Without food, nothing else matters

The Latest Agricultural Revolution

23 hours ago

Whitefish, MT / ACCESSWIRE / October 29, 2014 / In a world increasingly focused on high-tech, it's easy to forget that the single most foundational industry of all remains agriculture. Without food, nothing else matters. The fact that agriculture has always held this dominating position doesn't minimize the critical role that technology has long played in its development. It's been technology, both ancient and modern, that has allowed agriculture to feed a fast-growing population. Over 200 years ago, when English scholar Robert Malthus suggested that food production could never increase fast enough to support such growth, the immense potentials of advanced agricultural technology were completely unknown.

The relationship between agriculture and technology has, however, been volatile rather than smooth, with transformative ideas causing revolutions in how things are grown and distributed. The industrial revolution brought mechanization to the fields, allowing the energy of fuels to be applied to the cultivation of crops, resulting in greater yields from the same land and labor. More recently, the so-called green revolution, with its use of higher yield crops and improved fertilizers, has allowed struggling countries around the world to feed their own populations for the first time. Today, advances in genetics, electronic equipment, and even space technologies such as GPS have been successfully applied to enhance agricultural production.

Organic Becomes Big Business

But there has been a price to pay for increased crop yields, and populations are now looking for high quality and cost-effective production, while at the same time seeking to avoid the concerns associated with synthetic chemicals and genetically modified organisms (GMO). Walk into any American supermarket and the expanding presence of displays promoting organic foods is clear. Such displays reflect market demand, and sales of organic foods in the U.S. alone have skyrocketed over the past 15 years, from only about a $1 billion to over $32 billion. And it's not just places like Whole Foods Market (WFM) or Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM) that are leading the charge. Market giant Walmart (NYSE:WMT) has been rapidly growing its organic food footprint, to the point that organic food has now become one of Walmart's biggest sales categories. And right behind Walmart you have Costco (NASDAQ:COST), Kroger (NYSE:KR), Target (NYSE:TGT), and Safeway (SWY), rounding out the top organic retailers in North America. In addition, Walmart is now applying its aggressive pricing policies to organic food, putting pressure on what had previously been seen as a comfortable high-end market. The currently higher costs and lower yields associated with organic foods is driving the search for the next revolution in agriculture, a way to grow foods in volume, without all the chemicals, and with more economical yields.

The Affinor Difference

For Affinor Growers, Inc. (RSSFF) (CSE:AFI), a Canadian-based company that has been actively creating and developing radically new ways to grow high-quality in-demand crops such as lettuce, strawberries, and even medical marijuana, the timing couldn't be better. The company plans to become a major grower using an integrated system of automated vertical farming techniques and cloning technologies, while also producing revenue through the licensing and sales of these technologies. The cloning process is traditionally labor intensive, but Affinor is using automation and new technologies to overcome this. The company is now, for example, looking at technologies that will allow grape seedlings to produce grapes in just a year, versus 8 years, through safe metabolic manipulation instead of genetic manipulation.

It's a disruptive approach because it ensures quality controlled plant reproduction in a way unmatched by traditional seeding, together with a controlled environment that removes the need for all the chemicals the market is trying to escape. In addition, their vertical layering system greatly increases yield per land footprint, while minimizing the effects of weather and location. As such it is designed to promote job creation and food sustainability in previously remote and unproductive areas of the world, and even promises zero water waste. Affinor has already gotten contacts from diverse remote locations anxious to use the technology to improve their current food sources.

Watch an interview with Affinor Chairman Nick Brusatore discussing company developments. If the video below does not display properly, use this link: https://vimeo.com/108507633.

CannabisFN Executive Interview | Affinor Growers (OTC: RSSFF / CSE: AFI) from TDM Financial on Vimeo.

Things Happening Quickly

Things are starting to take off for Affinor, and the company has recently broken ground on a 45-acre food crop growing facility in Quebec, utilizing a highly controlled and automated environment of multiple growing layers to significantly increase yield per acre. The Quebec opportunity is about Affinor becoming fully commercialized. In the meantime, the company is now taking advantage of another rapidly developing opportunity on the other side of the continent, where the state of Washington has been especially proactive in the development of the medical marijuana (MMJ) and overall cannabis product industry. The critical need there is for better ways to control and monitor the production of cannabis plants, a major weakness in this explosive growth industry.

Currently, MMJ consumers face a huge number of unknowns. States like Washington are doing what they can to define and implement adequate protocols for the development and production of cannabis plants, and Affinor fits right in by offering critical and unmatched control technologies. Affinor recently announced a partnership with Herbal Analytics, a company with extensive herbal product industry experience, and the most efficient and innovative analytical platforms for accurate and rapid testing. In addition, Affinor also recently announced a 49% interest in Good To Grow LLC, a full-service agricultural supply source and authorized MMJ dispensary and grower. Affinor is now able to do pre-testing work, allowing it to fully recognize and deal with microbes on leaf tissue prior to plant flowering, minimizing and controlling microbe risks. Affinor plans on growing Herbal Analytics throughout the U.S. as an important brand in the field of analytics, and as a service company to help growers understand necessary technical considerations. All of this is geared toward helping to ensure the overall safety and confidence of consumers.

The goal of Affinor is to grow throughout the U.S., licensing and consulting with growers, selling equipment, and helping growers to meet government standards. In the case of cannabis, such growth will quickly follow as legalization takes hold in various states. The cannabis market is clearly already happening, but the fact that these rapidly developing technologies also support global food production represents an important diversification factor for Affinor, helping to mitigate any one-sided market risks.

The demand for more efficient and quality-controlled food production, without artificial chemicals or GMO, is spreading globally. The need is immediate in the cannabis industry, but represents an overdue revolution in all of agriculture. Affinor has groundbreaking technology for the safe maximization of growth potential, technology that they can license to growers of both food products and cannabis.

Disclaimer:

Except for the historical information presented herein, matters discussed in this release contain forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. Emerging Growth LLC is not registered with any financial or securities regulatory authority, and does not provide nor claims to provide investment advice or recommendations to readers of this release. Emerging Growth LLC may from time to time have a position in the securities mentioned herein and may increase or decrease such positions without notice. For making specific investment decisions, readers should seek their own advice. Emerging Growth LLC may be compensated for its services in the form of cash-based compensation or equity securities in the companies it writes about, or a combination of the two. For full disclosure please visit: http://secfilings.com/Disclaimer.aspx

SOURCE: Emerging Growth LLC