“Big Marble Farms is a great example of what makes this region special,” said Justin Wright, MLA for Cypress-Medicine Hat, during a press conference at Big Marble Farms on Sept. 2. “This is the type of project that creates jobs, fosters growth and drives innovation.”

Big Marble Farms is a major player in the greenhouse industry. The farm is home to more than 496,000 cucumber plants, 385,000 tomato plants and 47,000 grow lights.

The operation is a family-run greenhouse that has grown fresh vegetables for Albertans all year round for more than three decades.

“You support jobs, feed our communities and keep our economy growing and strong. You’re a leader in sustainable farming the sweetest pepper varieties in Canada. And today we’re celebrating another big step forward,” said Rebecca Schulz, minister of environment and protected areas.

With the funding, Big Marble Farms is installing 5,000 new grow lights this fall. Since they will be able to grow more vegetables faster, and at a lower cost, more fresh local produce will be delivered to Alberta’s grocery shelves, said Schulz.

“It also means nearly $2 million in savings on energy bills, and a smaller environmental footprint, and fewer emissions. This is good news for our environment. It’s great news for our economy, and it’s good news for every single Albertan,” she said.

High energy costs are putting pressure on greenhouse operators, and when they struggle, our food supply does too, said Schulz.

By investing in technology, Albertans will have a stronger, more reliable food system, she said.

“We’re lowering costs, boosting production and keeping Alberta at the forefront of innovation,” she said. “The new lighting system will be up and running by November. That is fast.”

Luka Jungen, the director of energy efficient programming with the ERA, said it has had the pleasure of working with Big Marble Farms over the years, not just with the current grow light project, but with other projects through the Energy Saving Services Program.

“Improving the efficiency of Alberta’s industrial and manufacturing processes and facilities is the quickest, most cost-effective way to lower your energy bills, and stay competitive. Low hanging fruit, if you will,” he said.

Reducing emissions takes knowledge, expertise, training and capital, said Jungen.

“This $60 million program targets key industries in Alberta; agriculture, forestry, mining, utilities, construction, manufacturing, transportation and many more,” he said.

Eligible facilities can access up to $50,000 for energy audits, up to $250,000 to implement energy management information systems, up to $100,000 to participate in strategic energy management training, and up to $1 million to invest in energy efficient retrofit projects.

“At its core, this program is about setting up Alberta’s industrial and manufacturing facilities for long term energy management success, building stronger in-house expertise and dealing with ongoing cost of energy savings,” he said.

The program, known as Strategic Energy Management for Industry (SEMI), was launched 11 months ago, and has been a huge success, with over $13 million allocated in program funding.

“At this current pace and with this high demand, the program will likely be subscribed before the anticipated end date of March 2027,” he said.

The SEMI program is expected to deliver over $150 million in economic activity, and over 1,250 jobs, directly and indirectly.

There will be up to $100 million of energy expenditure reduction, and 24 million tonnes of lifetime emissions reductions from capital project implementation, he said.

“Big Marble Farms is one of 200 expected facilities participating in SEMI. This program is a real success story in the province,” he said.

Ryan Cramer, CEO of Big Marble Farms, thanked the ERA, SEMI and the government of Alberta for the grant.

“Your support means so much to us at Big Marble Farms, and it shows real commitment to innovation and sustainability in agriculture,” he said.

“Now, for those of you that might not know what it takes to grow year round here in southern Alberta, we start by adding light and extending our day as early as September, and then we slowly stretch the day until the cucumbers are getting 20 hours of light, and our tomato plants are getting 18 hours of light,” he said.

“I always find it interesting that even with all the lights on, the intensity can’t match what we’re seeing right now on this hazy, smoky September day, and this is why we make up for it with longer days. This funding is helping us to take a big step forward,” he said.

The new lights that will be installed are LED fixtures that put out twice the light of the current ones with the same electricity input.

Cramer said the total light levels will be boosted by 50 per cent.

“We’ve done a two-and-a-half-acre trial over the past year, and we’ve already proven that this leads up to a 15 per cent increase in production. That means more food with the same footprint. This will be a $5 million project overall, and we’re excited and proud to be investing $3 million of our own funds alongside this grant. That’s how much we believe in this technology and in its future for farming. If we applied this across all our lit acreage, it would be like expanding 70 acres to 80 acres of greenhouse production area without using up more land or building more greenhouses. This is a sustainability success story; more lighting, greater efficiency and more food for Western Canada,” he said.

