Cannabis cultivation is a booming business in Canada these days as suppliers get ready to meet demand when the plant is legalised later this year.
“these are greenhouses the size of several soccer fields”
And McGill University is getting ready to help meet the need for workers.
The university is offering two, one-day workshops in May, and they are creating a graduate diploma program specializing in cannabis production.
Professor Anja Geiteman is the Dean of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at McGill.
Listen“This is a unique opportunity for agriculture, the creation of an entirely new sector.”She says they’re responding to a need in the industry.
“a new pharmaceutical industry that is setting up but uses compounds that happen to be produced by a plant”
“The industry itself predicts tens of thousands if not a hundred thousand new workers to be needed in the coming years for the medicinal marijuana business”
Professor Anja Geiteman, Dean of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at McGill, says the university is responding to a need in a completely new agricultural sector.
Canadian companies are planning on being in the forefront of this new sector.
Geitmann describes the scale: “The biggest industries are setting in brand new greenhouses, actually, and these are greenhouses the size of several soccer fields, they are high technology they look totally professional, this is essentially a new pharmaceutical industry that is setting up but uses compounds that happen to be produced by a plant.”
The upcoming one-day workshops are “tailored to people who are already in related industries” Geitmann says.
“Let’s say somebody who is already in the horticultural industry or in the transformation industry and these workshops would inform people on what is happening in the cannabis-related industry”.
The program is being created with people who already have a Bachelor degree in plant science or agronomists in mind, and the one-year program will offer them additional specialized training for the industry.
McGill is currently setting up the courses in collaboration with the industry, employing McGill’s own faculty and people from the industry as well, as teachers..
This is not a first in Canada. Colleges, such as Niagara College in southern Ontario, have set up programs in cannabis cultivation.
In an interview with CBC last week, Adam Greenblatt, brand manager for Tweed, a medical cannabis producer based in the province of Quebec, said McGill’s new program is an affirmation of this new industry
“A lot of the experience and knowledge base in the cannabis world has been developed sort of underground,” he said. “There’s a growing need for certified education.”
McGill’s first classes will begin in 2019, with the first graduates ready to work in 2020.
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