Get the breakdown of this popular growing technique
10 | Legal Matters
Retailers, be compliant with the sale of customer data
12 | Cultivation
What happens when clones receive 12 & 24 hours of light?
28 | Vantage Point
Five winning traits every cannabis executive should possess
DEPARTMENTS
04 | From the Editor 06 | In the News 27 | Suppliers’ Corner IPM technologies for the cannabis enterprise 30 | Under the Lights Q&A with Greg Guyatt, CEO of Phoena (formerly CannTrust)
FEATURES
14
Waste Audits for LPs Turn company waste into profitability through sustainability BY MIKA UNTERMAN
16
Motivation Matters: KinHana profile Cheryl Wilson captains her craft LP as company founder, owner & master grower BY HALEY NAGASAKI
20 COVER STORY
Pest mitigation mirrors past millennia IPM expert links current pest management practices to those from the past BY RAY RICHARDS
24 E is for Excise Industry experts discuss the problems & solutions associated with the excise tax issue BY JON HILTZ & HALEY NAGASAKI
From the editor
By Haley Nagasaki
Seasons are peaking at Grow Opportunity
I’d like to begin by saying hello to our readers and greater online and social media audiences. I hope you’re having a fabulous summer so far.
My name is Haley Nagasaki, and as of May 10th, I am the new editor of Grow Opportunity. As this is my first crack at weaving together an issue of Grow, I will delve into the editorial process, and how much I enjoyed it, but first I would like to provide you with a formal introduction.
I’m a writer first, a cannabis enthusiast second, and everything else has simply followed suit. I’ve been wrangling in this space as a freelance journalist (among other activities) for the past six years and am no stranger to the intricate cannabis landscape. I began this journey on the West Coast, in Vancouver, B.C., followed by Vancouver Island, and the intuitive life has happily led me to where I am now. Geographically, I’m back on the ol’ stomping grounds in Ontario, and I am thrilled to be working with my talented team.
I’d like to thank Paul Grossinger, Grow’s group publisher and interim editor, for passing the baton to me, as well as providing his expert guidance while I acclimatize to this new role. To our publisher Adam Szpakowski, who pitched the idea for Grow back in 2017, thank you for your continued support and your wealth of industry knowledge. To Nash Barsky, the OG firecracker of
the group, thanks for welcoming me so warmly and for kicking butt like you do. And to everyone else at Annex Business Media, thank you for having me join your family!
And what better timing?
This Spring moved at mock speed for me and the industry itself: from the numerous events I attended, webinars hosted, interviews conducted, and even the gig MC’ing at our very own Grower Day, I hit the
I’m so delighted to work amongst a group of pioneers, where the learning never stops, and it just so happens, neither does the fun.
ground running, which has always been my preferred method of immersion! In a few short months I have met hundreds of talented people in the cannabis market and I’m so delighted to work amongst a group of pioneers leading by example, where the learning never stops, and it just so happens, neither does the fun.
Now back to the magazine. In this issue, we bring you a special on Integrated Pest Management (IPM), as well as introduce a number of firsttime Grow Opportunity contributors. Ray Richards provided our feature on pest management, and Jon Hiltz covered the troublesome excise tax, which is the topic of conversation at every turn, it seems. Shout out to Denis Gertler for assisting!
Furthermore, Dykstra Greenhouses (whose team spoke at Grower Day) provided our excellent summer cover photo portraying a team hard at work, under that southern Ontario greenhouse sun, scouting for pests (and keeping their plants compact to facilitate that). On that thread of Grower Day, our speaker Mika Unterman was unable to attend in person, but we didn’t want to miss out on her expert advice, so you’ll find an exclusive feature on waste audits for LPs.
The lineup continues with grow maestro George Dickinson’s piece detailing crop steering (props to Aroya), and our Vantage Point column penned by Mitchell Osak is an absolute must-read.
Finally, I’d like to thank Cheryl Wilson, founder and president of KinHana, for providing me with the insider scoop on her one-woman operation in Huntsville, Ont., and for giving me the low down on how she’s operating for success (including her IPM tips for fungus gnats). Spoiler alert, success doesn’t always have to mean wealth measured in capital! From top to bottom it was an absolute pleasure assembling this publication.
As the sun peaks this season and our hearts and minds are full of warmth and wonder, I bid you all a fantastic summer with big full, sticky ladies, and the determination to seize another day — chasing sunrises after sunsets after sunrises, again. Until next time.
July/August 2022
Vol. 6, No. 4 growopportunity.ca
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Lift&Co. Coverage: Illicit Obsolescence
The inability to stamp out the illicit market in immediacy rests on the shoulders of missing market incentive at the level of decision-makers. Legacy growers must be motivated to begin the transition to the regulated market, thereby reducing competitive pressures. This, coupled with the pricing and nanny state regulations is “why,” says George Smitherman, CEO of the Cannabis Council of Canada, C3. It could be time to “grow the pie” and reduce the inflated “entry fees,” adds Smitherman, who encourages relationship-building with “those who regulate us.”
Evolving industry regulations with four LP CEOs
Beena Goldberg (Organigram) and Myrna Gillis (Aqualitas) would like to see a reform on the Cannabis Health Products regulations, as in bring back product info and the ability to make health claims. The introduction of other functional ingredients into products would also be successful. The de-stigmatization of cannabis products is a continued target insofar as decoupling THC from CBD. One way of doing this is by offering CBD products at health food stores and pharmacies rather than solely through dispensaries. As an edibles producer, Niel Marotta (Indiva) would like to see an increase in the levels of THC permissible per package. Extracts can contain 1000mg of THC but edibles only 10mg — this is an example of market failure. Mandesh Dosanjh (Pure Sunfarms) upholds that when it comes to reform, it’s important to find win-win operational equations, such as removing the excise stamp for different products and using a universal stamp instead. He suggests that the government could use the excise tax to help stamp out the illicit market; another win-win.
upcoming cannabis events this Summer and Fall to watch out for:
Grow Up, Niagara; Montreal Cannabis Expo; MJBizCon, Las Vegas.
O’Cannabiz Coverage: Recent regulatory shifts with the AGCO
Breath Summit 2022: New technologies to arm law enforcement
New Cannabix Technologies handheld device is used to detect THC in the human breath.
“Breath testing for THC would allow employers and law enforcement to identify recent marijuana use that better aligns with impairment. Cannabix devices are in the advanced prototype and pre-clinical testing stage.” — Rav Mlait, CEO Cannabix Technologies.
