Production Lareault, based on just over 450 acres at Lavaltrie, Que. — about 40 km northeast of Montreal, in the province’s Lanaudiere region — has been acquired by investors Antoine Casimir and Andrea Borodenko for an undisclosed sum.

The Lareault business produces multiple varieties of early-, mid- and late-season strawberry plants for commercial-scale, greenhouse and U-pick growers and garden centres as well as for backyard and balcony use.

The company also sells various varieties of raspberry, high- and lowbush blueberry, blackberry, cherry, haskap and other berry plants as well as asparagus and rhubarb, among others.

Owner/operators Luc and Lyne Lareault plan to retire from the business that’s been in family hands since 1953.

Casimir and Borodenko are the husband-and-wife operators of Greenlore, a Montreal venture capital and private equity firm with a focus on businesses in the agriculture, food and e-commerce sectors that are seeking partnerships for their growth or succession-planning phases.

Casimir was also previously a principal in Quebec private equity firm Novacap, with a focus on companies seeking either growth or exit strategies, while Borodenko previously worked for Montreal digital marketing firm Mediative.

The acquisition was backed with loans from Quebec pension fund Fonds de solidarite FTQ, financial co-operative Desjardins Group and Farm Credit Canada (FCC).

“The support of our financial partners was crucial to the deal’s success and to keeping the head office in Quebec,” Casimir and Borodenko said jointly in Thursday’s release.

“We are also delighted that all the employees will remain and that we can count on the support of Luc and Lyne Lareault to facilitate the transition,” they said. “Lareault is an excellent platform for our future projects, which will leverage the company’s enviable reputation for quality and innovation.”

Business transfers are a “major challenge” for small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Fonds de solidarite FTQ CEO Janie C. Beique said in the same release, adding that “solutions exist for entrepreneurs who want to ensure the future of the company they’ve built and for buyers who want to contribute to our local economy.”

Desjardins vice-president Jean-Yves Bourgeois, in the same release, described the deal as
“excellent news for the agri-food sector,” adding that “a good plan, developed well in advance, helps owners anticipate how they will transfer the business to the next generation. But beyond purely financial matters, buyers and sellers need to be guided on a human level during this critical period.”

Luc Lareault, who will remain with the company through the transition, described the new owners as “dynamic Quebecers who know the market very well” and have “several meaningful projects in mind for the future.”

— Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Bill C-234, which passed the House of Commons in late March, remained on the Senate’s order paper for debate Wednesday afternoon, after adjournment Tuesday night without a vote on third reading of the bill — nor a vote on a proposed amendment from the Independent Senators Group (ISG).

The new amendment, put forward Nov. 9 by Ontario Senator Lucie Moncion — an ISG member appointed to the Senate in 2016 by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — would amend the bill’s proposed sunset clause so that after eight years, approval for an extension would require Parliament to pass a new bill.

Marc Gold, a non-affiliated senator who serves as the Liberal government’s representative in the Senate, was among those speaking Tuesday in favour of Moncion’s amendment.

Gold said that without Moncion’s proposed change, a review and extension of the bill’s proposed farm fuel exemptions beyond eight years “could proceed with a simple resolution passed in both chambers or by a decision of the executive branch, with no role for parliamentary scrutiny and oversight or committee examination and study.”

Senator Don Plett, leader of the opposition, called Moncion’s proposed amendment “frivolous” and said C-234, as was passed in the Commons, would already allow for a further extension to be initiated — and the length of that extension determined — only by the government, via an order-in-council.

A further extension also wouldn’t be granted unless approved by both the Commons and Senate, he added.

As written, C-234’s language for extending the time frame of its sunset clause “is not unique to this bill,” he said, citing a similar sunset clause for rail interswitching provisions in Bill C-30, the Fair Rail for Grain Farmers Act.

Rather, Plett said, by forcing a Senate-amended C-234 back to the Commons, “the only utility of this amendment is to carry the (Liberal) government’s water and defeat the bill.”

‘Intimidation’

Debate on C-234 was to continue Tuesday evening but Quebec Senator Raymonde Saint-Germain, also an ISG member and Trudeau appointee, rose at that time on a question of privilege, citing an incident on Nov. 9 which she said infringed on senators’ privilege “to conduct our business free from obstruction and intimidation.”

At the Nov. 9 session, she said, ISG Senator Bernadette Clement’s motion to adjourn debate on the proposed amendment was met with some Conservative senators “demonstrat(ing) physical and verbal intimidation directed at members of my group and myself.

