By Daniel Zellers, Sustainable Plant Systems major

One of the biggest changes to the horticulture Industry recently has been the legalization of medical marijuana. The growers in states that have legalized marijuana now face the major decision about whether they want to jump into this lucrative business opportunity. I have been personally asked the question if I will grow medical marijuana when Ohio legalizes. This is not a decision that is a quick or easy one to make.

If you choose to become a medical marijuana grower, you will face strict regulations by both state and federal laws. I went to the Pennsylvania medical marijuana program home page to start my research for this decision. I found instructions on how to become a grower, and the first thing I noticed was that it costs $10,000 just to submit the application and costs another $200,000 to obtain your permit to grower and sell medical marijuana legally. That is a lot of money just to be allowed to grow medical marijuana. That does not include the cost of building or upgrading your facility to meet the standards imposed by Pennsylvania law.

I then found the Pa code of laws regulating the growing and selling of medical marijuana. The facility must have video surveillance, alarm systems, inventory monitoring and tracking, personal security and all plants must be grown and processed indoors. And a state of the art indoor growing facility can cost between 1.5 and 2 million dollars per acre.  On top of these regulations, the consideration of what you are growing is for medical purposes, needs to be included.

I am familiar with the food safety standards because my family has a salad vegetable farm and I get frightened at the thought of growing plants for medical safety standards. The regulations Pennsylvania growers along with personal reasons are why I will not be transitioning my family’s greenhouse to medical marijuana, when Ohio legalizes.

> More information (Pennsylvania code)

**********
This blog post was an assignment for Societal Issues: Pesticides, Alternatives and the Environment (PLNTPTH 4597). The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the class, Department of Plant Pathology or the instructor.

by Stephanie Wuebben, Agriscience Education major

Square Watermelons

You remember those fictional math questions about square watermelons? Well they are fiction no more. A square watermelon seems very odd since we are used to their general oval structure. Many people think the only way to get such a product is to alter the DNA sequence of the watermelon itself. However; these watermelons are not a product of genetic engineering, they are simply just grown in boxes to give them their rectangular shape.

GMO Free Oats

Since some oats are marketed GMO free, there must be oats that are genetically engineered, right? Wrong. There is actually no alternative to traditional oats. Producers like to slap that “GMO free” label on products because some consumers are willing to pay a higher price for a product that hasn’t been genetically altered. Just because a product is labeled “GMO free” doesn’t mean that there is another version of that product that is classified as a GMO.

GMO Labeling

Labeling a product as a “GMO” isn’t required, instead many companies have printed a “quick response” code on their products so consumers can learn more. Here they can read if the product is genetically altered, but the company isn’t required to tell consumers how or why that product has been altered. Simply throwing the “genetically modified” label on products could send consumers into a frenzy, this code system could prevent that.

Why alter the genes?

In some instances, crops are genetically modified to improve crop production (efficiency). The Hawaiian papaya has been genetically modified to protect it against a harmful virus that threatened the fruit. In other cases, the crop has been altered to armor it against herbicides sprayed on fields to kill weeds. The soy lecithin found in ice cream comes from soybeans that were genetically modified to be resistant to herbicides. This protects the soybeans from the effects of herbicides and ends the life cycle of weeds that potentially would consume the vital nutrients in the soil that soybeans need to flourish.

Read here to find out about other GMO misconceptions:

How Square Watermelons Get Their Shape, and Other G.M.O. Misconceptions

**********
This blog post was an assignment for Societal Issues: Pesticides, Alternatives and the Environment (PLNTPTH 4597). The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the class, Department of Plant Pathology or the instructor.