1. 16 FEBRUARY 27, 2015
INNOVATION
• NIV ELIS
Photos by DANA MEIRSON
I
n hindsight, it seems eminently
appropriate that a substance uni-
versally known for causing “the
munchies” could spur a solution
to global hunger problems.
“It’s going to accelerate what’s hap-
pening in global food production,” says
Karin Kloosterman in her Jaffa home,
where she is hosting Canna Tech, a meet-
up of high-level investors and innovators
in the field of medical cannabis.
Her home – the East-West House – is
an iconic building that her husband,
musician Yisrael Borochov, turned into
a world music venue in the 1990s, but
also serves as the headquarters for her
company, Flux.
A bonfire, complete with long sticks
and marshmallows for roasting, burns
in the front yard as guests snack on
cheese and sip wine. On display is Flux’s
hydroponic technology system, which
grows plants – whether tomatoes or can-
nabis – in water.
The most advanced version of the
hi-tech system automatically monitors
and adjusts the chemical contents of
the water in accordance with whatev-
er “recipe” the grower thinks is best. A
variety of sensors sends data to an app
for remote monitoring and sharing,
so farmers can swap or even sell their
unique cocktails.
The system, says Kloosterman, will
be a boon to growers in the developing
world, who might not have good soil
conditions, but can easily grow plants
hydroponically (i.e. in water), and also
help urbanites grow their own food at
home. Flux is just part of a new crop
of agricultural technologies that could
help the developing world which are be-
ing spurred, at least in part, by cannabis.
“The medical cannabis world is the
most advanced agricultural technology
today,” says David “Dudu” Oren, a part-
ner at Pirveli Ventures, which invests in
early-stage Israeli start-ups. The mari-
juana business is not only viable, but is
pushing at boundaries.
“The technology cannabis is leading
now will trickle down to the rest of ag-
riculture,” he adds.
One look at projections for the canna-
bis market explains why.
In the US, medical cannabis is legal in
23 states and the District of Columbia,
and recreational pot use has become le-
gal in Colorado and Washington state.
The industry is still plagued with uncer-
tainty due to federal drug laws, which
make both funding and medical testing
treacherous, but demand is growing
nonetheless.
Flux estimates that the global canna-
bis market will reach $40 billion glob-
ally in just five years. The growing legal
market makes cannabis a very valuable
plant, giving pharmaceutical business-
es, investors and technologists new in-
centives to develop appropriate agricul-
tural technology.
“With legalization, cannabis is be-
coming a crop,” explains Lenore
Shoham, vice president of new ventures
at agriculture and food incubator Trend-
lines Agtech.
Even where it’s legal, marijuana grow-
ers are often forced to keep their plants
indoors, creating special conditions
that technology needs to address. But
the new technologies that can help
growers increase their cannabis yield
are applicable to the larger problems the
world is facing, says Shoham.
By 2050, the world is projected to have
2.7 billion more people than it does
today, a 38 percent increase. Feeding
those people will require sophisticated
agricultural technology, says Shoham,
because we will have to produce more,
more efficiently, with limited resources.
“That’s why we at Trendlines Agtech
are excited about cannabis,” she ex-
plains, noting that the group gets some
of its funding from the Israeli govern-
ment. “The world is waking up to these
problems, but here in Israel we’ve been
dealing with them for 100 years.”
Indeed, Israel is becoming a hub for
cannabis research, not just because of
its advanced agriculture technology,
but also thanks to greater government
openness to research.
Dr. Alan Shackelford, a well-known
High
technology
Innovations in Israeli cannabis farming could
lead to global solutions to feed the world
1. INVESTORS AND innovators in the field of medical cannibis mingle at the Canna
Tech conference. 2. THE FLUX team, a company which manufactures a hi-tech
hydroponic growing system. 3. A BONFIRE burns outside Tel Aviv’s iconic East-West
House, where Canna Tech took place.
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2. www.jpost.com 17
advocate for loosening restrictions on
medical marijuana, recently made aliya
because the regulatory environment
in Israel is so much more conducive to
good research.