“After violently throwing his earpiece, (Plett) stood before Senator Clement and me as we sat at our desks, yelling and berating us for proposing this routine motion that would see debate resume the following week, when we returned,” Saint-Germain said, adding that another Conservative senator, Michael MacDonald, shouted the word “fascists” at ISG senators.

Later, Saint-Germain said, “at least two” Conservative senators retweeted a post on social media platform X “that not only spread misinformation about the proceedings but encouraged members of the public to call and harass” Clement and Senator Chantal Petitclerc, adding that it “elicited high volumes of threatening phone calls and emails to these independent senators.”

Clement, speaking Tuesday evening to Saint-Germain’s question of privilege, said “Canadians deserve to know that adjournment doesn’t mean a bill is being nixed, but that nuanced explanation wasn’t offered by people pointing the finger at me.”

Senate Speaker Raymonde Gagne noted some senators who had been mentioned in Saint-Germain’s question of privilege weren’t present Tuesday evening, and said she would hear “brief additional arguments” on the matter on Thursday.

However, Conservative Senator David Wells then put forward a separate question of privilege stemming from the same Nov. 9 sitting, saying Moncion had “walked over from her seat and accused me of bullying” after the session was suspended.

Such an action, he said, “creates an atmosphere that may hinder any senator from even contemplating engaging in free debate, lest they be accused of bullying.”

Moncion replied that she was not threatening in her approach but wanted to call attention to a separate tweet from Wells alleging that Gagne, as speaker, “in concert with the ISG leadership has shut down debate” on C-234.

“Receiving a point of privilege was disappointing, but I understand where you’re coming from,” she said. “You want an apology from me, I apologize, Senator Wells, and I apologize in front of this whole chamber.”

Asked by Gagne if he wished to pursue the matter further, Wells replied that “given the debate and the open discussion we’ve had as well as my professional and personal regard for Senator Moncion, I consider this issue closed.”

Debate on Moncion’s amendment resumed briefly before the Senate adjourned for the day at 11 p.m. to resume at 2 p.m. ET Wednesday. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The facility that will house the “vertical farm” now under construction in southeast Calgary isn’t getting bigger but the growing space inside is jumping to 100,000 square feet from 74,000 previously.

“We found, through further engineering, ways of further squeezing more grow capacity under the same footprint,” said Barrie Murchie, CEO of GoodLeaf Farms.

The operation will now be able to produce nearly two million pounds of veggies per year, which is double the original estimate.

“We have the technology and are expanding the capacity to grow the food Canadians need right here in Canada, no matter the season and no matter the weather,” said Murchie, pointing to California, where flooding is affecting production.

“Continued investment and support for agricultural innovation and technology can help Canada avoid future food shortages like the one it is currently experiencing with lettuce and leafy greens.”

The project is expected to create 50 to 70 jobs, some of which have already been filled, he said.

“(We’re looking for) skilled positions in farm management, horticulture, farm engineering, millwrights, people that work the automation going on within the farm, as well as a full complement of hourly staff on the operations portion of the business.”

The farm’s location in an industrial park on 108 Avenue SE is intended to place it as close to food distribution centres in Calgary as possible, said Murchie. It plans to start test-growing in early June.

“We anticipate we will have commercial product come available in early August.”

Thanks to heavy backing from McCain Foods, GoodLeaf is building another vertical farm in Montreal, similar in size to the Calgary facility and double the size of the company’s existing flagship facility in Guelph, Ont. McCain Foods is backing the GoodLeaf projects through a $65 million investment in TruLeaf, GoodLeaf’s parent company.

The Montreal plant will also be able to produce 1.9 million pounds of microgreens (vegetables and herbs harvested at the seedling stage) and baby greens.

Taken down to its raw essentials, a vertical farming operation is akin to a very large greenhouse but without the dependence on sunlight, outside temperatures and seasons that affect greenhouses and open-field farming.

“You can grow without use of any pesticides, herbicides or fungicides,” said Murchie. “Open-field farmers are trying to solve two of Mother Nature’s biggest challenges (with their varieties): drought resistance and pest resistance. Neither of those factors are relevant in a vertical farming environment.”

In fact, these crops can be grown minus virtually any of the limitations imposed by nature, he said.