The premier of Alberta was also in attendance.

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Inside the domes, researchers are growing pears in a controlled environment that simulates how climate change will affect the region in 2040. Their aim is to see what global warming has in store for Europe’s fruit growers.

“We expect more heatwaves and less even precipitation, so more droughts and floods as well. And overall, slightly higher temperatures,” Francois Rineau, associate professor at the University of Hasselt, said of the simulated climate inside the domes.

Early results from the scientists’ first harvest in 2023 suggest Belgian pears may be spared some of the worst impacts of climate change – which scientists expect to cut some crop yields and hike growers’ costs for irrigation to combat drought.

“The effect of climate change at the 2040 horizon on the quality of pears was very minor. However, we found a difference in how the ecosystem was functioning,” Rineau said, noting that an earlier growing season in the 2040 simulation appeared to result in the ecosystem absorbing more CO2.

Year-to-year variability means that one year alone cannot capture intermittent extreme weather and other changes in the climate which can wreak havoc on crops. The three-year experiment will cover three harvests.

This year’s harvest of 2040-era pears is being studied at the Flanders Centre of Postharvest Technology (VCBT), to check the fruits’ size, firmness and sugar content – and compare them to pears grown in domes simulating today’s climate.

“If we have a higher temperature on the trees, pears tend to be less firm and have more sugar,” VCBT researcher Dorien Vanhees said.

That’s bad news for growers. Less-firm fruit survives a shorter period in storage, reducing the quantity of pears growers can sell.

Floods, hail and drought have already affected European pear growers in recent years, as climate change begins to leave fingerprints on growing patterns.

Belgium’s pear production is expected to plunge by 27 per cent this year, according to the World Apple and Pear Association, owing to factors including an unusually early bloom and unusually late frost.

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The Netherlands is known for its greenhouses and its seed production. A tour on the third day of the World Seed Congress concentrated on both of those leadership positions for the country.

At the Syngenta Tomato Vision seed research facility near Amsterdam, the company screens around 800 potential varieties of tomatoes each year, of which two or three will end up as options for growers.

WATCH: Tackling the labour crunch with robotics

The company is helping to test a robotic tomato picker made by Pittsburg startup Four Growers. In a row of the research tomatoes, there could be 40 different varieties. Geoffrey Hipps, a technical sales representative for Syngenta, said they are finding that there are differences in the ability of the automated system to harvest some varieties of tomatoes.

Syngenta is known for its specialty tomato varieties, namely the small, sweet, snacking tomatoes growing in popularity. The labour to harvest small tomatoes individually is greater than for large tomatoes so the automated system is finding a place there.

The first commercial system for Four Growers has been installed in a greenhouse in Canada.

The biosecurity is incredibly high at the facility, which meant visitors could not take any cameras into the facility. No video of the vacuum-based robot could be taken.

Tomato brown rugose fruit virus is the largest disease concern for tomatoes and is taking up a significant amount of Syngenta breeders’ time as they work to breed resistance.

Cut lettuce a seed development priority

At the Rijk Zwaan seed research greenhouse, south of Rotterdam, the company has 500 varieties of lettuce for sale, and it continues to screen for new varieties all the time.

There is more lettuce being grown in greenhouses, especially in Europe. Spain, which supplies European supermarkets with lettuce in the winter, struggles with a changing climate, said Bauke van Lenteren, a marketing specialist with Rijk Zwaan.

Greenhouse vegetable production is mostly moving to hydroponic production and that’s what is tested at Rijk Zwaan’s large research facility.

The company is also responding to the increased demand for cut lettuce which consumers can pick up in stores and throw directly into a salad. The company has developed a conventional trait that helps lettuce grow more uniform leaves, which the lettuce processors like as it makes the final cut product more uniform.

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“These cutting-edge solutions will help the sector overcome some of the challenges it faces, leading to a more prosperous and competitive future for Canadian agriculture,” said federal Minister of Agriculture Lawrence MacAulay in an April 5 news release.

