The Phylos power grab

Cannabis breeders and cultivators took to social media to express their frustrations concerning whether Phylos would be using community-submitted cannabis data for their own in-house breeding project. Phylos have been collecting genomic data from cultivators since 2014 to create their “Galaxy strain and mapping database”. In response to the hysteria, Phylos’ CEO Mowgli Holmes publicly assured the disgruntled masses via instagram that Phylos was “not going to compete with breeders.” Or grow strains that they may have acquired through their testing work. However, this did little to stem the growing flow of anger as a leaked video of Mr. Holmes speaking at the Benzinga Cannabis Capital conference in February earlier this year then appeared to contradict matters. The video appeared to show the CEO pitching to investors on how Phylos’ strains will dominate the cannabis market in the years to come! Phylos’ game plan was seemingly revealed in full, as they appear to be making a play for a prime and lucrative position in the large-scale commercial cannabis industry in the near future, stating that they will be responsible for “the next generation of plants”.

Also revealed in the video was the fact that they do indeed intend to use all of the genomic data the company has gathered from cannabis cultivators since 2014. Companies and individuals sent samples of their own cannabis strains to be tested by Phylos under the impression that they operated solely as a Genomic Laboratory and are now worried that their plant tissues have potentially fallen in to the hands of a breeding competitor and risk being re-produced to create new and superior Phylos plant strains. It would seem that Phylos will use the genomic data collated from their Galaxy strain and database project and tissue culture operation, to their advantage, scaling up and gaining market share much faster than would otherwise be possible.

Their Biotech corporate approach to plant breeding could have far reaching and extremely detrimental effects on all existing plant breeders, cultivators and cannabis varieties in the not so distance future. This would affect, amongst other things, small businesses and farmers access to genetic resources as well as increasing the cost of both plants and seed stock as well as seriously affecting crop biodiversity. The image is all too familiarly seen in other sectors where small family farms are driven out to make way for the corporate big money! Many breeders who sent their samples in for testing and certifying, would never have participated had they known of Phylos’ true intentions. A ‘Phylos future’ seems unfair and so far removed from what many of us recognize as the culture and ethos of the cannabis community. A community created through a mutual love and respect for a plant, that so many people have struggled to push forward and keep alive. (RH)