Legal Marijuana Cultivation Is Driving A Technology 'Revolution' In Industrial Agriculture

[bananas]

http://www.ibtimes.com/legal-marijuana-cultivation-driving-technology-revolution-industrial-agriculture-1925167?rel=most_shared3

Legal Marijuana Cultivation Is Driving A Technology 'Revolution' In Industrial Agriculture
By Maria Gallucci on May 17 2015

Deep within a cedar forest in British Columbia, Dan Sutton is building what he hopes will be the most energy-efficient, high-technology greenhouse for growing cannabis. Spurred by the booming market for medical marijuana, he and a group of biologists and engineers have experimented for almost three years with digital sensors, lighting arrays, software programs and ventilators to design a greenhouse system with the lowest energy costs and highest crop yields.

“We said, ‘Let’s assume everything that’s ever been done in cannabis cultivation is wrong, and we have to build from the ground up,’” said Sutton, the 28-year-old managing director of Tantalus Labs in Vancouver. “We have this broad realm of science that no one has been able to previously explore.”

The startup is among a growing number of companies in North America designing new products and systems specifically for the cultivation of cannabis, a finicky crop that needs a precise balance of light, moisture and water to thrive. Although these cannabis ventures aren’t exactly reinventing the wheel -- greenhouse technologies have existed for decades -- they are injecting the kinds of capital and brainpower into the field of industrial agriculture that simply wasn’t there a decade ago.

They’re also adding a new level of urgency. As more countries and U.S. states soften their policies on both medical and recreational marijuana, companies are racing to become the industry leaders in data-mining software, ultraefficient lamps and water-sipping irrigation systems. These tools will benefit more than marijuana growers alone: Industrial food producers and tree growers could adapt the same technologies to cut energy costs and boost their crops. Operators of large buildings could use the systems to lower their electricity use.

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This technology will also be important for Mars colonies

[TexasProgresive]

1. Made me think of a movie with Brenda Blethyn & Craig Ferguson

"Saving Grace" Grace's methods for growing super buds is not energy efficient but is really productive.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0195234/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2
A widow discovers after her husband's suicide that he has mortgaged everything they own and the banks are ready to foreclose. Faced with impending doom and little working knowledge except her ability to grow plants, she struggles to save her home. Enter her gardener, who is struggling to make a few marijuana plants grow in a hidden location and suggests that she use her green house to help grow the plants and sell them to make the money both need. He is wanting to get married, but needs capital. What he doesn't know is that his girl friend is pregnant and thus fears that they will be busted for growing marijuana. While supposedly working, the whole village is well aware of the endeavor and is hoping for their success. When the plants come in, Grace takes the crop to London and tries to sell it to a ruthless, but charming drug dealer. Everything busts loose from there.