Five projects were funded up to $1 million each. These included projects to develop a robotic mushroom harvester, packer and harvest lift; another to develop a robotic arm to pick, harvest and de-leaf cucumbers and strawberries, a robotic arm to work alongside humans to harvest fruit and vegetables, and others related to task automation, the news release said.

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However, large-scale grain farmers could also use the technology if they think about it differently.

“Let’s say my brother and me are growing 1,500 acres of corn,” said Baresich, who owns Haggerty AgRobotics and also operates Haggerty Creek Crop Inputs and Marketing at Bothwell, Ont.

“(So) why are we growing that corn instead of tomatoes instead of a higher-value crop?”

The answer is labour.

He cannot find farm workers or afford to pay labourers to kill weeds and manage a high-value crop such as tomatoes.

As a result, Baresich and his brother grow corn because it’s manageable.

“The weed control options for the vegetable crops… (it’s) too much labour and work,” said Baresich, who spoke at the Agriculture Enlightened conference held Thursday in Winnipeg.

The host and organizer of the conference was EMILI, which is trying to help Canada become a leader in digital and precision agriculture.

“EMILI works with producers, industry and academia to advance the adoption of intelligent technologies and provide people with the skills and training required to succeed in a digital economy,” its website says.

READ MORE: Think outside the agriculture box for labour

Baresich spoke at the event and was joined on stage by Rick Rutherford, who operates Rutherford Farms north of Winnipeg.

Rutherford doubts that robotic equipment to spray weeds and perform other field tasks are useful on a 7,000-acre grain farm in Western Canada.

“We’re definitely not into robots yet,” he said.

“The return on something like that, today, in broad-scale agriculture isn’t there.”

Baresich agreed.

Putting a small robot into the field can’t compete with a large and efficient piece of equipment.

“Rick is correct. On a broad-scale (situation), labour is your lowest cost. So, removing the driver out of the sprayer doesn’t make any sense,” he said.

“If you’ve got a 60-foot seeder that can seed 400 acres per day, it’s hard to replace that with a robot. The ROI (return on investment) doesn’t work.”

However, getting back to his example of 1,500 acres of corn, Baresich said a robotic machine could change what a farmer grows.

Instead of seeding 1,500 acres of corn, Baresich could plant 1,400 acres of corn and 100 acres of onions or another high-value crop because the robot would do the work of a couple of paid employees.

This isn’t happening on his farm yet.

“We’re looking at it very closely,” he said.

“What we’re seeing in Ontario, we’re seeing a growth in the vegetable market and the higher-value crops.”

That sort of approach to robotic farm equipment could make sense in parts of Western Canada.

The region around Portage la Prairie, Man., for instance, is a major producer of carrots, onions and other vegetable crops. Maybe grain growers in the region could dedicate a portion of their acres to a higher-value crop if the robot was able to reduce labour and production costs.

This sort of innovation and adoption of technology could become more critical for Canadian farmers.

However, producers may be hesitant to take the risk and test it out on their farms.

That’s the benefit of groups like EMILI, which operates Innovation Farms on Rutherford’s land north of Winnipeg.

Innovation Farms is part of a network of similar farms across the country, called the Pan-Canadian Smart Farm Network.

At these locations, innovators and entrepreneurs can test and refine their agricultural technologies at scale or demonstrate the value of more established technologies.

These farms are critical because Canadian farmers want to see something that works under real-world conditions.

“It’s fun to look at those things (new technologies like robots), but you’re not moving the needle by saying, ‘I did this on 200 square feet,’ ” Baresich said.

“You’re going to move the needle by saying, ‘I did this on 70 acres.'”

— Robert Arnason reports for the Winnipeg bureau of the Western Producer.

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Buyers expect quality, flavour and, most importantly, variety. They’re not interested in a stand with a single product such as carrots, beets or strawberries. They want the whole produce basket.

For a single grower to meet those expectations is a tall order, as one farm would have to grow many different crops in small volumes and essentially be a jack of all trades, master of none.

That’s why, 30 years ago, a handful of family operations in central Alberta banded together — first in an informal joint venture, later as a closed co-operative — to found Innisfail Growers.

Through this structure, the independent farms work together, avoid internal competition and find a way to thrive.

“It allows us to specialize and find economies of scale,” says Rod Bradshaw, who chairs the group and operates Beck Farms along with his wife and partner Shelley and their two sons. They specialize in carrots and other vegetables.

