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WATER issues “Iran has used 90% of their
groundwater. They have to do something about this,” he says.
São Paulo, Brazil proposed a scenario in 2015 where residents would go five days without water and two days with, Kendrick adds. “It’s very easy for us to
forget about it as we shop for fruits and vegetables in Safeway and turn our taps on,” he says. Situations like these may not be the reality in BC, but Kendrick says they could be. BW Global is working to address the potential through various offerings: vertical growing, aquaponics, automation, atmospheric water collection, plant telematics/sensoring, peat and pathogen control/sanitizing and alternative energy sources. “We want to be 100%
energy independent and water independent,” says Kendrick.
The company aims to bring
greenhouses and other growing systems to any climate, no matter how hot or cold, and to make them work
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without additional water or energy inputs. They approach each client’s needs creatively to identify real-world solutions that allow for conservation while growing healthy food. Costel Serbea, director of operations with BW Global, notes that the company has been in business for 37 years. The last seven have seen a significant investment in technology. This means using robotics for efficiency, both in time and expenses, along with a wide variety of partners that make new developments possible. “We’ve partnered with all
kinds of awesome companies around the world to bring technology … to the greenhouse world,” Serbea says. “Through technology, we are able to meet the needs of clients no matter where they are.” Technology allowed BW Global to update the style of the greenhouse structure to permit fabrication. What once took seven hours now takes 17 minutes. Plus, the snow- proof, hail-proof nature of these structures along with
COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • JULY 2017
Timothy Kendrick explains the history of BW Global and how world-wide situations are driving the company’s focus. RONDA PAYNE PHOTO
light-diffusing material ensures a stable, controlled environment and increases the light available to a plant. This aids with reducing hot spots in high temperatures and encourages an accelerated growth rate as plant material of any height or angle receives light.
Thoughts for the future EVAPOTRANSPIRATION (ET) CALCULATOR
A crop's water requirement is directly related to ET and the crop's stage of development. A crop coefficient is applied to the ET value to determine the water requirement. Irrigation is scheduled using the adjusted ET values.
To bring the entire tour together, Gary Fehr, director of the Agriculture Centre of Excellence at the University of the Fraser Valley, spoke about the future of agriculture as he sees it. “I know how hard it can be
sometimes to keep making changes in a constantly changing environment,” he says.
Those changes are coming on account of population increases, urbanization pressures, soil erosion, water shortages and climate change.
“Being here in BC, we’ve got a lot of advantages to be sure we are at the start of that wave,” he notes. “I’m confident that farmers will adapt. We need to increase food [production] with fewer resources, and past approaches will not work.” In his talk, Fehr outlines
DENSITY WHERE IT COUNTS
seven trends that can make a difference: 1. Agri-technology in greenhouses. He says a seven-metre tall greenhouse unit at UFV’s Centre of Excellence in Chilliwack that BW Global built is a step forward. 2. Unmanned aerial vehicles and GIS. The ability to observe cattle and crops remotely from above saves time.
3. LEDs. “We will see increased growth by using these lights,” he says. “We can grow food year-round.”
4. Bio-pods. Growing more food on the same amount of land is essential. 5. Ecoation Crop Sense. The North Vancouver start-up’s wireless monitoring system for plants eliminates the need to “walk the field” and enables early predications of pests, stress and disease easier.
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6. Urban micro systems. Like the Garden Project, people will find ways to make unproductive spaces productive. It’s bringing food to the people and using land you couldn’t normally use for agriculture,” Fehr says. 7. GMOs. Developing more productive varieties using conventional breeding takes years. “But with GMOs, it could be instant,” he notes. Fehr states that food
systems are vulnerable because we have to produce more food for more people in a changing world. Agricultural capacity in the Fraser Valley is only sufficient to meet the annual food requirements of 150,000 people. Something needs to change. “There’s a lot of things technology can do that don’t cross any ethical lines,. says Fehr.
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