George Robinson, CEO, RavenQuest BioMed

George Robinson, CEO, RavenQuest BioMed

I had the great honor of speaking with Mr. George Robinson of RavenQuest BioMed Inc., a one of the first-wave Licensed Producers in Canada’s foray into a post-prohibition environment for cannabis. As CEO, George has eschewed the standard fare of acquisitions and press cycles touting would-be ideas and has focused on 4 pillars to diversify the company’s interests, insure responsible stewardship, and support a framework of innovation: Services Division (from consulting to design), Investment, Indigenous Peoples Relationships, and Scientific Leadership.
Although there is a treasure trove of innovation here to choose from, I am focusing this entry on a discussion I had with George about RavenQuest’s proprietary orbital growth system. The system, pictured here, is a system of modular, automated growth pods that rotate the plants around a central light source. This confers a number of benefits. The modular design is open-ended in its scalability. The density of the vegetation with 360 degree light exposure is around 300 grams per square foot, water and nutrient costs are reduced and energy costs drop up to 80% from a standard indoor garden. The high level of automation allows for multiple gardens to be managed remotely and greatly reduce site visits (and the potential for infection they bring).
Concurrently, they are working with McGill University to drive research into chemovar identification/stabilization. These two strategies walk hand-in-hand for a potent future differentiator. Cannabis continues to emerge as a global product as legislative barriers fall seemingly daily. As emerging markets remove legal barriers, the plants will have an opportunity to thrive in their native environments. I cannot envision a technology that will allow cannabis plants to be produced less expensively in an environmentally-controlled warehouse than in their native soil and conditions, not even factoring the variance in labor costs. I view this as a Damocles Sword hovering over the massive capital inflows into the cannabis industry, particularly for the Canadian LPs. The Orbital Garden, when combined with the chemovar ID technology, will allow for the CONSISTENT production of specific cultivars anywhere in the world. The modularity makes it quick and low-cost to set up and Mother Nature will never be able to produce the product with the consistency that this technology provides. In that vein, it is a game-changing tech.
Expect to see me write more material on these Cannabinnovators.

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