Five Intriguing Questions With Wanjun Gao, CEO Of BiFarm
June 26, 2019
Warren Bobrow Contributor
I work with cannabis and have done some wild things in life. cocktailwhisperer.com
Precision Growing in an App | BIFARM
I'm lucky to have a green thumb. Give me some seed or a cutting or just about anything and I can grow it. This was probably caused from my growing up on a Biodynamic farm belonging to my family in New Jersey. However, most people have black thumbs. They plant something in the earth and it just shrivels and dies no matter what they do. They can't understand why the plant died, it just stopped being happy, then it turned to brown and said, without much fanfare, good-bye.
What would you do if you could control all the variables of precision growing and control all the things that possibly could go wrong directly on an app, anywhere in the world?
BiFarm is similar to the concept of Seedo and Leaf except neither of them are available commercially.
BiFarm is the only precision controlled high pressure aeroponics system. Most of the home systems are hydroponics.
BiFarm doesn’t provide lights, casing or air filtering, because growers might already have them, and the selection is geared towards what lights to select, as an example.
BiFarm's system is designed for aeroponics working conditions, which is dependant on precision nutrient delivery, and root area temperature stability. But aeroponics works way better if conditions are right.
Other than home use, BiFarm is perfect for R&D purpose, for schools, labs and seed companies. They need tools to repeated testing on different input.
For example, Cornell university’s agritech center likes BiFarm's AeroKit, and we are working on presenting them a solution similar to 'co-location' project. That will enable them to test out generic change testing.
Enter Wanjun Gao, the intrepid CEO of BiFarm
Warren Bobrow=WB: Where are you from? When did you discover cannabis? Where are you producing your product now?
Wanjun Gao=WG: I originally came from China; however, I have been living in Florida for the most of my adult life. BiFarm's activities of research, design, development, and user experience trial are conducted here in the United States. While exploring the sourcing partners around world, we currently work with our suppliers and manufacturers in China for prototyping and initial production for AeroXPS.
WB: Tell me about your company? Why Cannabis instead of practicing law or say, becoming a surgeon? What is your passion?
WG: BiFarm is a technology company. We develop agricultural technologies and provide soil-less solutions that maximize harvest quality and yields. Our focus is precision aeroponics with automated control. We believe precision-controlled cultivation leads to consistent, reliable, and repeatable results. Imagine if we can have agricultural freedom in environments that are traditionally hard to cultivate in: the dry deserts of Middle-east or cold winters of northern Europe and Canada. In our bigger picture, our goal is to improve the future of agriculture for generations to come.
Bifarm's technologies can grow various plants. For example, university agri-tech center and USDA lab purchased BiFarm’s precision aeroponics equipment as genetics research tools for plants like the apple tree. In a sense, BiFarm's equipment is like an iPhone, and users can utilize different apps to grow different plants. If we look back at BiFarm's origin, it is an accidental business. It started with the problem of my inability to keep indoor plants alive for long, and I took it upon myself to automate the gardening tasks. Before long, I had enthusiastic teammates join me. My passion is to create and make things work. It is quite a sense of accomplishment when I see things that I put together, work.
WB: Do you cook? If so, who taught you? What’s your favorite food? What is your favorite local restaurant? Why?
WG: Well, I guess "cook" is a subjective term. I think I can cook. I learned by trial-and-error, like most people. When it comes to food, I don't discriminate. I like it all, as long as it is of good quality.
WB: What is your six-month plan, one year? What is your inspiration for the future?
WG: With the release of the AeroXPS we are now focusing on scaling the technology for commercial facilities. There are two goals:
1. One is to provide clusters of individually controllable habitats powered by AeroXPS grow systems that are ideal for genetic research labs and small cultivation facilities. The habitat environment can be recreated and repeated with the exact settings for benchmark testing.
2. Another one goal is scale up the grow system to be more efficient for the yields & costs and streamline indoor cultivation activities. In other words, we want to make the facilities the farms of future.
WB: If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would that be? Doing what? With whom?