Taking vertical farming back from the billionaires
How Canadian are reinventing farming from the ground up
The latest issue of the Growcer newsletter has some deep and powerful thinking about farming - and most particularly, vertical farming. Especially in light of a big US bankruptcy, and Canadians’ awareness of the importance of growing our own food.
What particularly got my attention was an article entitled Why Billionaires Can’t Make Vertical Farming Work, by Henry Gordon-Smith. It analyzed attempts by tech entrepreneurs to turn farming into a technologically sophisticated and rather industrial model - and how badly that seems to have worked out for them, their investors, and their workers.
I am really quite saddened by that, because back in 2021, when I wrote about Plenty in Hopebuilding blog, the ideas had sounded really attractive. Especially when we were experiencing a pandemic which ended up reshaping our food system in quite powerful ways.
What really caught my attention was Gordon-Smith’s conclusion - that farming isn’t revolutionized by disrupting it from the top down. “You grow it - from the ground up.”
Which is what the people behind Growcer have been doing for a few years now - so they know what it takes to truly revolutionize farming. And to do it in some of the most difficult environments in Canada.
It was during a visit to Nunavut in 2015 that Corey Ellis and Alida Burke saw first hand how expensive food could be and how hard it could be to get fresh produce. They began to wonder if it might be possible to grow food locally, even in the most extreme environments. That exploration led them into hydroponics, and with help from Telfer and Enactus, they created Growcer as a social enterprise.
Growcer’s closed-loop hydroponic farms in shipping containers make it possible to grow fresh produce anywhere. And in a country where the growing season lasts barely more than six months, this isn’t just a solution for isolated northern communities.
“We need to move forward in a positive way, to build resiliency into what we’re doing in all parts of the economy,” said Ellis. “In that complexity and challenge, there’s massive opportunity for people who want to be part of building solutions. By no means are we perfect or have we figured it all out. But we are definitely making steady progress and it’s all about one foot in front of the other, marching toward that end goal.”
An example is the modular farm installed in Churchill, Manitoba, in 2017, after a spring storm washed out the northern community’s rail line, causing food prices to double overnight because all food had to be flown in. Churchill residents told CBC News that it left some stranded, unable to afford the $1,000-plus flight to Winnipeg.
Then the Churchill Northern Studies Centre, a field station dedicated to subarctic research and education with projects looking into food security and northern energy opportunities, tapped into the Churchill Region Economic Development Fund and partnered with The Growcer to bring a modular hydroponic farm on site. The farming module arrived on the last ship of the season, in the fall of 2017.
The 40-foot Growcer farm grows leafy greens including different varieties of lettuce, spinach, kale, Asian greens, collard greens, and herbs, which it supplies to two local grocery stores, the hospital cafeteria, and during polar bear tourism season, extra restaurants and businesses.
CNSC also started a direct-to-consumer subscription box, called “Launch Box,” to sell its produce to community residents. At $20 per week for a standard box with six types of produce or $10 per week for a mini box with three types of produce, the prices are still lower than the grocery store.
The farm recirculates water continuously and receives a top up of water every three weeks, so it is conservative in its water usage. For power, the farm is tied to the local electric grid.
The farm brands its produce as “Rocket Greens,” an ode to CNSC’s history of being located on the site of the former Churchill Rocket Research Range as well as the term used for arugula.
In the first few months, up to 340 vegetables were sold in Churchill every week – increasing to 450 vegetables during tourism season. In February 2018, Churchill still grew produce despite temperatures of -42 C or -58 C with the windchill. The price of leafy greens dropped from $7.25 - with government subsidies - to $3.99.
This ability to grow vegetables year round has become even more important as Canadians become ever more focused on ensuring we can feed ourselves as a country. It is something we did before, in a world war. Now, in the era of US tariffs, it is vital.
The shock of US tariffs hit Canada even as the high tech era of vertical farming in the US hit problems. But, as Gordon-Smith wrote, farming has always been about the people who grow the plants - and the high tech attempts increasingly disregarded their expertise.
But the high tech experiment has led to finally asking the right questions, he says.
What crops actually make sense to grow indoors?
How do we reduce energy consumption without greenwashing?
What business models go beyond grant money and venture capital?
What do the key drivers for vertical farming add up?
Should we build a greenhouse instead?
The next generation of vertical farms will succeed by doing the boring stuff well, he says. That means focusing on crops with real margins; integrating renewable energy; building local-first; putting farmers back at the decision-making table; and being transparent—with customers, investors, and employees.
“This is how vertical farming survives. Not by reinventing the watermelon. But by understanding what the market, the planet, and the people actually need.”
Apart from the work done by Growcer to help local communities grow their own vegetables via modular farms, Canada has some other examples of how we are working towards building Canadian food sovereignty. It is, in this transactional era, part of a ‘total defence” strategy.
“Trade-dependent countries worldwide are recognizing food security as a matter of national defence,” says the Conversation. “Some, like Sweden, are making plans to take stock of the capacity and resilience of their food systems, and actively working toward a system that can sustain the lives of their citizens in a crisis.”
In Montreal, Quebec, Lufa is showing what urban farming looks like in the 21st century - growing food where people live, growing what they want, and growing it more sustainably, saving water and energy. Lufa, which built the world’s first commercial rooftop farm in 2011 and now operates five of them, wants to spread the concept to cities around the world to revolutionize food production.
“We see ourselves as part of a new industry that will affect change for millions – maybe billions – of people, across all cities and countries,” says Mohamed Hage, who helped create Lufa Farms in 2009. “With each new urban farm, we hold ourselves to an ever-higher standard of sustainability and technical ingenuity growing dozens of vegetables, greens, and herbs hydroponically”.
Every week, it assembles customized baskets and delivers them to a network of pick-up points across Quebec, or straight to customers’ doors. Lufa also partners with hundreds of local farmers and food makers to provide their products through an online Marketplace, helping to develop the local economy.
That echoes the Lebanese village where he grew up. “Bread was always warm when you bought it. Meat came off the cow: you went to the butcher and he just would cut up the cut of meat that you needed. Sometimes there was no meat because he didn't cut a cow that day. I am lucky enough to know what food was like and what food tasted like and what we're trying to do here is recreate that experience: better food, local food from people you know.”
Sadly, though, that village is not like that any more. People are growing tomatoes, eggplants and cucumbers in massive farms, using a tremendous amount of pesticide, imported labour and selling their food to food terminals, but they're not making a living.
It was to help those cousins that Hage began researching agricultural technology in 2005, and was amazed to discover that some extraordinary technologies were making it easier to be a farmer, including experimental roof farms McGill University had been testing since 1974.
“These kinds of things made me realize that green-revolution technologies could bring down food prices and at the same time improve quality, health and food safety,” Hage said.
In fact, technology makes it possible for Lufa to grow a variety of vegetables as naturally as Hage’s grandmother used to do in Lebanon, but much more efficiently and cost effectively than on a traditional farm. Apps, laptops and iPads, along with hydroponic growing systems, mean they can grow many different kinds of crops in the greenhouse. Lufa can grow hundreds of varieties, many of them heirloom varieties, because the technology makes it possible to manage their growth individually.