“We’re able to select the inputs, the germination time, the temperature, the humidity, CO2 levels, the optimal light recipe, the optimal irrigation cycle and nutrient load — all of those are optimized without Mother Nature’s variability impacting the crops whatsoever.”

GoodLeaf’s biggest goal is to create a domestic supply of these vegetables to reduce the risk of importing them from the few regions in North America that produce them.

“In Canada, 80 to 90 per cent of our leafy greens are imported from the U.S., primarily California and Arizona,” he said.

Although it’s hard to tell what time and technology may bring, Murchie does not foresee vertically integrated farming as an eventual replacement for open-crop agriculture.

One of the biggest criticisms of indoor farming is its limitation to crops that can be grown without sunshine, such as leafy greens. Big players are working on knocking down those barriers, however.

Unfold, a California startup funded in part by Bayer, is focused on designing seeds for indoor lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, spinach and cucumbers.

However, that kind of forward thinking isn’t on GoodLeaf’s agenda, said Murchie.

“This isn’t about having an alternative where corn or soybeans or some of the other mega-crops are going to find a substitute within vertical farming,” he said.

The post Indoor ‘mega-farm’ in Calgary getting even bigger appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Bill C-234, a private member’s bill sponsored by Ben Lobb, the Conservative MP for the southern Ontario riding of Huron-Bruce, passed third reading for adoption in the House of Commons on Wednesday by a vote of 176-146.

The bill, introduced in February last year, amends the federal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act to extend the carbon price exemption for farmers’ eligible fuel purchases to also include purchases of marketable natural gas and propane.

The bill also expands the allowed uses of exempted fuels, to include grain drying systems as well as heating or cooling of farm structures directly involved in livestock or crop production, such as barns or greenhouses.

C-234 also includes a sunset clause which will see the exemption brought back in eight years for review, allowing whatever government is in place at that time to let it lapse — or to amend or extend it, if new technologies available at that time don’t yet warrant ending the exemption.

Private members’ bills — legislative and policy proposals brought forward by individual MPs rather than the governing party — rarely pass in the Commons but are more likely to gain traction in a minority government. A previous version of C-234, Bill C-206, died on the order paper before the 2021 federal election.

C-234 also drew support from several farmer and commodity groups, including 15 national organizations speaking under the banner of the Agriculture Carbon Alliance (ACA), a policy group set up in 2021 “to ensure that Canadian farmers’ sustainable practices are recognized.”

The ACA, on Twitter Wednesday, called the bill’s passage in the Commons “a huge step towards realizing the full potential of #CdnAg.”

Keith Currie, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture — an ACA member group — thanked Lobb and supporting MPs on Wednesday on Twitter, adding “Now let’s get it through the (Senate).”

Canadian Canola Growers Association vice-president and ACA chair Dave Carey on Wednesday also credited Lobb’s fellow Conservative MP John Barlow, Liberal MP and Commons standing ag committee chair Kody Blois, NDP ag critic Alistair MacGregor and Bloc Quebecois ag critic Yves Perron for “outstanding leadership” on the file.

In a separate release Tuesday, Andre Harpe, chair of ACA member Grain Growers of Canada, said that “by extending the exemption for qualifying farming fuels to natural gas and propane, this amendment will unlock innovation and drive sustainable growth in the sector.”

“Farmers incur a carbon price when using natural gas and propane for necessary farming practices such as grain drying, land irrigation, and heating or cooling their barns,” GGC said in Tuesday’s release. “As there are no viable alternatives, pricing these activities does not provide a signal to lower emissions from these sources.”

C-234, GGC said, “will allow farmers to invest in practices that drive innovation and new efficiencies that reduce fuel usage by putting money back in their hands.”

MORE READING: Finding ways to maximize grain drying efficiency

The eight-year sunset clause was added at the standing ag committee last November. That clause, Barlow said at the time, is a reflection of Canadian farmers’ confidence that new and sustainable technologies will come forward to replace the gas- and propane-fired options they now use to dry grain and heat barns.

Separately on Wednesday, the federal government announced $22.2 million has been allocated to another 45 projects under its Agricultural Clean Technology (ACT) Program – Adoption Stream, related to “adopting more efficient grain drying technology.”

That brings the adoption stream’s allocations so far to over $37.1 million across 99 grain dryer projects across Canada, the government said in a release.

The adoption stream of the $495.7 million ACT is budgeted for $60 million in all, including $50 million for purchase and installation of more efficient grain dryers and $10 million for “fuel switching initiatives.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Carbon price exemption for farm gas clears Commons appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The veggies that are widely grown in the province’s greenhouses are tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and lettuce.

