By Lilian Schaer Source: AginnovationOntario
It’s an unremarkable building from the outside, tucked away on a side street on the University of Guelph campus. What’s inside, though, is most remarkable – and may well be lighting the way for future human life in space, as well as better life here on earth.
Not only are researchers in the Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility working on how to best grow food away from Earth, they’re also experimenting with using light to improve the production of medical marijuana and cancer-fighting tobacco plants, helping nurseries reduce water and fertilizer use on their trees and shrubs, and finding low cost solutions to growing more compact bedding plants.
PhD candidate Dave Hawley is using basil and strawberry plants in experiments designed to find the best LED light combination for use in small, low atmosphere growth chambers that will not only simulate but actually improve upon real sunlight – and resulting in better flavour and ultimately helping feed people on long space journeys.
“We can actually do a lot better than sunlight. Every part of the spectrum of sunlight costs energy and money, but if we can isolate only the parts that provide the most benefit to plant growing, this can be a very efficient process,” explains Hawley, adding the technology would also be excellent for growing food underground or in the far North where fresh produce is expensive and not always of good quality.
His ultimate goal, though, is to apply his learnings from these crops to medical marijuana. According to Hawley, it’s an industry that is in its infancy when it comes to growing plants consistent in both appearance and the medicinal compounds they contain. Clinical studies involving medicinal cannabis, for example, need a steady of supply of consistent drugs, he says.