Borrowed model

The idea to work together came from a trip to the Netherlands and United Kingdom that Rod and Shelley took in the early 1990s. They found inspiration in an organization called Shropshire Growers.

“There are no new ideas under the sun,” Rod told a recent tour of international agriculture journalists who visited two co-op member-farms. “You have to take one and make it your own.”

Returning to Alberta they looked for potential partners and found several in nearby farmers pursuing similar goals of growing fruit and vegetables and marketing them directly.

A neighbour was growing peas. Another was specializing in strawberries. Yet another was growing table potatoes.

“Everyone was doing something different,” Rod says.

They were all learning together, and breaking new ground for their farm operations, most of which had been in existence for many years but in a different type of agriculture.

“We were all grain farmers and we all moved into vegetable growing,” Rod says.

Working together allowed the growers to specialize and to expand their reach. They were able to attend more markets and even hire staff to manage and attend those events. Many of those employees were the children of growers, which gave them valuable work experience.

It also allowed them to jointly fund a packing house that washes and bags their produce for distribution, and the trucks to haul it to market.

Today, in its 30th year, Innisfail Growers attends about 20 markets during the summer growing season, plus three year-round markets, including two in Calgary.

Community extension

Another early member in the co-op was The Jungle Farm, operated by Blaine and Leona Staples.

It’s been in Leona’s family for four generations, and was named by her great-grandfather after Rudyard Kipling’s classic The Jungle Book collection of stories. A bear living near the farm when he settled it brought to mind Baloo the bear from those stories.

In 1996 Leona returned to the farm with Blaine and they were intent on making their lives there.

“I said ‘one thing we can certainly get rid of is the name,’” Leona says with a chuckle. “Blaine said we couldn’t, because he loved it.”

They returned to grain farming, and Blaine’s own experience on his family’s southern Alberta operation was also in grain growing. But horticulture, and in particular strawberry growing, quickly took centre stage.

Today they plant about 30 acres of strawberries and vegetables. On top of their presence at farmers’ markets, they have a farm store and a U-pick operation. Blaine, who holds a master’s degree in agriculture from the University of Alberta, is central to the agricultural operations. He’s now experimenting with table-top strawberry growing, a technique imported from Europe.

“Strawberries are very susceptible to soil-borne disease,” Blaine says. “A lot of strawberry growers fumigate their soil every year.”

Moving to a table top operation should eliminate that need, simplify management of the crop while growing, and ease harvest since the plants are at a better height for manual picking.

“Every strawberry in the world is picked by hand,” he says.

The Jungle Farm also tries to reconnect people with how their food is produced, Blaine says. He credits Leona’s abilities on social media and her background as an extension home economist as crucial. She puts it another way.

“I’m afraid it’s made me a not very good worker here,” she jokes. “I spend my days talking to people.”

Said people include school day trips, group tours and others. Leona estimates the farm hosts about 1,500 schoolchildren (and their teachers and chaperones) every season, giving a younger generation new insight into agriculture.

That effort includes showing the children Indigenous history for the region, and a portion of the farm is left natural, facilitating this discussion.

“That forest is so important to me, because it’s what so much of central Alberta used to look like,” she says.

Story to tell

In the end, quality produce is just part of the businesses that have banded together under the Innisfail Growers banner.

They also work hard at making strong connections with consumers. Similar produce might be available at the grocery store, but this produce’s growers are right there beside the customers to further forge that bond.

“We’re selling a story,” says Rod Bradshaw. “And you’re paying us for that story when you buy our produce.”

The post Central Alberta fruit and vegetable producers find success in co-operative effort appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

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.

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The province on Friday confirmed amendments to regulation 16, attached to its Agricultural and Horticultural Organizations Act, kick in effective Sunday (Jan. 1, 2023). That’s the regulation laying out the membership levels an ag or hort society must maintain to be eligible for various operating grants.

The new rules take effect “amid some societies reporting a drop in membership levels partly due to the pandemic,” the province said Friday.

For agricultural societies, the new rule cuts the minimum threshold from 60 to 40 members. For horticultural societies, the rule cuts the threshold from 50 down to 25 members, except in territorial districts where it’s reduced to 15 members, down from 25.

