[PHYS ORG] Insatiable demand for cannabis has created a giant carbon footprint

With CBD? Or did they isolate it?

Anyway there are medical benefits for people with serious chronic illnesses that are willing to take the side effects.

 

I agree with you. All my point was the energy consumption to create more of the plant would be more spread out than in states where it's legal. Not denying the climate effects it has. Just saying your cow fart would be spread out instead of condensed. It'd still be the same problem in terms of what it does to the Earth. I mean I'm for switching more to outdoor grow environments or potentially even encouraging legalization in states where outdoor grows are most optimal, thereby minimizing excess water use of the plant to keep it growing optimally even.

Perhaps switching to blue and red wavelength LED lights instead the probable sodium pressure lights they're using in these grow ops would help. That'd lower energy consumption. Or if some genius ever invents room temperature superconductive wiring, that'd help a great deal with energy loss transferring electricity to power people's homes and in this case grow ops.

I mean this is non-cannabis related but I'd actually prefer nurseries that sell bird feed that's made of mostly seed to also include indigenous seeds native to the area so that when birds use feeders, consume some of the seeds at the feeder and **** them out later across the environment, that some of those seeds could maybe germinate into more indigenous habitat plant life to help combat climate change. It'd require no effort on the part of the home owner that has a bird feeder in their back porch, yet would increase plant growth and diversity indigenous to area. I'm sure there are other equally lazy ideas that could be implemented to help climate change while still being a red blooded American consumer.

 

Widespread legalization might lead for less requirements for security and also a willingness to distinguish your product by taking the organic free range angle.

 

No sh*t, it's illegal to grow outdoors in most places. The permit and licensing regulations in most states are extremely exclusive in most states, meaning mega indoor operations are often the only sources of legal weed in many parts of the country. The laws require or encourage excessive-tech and energy use to keep away odor and visibility at all costs.

We could actually use some #RealLibertarianism here to help balance the ridiculous mar1juana laws, and if we want to act like we give a **** about the environment, perhaps flip the regulations as currently implemented in many places, make indoor operations illegal, encourage small outdoor farms, encourage low tech and low energy consumption. This plant literally grows like a weed outside... so we should treat it like the weed it is, we should be allowed, and encouraged, to grow like an agricultural plant outdoors (instead of treating it like some artisanal ultra-high-tech lab-grown meat operation), and if we did so, it could theoretically be close to carbon neutral.

 

it seems like cannibis growers could also use some of these indoor farming techniques to be more efficient while also growing a high quality product.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/briank...he-future-of-farming-indoors/?sh=400d29892cc0

 

"less requirements"? I'm talking theft...and vandalism by zealots

• Outdoor farms* require added security over indoor facilities
• Outdoor farms* are more expensive for caring, pruning and harvest.
• Outdoor farms* also don't have the quality per area that meticulous indoor greenhouses do

those statements are facts. I live in Colorado. I follow this.

* footnote: By "free range" outdoor, I'm assuming we are talking about year-round no electricity alternatives.​

"Organic free range" would be a gimmick. You can be good for the environment and be indoors. The biggest Computer Server farms are next to hydro electric plants. That's the movement you'll see if this goes nation-wide.

Just like any Green-Label product, farms will get certified for 100% Renewable Energy.

 

Grow rooms use such an insane amount of electricity law enforcement could find even a small one by the spikes produced when the lights kicked on.

Fun fact: When Camp Mabry in Austin still had its helicopter fleet the pilots would use grow rooms in some way to develop their skills with IR -- some sort of marker as I understand it.

 

If you could get 100% renewable energy then yes the problem goes away, but Colorado is over 50% coal and the electricity consumption is astronomical for indoor operations.

 

Colorado indoor cultivators have some amazing tech. They have rotating racks upon racks, to maximize space. Trust me, the big outfits are way ahead of that forbes article.

Cannibas growing is like a test kitchen for all the new tech (incl impressive new low-energy, lighting tech), because the product is so valuable.

 

LCA software was my business for 15 yrs until recently. The OP study might have even used our software . Yes, I know the mixes of the grids.

I didn't really mean to focus on Colorado in current legalization makeup. And where I did, I was talking about outdoor vs indoor (consider 365 days). I'm talking future if state boundaries collapse and we go nation-wide. The big farms will be moved, just like Computer Server farms, to hydro plants or windmill plants.

