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Better Farming Ontario Featured Articles

Better Farming Ontario magazine is published 11 times per year. After each edition is published, we share featured articles online.


Grow-ops cause Pacific power blowouts

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Legal marijuana grow operations are putting such a strain on the power grid in Oregon and Washington states that they're blowing out transformers.

In a November Statesman Journal article, Portland General Electric spokesman Steve Corson estimated that the grow-ops account for 10 per cent of the roughly 400 transformer blowouts the Oregon utility experiences in a year.

The article also quotes Roger Blank, director of safety for Pacific Power, as saying a grow-op with four plants under standard lights "is like hooking up 29 refrigerators that run 24/7."

Corson told Portland Business Journal in November that the popularization of LED lighting, more expensive to install than traditional lighting, is easing the situation. One grower quoted in the story estimated that 200 lights per 10,000 square feet of an indoor operation would take US$10,000 a month to light by LED and double that amount by traditional light. BF

Current Issue

December 2025

Better Farming Magazine

Farms.com Breaking News

Winter Farm Meeting with Keynote and Networking

Friday, November 21, 2025

The Grey Soil & Crop AGM and Winter Meeting , as well as Social Tradeshow will take place on December 18, 2025, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Bognor Community Centre in Bognor, Ontario. The evening format is new this year, offering participants a warm and welcoming environment to connect... Read this article online

Canadian Farmers Seek Fair Succession Tax Reform

Thursday, November 20, 2025

Family farmers across Canada are urging the federal government to update tax rules that they say no longer reflect the reality of modern farming families. Current laws under the Income Tax Act allow farmers to transfer their farms to their own children without immediate tax... Read this article online

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