With a new year on the horizon comes a tasty new batch of food trends, and here we round up five that we think will be super hot for 2019.

From more plant-based everything to infused H2O – these will be the biggest food trends in Canada in 2019.

Plenty of marijuana stocks experienced tough times in 2018. Not Cronos Group (NASDAQ:CRON) and Origin House(NASDAQOTH:ORHOF). Cronos is on track to gain close to 50% for the year, while Origin House should finish 2018 up more than 30%.

The factors behind these two stocks' strong performances in 2018 should continue to be important in the future.

But which is the better pick for long-term investors? Here's what you need to know about how Cronos Group and Origin House stack up against each other.

2018 was a watershed year in the battle for marijuana policy reform. At both the state and federal level, advocates scored numerous victories, and gained significant momentum for further reforms in the year to come. Here is a look back at some of the more significant events that shaped cannabis policy in 2018.

Aphria (TSX:APHA)(NYSE:APHA) stock skyrocketed 14% on Friday after a smaller U.S.-focused cannabis player announced its intention to make an all-stock hostile takeover bid on the troubled low-cost marijuana producer, but I find the company’s December 27th corporate governance change a more compelling move that deserves investor celebration.

Aphria announced the removal of founder Vic Neufeld from the board chair position, effective immediately, and the appointment of Irwin D. Simon as his replacement in an attempt to advance the “company’s governance best practices, with the board now comprised of 10 directors with a majority, or six directors, that are independent.”

Denver is not Ontario, but researchers at Colorado State University found homes located close to legal cannabis dispensaries in that city actually rose in value – just the opposite of what many people might think.

Their research, recently published in the journal Contemporary Economic Policy, examined how home prices in Denver – the U.S. marijuana mecca, where recreational pot has been legal since 2014 – change when a cannabis retailer opens nearby.

While the London-area realtors’ association points out there’s no data to indicate how pot retailing might affect home prices in this region, the American researchers found that homes located within less than half a kilometre from a dispensary rose in value by 7.7 per cent on average.

Much of the excitement in the world of marijuana stocks focused on Canada in 2018. But that could change with the new year. Investors might want to look more to the U.S. in 2019 for several reasons.

The legalization of hemp (which, by definition, is cannabis that contains low levels of psychoactive compound THC) could open the way for a much larger hemp-based cannabidiol (CBD) market in the U.S.

Several new marijuana markets in U.S. states should mature in 2019 -- with new markets also launching in other states. And there's a distinct possibility that efforts to revise federal laws to recognize the authority of the individual states to enforce their own marijuana laws could succeed.

You’ve heard of Big Pharma and Big Tobacco. How about Big Marijuana?

The drug’s growing legalization is raising concerns among small-scale marijuana farmers and retailers that the corporatization of weed may be right around the corner.

Shares of Medmen Enterprises Inc (OTCMKTS:MMNFF), are testing key potential support as we enter the action this week. To further flesh out the story here, the company just announced that, further to the binding letter of intent in respect of a business combination transaction announced on October 11, 2018, they have entered into a definitive business combination agreement pursuant to which MedMen and PharmaCann will combine their respective businesses.

In 2018, the world watched as Canada became the first Western country in the world to legalize recreational marijuana – and all the challenges that came with it.

Today, a lack of supply at the city’s only downtown pot shop is leaving some customers with a bad taste about how legalization has been rolled out so far. 

While lineups outside the SQDC outlet on Saint-Catherine Street has decreased pretty dramatically between October and December, but one problem facing the only pot shop downtown remains: a lack of stock.

“It’s pretty empty at the moment,” said one customer leaving the shop. “I feel like you have to come at a specific time to get something.”

Some call it reckless, others see it as trailblazing, but no matter how you look at it on Oct. 17, 2018, Cannabis became a fully legal commodity in Canada. After nearly 100 years of prohibition, Canada has ushered in an entirely new industry which has wide-ranging implications for nearly every facet of society. That includes everything from policing, health care, justice, politics, business, culture and of course the medical cannabis patient. Some are postulating that cannabis has become Canada’s business story of the year.