Fern Glowinsky, CEO of Merrco Payments, moderated a panel where panelists Trina Fraser, Denis Gertler and Chad Finkelstein discussed a recent report released by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO).
How enforcement will unfold with the new AGCO decision is yet to be seen, although the panelists agree that businesses are encouraged to reach out and seek clarity because the commission wants to work with people; they want to better understand the industry.
Still, there remains an awkwardness surrounding some issues, such as proof of fair market value as it relates to placing products on the shelves of retailers versus receiving information from said retailer, explains Fraser, partner at Brazeau Seller Law.
Regulatory expert Denis Gertler adds that the “federal-provincial relationship in any area is fraught,” that the communication is not
great, and as a result, there’s a lot of finger-pointing going on insofar as who’s responsible for what.
“The AGCO has, more often, been reactive rather than proactive in responding to a relentlessly creative industry,” said Finkelstein, partner at Dale & Lessmann LLP, which he believes furthers this sense of uncertainty.
“If you receive a warning letter form the AGCO, you’re not going to jail, you’re not losing your license. It’s an invitation, often times, to have a discussion about what the rules and standards are and how they should be interpreted as it relates to what you’re doing.”
The regulator is not there to stop or suspend businesses and should instead be seen as an opportunity to seek more guidance.
Panelists believe it’s a good idea to discuss compliance and to focus on relationship-building in response to this.
Crop Steering
By George Dickinson
Diving into
the weeds of this game-changing plant management technique
This simple guide breaks down the basics for growers, teaching them to improve their grams per square foot, per year, using an approach to plant management called crop steering.
What is crop steering?
To live, plants need light, water, and a place to grow. When cultivating in an indoor or greenhouse setting, it’s the grower’s job to create a nurturing environment that is as close to nature as possible. This requires having to monitor and adjust environmental factors.
Crop steering is a practice in which cultivators manipulate light, climate, and irrigation in an indoor or greenhouse environment to encourage their plants to grow a certain way.
Long used in hydroponic vegetable production, crop steering is achieved, in part, by adjusting the frequency and level of irrigation specific to an environment, cultivar, and stage of plant growth. As a result, cultivators are able to steer their plants to grow bigger, produce better quality flowers, and improve their yield without losing production.
How does crop steering work?
The life cycle of the cannabis plant covers the following four phases:
1. Propagation: when a new plant grows from a seed, cutting, or tissue culture.
2. Vegetative: when plants produce leaves, stalks, and shoots.
3. Generative: when plants produce flowers, fruits, and seeds.
4. Harvest: when plants are gathered and dried before curing.
Crop steering is a practice in which cultivators manipulate light, climate, and irrigation in an indoor or greenhouse setting to encourage their plants to grow a certain way.
To achieve healthy cannabis plants in high yields, maintaining a proper balance between a plant’s vegetative and generative growth stages is vital. Growers can use crop steering to cue their plants to lean in one direction or the other.
During the vegetative stage, plants are focused on early root and plant development. Growers must maintain proper water content in the root zone without over or under saturating the substrate.
When steering the plants vegetatively, cultivators can promote rapid growth by eliminating stressors and allowing plants to absorb as much water as possible, while also ensuring they receive adequate nutrition. They achieve this balance by keeping electrical conductivity (EC) low and using every irrigation event (shot) as a signal that encourages the plant to take advantage of available resources.
During its generative stage the cannabis plant focuses on maximizing flower, resin, and flavour production. While growers apply more shots throughout the day in this phase, water content is typically maintained at lower levels than during the vegetative phase.
When steering generativity, growers apply targeted stressors — including increasing EC in the irrigation and the substrate to control water uptake — to promote more compact growth with a greater focus on reproduction.
Crop steering in motion
Crop steering empowers growers to control their environment, make more informed cultivation decisions, and achieve targeted results.
To be successful, cultivators respond to generative and vegetative cues in the following key areas:
• Electrical Conductivity (EC): The amount of dissolved fertilizer in a solution as determined by the ease at which electricity can move through the water; EC is a direct measure of the amount of water that roots can access for transpiration and growth.
• Drybacks: The difference in volumetric water content (VWC) from the last irrigation event of a given day (max saturation) to the first irrigation event of the following day (lowest VWC level).
• Field capacity: The point after/ during irrigation at which a substrate can no longer hold any more water.
• Leachate: The solution that is not absorbed by the medium during an irrigation event once it has reached its maximum potential saturation; AKA runoff.
• Shot size: The volume applied during an irrigation event or shot — usually expressed in total volume (mL) or as a percentage of the total media volume.
• Volumetric Water Content (VWC): The volume of water per volume of substrate, expressed as a percentage (%).
• Water Content (WC): The volume of nutrient solution (water + nutrients) in the substrate.
Crop steering allows growers to have control over their plants.
Utilizing a cannabis production platform with sensors that see inside substrate and around plants, plus a software platform that tracks and monitors every stage, cultivators can get all the insights they need to be able to steer their plants successfully. With today’s technology, and the right historical data, growers can increase their yields by at least 20 percent, with some reaching well over 50.
Productive cannabis plants are determined by the aptitude of the grower coupled with the appropriate technologies and techniques for mitigating stressors and maximizing both profits & yields.
George Dickinson is the founder of CannaPro and the co-founder of Growhaus Supply. He has been in the greenhouse industry for three decades and helps cannabis companies become more efficient while improving their crop performance.
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By Roland Hung, Lisa R. Lifshitz, Matt Maurer, and Olivia Veldkamp
What you need to know about selling customer information as a retailer
The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) recently published a guidance document called Inducements Rules for Licensed Cannabis Retailers. The guidance document states that as of June 30, 2022, Ontario cannabis retailers will be allowed to sell personal customer information to licensed cannabis producers. However, they will still be expected to follow applicable privacy laws and regulations.
This article discusses the current privacy law regime in Ontario and how cannabis retailers can legally collect and disclose personal information.
Privacy law for the private sector in Ontario
In Ontario, there is presently no provincial private sector privacy law, meaning the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) applies to most private sector organizations and businesses (including cannabis retailers and cannabis producers) in Ontario that are conducting “commercial activity,” with commercial activity being very broadly defined.
If a company is engaged in a “commercial activity,” it will likely fall under PIPEDA. The law affects the way organizations collect, use, and disclose personal information about individuals.
