4 GERMINATION.CA JULY 2019 CANNABIS BREEDER Greg Baute has a problem. It’s one that that many breeders of other major crop kinds wish they had. “There’s too much genetic diver- sity in cannabis right now. If you have seeds, because there’s no inbred lines, they’re going to be very heter- ogenous — all over the place — and in production, you’ll see a range of plant sizes with varying cannabinoid levels. Nothing at all like we see in row crops,” says the director of the under-construction Cannabis Innovation Centre (CIC) based in the Comox Valley of British Columbia. “For example, the agronomics of corn production all look mostly the same. That’s not the case in cannabis at all. That’s a good problem to have in breeding, but it’s still a problem. We’re just beginning to figure out what diversity we want and take our material in that direction.” Baute, 33, left a job with Monsanto working in vegetable seed to helm the CIC construction project being undertaken by Aurora Cannabis sub- sidiary Anandia. He comes from an agricultural family, his parents having founded the Ontario-based hybrid corn seed company Maizex Seeds. For Baute, the legalization of recreational cannabis in October 2018 opened the door to a fascinating new world of breeding discoveries, a world in which breeders are only beginning to unlock the mysteries of a plant they have never before been able to properly research. “Even in crops that are completely neglected, there’s usually a gene bank curated by a professional. You’ll know where a sample was collected and when. In cannabis, we have nothing like that. It’s a random grab bag of germplasm. The Golden Age of cannabis breeding is literally just beginning.” Anandia was founded in 2013 by Jonathan Page and John Coleman who saw the need to support the expanding cannabis industry with better science on testing, genetics, and other technical needs. The Cannabis Innovation Centre will begin operation in the fall of 2019 and will serve as the new In the cannabis sphere, genetics is only the beginning as breeders work to understand the plant and create the next generation of seed. Marc Zienkiewicz STARTINGFROMSCRATCH THCvsCBD When talking about cannabis/hemp, it’s important to know the difference between these two key cannabinoids. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is one of at least 113 cannabinoids identified in cannabis. THC is the principal psychoactive constituent of the plant and is what causes the “high” feeling that people describe when using certain varieties of cannabis. Cannabidiol (CBD) is a non- psychoactive cannabinoid. As of 2018, preliminary clinical research on cannabidiol included studies of anxiety, cognition, movement disorders, and pain. Although hemp is low in THC, it typically has higher levels of CBD. headquarters for Aurora’s plant breeding work. The first phase of the Comox project will consist of a 21,000-square-foot greenhouse and a 10,500 square-foot research build- ing that will have offices, lab space,