Cannabis is a wildly resilient and adaptable plant. It’s been grown and harvested for more than 4,000 years, migrating along ancient trade routes from southeast Asia through Africa and the Middle East, crossing oceans to reach the Americas and points in between. Today, we are just beginning to apply scientific methods to better understand the nature of the cannabis plant itself. The complex interplay of environment, farming techniques, and genetics allow us to coax and nurture various attributes out of each variety gently.
But moving forward starts with looking back and understanding what grows well, where it grows well, and why. Doing so represents not just the future of cannabis farming but also the future and viability of our planet to sustain us.
The homegrown science of cannabis
Agricultural scientists are hamstrung by cannabis’ storied history. The plant was underappreciated by European power-brokers who considered it a poor man’s tobacco only used by marginalized racial groups. This racist perspective led to the criminalization of cannabis in the United States and around the world. As a result, generations of cannabis farmers, operating outside the norms of agricultural science, organically established the foundations of cannabis science, developing cultivation techniques and naturally selecting and enhancing certain plant traits and qualities.
Left to their own devices, these early pioneers also created legacies that we are now working hard to unravel. For example, there is no standardized naming taxonomy for cannabis beyond the basic genus and species classifications: cannabis indica, cannabis sativa, cannabis ruderalis. The reality is there are few true cannabis species in modern cultivation. Most of the cultivated cannabis strains are complex poly-hybrids developed by farmers selecting for specific properties, mostly optimizing their strains’ THC properties.
For the past 50 years, growers have tinkered with the cannabis plant, creating more powerful and potent flowers. In the 1970s, one could expect THC content of 4 to 6 percent of the dry flower’s total weight. By the 1980s and 90s, THC content had almost tripled to 15 percent. Today’s specialized strains now boast a THC content of nearly 25 percent.
But cultivating for high THC isn’t the endgame for all or even most cannabis growers. As farmers explore the litany of properties and benefits from cannabis and form new markets, they want to cultivate plants with a variety of specific properties, such as containing more CBD or featuring minor cannabinoids to plants richer in fiber.
As legal cannabis markets expand around the world, the opportunity to grow cannabis and hemp in more climates and regions is driving the need to build better plants through time-tested and proven agricultural scientific methods.
What the past teaches us not to do.
We can create plants that deliver the properties we desire and that thrive in the environment. We can develop plants that better withstand the rigors of climate change and weather events. We can couple specific plants with precise growing techniques and soil composition to enable farmers to fertilize responsibly and irrigate wisely to produce predictable yields season after season while maintaining the integrity of the earth.
But doing so requires us to apply the lessons of the past…
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