Given the fact that cannabis is illegal in jurisdictions outside of Canada, the personal information of cannabis users is arguably highly sensitive. The potential stigma associated with the purchase or use of cannabis, as well as risks associated with cross-border information transfers, mean that cannabis retailers must exercise caution before selling personal information to licensed cannabis producers, and ensure that any personal information collected, used, stored or disclosed, is properly handled.
The personal information of cannabis users is arguably highly sensitive...cannabis retailers must exercise caution before selling info to LPs.
OPC guidelines for the use of personal information
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) has previously published guidelines entitled, “Protecting Personal Information: Cannabis Transactions” (OPC Guidelines), to clarify, amongst other things, the rights and obligations of both cannabis retailers under PIPEDA. Cannabis retailers who would like to sell personal information of customers to licensed cannabis producers must consider the following:
1. Limit the collection of personal information to what is necessary
Cannabis retailers should only collect personal information that a reasonable person would consider “appropriate under the circumstances.” They are also required to obtain prior informed consent from the customer before collecting any personal information.
The guidelines provide an example where a retailer can request and review identification to ensure that the consumer has reached the age of majority. However, there is no need to record this information.
2. Obtain meaningful consent
The general rule under PIPEDA is that consent must be obtained from an individual prior to the collection, use, or disclosure of their personal information. Consent can be implied or express. If information at issue is sensitive and/or the collection, use, or disclosure thereof is outside the reasonable expectations of the individual, then businesses will generally need to obtain express consent.
When a business is collecting personal information, it must inform the individual of the purpose(s) for which their information is being collected and disclosed. The collection of personal information must then be restricted to what is necessary for the purpose(s) that were identified. Similarly, businesses cannot use, disclose, or retain the information for reasons other than the purpose(s) for which it was collected, unless the individual consents or they are otherwise required to do so by law.
3. Use appropriate safeguards for the storage of personal information
Any information collected must be stored in a secure manner by retailers. The OPC guidelines highlights the following measures in order to comply with PIPEDA:
• Designate a privacy officer to be in charge of ensuring compliance.
• Employ physical, organizational, and technological security measures to prevent unauthorized access, collection, use or disclosure of personal info.
• Develop and maintain appropriate policies and practices related to privacy.
In addition to using sufficient security safeguards, if the cannabis retailer is planning to sell customer information, the cannabis retailer should enter into a written contract with the cannabis producer to ensure the cannabis producer will implement appropriate safeguards to protect the personal information.
This article is a collaboration between several lawyers at Torkin Manes LLP: Roland Hung, Counsel; Lisa R. Lifshitz, Partner and Chair of the Firm’s Technology, Privacy & Data Management Group; Matt Maurer, Partner and Co-Chair of the Firm’s Cannabis Law Group and Chair of the Franchise Law Group; and Olivia Veldkamp, Associate.
Profes si onals make informed decisions...
By Dr. Mohyuddin Mirza & Gagandeep Singh Bhatoa Cultivation
Dr. Mohyuddin Mirza, PhD, is an industry consultant in Edmonton, Alta. He can be reached at drmirzaconsultants@gmail.com.
Gagandeep Singh Bhatoa is a scientific writer in Regina, Sask. He can be reached at gaganagrico@gmailcom.
Case Study: Addressing cloning issues with 12- and 24-hour photoperiods
In cannabis cultivation, plants must stay vegetative during the early stages and generative during the latter. The vegetative phase helps to build the plant “infrastructure,” such as roots, shoots, stems, and leaves. A signal is then released within the plant, instructing it to enter a generative phase by reducing the light duration or photoperiod — the cue for budding.
The plant should never revert growth stages from a generative to a vegetative state, or a vegetative to a generative stage, too early.
Recently, a grower posed an interesting question: Is 24 hours of light good for clones if they were accidently exposed to 12 hours of light previously?
The rooted clones, with a set of eight to 10 leaves and branches, were planted for vegetative growth, and after one week, pre-flowers were observed.
When the lighting program was investigated, they found that the plants had gotten 12 hours of light during that week — the bud set photoperiod.
It was therefore decided that these plants should get 24 hours of light in attempts to accelerate them back to a vegetative direction so that the proper plant structures would be built.
See Figure 1.
• The plants are very compact.
• The leaves are showing a loss of colour.
• The edges are burnt on the lower leaves
• There’s an initiation of flower in the terminal area.
One week of 24 hours of light did not appear to initiate a vegetative response in the clones that were previously exposed to 12 hours of light.
• One week of 24 hours of light did not appear to initiate a vegetative response.
Was it the right decision to provide 24 hours of light in attempts to reverse the generative state to a vegetative state?
• The photoperiod is the deciding factor when keeping the cannabis plants vegetative.
• With 24 hours of light at an average intensity of 700 micromoles/m2/sec., the Daily Light Integral (DLI) of 60.4 moles/m2/day is achieved, which is quite high.
• Stored carbohydrates are then used for purposes other than growth.
• That is why even after one week of 24 hours of light, there was no vegetative response in the plants.
Potential reasons why the clones did not return to a vegetative state:
• Cannabis’ light saturation point is 50-70 percent at a particular light intensity. Beyond the saturation point, the rate of photosynthesis begins to decline.
• In ambient concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), cannabis leaves begin to saturate when the photon density is 500 µmol (PPFD).
• Cannabis is sensitive to photorespiration, meaning that when there are conditions of low humidity, warm temperatures, and an abundance of light, then respiration increases.
• Higher respiration during the light period is a destructive process where food made through photosynthesis is utilized by the plant to provide energy for transpiration and cooling.
• Photosynthesis in C3 plants occurs when stomata are open, and in order to keep them open, the plant needs water at the stomata site.
• Under high light intensity and 24 hours duration, the stomata try to close to limit water loss, and this negatively affects the process of photosynthesis
• The optimal temperature for photosynthesis in C3 plants is comparatively lower than the C4 plants.
• With high light intensities, many growers use temperatures above 25C, which is less conducive to fixing sunlight through photosynthesis.
• Light saturation occurs, photosynthetic efficiency reduces, while respiration continues.
Figure 1: The clones received 12 hours of light instead of 18 hours of intended light, for approximately one week, followed by another week of 24 hours of light.