I have been in vegetable fields and greenhouses throughout Canada and abroad, and the abundance is amazing and so is the technology. Traceability, quality control, disease control and production are world class. But greenhouses are expensive to run and one wonders how Quebec achieved this milestone.

In 2020, the province’s agriculture ministry committed to enlarge total greenhouse production space to 250 hectares (617 acres) by 2025. At the time the greenhouse farmers of Quebec were supplying 30 per cent of the domestic need.

An increase to the needed acreage in five short years would take more than just a goal. And it would need to include other branches of government to ensure the production units were viable.

To ensure that the targets could be met, the provincial energy ministry committed to an expansion of rural electrical networks and the government kicked in support of up to 40 per cent on eligible hydro expenses.

That spurred action and today 25 per cent of greenhouse farms are planning to expand. The target will not be met by 2025. It will be exceeded.

More with Brenda Schoepp: We need to get past the perception that ag is ‘just farming’

This demonstrates the importance of cross ministry collaboration and the power of enabling policy that allows for farming to function at the speed of commerce. There has to be a structure and a landscape that is intentional, measurable and attainable to attract the needed infrastructure and investment.

By comparison, the greenhouse industry in Alberta covers an area of 167 acres. According to the last published greenhouse report, the industry feels threatened from rising energy costs. Only 40 per cent of the greenhouses in the province operate year-round and there is little food processing activity compared to Quebec and B.C.

Early regulatory and infrastructure policy led to an adoption of greenhouse production as an integral part of farming in these provinces. These lighter regulations may seem simple but collectively there has been a huge impact.

The small things become the synergy behind further expansion. It starts with measures such as the recognition of on-farm sales, the designation of artisan products, labelling and promotion of domestic products and the encouragement of diversity in the types of crops grown as well as support for both domestic and export infrastructure.

The fact that nearly all food processing in Canada resides in Eastern Canada and B.C. speaks volumes for the collective of small enabling policies that created both an environment for creativity and for the value adding industry.

There are just over 6,000 food processors in the nation, of which 2,995 are in B.C. and 2,400 are in Quebec.

The world leader in this enabling policy framework is the Netherlands, where 90 per cent of the vegetables are produced in greenhouses or glass houses, as they’re often called.

I recall my visit to what appeared to be a small greenhouse growing micro herbs in 2012 in the town of Monster. The sales at that time were 40 million euros for the tiny plants produced without soil and under the glare of LED lighting. As the owner said, “you do not seed soil or sun to grow food.”

It was inspiring for sure but more important was the internal and well supported drive that secured the Netherlands as the world’s second-largest food exporter and the third most food secure.

In the Netherlands an astounding 29,000 acres are under greenhouse production that supply 90 per cent of the veggies in a country of 17.5 million people. Its infrastructure is the envy of the world.

This took old-fashioned drive and a heavy dose of consistent political will. The overall commitment of the Netherlands to invest in agriculture in conjunction with all the supporting ministries is what differentiates it. No wonder farmers worry when the agricultural policy is threatened.

There are two main focuses in Dutch food policy: Knowledge (which includes a wide lens on research) and value-adding. Like Canada, there are just over 6,000 food processors in the nation.

The questions of food security and food sovereignty can only be addressed with a complete commitment to the well-being of the farmer through enabling policy. When the foundation includes all the pillars of food production and involvement of their stakeholders, then — and only then — will there be a consistent supply of affordable domestic food.

Can we do it in Canada?

We already are regionally, as is evident in the recent announcement from the Quebec greenhouse industry. The models do exist at home and around the world, but it is up to governments to decide if the ministries will work together toward enabling food production policy and societal well-being.

The post Schoepp: With political will and good policy, you can accomplish a lot appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

C-234, a private member’s bill sponsored by southwestern Ontario Conservative MP Ben Lobb, appeared before the Commons’ standing committee on agriculture and agri-food on Monday and was reported back to the Commons.

According to Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO), the bill — which had its first reading Feb. 7 and second reading May 18 — is now expected to come up for third reading during the House’s winter session before moving on to the Senate.

C-234 carries amendments to the federal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act which expand that legislation’s definition of eligible farming machinery to include grain dryers as well as barn heating and cooling systems, and which extend the exemption for farming fuels to include farmers’ purchases of natural gas and propane.

