How to Start a Cannabis Business: Scale, Expand & Automate

<p>Farm automation technology addresses major issues like a rising global population, farm labor shortages, and changing consumer preferences. The benefits of automating traditional farming processes are monumental.</p><p>Labor is over 50% of the cost to grow a farm and 55% of farmers say they are impacted by labor shortages. Because of this, 31% of farmers are moving to less labor-intensive crops.</p><p>There is a misconception that mechanization displaces farm labor and encourages rural– urban migration, but the opposite is true: mechanization improves well-being and increases decent work opportunities.</p><p>Indoor cannabis cultivation has always been intimately bound to the technology supporting it. </p><p>For growers, the most urgent technology needs and compelling cost-savings opportunities are harvest-related. Despite mechanized seed-to-bud efficiencies, the post-grow clipping and trimming of leaves and stems is largely done by hand.</p><p>Ideally, growers wouldn't have any humans involved in post-harvest because of the higher risk of contamination. If farms could it would completely automate the post-harvest phase and reassign employees to inspection duties. But most can't. Not yet, anyway.</p><p>In modern cannabis production, our biggest motivator for technological advancement is no longer secrecy: it is profitability. By 2020, innovation in horticultural technology was dedicated almost exclusively to operational efficiency. </p><p>Looking specifically at automation in cultivation, commercial growers are using computers, robots, machines, and more to increase profitability on several fronts. </p><p>The #TalkingHedge...</p><p>https://youtu.be/eftC4iFyqJk</p>