Implementing Waste Audits for LPs
When it comes to monitoring your company waste, find out what simple measures you can take to increase profitability. By Mika Unterman
Reading this article is about the single easiest and cheapest action you can take to advance sustainability in your organization. Environmental consciousness has the potential to be more than simple feel-good initiatives only lending themselves to environmental impacts — there are untapped revenue streams you can leverage to help improve margins.
Ask yourself this: how much of your precious and scarce capital ends up in the garbage or down the drain because you’re not examining your waste?
Our planet is in jeopardy; we produce an unsustainable amount of waste. With the introduction of more and more “stuff,” we continue to extract materials from the earth in a damaging way.
The problem here is twofold: landfill emissions account for eight percent of global GHG emissions, and our waste problem is contributing to temperatures
rising, increasing wildfires, to start.
In our rush to try and address the drastic need for action while demonstrating to our consumers that we understand their needs and wants — primarily a planet still capable of supporting life — we make hasty decisions that may attract attention but are scrapped at the first signs of distress.
So, the work then becomes identifying where strategic importance lies for your business.
Much of the focus in the cannabis industry is on the waste generated by consumer plastics. Understandably so, as our impact as an industry is immense, with over 6.4 million kilograms of plastic waste from 2018 to 2019. This ends up in landfills since much of our plastics can’t be recycled or they are simply mismanaged. As producers and retailers, we hold very little influence to make the necessary changes.
Health Canada does hold that influence — they determined that plastics needed to be opaque, they set the standard of CR,
they made the smell proof requirement. Municipal waste managers also hold influence — they determine what can be recycled, they mismanage the plastics, and they sell them to realize revenue.
It’s for this reason that recycling initiatives are not producing a tangible, beneficial impact.
A whole world in waste
Waste is a most pressing concern as it both depletes resources, and it must be stored in landfills. What you probably don’t know is that industrial, commercial, and institutional (IC&I) waste makes up the largest portion of the non-hazardous solid waste stream (this is us).
Manufacturing waste is 100% within your control — your operations, your facility, your decision.
By measuring and understanding the sources and causes of this waste, there is
Motivation Matters
The driving force behind KinHana's success is a lean operation and community dedication.
By Haley Nagasaki
For Cheryl Wilson, the joy of rolling down the aisles of her indoor organic grow, while listening to melodic Gregorian chants and whispering to the plants their purpose — and her respect for them — has always been the seed of her operation.
Wilson, the maverick cannabis leader, works entirely single-handedly, while also working by hand, including hand watering and pruning her entire room of organically grown plants.
“There are people in this industry whose motivation is money, and satisfying the investors, whereas I’m more interested in growing a quality product and helping people,” says the founder, owner, master grower and driving force behind KinHana, a Huntsville, Ont.-based LP that boasts an indoor facility growing anywhere between 1,500 to 1,800 plants.
Meaning golden flower, Kinhana took root in central Ontario for medical patients, specifically veterans in the area. With her small family team, which contracted in size with the arrival of the pandemic, Wilson produces organic honey, maple syrup, and now cannabis oil on her 250-acre central Ontario farm.
Well known in the community for her passion for helping veterans, Wilson began her cannabis journey a few years prior to legalization when an abdominal surgery left her with phantom nerve pain that buckled her knees.
She was offered opioids, which she promptly turned down, having seen the detriment of addiction firsthand. She then
asked her practitioner to consider cannabis; though at the time, had no known source for acquiring the medicine.
“I grew up in Singapore with a very harsh, no drugs, rule of law,” Wilson says. “It was never part of my growing up experience; it was just so taboo. And then having kids, and “just say no” — it wasn’t something I was even interested in.”
The need for pain relief coupled with an instinctive self-reliant attitude unique to farmers hastened Cheryl’s decision to grow her own cannabis. “When I realized that the pain-relief I got was instant, I thought, I need to help other people. So that’s how I started into it.”
Wilson began her vocation as a cannabis producer by receiving her ACMPR license for personal medical cultivation purposes. She then submitted her commercial application to Health Canada, without the assistance of a consultant or other third-party members.
After 10 months she was a certified micro cultivator and started a family business with her two daughters growing hands-on in the facility, and her son as an occasional advisor.
Due to the pandemic, and her daughters returning to their original occupations, Wilson reduced the number of plants she was tending to by about half.
Differentiation amidst legalization
The fact of the matter is that Wilson decided she was going to apply for her commercial cultivation license long before federal legalization.
“I went and had my fingerprints done in June [2018],” she explains. “I started doing the preparation towards it so that when they legalized in October, I hit the submit button on December 31. I think I was one of the first in Canada licensed as a micro, and I was probably the first woman owned.”
With the current state of the bearish cannabis market in Canada, Wilson feels that having such a lean operation dedicated to her community rather than shareholders — coupled with her motivations to create the best possible product for her community — has only encouraged rather than hindered her business potential.
Wilson is now working to bring KinHana to the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS) and is looking to expand interprovincially, at
which point she will bring on new team members, offering any new positions, first, to her two experienced daughters.
Although she is eyeing potential expansion into the recreational market, Wilson’s main objective remains serving her closeknit community in Huntsville and surrounding areas, predominantly through word of mouth.
“I really have a passion for helping other people suffering with medical and mental issues that they need help addressing,” says Wilson, who, prior to cannabis cultivation, was involved in several other fields, from flipping houses to running a steel fabrication business, where she employed welders and machinists
Given Wilson’s work experience, she is used to working in male-dominated trades. However, and regardless of her femininity and natural affinity to the fe -
male plant, she does not find that there is much differentiation between herself and her male cannabis cultivating counterparts.
Despite being family, and more specifically, women owned and operated, KinHana functions with a high level of integrity on par with other commercial growers regardless of gender identity. Wilson finds that she champions the women as well as the men in this space.
“But it's all fun and games until you actually have to roll up your sleeves and show something. So whether it's male run or female run, I don't know if it makes a damn bit of difference,” Wilson believes.
“My son’s a phenomenal grower as well and he advises me when I'm having a sticky issue. But still I've been ripped off by “suits”, and there are women in this industry that give us a bad name, too.”
Cultivation practices that work
“It’s indoor and I do all of it myself,” explains Wilson. “When it comes time to harvest, I do call some other people to help me with trimming, but as far as the growing, the watering, the turning in — just the day-to-day stuff — I do that myself.”
Wilson uses an organically amended medium in her indoor facility. She stays rooted in soil as she found that through experimenting with hydroponics, that it did not provide enough space for the root systems. She also recycles her soil and uses organic nutrients as well. “Black strap molasses is my best friend,” she says. “Black strap and kelp.”