“This exemption is needed to reflect the realities of the entire Canadian agriculture industry and the undue financial burden the carbon tax places on all the necessary practices undertaken by farmers and ranchers like drying grain, irrigating crops, or heating and cooling livestock barns,” Conservative MP and opposition ag critic John Barlow said in a release Wednesday.

The standing ag committee on Monday did pass several amendments to Lobb’s bill, tightening its scope.

Those include a sunset clause — which Barlow said is a reflection of Canadian farmers’ confidence that new and sustainable technologies will come forward to replace the gas- and propane-fired options they now use to dry grain and heat barns.

That sunset clause will see the exemption brought back in a set period of time for review, allowing whatever government is in place at that time to let it lapse — or to amend or extend it if the available technologies don’t yet warrant ending the exemption.

Barlow’s original amendment called for a 10-year sunset clause, but committee members later voted to shorten that period to the bill’s eight-year anniversary — citing testimony the committee heard suggesting such technology would be available sooner rather than later.

Another approved amendment will limit the exemption’s use in farm buildings, to only include those structures directly involved in crop or livestock production, such as barns or greenhouses.

‘Critical issue’

Grain and livestock producer groups have since lined up to cheer the bill’s return to the Commons, urge MPs of all parties to approve its passage and call for Canada’s Senate to do the same.

“It is clear that (ag committee) MPs understand the lack of current alternatives for grain drying and the need to provide an exemption until viable technological solutions are developed,” GFO chair Brendan Byrne said Tuesday in a separate release.

With “no viable fuel alternatives” available for the practices covered in C-234, imposing carbon pricing on those activities “does not provide a signal to lower emissions from these sources,” Grain Growers of Canada said Wednesday in another release.

Instead, GGC said, C-234 “will put money back into the hands of farmers so that they can continue to invest in practices that drive innovation, further efficiencies and reduce fuel usage.”

“With rising input costs, inflation and supply chain shortages, carbon surcharges on necessary farm activities adds an additional burden and pulls capital away from critical investments,” GGC chair Andre Harpe said in the same release.

The Agricultural Carbon Alliance, a body representing the GGC and 14 other national-level grain, livestock and general farm groups, said Wednesday that with the bill approaching third reading, it now plans to launch a public advocacy campaign “that will call for a bipartisan consensus on this critical issue.”

Fram group representatives appearing before the ag committee echoed many of the same concerns. “We understand that the carbon price is a market signal for producers to adopt low-emission energy alternatives wherever possible, but over the past year that signal has been dwarfed by skyrocketing costs for inputs such as fertilizer, gasoline and diesel,” Canadian Federation of Agriculture vice-president Todd Lewis said at the committee’s Oct. 24 meeting.

“Even when fuel prices aren’t at record highs, farmers constantly seek to increase fuel efficiency wherever possible.”

However, another speaker, University of Saskatchewan associate professor Tristan Skolrud, cautioned the committee at the same meeting that C-234 runs the risk of further drawing out the timeline for development of viable alternatives.

With “limited changes in producer behaviour, there will be limited reductions in (greenhouse gas) emissions from grain drying before greener alternatives become available,” he said.

“The development of greener alternatives will require significant private capital, and if grain drying is unregulated, the signal to private capital will be lost. Previous testimony on this amendment suggests that sufficient alternatives are at least 10 years away.

“Keep in mind that this estimate is a function of the carbon price. A higher price will shorten that time frame if private capital senses a profitable opportunity.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post New farm fuel carbon tax rule to return to Commons appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Aurora Cannabis on Aug. 25 announced a subsidiary is buying a 50.1 per cent stake in Bevo Agtech, the parent of vegetable and ornamental plant producer Bevo Farms — which in turn is buying Aurora Cannabis’ Aurora Sky grow facility at Edmonton, to convert to “non-cannabis” use.

Publicly-traded, Edmonton-based Aurora said it had paid about $45 million cash to Bevo’s selling shareholders on closing of the deal, with up to another $12 million in Aurora stock to follow over the next three years depending on “certain financial milestones” being reached at Bevo’s Site One facility at Langley, B.C.

On the other side of the deal, Bevo is to pay up to $25 million to Aurora over time for the Aurora Sky facility — in Leduc County, near Edmonton International Airport — based on “certain financial milestones” being reached at that site.

Bevo is billed as one of the biggest suppliers of propagated vegetables — mainly tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and eggplants — and ornamental plants in North America.

