Science For Space Farming Is Also Being Used to Grow Weed

Of course it'd come to this.

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By David Grossman

The Martian brought the issue of growing plants in space to a mainstream audience, but scientists are still struggling to get funding for further research on the topic. Mike Dixon of the Canadian University of Guelph has figured out a surefire way to get funding for his: make it applicable to growing marijuana. 

To be sure, Dixon's primary goal is growing food crops into space to support travel ever further from Earth. "We don't have the mass and energy budget to carry enough food to keep a crew going indefinitely," he tells Motherboard. "You have to have some bioregenerative food production system.

So we're not leaving the planet without them." His work at Controlled Environment Systems Research (CESR) at Guelph focuses on things like nutrient cycling, indoor air cycling, and hypobaric (low pressure) plant growth.

CESR's work takes time and money, and funding is precious in the world of academia. However, as Dixon says, "no technology is too expensive to grow cannabis." If Canada were to legalize pot, it's expected the country would generate $5 billion in tax revenue and growers like ABCann, a medical marijuana company in Ontario that collaborates with Dixon, know that any possible advantage could become a worthwhile investment to get a foothold in the upstart economy. 

Right now, marijuana growers are trying to use Dixon's prowess to consistently produce the right amounts of medically active chemicals in their drug. In his lab, Dixon has the ability to alter the six major environmental factors that affect plant growth—light, water, carbon dioxide, temperature, humidity and nutrients. He calls plants grown under these conditions "environmentally modified organisms" or EMOs.

It's easy to see what the advantage of an EMO could be for a marijuana grower: consistency. 

Strains of marijuana could be modified, bracketed off, and sold through various labels with an iron-clad assurance you're getting the same thing every time. While Dixon still has his eyes on the stars, he sees no reason why Canada cannot "take a leadership role" in this burgeoning field of botany as a bonus.