Ignoring the Roots: Cannabis Industry Leaders, Overlook Cultivation at Your Own Risk

By: Max Jackson | Founder, Cannabis Wise Guys

3/5/25

Yesterday at the Benzinga Cannabis Market Spotlight in New Jersey, I witnessed something both telling and troubling, yet unsurprising. Settling into my front-row seat for what promised to be an insightful panel—"Beating the Elements: How High Tech Cultivation is Defining the East Coast"—I was struck by the sparse attendance. The room was barely one-third full, a stark contrast to the packed house at the preceding panel on dispensary product selection.

This visual disparity crystallized something many of us in cultivation have felt for years: despite being the literal foundation of the cannabis industry, cultivation knowledge remains undervalued by the broader cannabis business community.

The Irony of Industry Focus

Every premium product on dispensary shelves starts here—cultivation is the foundation of quality. Without proper care, environmental control, and expert oversight at this stage, the end product suffers. It’s time the industry values where great cannabis truly begins.

The panels drawing standing-room-only crowds at Benzinga featured discussions on retail strategies, investment opportunities, and product selection. Investors and retail operators crowded in, eagerly taking notes and networking. Meanwhile, the discussion of advanced cultivation technologies—the very innovations that determine product quality, consistency, and ultimately consumer satisfaction—apparently warranted only passing interest.

This attendance gap reveals a fundamental disconnect. How can an industry so focused on product quality, consumer experience, and brand differentiation show such limited interest in the cultivation processes that determine these outcomes?

What They Missed: Cutting-Edge Innovations

Those who skipped the cultivation panel missed some critical insights that directly impact business success. When the discussion turned to AI applications in cannabis, Jesce Horton, Founder of Plant Fidelity Solutions highlighted Aroya—a leader in data-driven crop steering, root zone management and now AI that many cultivators have utilized for years. 

Surprisingly, even some panelists seemed unfamiliar with Aroya's capabilities, underscoring the knowledge gap that exists even among industry participants. This technology isn't merely a cultivation tool; it represents the kind of data-driven approach that transforms operational efficiency and product consistency—metrics that directly impact financial performance.

Similarly revealing was David Fettner from Grow America discussing vertical cultivation with his observation that "real estate is expensive but air is free," referring to the increasing trend of adding vertical racks to maximize facility footprint. When the panel acknowledged that upper racks typically produce lower quality cannabis, it got me thinking about how sophisticated systems like Aroya can help address this challenge by enabling tier-specific irrigation zones run by AI.

This technical solution—creating separate irrigation protocols for each vertical level to address their unique microclimates—represents exactly the kind of operational intelligence that bridges cultivation science with business outcomes. Yet this crucial insight remained unheard by the majority of conference attendees who prioritized other sessions.

The Knowledge Gap Consequence

This cultivation knowledge gap has real consequences for the industry:

1. Investment Misdirection: Capital flows toward flashy retail concepts and technology platforms while fundamental cultivation infrastructure remains underfunded.

2. Unrealistic Expectations: Business plans get built on production assumptions that experienced cultivators recognize as unrealistic.

3. Failed Integration: Vertically integrated companies struggle when their cultivation operations can't meet the expectations set by marketing and retail teams.

4. Disconnected Decision-Making: Executive decisions about facility design, equipment, and operations get made without sufficient understanding of cultivation realities.

Perhaps most concerning is how this knowledge gap perpetuates itself. When cultivation discussions are poorly attended, conference organizers schedule fewer cultivation sessions, further limiting knowledge sharing and reinforcing the disconnect.

Cultivation Passion as Industry Fuel

During the panel, a moment perfectly captured what's missing in today's industry conversations. Jesce Horton made a joke about his girlfriend leaving him because their apartment was "like living in a greenhouse," to which someone quipped, "Hey, there are people in here who would love to live in a greenhouse!"

This is what “living in a greenhouse” really looks like. This cannabis greenhouse uses a glass roof to maximize natural sunlight while supplemental lighting ensures consistent growth. The balance of controlled environment agriculture and natural elements allows cultivators to produce high-quality flower efficiently—yet too many in the industry overlook the expertise required to get it right.

That exchange hit home for me. THAT is precisely the energy we need in this industry—people who love and understand this plant. You don't have to grow cannabis to have a curiosity about it, but when we have a fundamental disconnect between growers and everyone else in the industry, how can we ever hope to build a customer base that loves and is curious about this plant as well?

The most passionate advocates for cannabis quality and innovation have often been those with soil under their fingernails. As we lose this connection between cultivation and the broader industry, we risk losing the very passion that has driven cannabis forward against countless obstacles.

Cultivation Knowledge as Competitive Advantage

Forward-thinking operators increasingly recognize that deep cultivation knowledge represents a significant competitive advantage. When executives understand the nuances of environmental control, genetic selection, and cultivation workflows, they make fundamentally better business decisions.

The most successful cannabis businesses in mature markets aren't just operationally sound—they've integrated cultivation expertise into their strategic decision-making. They understand that technologies like AI-driven crop steering aren't just cultivation tools but strategic assets that directly impact margins and product differentiation.

A Direct Call to Action

If you're reading this, I challenge you to take specific steps to bridge this cultivation disconnect:

For Cannabis Investors:

• Before your next cannabis investment, spend a day in a cultivation facility asking questions. Listen. 

• Add a cultivation expert to your due diligence team.

• Make cultivation site visits a non-negotiable part of your investment process.

• Evaluate management teams on their cultivation knowledge, not just their business pedigrees.

For Cannabis Executives:

• Schedule monthly hands-on time with your cultivation team.

• Consider adding cultivation expertise to your Board of Directors.

• Create cross-functional teams that embed cultivation leaders in business decision-making.

• Question how each business initiative impacts or is impacted by cultivation realities.

For Conference Organizers:

• Design integrated programming that explicitly connects cultivation to business outcomes.

• Create incentives for business-focused attendees to participate in cultivation sessions.

• Feature cultivation innovators in keynote slots, not just specialized tracks.

• Facilitate structured networking between cultivation experts and business leaders.

For Everyone in Cannabis:

• Challenge yourself to learn a new cultivation concept every few months.

• Build relationships with cultivation professionals outside your immediate business function.

• Recognize and advocate for the central role cultivation plays in the industry's success.

• Ask questions that demonstrate curiosity about how cannabis is grown.

  
  

Bridging the Divide

The future of cannabis belongs to organizations and leaders who close this knowledge gap—who understand that cultivation isn't just an operational necessity but the heart of what makes cannabis unique. As consumers become more sophisticated and markets more competitive, the connections between cultivation excellence and business success will only strengthen.

Those empty seats at yesterday's cultivation panel represented more than missed information—they symbolized a broader industry challenge we must collectively address. By recommitting to value cultivation knowledge as a core industry competency, we not only improve business outcomes but honor the plant that brought us all together in the first place.

If you're an investor, operator, or executive in the cannabis space and find yourself gravitating only toward business and retail discussions, I offer this gentle challenge: the next time you have the opportunity to learn about cultivation, take it. Your understanding of this fundamental aspect of the cannabis business will pay dividends far beyond the time invested.

After all, without successful cultivators, there would be no products to select, no brands to build, and no industry to invest in. The empty seats at cultivation panels reveal not that these topics are unimportant, but rather that we have significant work to do in elevating cultivation knowledge throughout the cannabis business community.