During the latter half of the grow cycle marked by the shortened photoperiod of flower, Wilson spends three to four hours per day in the room hand watering everything. This way she ensures a visit with
each plant. She plays music for them too, favouring Gregorian chants, and uses ceramic metal halide (CMH) lights and a CO2 input in the room.
“It depends on what needs to be done, but I usually go in and start by watering everything. I have a little rollie chair that I roll down the aisles and I clean up junk that’s underneath the plant,” she says.
“Having 1,000 plants on the floor, I can visit them individually, and over the course of the week I will get the whole room done; then I start on row one again. It doesn’t take a lot of time though because I’ve already planted them, so I just let the plant do what it does.”
IPM, data logging and cultivars
At KinHana, nematodes are deployed in the cultivation methods. Wilson mitigates fungus gnat pressure with a variety of
other controls, having once used diatomaceous earth but found that once the soil got wet, as it does daily in her operation, DE loses its ability to impair the insects.
“I used cinnamon for fungus gnats, and I found that that worked in the soil as a deterrent.”
Top dressing the plant with cinnamon powder proved to be an affordable and effective remedy for fungus gnats, but other than that, she has not had any other pesky intruders.
Wilson logs her data in a journal which she developed during COVID and is now marketing online. Her grow journal helps growers keep track of and later reflect upon those methods that worked and those that didn’t, which strains were challenging, and which would she grow again.
The efficacy of her unique journal
functions because of the various cultivars that she produces.
“I love growing balanced strains that are 1:1 — the veteran community really likes that,” she asserts. “I’ve got one prod-
Rows upon rows of potted plants, kept compact and organically satiated, represent the grow methods employed at KinHana artisan craft cannabis LP.
uct that I brought in from my ACMPR days and it was 5.5 percent THC to 7 percent CBD. It’s the CBD that does very well for them. I also have fun with the ones that get really frosty, like Black Dorado. I’ve got Wedding Cookie in the grow now, that’s a nice little short, fat indica. It does very well in my growing technique.”
Wilson produces oils and topical products for her patients partly because she does not encourage smoking as the main delivery method. She creates cosmetic skin care topicals as well as those used for pain remediation. Some of her more luxurious ingredients, include frankincense and myrrh essential oils, rose hip and grape seed carrier oils, and vitamin E.
Ecstasy over expansion
Cheryl Wilson is fulfilling her dream of cultivating cannabis for her own purposes and for those in her surrounding community. Due to the pandemic, her production rate has nearly halved, however her overhead and workload remain relative to pre-pandemic statistics.
While she may enter the OCS and expand her team once more, this is not her core motivation. She is able to go from
seed to sale — growing, feeding, packing and shipping her products entirely herself — while securing abundance and feeling satisfied, to boot.
The cannabis space is open to interpretation, or reinterpretation, whatever the case may be, and there are as many ways to implement an operation as there are grower personalities and plant genetics in the space.
For Cheryl, the delight of serving up alternatives to potentially lethal pharmaceuticals is in alignment with her outlook and more recent embrace of the cannabis plant — the joy she elicits from which will always take precedent over lust for capital or the growth of her operation.
Simply put, this ensures that her loving attention will remain allocated in the grow room rather than delegating from the boardroom.
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• Stainless Steel round bar edge on trays, easier to clean and leaves no residue or risk of cross contamination as compared to other fold over edges
• Stackable trays, easy to pull apart
bhuisman@harvestsci.ca
gussets for extra stability
Optional (removable) tow bar and pin, should you want to tow multiple at a time
Fermata CMO consults IPM expert Guy Gafni, via Q&A, to discuss contemporary disease and pest management in cannabis. By
Ray Richards
Some of the earliest scribblings of recorded history document humankind’s struggle with agricultural pests and disease responsible for famine and death across the centuries.
While today in North America, plagues of locusts are seldom compared to the late nineteenth century, the stakes still remain high. Despite less personal risk, failure to implement proper Integrated Pest Management (IPM) protocols can certainly contribute to the death of a business, let alone a crop.
Margins are tight, competition is stiff, and companies can’t afford to lose significant portions of their investment due to pests and disease.
Despite thousands of years of progress, many of the same mitigation techniques employed by early growers are still in use today — particularly in the highly regulated cannabis industry.
Soaps and oils have been in use for
millennia, and beneficial insect utilization has also been documented as far back as 324 BC.
In Israel, an early mover on the medicinal cannabis front, former Biobest Head of R&D and cannabis IPM expert, Guy Gafni, primarily employs an organic approach to IPM, which carries on this tradition.
I sat down with him virtually to get his thoughts on the challenges faced by the industry he helps provide for today.
GO: What are the top IPM issues you’re dealing with these days, in terms of severity, should things get out of hand?
GG: It’s hard to say. I think it varies on different farms, but usually I think that the biggest problem is probably aphids. There are a lot of different aphids, but mostly it’s the melon or cotton aphid, and the cannabis aphid.
And then it’s spider mites and grey mold and powdery mildew. Fusarium
sometimes. But when you get aphids, you can’t really sell those plants, because they also produce honeydew, and next you’ve got different fungi that grow on the honeydew. So that’s a problem. It’s not marketable; you have to throw it away.
GO: So, there’s a potential for you to lose a substantial amount of your crop if you don’t catch it in time?
GG: Yeah, and aphids reproduce very quickly. It takes about, let’s say at 25 degrees Celsius, it would take something like five days to become an adult. And then they would reproduce—no mating, no nothing; they don’t need any males. So, within five days it becomes an adult and then it multiplies by something like forty offspring per female, which of course restarts the cycle five days later.
GO: The infestation increases extremely rapidly — how important would you say early detection in IPM generally is then?
Orius insidious is a beneficial predatory insect used in commercial cannabis cultivation to control thrips, aphids, and spider mites . This specific species is farmed by Koppert Canada, “Partners with Nature.”
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GG: Early detection is the key. Let’s say it’s also the key for quality — it’s the key for reducing the use of pesticides and a reduction in the amount of required beneficials. If you can detect pests and disease in time, you can save a lot of money.
GO: In terms of detection, most operations use scouts — how effective is traditional scouting with respect to risk management?
GG: In order to do it correctly, you have to know exactly where to look and what to look for. And when you see something, you have to know what it is exactly. Is it a pest or just an insect that came from outside and landed on the plant?
