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From Cannabis to Cucumbers: Applying Early Policy & Program Learnings to Inform the Future of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) By Derek Smith, Executive Director, Resource Innovation Institute   As weather patterns disrupt outdoor crop cycles in our rapidly climate-constrained world, a quiet agricultural revolution is taking place in warehouses and greenhouses. With electric lighting, HVAC,…

With passage of Illinois’s new adult use cannabis law and its rules for cannabis grow facility energy and environmental performance, the Land of Lincoln becomes the 11th state in the country to regulate cultivation and sale of adult use cannabis products and only the second to impose energy use restrictions.   Cultivators (and “infuser organizations”)…

One common misconception among cannabis cultivators is that to grow a quality plant indoors, you need to use the long-held industry standard high-pressure sodium (HPS) lights. As a result, long-time cultivators have often shied away from the more energy-efficient Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) when establishing their operations. However, efficient lighting solutions are progressing at a rapid…

Join Resource Innovation Institute (RII) Executive Director Derek Smith in New Orleans on June 12-14, 2019 at MJBizConNEXT for an exclusive look into the future of efficient cultivation. RII brings together innovators and visionaries to establish best practices that maximize quality production while minimizing costs and environmental impact. RII will be presenting the latest features of the…

Overview Wholesale prices are falling in another market, this time Oregon. With predictability, each state that regulates sees a winnowing of producers shortly after supply hits a certain level. It is clear that cultivation operators who invest in energy efficiency measures that lower their cost structures are significantly better positioned to weather the storms that…