening and learning. We can’t tell an experienced grower how to do their job more effectively. However, we can listen, understand, and experiment with new techniques. Most importantly, we can give the grower control over these tools. In a nutshell, we allow them to retain control, automate the mundane activities with new tools, and give them the ability to rigorously experiment to improve their methods. Ultimately, those improved techniques become the repeatable template for their future grows.

We’ve looked at other industries and technologies to identify patterns that can help solve these challenges. Some of the most important trends that we identified include:

• Sensors that can be used in large volumes to match the grow operation size
• Controllers that are cohesively integrated with the sensors to enable automated actions
• Servers that have the ability to integrate large volumes of data to provide meaningful insights
• Monitors for exceptions to help focus on the few critical items that require attention
• Applications that are mobile and easy to use (based on the task at hand)
• Integrations between disparate systems to provide a single “control panel” for the grower’s business
• Perspectives that realize we need to blend hardware, software, and horticulture with a strong focus on innovation

The pivot to reality

The prior articles focused on WHY cannabis is worth intense focus. The items listed above are the equivalent of WHAT can be done to improve grower outcomes. However, they are the equivalent of jigsaw puzzle pieces still sitting in the box. Check out our next article to understand HOW we are bringing all of those pieces together.

It’s not fair to expect a grower to become an IT organization. Greenest Grow exists to focus on the geeky bits so you can focus on your grow business. Check out our next article for more information on how we intend to help the industry.

This may seem like an odd post to read. I’ll be right up front: I don’t use cannabis products. However, I fully support adult-use cannabis (aka, recreational). Beyond support, I am a proponent and have focused my energy on helping the industry. If you’re puzzled, let’s peel this onion a bit to see how I arrived at this decision and how I’ll be taking action.

A non-user’s perspective

Family members and friends have asked why I don’t use cannabis products. I feel it’s a pretty simple reply: I don’t feel the need. Like a lot of people, I enjoy a beer, glass of wine or some bourbon on occasion. I just don’t feel the need to add cannabis to that list.

In my family history, there are instances of lung cancer. There is some limited research that may associate smoking cannabis and lung cancer. The researchers are clear that they have not established the correlation and need to continue the study. Given inconclusive research and my family history, I will stick with my general, subconscious aversion to smoking anything. There are lots of alternative methods to smoking cannabis. I just don’t have any interest in trying them either. I also realize that it isn’t fair for me to project my preferences on other people.

Is cannabis overdose a risk?

While growing up in the “just say no” era, we heard constant reinforcement about the dangers of cannabis. Based on the literature, you might think every city’s back allies would be littered with cannabis addicts overdosing. The plot thickens when you start researching the “dangers” of cannabis. While many people have spent decades vilifying the plant, the simple fact is that using cannabis has never killed anybody.

There are many readily available substances that can have a toxic effect. While we have been trained to focus on the dangers of cannabis, let’s see where the theoretical “toxic dose” compares to other readily available substances:

• Water – 6 liters
• Potatoes (raw) – 10 pounds
• Aspirin – 40
• Alcohol – 13 shots
• Fentanyl – 2 milligrams (and yes, this is readily available on our streets)
• Cannabis – 1,500 pounds

So compared to other readily available substances, you stand a greater risk of dying from a large bale of cannabis falling on you than consuming a lethal dose. There isn’t a single recorded death from excessive cannabis use. As many people joke, you will fall asleep before you can smoke enough to hurt you. If somebody wants to chill out in the evening with some cannabis, who am I to judge them? Their preferred substance is safer than my bourbon.

What I’ll be doing

Since cannabis is natural and safe, I have decided to listen to facts and research that will help accept it rather than unjustly vilify it. While it may not be a substance that I prefer, what gives me the right to project my choice on others?

I intend to focus my skills on helping growers produce higher yields and a more consistent product with environmentally friendly operations. The industry needs more research and optimization. With the removal of long-term criminalization and unjust vilification, we can accelerate and formalize that research. I cannot tell experienced growers how to grow a better product. However, I can help them refine and automate their process so they can scale more efficiently.

The decriminalization of cannabis is hopefully going to arrive soon. We intend to meet that accomplishment with products that will complement increased use. If you are curious about how our products will support the industry, check out our next post for the details.

In a previous post, I mentioned both my dad and oldest brother died horribly painful deaths from cancer. I don’t want to dwell too much on the negatives, but it really helps establish my “why” and ultimately why I care so much about medical cannabis. Read on, and I’ll address how I intend to help other people avoid their experience.

It bears mentioning my dad was an engineer for NASA for 34 years. His last role was managing one of their supercomputer centers. He was no slouch academically. After retirement, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Both of his lungs were peppered with tumors with some approaching one centimeter. While he persevered through chemotherapy and radiation treatment, I also watched him decline very slowly. In his last six months , he had a horrible time managing the opioids prescribed to treat his pain.

I remember helping him set a timer on his cell phone so he could remember to take the next dose so he wouldn’t be writhing in pain one hour later. A former engineer from NASA couldn’t fathom how to reset a cell phone timer! The medications dulled his senses so severely that it was beyond his understanding. Additionally, he lost interest in food and shed nearly 20 pounds in just a few months. While I appreciate the efficacy of opioids for chronic pain, the overall impact was completely devastating.