When you have something like, I don’t know, 3,000 plants per dunam (1000m2), it’s not easy. You can miss something quite easily, especially when the plants are very
tall; then you can’t really reach the canopy and see above. So, you have to do a very good job when the plants are still small.
GO: When a farm hires you as a consultant, what kinds of changes are you making to IPM related procedures for them?
GG: What am I changing? Lots of things… different pesticide combinations, I’m changing the way they spray… even the machinery. I’m using physical barriers and I’m giving them a lot of different agrotechnique guidance. Things like deleafing. I explain exactly the biology and ecology of the beneficials and how they interact with both the plant and the pest. I get into fine tuning to get the maximum advantage from the beneficials. But it can be anything, like mesh nets on the ventilators, and even the materials that they use for cleaning the greenhouse.
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GO: While we are still using all these mitigation techniques employed throughout history, with respect to new digital technology that helps with detection, I know growers can sometimes be a bit skeptical. Do you think that most farms tend to adopt new technology cautiously?
GG: If they think that it’s going to be a good solution, then I believe they will try it, but they will not install it across the farm, just in one small area. If they see results, they will probably buy it. Anything that can reduce costs and maximize margins these days is definitely of interest. With traditional IPM methods stacked atop the digital revolution, evidently it’s a great time to be a grower!
Ray Richards is the CMO of Fermata, a data science company specializing in agricultural intelligence through machine learning.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14
Best of all, many materials the cannabis industry produces as waste, when separated, can be sold into third party markets, saving you money & bringing in revenue.
great potential for reducing the quantity of materials destined for disposal, while increasing the quantity put back into productive use.
By identifying the causes of waste, the cannabis industry can move towards manufacturing and production that minimizes or eliminates waste, ensures that the by-products are repurposed, and that organic waste is composted and returned to the soil — this is a waste audit.
Furthermore, there is financial incentive to a waste audit. Understanding your waste-producing habits illuminates your best opportunities for re-use, which will ultimately reduce the fee you pay for waste-hauling.
Best of all, many materials the cannabis industry produces as waste, when separated, can be sold into third party markets, saving you money and bringing in revenue.
The specifics of an audit
A waste audit involves not only measuring the quantity of waste and its composition, but also identifying the manner by which it gets produced. Collecting this data helps to enable waste reduction and diversion practices while identifying modification processes to use fewer raw materials.
Your audit begins with the assembly of an all-star team. This includes everyone from senior leaders and the safety and compliance team, to environmental services and janitorial staff. Never assume anyone in your company is “overqualified” for this task.
Deciding on the scope of your waste
audit is imperative to the well-functioning of your operation. The audit process should represent a typical day of activities and a significant portion of your revenue and production practices.
Balance may be achieved by gathering enough operational data so that the information has value and is representative, yet does not exhaust your team.
As processes unfold in the facility, sort and categorize waste in order to obtain a statistical picture of the quantities of waste generated at a particular site, along with their methods of disposal.
During the production practices, collect all waste items used at that time, including materials required to prepare and maintain existing systems. Use the data you have collected to extrapolate your facility waste creation. Look for trends that discern what types of waste are most prolific, and how much is “contaminated”.
After the waste audit is complete, confer with your team to identify specific waste reduction initiatives, and explore buyer options for your waste.
Understanding your company habits is the first step in illuminating where your biggest opportunities are for cost reduction and the development of new revenue streams that may help support your operation for the long haul.
Mika Unterman has been commercializing cannabis products since 2018, with 60 brought to market to date. Since founding the Apical Ethical Cannabis collective in 2019, she’s made it her mission to work with companies, demonstrating how sustainability can support profitability.
The elephant in the room
Industry experts weigh in on the impact of the excise tax for LPs, and why certain policies disproportionally affect smaller producers.
ByJon Hiltz & Haley Nagasaki
The excise tax, signalling stark red tape in the sector, is certainly not news to those involved, and whether the burdensome issue will be repealed or not, at this point, is unknown.
Some bureaucratic checks and balances are simply accepted, while others are deemed counterproductive or too complex. In Canada, the federal and provincial excise tax falls into the latter category.
Understandably, producers and processors anticipate simpler, more streamlined operations as well as the elimination of certain tax burdens they face every quarter.
“The key problem with the federal excise tax is that it’s a fixed levy paid by licenced producers. Introduced as a flat duty of $1/gram or 10 percent of the wholesale sales price above $10/gram for dried cannabis (whichever is higher), it has become especially arduous for smaller producers squeezed by price compression,” says Denis Gertler in correspondence with Grow Opportunity.
Regulatory expert Gertler penned a letter to Minister Freeland expressing problems with the excise tax from an LP’s perspective — his statements were pulled from this document.
Gertler’s writings were in support of Tantalus Labs CEO Dan Sutton’s Stand for Craft white paper initiative — a 40-page document that breaks down excise duties and the associated financial chaos.
Canadian excise debt has risen exponentially in only a few short years and there are various factors cited as the cause for this dramatic uptick. These include price
compressions on products, increased competition as federal licenses jumped from 342 in 2020 to 856 in 2022, and a tax system that does not discriminate between large and smaller companies.
“With the current cannabis price war, the impacts are falling disproportionately on small producers. Small craft producers are especially vulnerable as they produce lower volumes of higher quality cannabis, often entailing greater production costs,” Gertler sympathizes.
The problematic timing of taxation
Jennifer Welsh, chief financial officer for top Canadian edibles producer, Indiva, chimes in with her understanding of how LPs are hindered by regulatory setbacks.
“One of the biggest items is timing,” says Welsh. “Excise is remitted at the end of the following month after a sale occurs. Ontario is the largest market, and they pay net 60. Every other province, excluding
The Excise Act establishes some of the most stringent regulatory setbacks encountered by compliant producers of legal cannabis across Canada.
Alberta, pays net 30. So, there’s a lot of circumstances where the LP is having to cover the excise remittance before the invoice is actually collected.”
Welsh points out that the government is currently evaluating their procedures and are going through the “review process of the legislation now — what is and isn’t working — and where they might need to make changes,” she says, agreeing that a $52.4 million debt load must have certainly caught their attention.
“It really does hinder our ability to compete with the illicit market…but it’s counterintuitive because so much is going back to the government,” she says, adding that the government is technically double dipping because they charge HST on top
of the gross price. Therefore LPs are paying HST on the excise tax.
