The Future of Cannabis Breeding: A Discussion With Mojave Richmond

Don’t miss Mojave Richmond speaking on the “Breeding Cannabis Varieties” keynote panel with Clade 9’s David Holmes, BioAgronomics Group’s Robert C. Clarke and writer/photographer/consultant Mel Frank at 11:45 a.m. on Tuesday, March 13, at the Cannabis 2018 Cultivation Conference! The four breeding experts will share advice on the most important aspects of breeding new varieties, including breeding indoor vs. outdoor varieties, important traits to breed for and more. For more information, visit www.cannabiscultivationconference.com.

There are many factors to consider when breeding new cannabis varieties, from selecting which traits to breed for to the end-use of the product and whether to patent genetics. Here, Mojave Richmond, co-founder of cannabis consulting firm BioAgronomics Group Consultants and creator of the popular S.A.G.E. strain, discusses what he looks for when breeding cannabis varieties, how breeding techniques can change based on location, the necessity of patents and more.

Cannabis Business Times: What is the most important trait to breed for in cannabis?

Mojave Richmond: I would say the most important trait to breed for is the overall therapeutic efficacy in that it’s more important how the plant works for the end user, in my opinion, than how it looks, tastes, smells or how fast it grows or how much it yields.

CBT: What are some aspects of breeding that can change based on the region and location of a cultivation facility?

MR: The main aspect is various cultivars will be utilized in specific regions, and they’ll become regional as to which ones work for particular farmers based off environmental conditions and market dynamics. As we become more of a potentially international industry, the commodity itself will be shifted to where it can be produced most efficiently, and that will be places that have cheaper labor and adequate light and power, just like any other agricultural commodity.

CBT: What is a common mistake cultivators make when breeding new varieties, and how can this be avoided?

MR: Now that we are breeding for a mature market, the breeding itself should be conducted with a goal in mind that best suits the breeding project to the end-use of the material that might be bred. We used to just breed for how well something sold in a dispensary, for instance, but now we breeders need to focus on specs of the industry, whether it’s for extraction or for flowers, greenhouses, indoor or Canadian versus the United States versus Mexico—regional demands. It’s really about marrying the breeding project with the particular industrial application.

CBT: What are some benefits to patenting your genetics?

MR: It’s a really complex conversation. All other plants that are sold as a commodity are usually trademarked and at least have some type of plant variety protection, whether or not it’s a specific patent. There has to be some sort of registration mechanism for plants to enter into commerce so that government bodies can trace how that commodity works. Without a fully regulated system, which includes patents and plant variety rights and trademarks, we can’t ever really mature as an industry. For better or worse, it is the way that plant production works.

That being said, it’s such a specific topic in the cannabis industry right now, and it touches on so many nerves that it’s hard to visualize what the future is going to look like when there’s so many breeders and so many strains and so many companies involved. But the reality is, if we want it to become like any other commodity, then we have to look at how other commodities are treated, and they’re treated with trademarks and patents.

There have been patents issued for cannabis, and the patent office will issue patents for a lot of things that aren’t necessarily legal. It doesn’t mean that we’re there yet just because someone has a patent. You can have a patent for growing plants on Mars—it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. The patent office will look at your creation and say, “Oh, that’s interesting and no one else has done it. OK, we’ll grant you a patent.” So you have to have plant patents, but then you have to have a legal system that allows those patents to be enforced, and then you have to have an agricultural industry that can actually utilize those patented plants, and none of that’s going to happen without a federally regulated system. People are putting themselves ahead of the game, but the game has not begun, so to speak.

CBT: What are some reasons a cultivator may decide not to patent his or her genetics?

MR: It costs a lot of money—that’s probably one of the reasons why more people haven’t sought out plant patents at this point, because it costs so much money that you have to feel that there’s some kind of utility in it for the industry. Once again, if you’re not breeding for a specific application aligned within a company and an industry, then that patent is only worth what money you can make from it. If you’re a breeder and you spend a half a million dollars to get a patent on a plant, but you don’t have any company to utilize that patent, then what’s the value there?

CBT: What are some key takeaways you hope attendees will gain from your Cannabis 2018 keynote panel?

MR: I would just hope that people would continue to look at cannabis cultivation and breeding with a mature and sober perspective, and hope that all the good things that we’ve already done with cannabis can be done on a much larger scale and hopefully with even more focus and direction now that we have a real industry in place. As a breeder, we can look at numerous potentials for the plant in the future that we could’ve never even visualized in the past just because of the need for scale in order to achieve that, and now that can all be done, so it’s hopefully a bright future.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Photos courtesy of Mojave Richmond