Food Supply & Agri-Business
Generational growth in demand for healthy, clean food
Canadians, especially the young, prioritize fresh fruit & vegetables
And many people insist on local or domestic-grown
But, you know, the climate …
Domestic produce is not always available, and may not be local
Seasonal gaps are largely filled by long-distance imports
When only expensive imports are available, people buy less fresh produce than they would prefer
What we believe
-
Canadians’ appetite for clean fresh fruits and vegetables has been growing for years. There is a strong preference for local products, especially in Ontario, BC and the Maritimes. However, we have learned to settle for lower availability, higher prices and sub-par quality outside the brief summer season.
-
The Covid-19 pandemic heightened interest in meal kits, healthy convenience food, clean eating, and a resilient domestic food supply. Ironically, while the massive Ontario greenhouse industry employs Canadians, it does not really feed us – most of its output is exported, while domestic consumers resort to buying less of a mainly imported offering during winter months
-
There is a new breed of Canadian indoor farm that makes clean, high-quality, farm-to-table produce reliably available year-round. There are still too few of them, and they are challenged to change a distribution system geared toward an unreliable long-distance supply chain
-
While their operations are water and space-efficient, the large carbon footprint is less talked about, and optimizing indoor climate turns out to be even more complex than expected. High facility energy and capital costs can make their products expensive, limited in variety, and barely profitable
-
Canada needs more local food entrepreneurs and community farms. They need a new kind of CEA facility that is less daunting to acquire, greener, and less expensive to operate.
Meeting the year-round demand for local farm-to-table produce is much harder than it should be.
High capital and energy requirements are major barriers.