California DCC Grants $1.8M to UC Berkeley and Glass House Brands for Cannabis Yield Study

LONG BEACH – State regulators have awarded $1.8 million to a partnership between the University of California Berkeley and Glass House Brands to study variations in Cannabis crop yields across cultivation methods, a move that could refine production benchmarks for California’s $5 billion legal market.

The grant, from the California Department of Cannabis Control, supports the project “Cannabis Crop Yields: Survey & Remote Sensing.” Researchers plan to collect data on growth rates and output in indoor, outdoor, and mixed-light setups, using grower surveys, on-site measurements, and satellite imagery to build predictive models. These tools would help operators optimize inputs like lighting and propagation, while giving officials better data for enforcement and economic projections.

The collaboration stems from a 2025 agreement between Glass House, a major vertically integrated producer, and UC Berkeley’s faculty, initially focused on hemp genetics and medicinal applications. That groundwork shaped the grant application, highlighting how private-sector scale [Glass House’s 240,000-pound annual hemp capacity] pairs with academic expertise to address real-world gaps.

“This demonstrates how early collaboration between industry and public research can drive agricultural science forward, like using AI and computer vision to boost yields and farm profitability,” said Dr. Thomas Azwell, UC Berkeley’s faculty director for the project. Graham Farrar, Glass House president and co-founder, added that “knowing yield differences by technique is key to efficiency, sustainability, and quality control.”