Covering costs

The province’s 483 ag and hort societies “educate citizens about agriculture, beautify downtowns, and host fall fairs and exhibitions,” the province said Friday.

The grants available to Ontario ag societies under regulation 16 include covering a portion of prize costs, judges’ fees and other costs incurred in hosting ag and food exhibitions, demonstrations and competitions. Those grants cover a third of such costs (two-thirds in northern Ontario) to a maximum $3,000 per year.

Qualifying ag societies can also get grants for improvements to their land and buildings, and separate grants to help defray costs in years where wet weather causes declines in event ticket revenue.

Qualifying ag societies can also get centennial grants of $1,500 for their 100th anniversaries, if the society is setting up a “permanent commemorative structure” to mark the occasion.

Qualifying horticultural societies, meanwhile, can get grants of up to 50 per cent of their annual expenses, to a maximum of $1,000 (or $1,500 if it had 200 or more members in the previous year). — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Prices of canola hit all-time highs this month, rallying with oilseed rival soybeans, on brisk Chinese buying to produce feed for that country’s rebuilding hog herd. Farm exports in general were stronger last year, the ministry said in a statement.

The record profits come despite disruptions to beef and pork production, as COVID-19 infections forced plants to suspend processing, leading to a backlog of livestock and lower prices.

Olymel, one of Canada’s biggest hog packers, recently temporarily closed its Red Deer, Alta. plant, forcing it to send some pigs to the U.S.

Farmers’ net cash income, a measure of profitability, jumped 21.8 per cent in 2020 from the previous year to $16.5 billion, driven by increased sales value of the main field crops, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada said.

Net cash income looks to climb another 6.8 per cent this year, to $17.6 billion, the ministry said.

Livestock sales dipped 1.9 per cent last year and the horticulture industry also struggled, the farm ministry said.

Demand for Canadian barley has surged, with key buyer China in a trade dispute with usual supplier Australia. Spring wheat, another principal Canadian crop, is trading near more than three-year highs.

— Reporting for Reuters by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg.

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Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau announced Monday that the Mandatory Isolation Support for Temporary Foreign Workers Program will now run to Nov. 30, as the government extends its COVID-19 pandemic-related orders under the federal Quarantine Act to the same date.

The program provides up to $1,500 per TFW to employers who are required to isolate workers under the Act, to help cover wages, food, benefits, transportation, housing or other compliance requirements.

The $50 million program, first set up in April, provides lump-sum payments to employers of TFWs — including those working in the farming, fish harvesting and food production and processing sectors, which combined account for more than 60 per cent of workers entering Canada under the TFW program.

Funding is conditional on employers not being found in violation of the mandatory 14-day isolation protocols or “any other public health order.”

The relevant emergency order under the Quarantine Act was imposed in late March, requiring anyone still able to enter Canada by land, air or sea to self-isolate for 14 days, regardless of whether they show symptoms of COVID-19.

The now-extended self-isolation order applies to incoming TFWs and anyone else who’s still allowed to enter Canada following the March 21 ban on all non-essential entry, and exempts only certain workers such as truckers, medical personnel and firefighters.

Of TFWs on Canadian farms, 40 per cent are located in Ontario, 32 per cent in Quebec, 18 per cent in British Columbia and 2.6 per cent in Nova Scotia.

‘Adaptations’

With response to unforeseen events such as the COVID-19 pandemic in mind, Bibeau on Monday separately announced $387,000 in AgriRisk Initiatives funding for three projects, for producers in the horticulture sector to improve risk management.

The bulk of that will go to the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers (OGVG), with $225,000 allocated to develop a “risk management financial product for disease and insect infestations for greenhouses” through data modeling, frequency events and consultation with insurers.

The Canadian Horticultural Council, meanwhile, will get $123,269 to research and run a risk assessment of the Ontario horticulture sector, toward “future development of a whole-farm producer-paid top-up insurance product” via creation of a “diversity index.”

The Association des producteurs maraichers du Québec (APMQ) gets $38,660 toward development of a tool “for growers to assess their vulnerability and take the necessary actions to increase their resilience to climate change.”

That project is now complete, APMQ executive director Jocelyn St-Denis said in a government release Monday. “The extreme temperatures and drought of this past growing season have demonstrated the relevance of implementing adaptations specific to the reality of each business.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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