VERTICAL FARMING Growing up
THE PROMISE Agriculture nestled in cities or other nonarable locales off ering lower labour and energy costs, requiring 94% less water usage than conventional farm- ing and yields hundreds of times greater than traditional farms. How? By growing up, instead of growing out.
THE PURVEYOR Urban Barns Foods Inc. opened what it calls the world’s fi rst commercial Cubic Farm last June in Mirabel, Que., and expects to cultivate 475 heads of lettuce in an area where most farms would produce few- er than two. Its fl agship barn just outside of Montreal raises basil, lettuce and other assorted herbs and greens from seed on vertical conveyor belts that rotate through a controlled environment providing water, heat, carbon dioxide and a specialized LED light system to maximize size and quality. “Whether I’m growing it here or in Australia or Saudi Arabia, it’s the exact same plant,” says Mark Lefsrud, an associate professor of bioresource engineering at McGill Univer- sity and a collaborator with Urban Barns. “We don’t need to use any of the synthetic pesticides, herbicides, [or] chemicals that most fi eld-based operations and some greenhouses do.”
THE PROSPECTS In March, Urban Barns began to supply select Montreal-area Sobeys supermarkets with produce and by the end of this year hopes to expand to Quebec City, Ottawa, Toronto and select US markets.
STEVE BREARTON is a freelance writer based in Toronto
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thedirectorscollege.com JUNE/JULY 2015 | CPA MAGAZINE | 41
Courtesy of Urban Barns
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