George Smitherman, former Ontario Cabinet Minister best known for his stint as Minister of Health and CEO of the Cannabis Council of Canada, C3, sees how the aggressive federal profit-taking tactics are being compounded at the level of retail.
“The Ontario Cannabis Store is really a rapacious player in our sector. Their markup level really stood out as ‘insult upon injury’ of an overall taxes, fees, and mark-up regime, which is too aggressive.”
“The current [excise] model is not sustainable,” he says. “But in order to exact improvement on it we have to rally consensus, not just in Ottawa, but with 13 provinces and territories.”
The Excise Act
Gertler insisted that the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada consider the way in which the addition of the excise tax, on top of “good production practices and product testing, paying payroll, income, property, and other taxes,” is bringing corporations to their knees.
“Cannabis producers are paying 20 percent to 35 plus percent of gross revenues to excise tax, which in many cases is greater than their total payroll costs. When added to payroll and other costs borne by legal LPs, the excise tax becomes the straw that breaks the backs of these compliant businesses.”
Furthermore, he feels that “the federal excise tax as it’s currently applied is the wrong policy tool for Canada’s fledgling cannabis industry.”
“Excise taxes are often used as a
punitive fiscal policy measure… and as a result, the federal government is rewarding illegal cannabis businesses (which pay no tax) while burdening compliant legal cannabis producers.”
Concluding with cautious optimism
While the industry all but demands political reform insofar as the Excise Act and taxes are concerned, and rumours of its acknowledgement descend from the federal level, still Smitherman expresses he’s “a little worried for the people that are betting on a quick fix to the excise model.”
George Smitherman and other regulatory experts continue working with organizations and politicians to address and mitigate the damage being done to
analysis by accounting firm Ernst & Young identifies the overreaching and troublesome tax, shedding light on the first step in its remediation.
He’s now working on “phase two with Ernst & Young, which will be to present, in economic terms, the information that the government needs to know.”
“We need people in Ottawa, with their members of parliament and in provincial capitals, to build awareness around excise. Those are the things we have to do,” Smitherman asserts, “before we can begin to expect that we’ve created a dynamic for change.”
Jon Hiltz is a legacy cannabis journalist, having entered the space in 2016. In 2018, he published his first book, The Wild West: Canada’s Legalization of and he also worked as a business developer for leading edibles producer, Indiva,
IIVO provides crop-specific smart technology for growers. A combination of smart software and state-of-the-art hardware. This truly unique system is capable of monitoring, controlling, and maintaining any type of growing environment.
Allowing you to grow more, at higher quality while using minimal resources.
Whether you have experience in growing Cannabis or not. With self-learning controls and integrated security, you are ready for the future.
FERMATA: Automated Scouting
Fermata’s Croptimus pest and disease detection platform, powered by artificial intelligence, is designed to save growers both time and money — with up to a 30 percent reduction in harvest loss and a 50 percent reduction in scouting costs. Croptimus features 360º augmented reality views of crops, heatmaps, which display pest and disease pressure over time, and instant alerts when the system discovers an issue in the grow. Croptimus stands a close watch over cannabis crops.
Anatis Bioprotection: Allies in biological control
Chrysoperla carnea, AKA the aphid lion, is a strong ally in the battle against aphids. LPs can purchase green lacewings in the form of larvae or eggs, and the eggs are sold without substrate, on jute rope or in bulk. Lacewings can eat 100 to 600 pests during their development, and can easily be added to a biocontrol program. For good control, it is recommended to introduce a ratio of three eggs per five prey. The optimum conditions are a temperature range of 20°C to 31°C and a relative humidity of 70 percent.
Lady Bug Phytoprotection
Spidex Vital predatory mites are born to fight spider mites. They provide control over hotspots and build up their populations through faster growth, with increased egg laying capacity and proof of predation. Once the predatory mite has consumed several spider mites, their colour will gradually change to the characteristic red-orange.
Lady Bug Phytoprotection is a Québecbased integrated pest management company helping cultivators in medical and recreational cannabis. Lady Bug specializes in indoor growing facilities, using biological control techniques such as natural predators and pest control products, approved by Health Canada.
Vantage Point
By Mitchell Osak
Five traits and behaviours for building and maintaining a successful company
Canadian cannabis leaders have received a bad rap. Indeed, there is a lot to criticize: from making illfated strategic and financial decisions to growing bad product to creating dysfunctional organizational cultures.
We are three and a half years into legalization, and the fact of the matter is that most cannabis companies continue to struggle to turn a profit, let alone generate positive cash flow.
Yet, I can’t think of too many leadership roles that are more challenging than running a cannabis company (particularly a publicly listed one) or leading major functional groups, like finance and operations, within those companies.
The trials and tribulations of producing high quality product at scale, raising capital, right sizing the enterprise, and staying compliant is no doubt daunting. Nonetheless, there are many management success stories though most of which are outside the public purview.
I have been fortunate to have enjoyed a front row seat to the emergence of the Canadian and U.S. cannabis industries, not to mention been fortunate to have worked with investors, regulators, and hundreds of leaders and managers up and down cannabis organizations. I have uncovered what leadership styles and practices don’t work, and conversely, what is really effective.
Based on this experience,
Unlike other industries, it is difficult for many firms to craft & follow a formal, long term strategic plan. Yet, winning cannabis leaders do this all the time.
here are my top five traits and behaviours that winning cannabis leaders need to exhibit in order to achieve success:
1. Hire well: The cliché that “it’s all about the team” rings truer in cannabis than most other industries. The sector relies on expertise from so many functions that a single leader — a la Steve Jobs or Elon Musk — is incapable of carrying the organization on his/her shoulders. As such, successful cannabis leaders tend to hire and empower top quartile, seasoned talent in vital areas like finance, operations, cultivation and sales. In their search, great leaders look beyond what’s on the CV, and focus on finding senior and middle
managers with the right cultural fit and soft skills, such as agile thinking, collaborative inclinations, and professionalism.
2. Focus on building an effective culture: Culture is loosely defined as the norms and practices in an organization. Much like a computer’s operating system, a culture will often determine how the company operates, attracts and motivates staff, and responds to adversity. Smart cannabis leaders understand the importance of getting culture right from the get-go. They prioritize and reinforce cultural health through setting the right management tone. Their practices include defining a motivating and shared corporate purpose, modeling the right behaviours, communicating extensively, and implementing the right performance measurement systems.
