By Greg James
Another month has blasted by and we’re now moving into fall. By the time you read this, CannaCon and Hempfest will be history, and farmers will be gearing up for the fall harvest. Speaking of CannaCon, I attended the first two business days with editor Garrett Rudolph and sales manager Lisa Smith, and loved it. My hat goes off to the organizers, who took a big gamble, and promoted an event that brought together more than 150 different companies under one roof to further their businesses. Based on what I saw and heard from our booth, the event was a big success. Lots of people were talking business, handing out cards and making new connections. Thank you Bob Smart for organizing the event!
We also got a lot of feedback about the magazine at the event, and it was almost universally positive. The only complaint I heard was that some people wanted to see more information on the retail side of the business. To that I would simply reply that we took note, and will try to find more articles and products that can help those opening legal marijuana stores.
This month, you may notice a change in Marijuana Venture’s look. After an amazing first six months (which saw us grow from eight pages to more than 80), we believed the time was right to make some minor tweaks to how the stories and advertisements were presented and organized. We hope you like the changes, and looking ahead to the future, we’ll continue to improve and refine this publication.
Editorially, you’ll find the first in a series of articles that we will publish monthly on developments in indoor and greenhouse growing based on university research. In academia, indoor or greenhouse growing with artificial lights is referred to as controlled environment agriculture (CEA), and that’s the term we’ll use. I’m sure people will disagree with some of the articles and conclusions the researchers come to. That’s a good thing, though, because it will get people thinking. Remember, Marijuana Venture is about helpful information that moves the industry forward, and to that end, we’ll never hold back the best available data when we find it. We’re currently reviewing CEA lighting studies published at several major universities around the country, and I’m sure many readers will find this series in the future to be fascinating, informative and — hopefully — helpful.
The other big news in this issue is the first-ever large-scale (legal!) marijuana auction. Randy Williams at Fireweed Farms decided to go the auction route as a way to sell his outdoor-grown crop, and I think it’s a brilliant idea, and one that will likely garner a lot of attention. We decided that it was newsworthy enough to devote an entire page to the announcement. It’s another example of an entrepreneur testing new waters and making exciting things happen in this emerging industry.