Synopsis

Dr Greg Baute, Senior Director of Breeding and Genetics at Aurora Cannabis, explores the maturing cannabis market and describes why boots-on-the-ground field observations are critical for success.  

In this episode of the Plant Breeding Stories podcast, Greg shares how his educational background and experiences in bioinformatics and practical fieldwork laid a strong foundation for his career, which began in programs breeding sunflowers and tomatoes. We learn about some of the challenges early cannabis breeders faced, including a massive germplasm characterization effort. Greg describes some of the main breeding objectives for improving cannabis varieties, including incorporating consumer-facing traits and the challenges of working with subjective preferences. He explains why it’s possible to commercialize a new cannabis variety much faster than other cultivated crops and the complexity of regulatory framework that has to be navigated.