3. Adopt a learning/growth mindset: It would not be an understatement to say that most LPs kicked off their
business with little data and no strategic playbook (i.e., best practices). Successful leaders accepted the risks behind this uncertainty and proceeded with caution, humility and open-mindedness. They challenged conventional assumptions, such as that cannabis is similar to the alcohol industry, and furthermore, they adopted a “test, measure and improve” operational approach and avoided big and risky financial and operational bets. Finally, they recognized the importance of diversity and various thinking styles. This included seeking out gender and other minority group hires, as well as bringing in a mix of legacy, cannabis and related industry talent from industries like beverage alcohol, pharma, consumer packaged goods and tobacco.
4. Chart and stay a strategic course: By nature, the cannabis sector is highly dynamic and uncertain. Unlike other industries, it is difficult for many firms to craft and follow a formal, long term
Mitchell Osak is the CEO of Quanta Consulting Inc. He has supported more than 210 cannabis clients around the world with their strategy, operations and capital market needs.
strategic plan. Yet, winning cannabis leaders do this all the time. They define and follow a strategic “north star” (e.g., defined vision, mission and corporate positioning), which guides all decision making. Not to mention, ensures they avoid the pitfalls of their peers — poor capital allocation, operational complexity, and strategic confusion. Identifying your “north star” includes figuring out where you will compete, targeting which consumer segments and with what value proposition. Based on this, they establish their capabilities and find the capital they
need to persevere. Finally, successful leaders decide how the company firm will measure its performance and then report it to a governing body, like a board of directors. Staying true to this mission takes courage and persistence but ultimately leads to a more focused, efficient and resilient company.
5. Manage stakeholder expectations: If I could pinpoint one cannabis leadership mistake it might be the inability to set and manage the expectations of key stakeholders. Irrational exuberance during the run up
Quality
Microbiological
Plant
Disease
Residual
Edibles
Biologicals
Quality
Seed-to-Sale
to legalization (and soon afterward), coupled with unrealistic hopes around revenues and costs, quickly led to dashed expectations and anger when reality set in. The fact is that nothing in this industry proceeds at the expected pace or in a direct fashion. Managing expectations is not just about having a crack investor relations or good HR team. Rather, it is also about having a realistic view of the market and taking forecasts and promises with a grain of salt. Ultimately it is about not leading stakeholder hopes beyond what is truly visible and attain-
able. Not surprisingly, successful leaders are effective and timely communicators. Clearly, no corporate leader is perfect — in and outside the cannabis market. Luck has (and will continue) to play a major role in a company’s success. However, it is now clear that an archetype cannabis leadership profile and suite of practices has emerged. This profile should serve as a guide for corporate board of directors, as well as CEOs, to make better hiring choices, and to establish management norms and systems that enable them to succeed while fostering “built-to-last” organizations.
Q&A with Greg Guyatt: CannTrust rebrands
Grow Opportunity spoke to Greg Guyatt, CEO of Phoena, to discuss the marked evolution of his company. The Ontario licensed producer’s new name stems from the word “Phenotype,” and upon further consideration, also nods to the vibrant, immortal Phoenix.
GG: We’re absolutely delighted to be entering a new phase of our evolution that was kicked off by the name change. Phoena is an exciting new era for everybody in the company, and as you know, it’s derived from the word phenotype, which stems from the science that we apply to our business.
We have new investors who are extremely supportive, and actually bring some very interesting knowledge and experience to the table as well. Moving forward, we’re also continuing to mess with the relaunch of our brands in the rec space, primarily the liiv brand, which is gaining traction with our consumers. We’re putting out a really top-quality product at a very compelling price point, and finally, working on relisting as a public company sometime in 2022.
GO: Are you bringing new products to market? New phenotypes and new strains?
GG: Yeah, absolutely. We can’t be sitting still. We’re always working on the next big thing that we’re going to bring to the market. We’re not assuming that what we’ve got today is going to work tomorrow. Also, consumer tastes change over time. Right now, everybody wants high THC. But going forward, we think that’s going to continue to
evolve with more of a focus on interesting terpene profiles and taste and flavours, like the strains that we’re going to be coming out with.
GO: What did you learn from this experience with CannTrust; what was the silver lining?
GG: Nobody would want to go through what we went through, obviously.
We really took the opportunity to hit the reset button and we were able to take a look at our entire business — not just the regulatory environment — but also look at our full operations, from seed to sale, and really figure out: how do we run this business more efficiently?
At our peak, we had close to 800 people. We’re 250 people now and we’re happy with the size of the business today. But the reason we’re able to run so lean is because we were able to really look at our operations and make it run very effectively.
But I would be remiss by not mentioning that the reason we’re able to operate this way is because of the people that we have on board. The team that we have, I believe, is the most passionate in the industry — about cannabis and about the future of this industry.
People often ask me, “well, tell me about your growing expertise?” and I say, well, we’ve got 120 experts working in the greenhouse, all of whom are extremely knowledgeable and extremely passionate about the plant, and they bring that to the office every day.
GO: What can you share with us about your plans for this fiscal?
GG: What I can say is that we’re really looking forward to working with our new investors, Marshall
Fields, a subsidiary of Kenzoll B.V., from Amsterdam, and growing our business in Canada, eventually the U.S. and beyond, both organically and through acquisition.
Our new investor being based in Amsterdam — we think that’s an important aspect because Amsterdam is sort of the birthplace of legal cannabis in a lot of ways. And the industry is evolving over there too.
Our new investors have been able to assemble a team of people with many, many years — I'm talking some individuals with over 40 years of experience in the cannabis business — that are working with us now and working to help expand our business internationally and helping us with our domestic operations.
GO: What industry issues are you most concerned with now?
GG: I would say my primary industry concerns include excise tax, high provincial markups, and restrictions on packaging and promotion.
GO: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
GG: We’re just absolutely delighted to be finally entering this new phase of our evolution as Phoena. We believe we’ve got the best team in the industry.
There’s lots of companies that are putting out good quality product. We think we can put out equally good product, but with a much more compelling operational model than most, which we think separates us from the field.
We’ve got a long way to go still to be, what I would consider, successful, but I think the groundwork has been laid. And with the partners that we have in place, I think that we’re ultimately going to be successful and there’s going to be a lot more good news to come in the next year.
We hit the reset button and we were able to look at our entire business, not just the regulations, but also our full operations, from seed to sale, and really figure out: how do we run this business more efficiently?
