Agriculture
Canada’s Medical Cannabis Report Card: Spring 2015
Canada’s Medical Cannabis Report Card: Spring 2015
Just over a year ago, we released an infographic that introduced the new MMPR (Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations) introduced in Canada as well as the case for medical cannabis.
With the first full year of MMPR now behind us, we wanted to take a look at how the medical cannabis industry has matured. For two weeks of April, we talked to every practicing LP (Licensed Producer) in Canada to get a sense of the current landscape of the medical cannabis market.
We wanted to see how the market has changed as well as the type of experience that prospective patients could expect. Then, our team put this information together with some industry context. In the infographic and report, we include a timeline highlighting the last year of events affecting the medical marijuana space in Canada, and also a section focusing on the cultural shift towards acceptance of cannabis.
Methodology
The purpose of this report is to serve as a snapshot of what a potential patient may experience while contacting and researching different LPs.
This report is meant to be representative of the time of the two weeks of research (mid-April) and not today. Things change fast and it is possible that producers have come out with new strains (or run out of strains) since that time period.
Further, we measured things like social media, phone, and email response times with only a small sample size. These are not statistically significant measures, but are again indicative of what our experience was in trying to reach producers with questions.
Lastly, it is also worth noting that at the end of April, we reached out to every LP with the opportunity to correct information that we had collected. Most producers wrote us back and provided some corrections or affirmation that the information was correct, but a few did not respond.
Conclusions
TRADEOFFS
The market is still in its early stages, and companies are executing different strategies to win over patients. Right now, there are brands ranging from low to high end in terms of pricing and quality. There are also a variety of preparation strategies, including but not limited to: selling only whole buds, pre-milling the product, machine-trimming, or irradiating the product. In the future, as the market matures, it will be clearer which of these strategies work best for patients and which are better suited for smaller niches.
Moving forward, it will also be interesting to watch if all LPs move towards creating a similar selection of products with comparable benefits, or if they all specialize in specific areas based on patient demand.
STRAIN AVAILABILITY
The single biggest trend we noticed was a lack of consistent strain availability. While the LPs have made big progress since last autumn, there is still a wide variability in what is available at any given time.
Supply hiccups are expected in a new industry, but we did get the impression that it does impact patients significantly. We hope that as medical cannabis in Canada matures, that patients will be able to rely on consistent supply for the medicine that works best for them.
TRANSPARENCY
Our last note is on transparency. We found several LPs very reluctant to give out information on their company or their medicine. This is a concern for patients that are interested in knowing more about what they are buying.
A possible cause of this could also be that some representatives for each company may not yet have enough industry experience to know answers to questions like whether their product is irradiated, or if their flowers are trimmed by machines or by hand.
The good news is that companies seem to be rapidly maturing in their approach to knowledge and customer service. We had done some preliminary calls and research in the autumn of 2014, and many less-established LPs were much more reluctant to give us information at that time. Further, some representatives were not knowledgeable about product traits and were unprofessional with their phone and email responses.
While we still received some of these types of responses in our most recent rounds, we saw a noticeable decrease as company representatives acted more professional, courteous, and with genuine knowledge of their product and the industry. Companies also responded much faster to us in April than they did in 2014, which means that they are improving from a customer service standpoint.
Edits: We updated this on June 4, 2015 at 12:58pm, updating the total amount of listed LPs by Health Canada to 19.
Agriculture
Which Countries Produce the Most Wheat?
Global wheat production is concentrated in just a handful of countries. Here’s a look at the top wheat-producing countries worldwide.

Visualizing Global Wheat Production by Country (2000-2020)
Wheat is a dietary staple for millions of people around the world.
After rice and corn (maize), wheat is the third most-produced cereal worldwide, and the second-most-produced for human consumption. And considering wheat’s importance in the global food system, any impact on major producers such as droughts, wars, or other events, can impact the entire world.
Which countries are the largest producers of wheat? This graphic by Kashish Rastogi visualizes the breakdown of 20 years of global wheat production by country.
Top 10 Wheat Producing Countries
While more than 80 different countries produce wheat around the world, the majority of global wheat production comes from just a handful of countries, according to data from The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Here’s a look at the top 10 wheat-producing countries worldwide, based on total yield in tonnes from 2000-2020:
Rank | Country | Continent | Total yield (tonnes, 2000-2020) | % of total (2000-2020) |
---|---|---|---|---|
#1 | 🇨🇳 China | Asia & Oceania | 2.4 B | 17.0% |
#2 | 🇮🇳 India | Asia & Oceania | 1.8 B | 12.5% |
#3 | 🇷🇺 Russia | Asia & Oceania | 1.2 B | 8.4% |
#4 | 🇺🇸 U.S. | Americas | 1.2 B | 8.4% |
#5 | 🇫🇷 France | Europe | 767 M | 5.4% |
#6 | 🇨🇦 Canada | Americas | 571 M | 4.0% |
#7 | 🇩🇪 Germany | Europe | 491 M | 3.5% |
#8 | 🇵🇰 Pakistan | Asia & Oceania | 482 M | 3.4% |
#9 | 🇦🇺 Australia | Asia & Oceania | 456 M | 3.2% |
#10 | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | Europe | 433 M | 3.1% |
China, the world’s largest wheat producer, has yielded more than 2.4 billion tonnes of wheat over the last two decades, making up roughly 17% of total production from 2000-2020.