In the US, he notes, cannabis was used
medically for a hundred years before it
was banned in 1937-1940. Like many
other drugs, cannabis was made illegal
as part of an attempt to criminalize be-
haviors and practices popular among
certain immigrant groups.
The overreach was profound. Not
only was marijuana vilified in pop cul-
ture through pulp magazines decrying
“reefer madness,” but the substance
– relatively mild in comparison to ad-
dictive opioids, which are still regular-
ly prescribed – was harshly classified
alongside the hardest of drugs.
As a result, even performing basic re-
search for medical purposes requires ap-
provals of several federal agencies, and
is limited to certain strains of cannabis.
For Shackelford, that was not good
enough. His “aha moment” with can-
nabis came when treating a five-year-old
girl named Charlotte Figi, who suffered
from Dravet Syndrome, a form of epilepsy
that caused roughly 300 violent seizures
a week. Not only were the medications
on the market not helping, they also had
horrible side effects. Figi had gone into
cardiac arrest twice due to the seizures;
doctors did not believe she would survive.
Shackelford ended up prescribing a
cannabis oil treatment from a strain
with low levels of THC, the psychoac-
tive substance that causes a high, and
high levels of CBD, the compound that
has medical effects but does not make
users feel stoned. Dubbed Charlotte’s
Web, the cocktail helped the little girl
get through an entire week without sei-
zures. She still gets two drops of the can-
nabis oil a day, which has helped reduce
the weekly seizures by over 99%.
But the field needs more research,
Shackelford says: “‘Take two puffs and
call me in the morning’ is not good
enough.” The plant strains need to be
identified and tested for chemical con-
tent to ensure that research and thus
treatment can be properly controlled.
Shackelford is now chief science offi-
cer for One World Cannabis, an Israeli
research firm which, since its research
merger with Dynamic, has even started
trading over-the-counter – on Wall Street.
“I believe that investment in the cap-
ital market in cannabis will bring huge
yields in the future, but we have to be
careful,” says Itzik Shrem, who has in-
vested in One World Cannabis and oth-
er medical cannabis companies.
Whether the result of the growing
market or the taboo that has surround-
ed marijuana, the field is drawing inter-
est from sometimes unexpected sources.
Flux Chief Technology Officer Ami-
chai Yifrach, who spent 16 years devel-
oping technology in the IDF, compares
cannabis growers to computer hackers.
“It’s the same state of mind: ‘I’m good
at something, I can innovate something
and because I can, I do,’” he says.
“When I first came here and Karin
introduced me to hydroponics, I was
clueless about the subject, and then I
started reading and learning about it,”
he recounts. The idea of growing plants
through a collaborative network in a
way that could help solve food prob-
lems attracted him.
Yifrach brings his experience with “a
lot of secret technology” from his army
days to the field. When asked how de-
fense tech could possibly relate to agricul-
ture, Yifrach grins, and without divulging
details cryptically replies, “Sensors.”
Another business, Reflexive – which
Yifrach co-founded – offers a clue. Its
technology “analyzes movement pat-
terns of a person and identifies real-time
emergency situations when they occur,”
thensendssignalsbacktoaservicecenter.
Flux’s technology, too, revolves
around sensors monitoring an environ-
ment, sending signals to a computer and
reacting accordingly. Its focus just hap-
pens to be on plants and, whether can-
nabis or vegetable, maximizing output.
“Totouchthissubjectusingourknowl-
edge, which is kind of unique, to feed the
world – I couldn’t resist,” he says.
Perhaps he was destined for agribusi-
ness. His name, Yifrach, is Hebrew for
“will bloom.” ■
1. ATTENDEES LISTEN to innovations in hydroponic technology at Canna Tech. 2. FLUX CEO Karin Kloosterman. 3. DR. ALAN SHACKELFORD speaks on the medical benefits
of marijuana. 4. KLOOSTERMAN CONSULTS with Flux team members at Canna Tech.
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