Using Cannabis Cultivation Tech To Grow Lettuce In A Desert: This Canadian Company's Big Bet

What if a Canadian cannabis company figured out how to use cannabis cultivation tech to grow lettuce in a desert?

What Happened

On a mission to bring self-sufficiency to food deserts around the world, a Canadian agri-tech company, Mary Agrotechnologies Inc. MRRYF, is taking a leap into China, lending its technologies to the lettuce cultivation world through a partnership with Changzhi Yufeng Agricultural Technology Development Co. Ltd. (Yufeng), one of the largest vertical farms in China. 

Mary AG CEO and founder Frank Qin wanted to take what started as cannabis home cultivation technology and turn it into something that could truly change how the world grows food. With this new partner, Qin believes the door has finally opened.

Why It Matters

Yufeng is one of China's leaders in vertical farming and controlled-environment agriculture, boasting an excellent location, with over 600 million people living within its 500-mile radius.

With only 12% of China's 3.7 million sq miles of landmass being arable, food security is a key focus for the world's most populated country, and this pilot project is proof that Mary AG’s technology has a unique advantage in that market.

“One key to entering the market in China is to find the true narrative beyond all the diplomatic noise. With the diverse backgrounds of the team, we are proving that our understanding of the country is above average, to say the least. Next-gen agriculture plays a big part in China's 14th Five-Year Plan, being carried out from 2021 to 2025. I'm confident there will be more and better things to follow,” Qin said.

And there’s an additional benefit, the CEO explains: Access to semiconductors. In a context of chip shortages, being close to the source can help.

“Chip shortage is real,” Qin admitted. “We feel it ourselves too, but having a team on the ground in China has made us physically closer than others to get the supply where it's made.”

Más contenido sobre cannabis en Español en El Planteo.

Photo: Traditional terrace farming in China's mountainous regions.