Somewhat similarly, my oldest brother was diagnosed with a different type of cancer. His cancer spread so quickly and wracked so much of his body, he only lasted a few months. His treatment regimen befuddled him to the point where I could barely have a conversation with him.

My last example is an acquaintance that runs his own company. After a devastating disease diagnosis, he had an organ surgically removed. He was in excruciating pain for months after the surgery. He spent most of his time at home or shuttling to the hospital for a different opioid regimen – every two weeks! His doctor finally referred him for cannabis options. Within months of starting cannabis products, he was mostly off the opioids and back to running his company. It took a few months, but he has restored a significant portion of his life.

What’s my “why”? To help other people avoid detrimental treatment programs (as much as possible) so they can enjoy a higher quality of life.

The need for more formal research

I shared a few anecdotes earlier. We could open the flood gates with related experiences. The litany of medical uses is growing continuously. Some examples include:

• Alzheimer’s disease
• Cancer tumors being devoured
• Crohn’s disease
• Eating disorders
• Epilepsy
• Glaucoma
• PTSD
• Multiple sclerosis
• Pain management
• Seizure reduction

The industry is in desperate need of additional research. Some of the current cannabis treatments are simply best practices. With proper research, the medical industry will be even more advanced. Treatment options will likely include specialized cultivars, specific strengths, dedicated preparations and potentiated therapies. We also need to validate specific molecules compared to full-spectrum products. Unfortunately, mistaken regulations are hindering formal research that can both alter and save lives.

What I’ll be doing

To help optimize the production of cultivars and improve consistency, I plan on leveraging my strength in data, analytics, technology and automation. Our products will support more consistent growth and predictable outcomes for specific cultivars. We’ll help automate repeatable actions. Even more importantly, we’ll enable A/B testing so growers can identify and recall optimal grow recipes for their cultivars, environments and preferred nutrients.

The growth and formalization of medical cannabis will require more controlled growth. My simple goal is to help enable that so others can enjoy their lives.

In a discussion with a colleague, she was puzzled how I could consider a move from Fortune 50 companies, global consulting and university administration roles to creating grow house solutions. From a distance (or my LinkedIn profile), I’m sure it seems very confusing. I’ve had the tremendous fortune of working for respected world leaders on cool things like jet engine development programs, nuclear reactor maintenance, pharmaceutical distribution and fraud detection. Over the past 2 decades, it has been quite the tour and learning experience.

What is my constant? Intersections! My career has been all about integrating methods or tools that seem disparate. That has included how to fix broken business processes and integrate technology to automate steps. The other major intersection has been translating raw data into meaningful information and automated actions. Whether I’ve been the hands-on analyst or Chief Data Officer leading large teams, I’ve never relaxed my focus on the intersections that help teams succeed.

But how does the leap to cannabis happen – especially for a non-cannabis user?

I’ve developed a fascination for medical cannabis. After my dad and oldest brother died horribly painful deaths from cancer, I found out that cannabis products can alleviate a lot of pain. Additionally, research is showing that THC can devour some cancer tumors. The reality is that my family members didn’t need to suffer as much and could have had a better quality of life. I’ve had an acquaintance nearly eradicate his opioid regimen required for pain management by moving to cannabis products. He went from bi-weekly trips to the hospital and living on his couch to running his own company again. More research is obviously needed, but we need to remove senseless regulations so that research can accelerate. How can I ignore the opportunity to help improve the lives of other people?

Hemp fiber is equally fascinating. With just some basic research, you can discover that hemp:

·      produces at least 4 times more fiber per acre than trees

·      provides that fiber volume in a few months rather than several years

·      requires far fewer chemicals to make paper pulp

·      can be recycled up to 8 times (instead of just 3).

That just covers hemp for paper production! We haven’t fully tapped the potential for clothing, shoes, plastics or biofuel. Much like the medical uses, we need to accelerate research, adoption and enable capital investment.

How did we get so disconnected on the use of such a foundational plant?

While researching the disconnect on cannabis and hemp use, I found my pivot point. The barrier is a mix of corporate greed, government malfeasance and a lack of understanding. The history is so rich, I can’t do it justice in this post. Please see the comments below for a link to the excellent article written by Curt Robbins on “How Cannabis Became Illegal”. In addition to being thorough and professional, you’ll have a refreshed understanding of how regulations can grow out of control due to a lack of understanding.

So, while states have started to move forward without federal support, we are left with a fractured financial system that is slowing research and innovation. Even equipment providers face ongoing scrutiny because they are supporting illegal products.

So where is my focus?

I’m turning my focus to intersections (the cornerstone of my career). In follow-up posts, I’ll provide a deeper dive into how I’ve been able focus my background (process, data, analytics and automation) to help improve the industry. I suspect people in the industry will appreciate that I refuse to tell them how to do their jobs better. My focus is on leveraging data and technology so they can improve their decisions and actions.

Before I jump into those details, check out my next post on the medical impact. It really sets a stronger foundation for my “why”.