The company today grows greenhouse seedlings, field crop seedlings and floral plants on 63 acres of greenhouse space at Langley, Aldergrove and Pitt Meadows in B.C.’s Fraser Valley.

Bevo’s management team will remain “significant” shareholders in that company and will embark on a “robust” growth plan, including the use of Aurora Sky to grow orchids and propagate vegetables.

Aurora Cannabis, which has shuttered multiple production sites in several provinces in the recent years, had announced in May it would close the Aurora Sky site by its third quarter in 2023.

At that time, Aurora Sky — purpose-built in 2018 as the largest cannabis production facility in the world — was operating at just 25 per cent of capacity, the company said.

Aurora CEO Miguel Martin, in the company’s Aug. 25 announcement, said the deal with Bevo to repurpose Aurora Sky will save “significant costs previously expected in connection with the wind-down and sale of the facility.”

Aurora, he said, expects its investment in — and collaboration with — Bevo to “drive significant shareholder value and synergies for both parties.”

Bevo CEO Leo Benne, in the same release, said expanding into Alberta “allows us to significantly expand Bevo’s addressable market,” by boosting its production capability, extending its shipping range and accessing “new regional greenhouse demand” in both Canada and the U.S.

Also, he said, Bevo is “incredibly happy that the Aurora team is committed to keeping all of our facilities dedicated to our customer base, and to expanding our operations into Alberta through the addition of the Aurora Sky facility.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Aurora buys control of major B.C. hothouse veg firm appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

As the president of Sunterra Group, which has an eight-store grocery chain (six locations in Calgary, one in Red Deer and one in Edmonton), Price is constantly seeking new ways to offer high-quality products to consumers. His latest venture is a 20-acre greenhouse immediately north of the town of Acme and a stone’s throw from his family farm. 

Construction of the $42-million facility began in early 2021 and the first crop was planted late the same year, despite supply chain disruptions. With 2.5 acres of strawberries and another 17.5 acres of tomatoes — beefsteak, on the vine and grape — the facility has already produced its first crops of fruit for eager consumers. 

The greenhouse produces 35,000 pounds of strawberries and more than one million pounds of tomatoes every month, virtually year round. (They take a two-month break annually to clean out the greenhouse.) 

The first abridged growing year provided a lot of learning for everyone involved and Price said he was pleased the greenhouse stood up well even under the brutal cold snap of late December 2021 when temperatures held steady at -30 C or colder for a week. 

“Some of the hot water pipes we had in place weren’t flowing at the right rate, I don’t know if we would have noticed that with the -30 C,” he said. “We burned a lot of natural gas to heat it. It was a good test for us to understand operations; it worked well and we got some bugs out of it at that time.”

• [READ MORE] Modern technology makes greenhouse greener

The greenhouse is unique in that every row of strawberries is on a hoist gutter system. Lowered to about 1.5 metres during picking, they are usually sitting eight metres off the ground. Every other row, or gutter, is picked, and then the gutters are switched, which allows the greenhouse to have 10 gutters instead of the more traditional seven, in each of its bays. 

This equates to a 30 per cent increase in production and is only the third facility of its kind in North America, said Amanda Hehr, president of Sunterra Greenhouse. 

“It’s going to be a two-to three-year payback, but it really makes sense if you look at the usable life of the greenhouse,” she said, adding yields are 100 kilograms per square metre of plants. 

All strawberries and tomatoes are grown under LED or high-pressure sodium lights. The light spectrum delivered by the energy-efficient LED lights allows them to extend the growing season in March and April as well as September and October. 

The strawberries, sold at Sunterra stores and some Alberta farmers’ markets, are harvested and within 24 hours they are sitting on store shelves ready for purchase. Only about 10 per cent of the million-plus pounds of the monthly tomato harvest (which are also on Sunterra shelves within 24 hours of being picked) each month go to the company’s stores, the remainder are sold to a third- party distributor. 

The greenhouse motto is ‘Growing the ripe way’ — and the northern European variety of strawberry it grows is bred primarily for taste. It’s considered a ‘flavour forward’ variety and has a shorter shelf life than fruit grown in California or Mexico. It’s considerably sweeter as a result. 

A sophisticated controlled-climate software called Priva alerts greenhouse staff when a weather shift is coming and they can adjust venting, temperature and humidity as needed to compensate for the outside ambient air conditions. Throughout the growing season, which runs from October to July, strawberries are maintained between 18 C to19 C ,and tomatoes in a range of 22 C to 24 C. A centre corridor divides the two unique climates and it’s also where workers grade and pack the fruit. 

