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
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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.
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The Covid-19 pandemic and now the trade war have heightened interest in 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 of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers is exported, while domestic consumers resort to buying less of a mainly imported offering during winter months
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A relative handful of domestic farms supply fresh produce through the winter, using indoor facilities effective only at their large scale. Most of Canada's thousands of fruit and vegetable growers operate in a financially precarious "feast-or-famine" seasonal mode.
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The smaller greenhouses some operate allow brief extension of the outdoor growing season, but are simply not cost-effective to run through the winter.
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Neither giant multi-acre high-tech greenhouses nor the sunless vertical farm model scale down well, leaving small-to-medium growers unable to contribute just when demand for varied local fresh produce is highest.
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Having thousands of farms operate year-round to fill this gap would be a game-changer for them and for our food security.
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Canada needs more year-round local food suppliers. They need a new kind of CEA facility that is less costly 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.