 

fun fact, I have a EE friend here who has a patent on this type of tech prior to legalization (marketing to cities), and his business pivoted and boomed with legalization.

[edit] he talks about full-spectrum lights, better for growing, but originally marketad for street lights.

 

It's artificially valuable, and if laws ever open up, that level of tech being profitable is highly questionable

I guess I was confused with the way your post was laid out. Sure it would be ideal for the environment if indoor operations were based in areas that have 100% green energy, and if the outdoor operations were all done in the south where yield would be the highest.

 

They mentioned the CO2 generators.

 

I think consolidating operations to ideal energy markets will happen for any high-energy / high-value per sqft commodity, just like it did with server farms.

Yes, there are a lot of reasons why warmer climate will have less energy costs. And maybe, all cannibas will transition to the South or hydroelectric, nuclear, wind plants ... like Apple buying a hydro plant. But, I don't think we'll see sprawling outdoor operations like tobacco, for quality and security reasons I've expressed. Maybe some low-quality brand will do it some day.

I mean, the pruner employees here are pruning every day ... monitoring for males ... working in pest-free, pollen-free, air-controlled clean spaces ... special clothes. The meticulous care for this product surpasses any ag product that I know of. Efficiency just for keeping the pruning/employee costs down is enhanced by having the plants on 4-5 layers of rotating racks in small spaces, all automated for lighting. Not to mention the lighting cycles are different than daylight from the Sun (esp throughout the year).

Energy use enhances the yield and quality

this high-end stuff doesn't just grow on trees ​

 

[Premium Post]
In case there are still people who haven't realized this yet, "Climate Change" is the mechanism by which governments across the world attempt to take control over as many industries as possible. Energy production, manufacturing, transportation, the list goes on and on. This particular story about cannabis makes it plainly obvious. Cannabis is a rapidly growing industry that the government wants to tax and control as much as possible.

Are there still people who believe that actual climate change poses a risk to humans? Probably the same people who are living like paranoid recluses sitting in their bedrooms by themselves with two masks on.

GOOD DAY

 

I agree with this on some level but where I'm saying all of this gets thrown into a loop is the fact that marry jane prices are completely artificial.

You'd be surprised at how well those sprawling outdoor operations would work in comparison to the indoor operations if they start selling solid weed for 10-20 bucks a pound. The only thing stopping that is the silly game being played with the laws. The quality goes down, by a certain percentage, but there are such potent strains out these days, I'm not sure it would really matter so much.

 

Thanks man. Glad to know climate change is just for chumps! You tell em.

 

Oh, so you think Marijuanna will be priced the same as Tobacco, because 10-20 bucks a pound is retail tobacco prices.
And we're comparing a flower to leaves

sampling: https://www.buypipetobacco.com/StoreDetails.aspx/Pipe-Tobacco/1839-Pipe-Tobacco/

I'm not going to have much to say, if you're just throwing out numbers. Sure, marijuanna could turn into more of a wine market with high-end and mass-produced pricing (hasn't happened, yet). But yield of flowers/buds will never approach the yield of tobacco ... and tobacco probably stores better between harvests. $10-20 / lb is a pipe dream (pun intended).

that said, outdoor operations exist now for hemp/CBD, where THC yield of plants is not a factor. In fact, you have to burn your crops if they get above a certain THC level, if you are in the hemp/CBD-only business.

Even hemp biomass is probably in the $10-20 per pound retail pricing, if it were sold that way. Probably more ... especially once the supply chain catches up again to the recent over production (supply/demand elasticity).

And for THC oil and edibles, the tech for extracting THC is a booming market ... so, I'm guessing they can also use lower-quality plants for that, and males.

 

Yes, I think weed SHOULD be comp to tobacco prices if it were playing by the same rules. The hemp market is currently artificially inflated as well, just to a much much much lower degree.

I'm not sure how viable all these high-tech solutions that make the current industry more efficient are going to fair economically if cannabis ever stops being treated as a drug and turns into an agricultural commodity. Then we have the whole discussion about what will happen when we get to the day where we are importing weed from much cheaper countries. Perhaps tech is cheaper and far more advance to make indoor growing competitive by the time any of this change comes, perhaps not.