The greenhouse itself is the first of multiple phases that Price plans to introduce over the next three to four years, which includes a master build of 70 acres of production under glass. The project itself had an average of 80 tradespeople during construction and the greenhouse created 60 permanent full-time jobs. With the future expansion plans, Price estimates another 100 full-time jobs will be created once it’s fully built out. 

The site itself is across a street from the town, which allows workers to drive, bike or even walk to work, essentially an unheard-of prospect in a rural setting. The spinoff benefits of keeping jobs in the community is being felt, as well. Earlier this year, the Alberta government announced a $13.7-million injection over three years for the Acme School’s modernization, something Price thinks would not have happened without families being in the area. 

“With the school and jobs we are creating, there’s momentum that Acme is going to grow and that’s a good thing,” said Price. 

With a better estimate of production and when they can expert mature crops, focused plans will be put into place to sell directly to Alberta retailers. 

Even though the first year was not without expected hiccups, Price said he is glad they are forging ahead with another diversified offering within the family’s agri-food holdings company, which also includes a feedlot, a cured meats division, and a hog farm which directly ships chilled pork to Japan for the tabletop market. 

“Nobody wants to step up and be the first in a lot of ways, everybody else just watches what everybody else does,” he said. “Next season it’s about developing relationships and learnings to implement, and the next thing is a seamless second growing season and making sure the production is getting out there.”

Sunterra Greenhouse by the numbers

• 20: The number of acres (2.5 acres of strawberries and 17.5 acres of tomatoes) 
• 70: Total greenhouse size in acres once fully built within three to four years 
• 130,000: Pounds of strawberries per month 
• 1,000,000-plus: Pounds of tomatoes per month 
• 60: Full-time employees (42 local residents and 18 temporary foreign workers) 
• 100: The number of estimated additional full-time jobs once the greenhouse is fully built out 
• 44: The number of weeks in their winter growing season that runs from October to July each year 
• 8: Metres off the ground the plants rest at 
• 9,740: The total number of lights in the greenhouse (5,400 LED, 4,340 high-pressure sodium) 
• 30: The percentage of increased strawberry yield due to the greenhouse’s unique hoist system 
• Low 20s: Humidity range for strawberries 
• 65-85: Humidity range for tomatoes 

The post Winter has been banished in Sunterra’s high-tech greenhouse  appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

“Current demand for fresh, locally grown produce far outstrips the available supply in a market reliant on Mexican and U.S. imports for most of the year,” the college said in a news release on a new initiative it is undertaking with Sunterra.

“This project aims to optimize the growing conditions for pre-commercial and commercial-scale production of strawberries and tomatoes on the vine, and boost Alberta’s crop output during times of limited supply and low import quality.”

Acme-headquartered Sunterra is adding a major greenhouse component to its extensive operations (which includes pork production and processing, cropping, a lineup of traditional Italian cured meats and a grocery chain).

“It’s a good news story — we believe that for Alberta, agriculture is the future and in a lot of ways will be an economic growth driver,” said Ray Price, president of the Sunterra Group, which owns Sonterra Markets, which has eight retail locations across the province.

“We have land, we have energy, we have people, and we have water, and we should be using those to feed not only Albertans but people around the world.”

The effort is getting a $783,000 grant from Results Driven Agriculture Research (the provincially funded body allocating research dollars).

The greenhouse vegetable sector in Alberta has been on a tear in recent years with sales more than doubling to nearly $120 million in 2020 compared to 2016, the college release states.

The project will focus on both establishing best practices for water and nutrient management (and energy efficiency) and also on technological innovations in greenhouses that “will increase their environmental efficiency while making their operations more productive and competitive.”

College associate vice-president Kenny Corscadden said it will be a long-term research collaboration.

“There is excellent market potential in our province for both strawberries and tomatoes and these pre-commercial trials in our Brooks research and production greenhouse with Sunterra will contribute to this growing sector,” he said.

The college’s greenhouse research facility at Brooks is 60,000 square feet but it will be dwarfed by a new facility Sonterra is building at Acme, the hometown of the Price family.

An initial 20-acre phase is scheduled to open this month and “will be built to accommodate 70 acres of growing — making it one of the largest food production areas under glass in Alberta,” the college news release states.