A majority of China’s wheat is used domestically to help meet the country’s rising food demand. China is the world’s largest consumer of wheat—in 2020/2021, the country accounted for approximately 19% of global wheat consumption.
The second-largest wheat-producing country is India. Over the last two decades, India has produced 12.5% of the world’s wheat. Like China, India keeps most of its wheat domestic because of significant food demand across the country.
Russia, the world’s third-largest wheat producer, is also the largest global exporter of wheat. The country exported more than $7.3 billion worth of wheat in 2021, accounting for approximately 13.1% of total wheat exports that year.
Russia-Ukraine Impact on Global Wheat Market
Because Russia and Ukraine are both significant global wheat producers, the ongoing conflict between the two countries has caused massive disruptions to the global wheat market.
The conflict has had an impact on adjacent industries as well. For instance, Russia is one of the world’s major fertilizer suppliers, and the conflict has led to a global fertilizer shortage which could lead to food shortages worldwide.
Agriculture
Timeline: The Domestication of Animals
This graphic shows a timeline of when 15 different animals became domesticated, based on archaeological findings.

Timeline: The Domestication of Animals
While dogs weren’t always our docile companions, research indicates that they were likely one of the first animals to be domesticated by humans. In fact, genetic evidence suggests that dogs split from their wild wolf ancestors around 33,000 years ago.
When did humans domesticate other animals, and why? This timeline highlights the domestication period of 15 different animals, based on archeological findings.
Because exact timing is tricky to pinpoint and research on the topic is ongoing, these estimates may vary by thousands of years.
Defining Domestic
The domestication of animals is a particular process that’s done through selective breeding. Generally speaking, domestic animals follow most of these criteria:
- Genetically distinct from their wild ancestors and more human-friendly as a genetic trait.
- Dependent on humans for food and reproduction.
- They’re extremely difficult or impossible to breed with wild counterparts.
- Show the physical traits of domestication syndrome, such as smaller skulls, floppy ears, or coat color variations.
Domestication is not the same as taming an animal, which is when humans condition wild animals to live in captivity.
While some research suggests that domestic animals can prosper in the wild, domestic animals are typically more susceptible to predators since they lack some of the advantages, instincts, or traits that help their wild counterparts survive in nature.
Key Reasons for the Domestication of Animals
Humans domesticate animals for a number of reasons: some have been domesticated for food, work, companionship, or a combination of all three.
After dogs, livestock animals such as sheep, cows, and pigs are thought to have been some of the first animals to become domesticated by humans. This was around the same time that humanity shifted from a hunter-gathering lifestyle to an agricultural society.
Domesticated Animal | Primary Type | Estimated Domestication Period | Origin |
---|---|---|---|
Dog | Pet | 13,000–34,000 BCE | Eurasia |
Sheep | Livestock | 9,000 BCE | Middle East |
Goat | Livestock | 8,500 BCE | Middle East |
Pig | Livestock | 8,300 BCE | Middle East |
Cow | Livestock | 8,300 BCE | Middle East |
Cat | Pet | 7,500 BCE | Middle East |
Zebu (Humped Cow) | Livestock | 6,000 BCE | South Asia |
Llama | Livestock | 4,000 BCE | South America |
Horse | Work | 3,500 BCE | Central Asia |
Alpaca | Livestock | 3,000 BCE | South America |
Bactrian Camel (two-humped) | Work | 2,500 BCE | Central Asia |
Chicken | Livestock | 2,000 BCE | East Asia/Middle East |
Arabian Camel (one-humped) | Work | 1,000 BCE | Middle East |
Turkey | Livestock | 0 CE | North America |
Duck | Livestock | 1,000 CE | East Asia/Middle East |
Horses are thought to be some of the first animals domesticated for work. Scientific research suggests that the modern horse originated in Central Asia, and were selectively bred for their exceptional back strength and overall resilience.
When it comes to domesticating animals, herbivores (like cows) are generally the easiest to convert because they’re easier to feed than animals that rely on meats or grains, which need to be sourced or domesticated themselves.
Domestication Has Shaped Modern Humanity
The domestication of species has helped create our modern society. Domesticating plants and animals created a world with stable food production, which enabled the human population to boom worldwide.
This is because agriculture meant fewer people could provide more food to humans on a mass scale, so people had more time to focus on other things like creative pursuits, scientific research, etc. This gave us time to create tools that helped boost efficiencies in farming and agriculture, leading to the world as we know it today.
-
Misc2 weeks ago
Visualizing Which Countries Drink the Most Beer
-
Demographics4 weeks ago
Ranked: The 20 Countries With the Fastest Declining Populations
-
Personal Finance2 weeks ago
Mapped: The Salary You Need to Buy a Home in 50 U.S. Cities
-
Energy3 weeks ago
Visualizing the World’s Largest Oil Producers
-
Energy2 weeks ago
Which Countries Produce the Most Natural Gas?
-
Agriculture4 weeks ago
Timeline: The Domestication of Animals
-
Business3 weeks ago
Ranked: The World’s Largest Container Shipping Companies
-
Misc5 days ago
Brand Loyalty is Declining for Most Luxury Automakers