CHANGE GROWLIGHT FACILITIES FROM MARIJUANA TO VEGGIES

Assuming our governor allows the medical marijuana reform bill that
was passed by the Legislature to become law, there are numerous large
growlight facilities in Montana that will not have a current use.
Perhaps some of these expensive facilities could be "recycled" into
vegetable and legal herb-growing operations.

It has always been tough to grow ripe tomatoes in Montana with the
unreliable weather, and even in a good year the growing season is very
short. Many high-value crops might grow well in controlled conditions
under growlights. Growing legal medicinal herbs, many of which now
come from China with dubious purity, could be of great benefit.

Crops can be produced organically under growlights. and many crops may
be grown organically under hydroponic conditions, if so desired. Some
of the plant-growing efforts might be converted into development
projects, where the nutritional value of the crops are improved by
feeding nutrients to the plants under controlled conditions. The soils
in the Bozeman area are mostly quite alkaline, which greatly reduces
the ability of plants to absorb crucial trace minerals. Adding local
manure to gardens, where the manure is low in minerals from animals
raised on alkaline soils, may contribute to additional lowering of
trace minerals in the plants. Thus, growing selected crops under
optimized conditions might be a very beneficial way to overcome low
trace mineral contents in crops.

There may be MSU students who are interested in working on nutritional
improvement of crops and/or on sustainability issues. Therefore, the
availability of large, unused growlight facilities could allow the
owners to move to providing better food and herbs that contribute to
enhanced health. I believe that improved nutritional content of foods
will foster disease prevention, as an important path to better health.

Edward Dratz

Bozeman