b'CANNABIS BREEDINGStarting from ScratchIn the cannabis sphere, genetics is only the beginning as breeders work to understand the plant and create the next generation of seed.GREG BAUTE has a problem. Its onebiologists and plant breeders because that many breeders of other major cropof the historical difficulties in obtaining kinds wish they had. the appropriate licences. Aurora will Theres too much genetic diversity inbe using traditional plant breeding cannabis right now. If you have seeds,techniques to develop new cultivars because theres no inbred lines, theyrethat have desirable chemistry, disease going to be very heterogeneousallresistance, and/or traits that improve over the placeand in production,industrial cultivation practices.youll see a range of plant sizes withAs far as cannabis seed goes, that last varying cannabinoid levels. Nothingpoint is key.at all like we see in row crops, saysAs Canada will allow the sale of edible the director of the under-constructioncannabis products starting in December Cannabis Innovation Centre (CIC) based2019, Baute says varieties that lend in the Comox Valley of British Columbia. themselves to the production of edibles For example, the agronomics ofand other products which use cannabis corn production all look mostly theextracts (as opposed to varieties grown same. Thats not the case in cannabisfor the flowers themselves) represent a at all. Thats a good problem to havemajor untapped market researchers like in breeding, but its still a problem.Greg Baute, Cannabis Innovation Centre director. him are just beginning to select for.Were just beginning to figure out whatIf youre making an edible, for diversity we want and take our materialexample, its still the flower youre after, in that direction. The Golden Age of cannabis breeding isbut you dont care what it looks or smells Baute, 33, left a job with Monsantoliterally just beginning. like. That relieves some of the selection working in vegetable seed to helmAnandia was founded in 2013 bypressure as a breeder. You only need to the CIC construction project beingJonathan Page and John Coleman whotalk to a few producers to know where undertaken by Aurora Cannabissaw the need to support the expandingmost of the costs in breeding go, and subsidiary Anandia. He comes from ancannabis industry with better scienceright now thats for cloning. Its labour agricultural family, his parents havingon testing, genetics, and other technicalintensive, Baute says.founded the Ontario-based hybrid cornneeds.There are lots of annual crops that can seed company Maizex Seeds.The Cannabis Innovation Centre willbe propagated clonally, but no one does For Baute, the legalization ofbegin operation in the fall of 2019 andthat because seed works so much better. recreational cannabis in October 2018will serve as the new headquarters forAnnual plants have evolved to grow from opened the door to a fascinating newAuroras plant breeding work. The firstseed. Everyone is thinking the same world of breeding discoveries, a worldphase of the Comox project will consistthingthe question is how fast we get in which breeders are only beginningof a 21,000 square-foot greenhousethere. How fast can we make seed that to unlock the mysteries of a plant theyand a 10,500 square-foot researchhas good enough quality and the desired have never before been able to properlybuilding that will have offices, lab space,uniformity that we can use those seeds research. meeting rooms, and also house all thefor large-scale production?Even in crops that are completelymechanical and electrical systems that neglected, theres usually a gene banksupport the greenhouse. Trading Scissors for Combinescurated by a professional. Youll knowMost agricultural crops have hadRight now, cannabis harvesting in North where a sample was collected and when.decades (if not centuries) of breeding toAmerica looks very different from other In cannabis, we have nothing like that.develop beneficial traits. Cannabis hasntcrop kinds, Baute notes. In U.S. states Its a random grab bag of germplasm.received the same attention by plantwhere cannabis is legal, he says you 18seed.ab.ca'