The Future of Cannabis and Agriculture
VF in commercial cannabis is an emergent technology in an emergent industry, but what’s at stake? There’s no denying that half of all habitable land on our planet is reserved for agriculture. While growing recreational and medical cannabis is different from growing food, both are plagued by the same environmental concerns, such as arable land use, water conservation, and pollution from pesticides and other agrochemicals.
VF is one path toward a more sustainable, progressive future for global agriculture. It is imperative that the cannabis industry act as a testing ground and incubator for new ideas in the development of an agricultural revolution that addresses the unremitting burden that agriculture places on the environment. We must raise the limit on what cannabis is capable of.
Why Vertical Farming and Commercial Cannabis Aren’t Going Anywhere
If you have implemented a vertical farming system at your indoor farm, you already know the benefits:
Outdoor crops are subject to the elements—extreme weather, weeds, pests, and more. To counteract those variables, farmers labor to rotate their crops, and rely on pesticides, all to minimize inevitable losses. Not only does vertical farming eliminate these variables from the equation, but it lays the groundwork for a limitlessly scalable paradigm for space-conscious and environmentally friendly agriculture.
There’s still so much to discover about vertical farming and its place in the world, and Montel has staked its reputation on collaborating with next-gen cannabis producers and farmers as they envision or revamp their facilities and engineering custom solutions.
Montel: Raising the Limits of Vertical Farming
To best prepare for the next phase in commercial cannabis, Montel engineers three principles into everything we make: sustainability, efficiency, and innovation.
Sustainability
If you’re considering a vertical farming system for your farm, chances are good that you’re doing so because you believe that a better future exists for agriculture, one where we preserve arable land, conserve water, and eliminate waste and pollutants.
Montel’s engineers and VF specialists are pros when it comes to building sustainability plans into its business-as-usual operations. After all, every cubic foot of space reclaimed by a vertical farming system is one less taken from already-scarce arable land.
Efficiency
Every business maximizes profits by finding efficiencies and exploiting them. Vertical farming by nature runs on space and energy efficiencies.
Be it lighting, irrigation, or ventilation, the best custom VF systems allow indoor farms to utilize the vertical and horizontal and grow a full canopy that takes advantage of every kilowatt hour and wastes nothing.
Innovation
By designing cutting-edge grow spaces, grow ops and their VF partners are building a foundation for next-gen agriculture that will shape future generations.
But you can’t pull innovation off the shelf; you have to craft it yourself. That’s why Montel believes in a forward-thinking VF design philosophy that prioritizes custom engineering through open collaboration with growers. We follow their lead.
If you’re a cannabis company wondering whether now’s the time to take the leap to vertical farming, we can’t say that it’ll be easy. But nothing good is ever easy, and those with real vision will weather 2024 and beyond, stake their claim, and create a lasting impression on the industry.
https://www.ars.usda.gov/oc/utm/vertical-farming-no-longer-a-futuristic-concept/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/future-vertical-farming-why-here-stay-growpura https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/17/indoor-vertical-farms-agriculture https://agfundernews.com/vertical-farming-is-headed-for-the-trough-of-disillusionment-heres-why-thats-a-good-thing https://agfundernews.com/vertical-farmings-challenge-in-the-us-urban-zoning-law