It also says there is currently about 200 acres “under glass” in the province but that could grow “to 1,000 acres within five years, creating 3,000 new jobs and generating $1 billion in revenue.”

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But a partnership between Doef’s Greenhouses in Lacombe County and an Alberta energy company has changed that equation.

“Generally oil and gas went about their thing, and agriculture went about their thing,” said Brad Murray, president of Horseshoe Power, which has natural gas operations in central Alberta.

“We saw this opportunity. If we work together, if we co-locate our facilities, we can create efficiencies and physically create savings. We can reduce the amount of energy needed. We don’t have to transport it as far, and it’s there when it is needed.”

Murray began making inquiries about four years ago, and eventually Horseshoe Power partnered with the Doef family, which has been in the greenhouse business for 50 years and grows eggplants, short and long cucumbers, and peppers.

After agreeing to partner, Horseshoe Power brought natural gas into Doef’s Greenhouses and set up a tri-generation system. A generator running on natural gas produces electricity, heat and carbon dioxide, all of which are used in the greenhouses.

“The advantage of using the well system to power the greenhouses is lower energy costs,” said Eric Doef, one of Doef’s Greenhouses managing partners. “We’re using local gas and we’re avoiding distribution and transmission charges from the gas grid and the electricity grid. We’re making our own electricity and we’re getting waste heat from the engines, because the engine exhaust is 400 C or 500 C. We cool it down and bring that waste heat into the greenhouse.”

The system doesn’t require burning gigajoules of gas anymore, or the use of a traditional boiler system. And emissions are much lower.

“We’re using the natural gas that is right there under the ground,” said Murray. “We’re using the natural gas system in Alberta to do something good in Alberta, rather than just exporting the raw commodity.

“There’s physical savings in terms of energy efficiency and that translates to cost savings.”

Many greenhouses use natural gas, but they just burn it to make heat.

“Traditional greenhouses have a boiler, so you run the gas to the boiler, which heats the water which heats the greenhouse,” said Murray. “We shut off the boiler. Instead we capture the heat and the carbon dioxide off the generator.”

The CO2 is put back into the greenhouse to enhance photosynthesis and plant growth.

“We can grow 10 to 15 more kilograms (of crop) per square metre, depending on the crop type, versus an outdoor grower,” said Doef.

Doef’s Greenhouses’ products are sold at local farmers’ markets, and in Sobeys, Walmart and Loblaws stores throughout Western Canada. The operation is only the third co-generation facility in the province and the only greenhouse using this method.

“The other two projects are shipping electricity into the grid, but they aren’t connected to the greenhouse,” said Doef, adding they looked at both co-generation and tri-generation systems in Ontario and Europe.

“The nice thing about what we have with Horseshoe Power is that it owns and operates the energy centre. So we can focus on growing our crops, and not have to worry about oiling machines and breakdowns in the middle of the night.

“We are in a unique location because there are natural gas wells all around us. The gas is close by, and we have existing marketing channels. We’re not a rookie grower, so it made sense.”

As their heating and electricity costs have gone down, the Doefs have been able to expand their greenhouse space.

They garnered $2 million from Emissions Reduction Alberta’s Food, Farming and Forestry challenge and are embarking on $5.1-million worth of projects.

“My dad started this over 50 years ago,” said Doef. “We started super small and had numerous expansions over the years. Before last year, we had 11 acres of greenhouse, and last year, we added 13 more.

“And this year, we are adding another 13 more.”

With the system up and running, they’re also finding additional benefits

“We use waste heat from our power generator to heat the greenhouse,” said Murray. “When that heat isn’t needed — like on the hot days of summer — we’re going to use that heat to purify water.”

This involves adopting technologies that haven’t really been used in the natural gas sector.

“That came about when we started working together and we realized how much the greenhouse needs,” said Murray. “We have water, but it needs cleaning, and we have heat that we don’t need all year.

“By working together, we have more resources to solve things. That’s what’s really fun and exciting about this.”

Finding ways to capture carbon dioxide was the driver, he added.

“You could see carbon sequestration was becoming more important. There was a carbon tax on the horizon,” Murray said.

There is a lot of opportunity for other agricultural operations to partner with oil and gas in a lot of different areas, he added.

“Traditionally oil and gas companies would just drill wells and put in pipelines and try to sell them as commodities to North America. As more and more people start to think closer to home, and how we can use it here, to enhance businesses here in an integrated way, I think there’s a lot of opportunity.”

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