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Berry Leader Driscoll's Transitions Santa Maria Cooling Facility To Solar
Driscoll’s has installed 3,384 solar panels on its 155,000 square-foot cooling facility in Santa Maria, Calif., which is estimated to generate 1.4 million kilowatt-hours of power annually
The Transformation Is The First of
More Renewable Energy Updates To Come From The Berry Company
WATSONVILLE, CALIF. (Aug. 11, 2021) – Driscoll’s has installed 3,384 solar panels on its 155,000 square-foot cooling facility in Santa Maria, Calif., which is estimated to generate 1.4 million kilowatt-hours of power annually.
In addition to solar power, Driscoll’s has installed a battery storage system that can hold up to 700 kilowatt-hours. Together, both systems will allow the company to offset about 92% of the facility’s energy usage, generating a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to removing more than 7,750 cars from the road over the course of 25 years.
The solar installation in Santa Maria is one of many, as Driscoll’s is in the early stages of pursuing clean and alternative energy sources for its owned and operated coolers across North America.
“The solar installation in Santa Maria is the first of several planned energy investments,” said J. Miles Reiter, Driscoll’s chairman, and CEO. “We view this inaugural installation as a commitment to Santa Maria, our employees, and our local growers. It’s an investment in our future by having clean technology to support our local operations.”
In support of Driscoll’s transformation of its cooling facility to solar power, Driscoll’s employees, community members, and local dignitaries, including Santa Maria Mayor Alice Patino, gathered at the facility for a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Patino commended Driscoll’s for elevating agriculture’s longstanding positive impact on the community by leading with clean and renewable energy. The event was a celebration of Driscoll’s renewable energy milestone and its future alternative energy investments.
As a community-based business, Driscoll’s is committed to growing in harmony with the environment and growing communities it depends on. The commitment challenges Driscoll’s to assess its dependency and impact on local resources, including the energy grid. Berries are a delicate and perishable fruit that must be kept in controlled temperatures as much as possible, which requires a significant amount of energy consumption. Driscoll’s decision to transform its Santa Maria facility to clean energy is a continuation of its 50-year commitment to the community, employees, and local grower network.
About Driscoll’s
Driscoll’s is the global market leader of fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. With more than 100 years of farming heritage, Driscoll’s is a pioneer of berry flavor innovation and the trusted consumer brand of Only the Finest Berries™. With more than 900 independent growers around the world, Driscoll’s develops exclusive patented berry varieties using only traditional breeding methods that focus on growing great-tasting berries. A dedicated team of agronomists, breeders, sensory analysts, plant pathologists and entomologists help grow baby seedlings that are then grown on local family farms. Driscoll’s now serves consumers year-round across North America, Australia, Europe and China in over twenty-two countries.
Vertical Farming Method To Produce UK Strawberries ‘Nine Months A Year’
Direct Produce Supplies (DPS) is stacking up 1,000 tonnes of strawberries and will be supplying Tesco using the method, which should guarantee supplies whatever the weather during the British summer
By Ben Mitchell
July 4, 2021
Strawberries grown in Britain could be on supermarket shelves nine months of the year using a new vertical-growing technique that is also better for the environment.
The system, which is being pioneered by a fruit-grower in Arundel, West Sussex, England, uses 50% less water and has a 90% lower carbon footprint but has yields five times higher than normal production methods.
Staff at Wickes Farm in Ford, West Sussex, UK, harvest strawberries at the state-of-the-art farm (Ben Stevens/Parsons Media/PA)
Direct Produce Supplies (DPS) is stacking up 1,000 tonnes of strawberries and will be supplying Tesco using the method, which should guarantee supplies whatever the weather during the British summer.
The strawberries are produced in vertically stacked beds under fully controlled conditions, with plants watered using a hydroponic feed instead of in the soil, which DPS says helps improve the nutrition value of the fruit.
Chief executive Paul Beynon said: “Vertical farming offers growers a protected environment that requires significantly less land, water and energy to produce excellent quality crops.
“We chose our farm location near Chichester on the south coast because this region gives the highest natural levels of light and heat in the UK and so maximises the potential.
“We are still at a relatively early stage in vertical growing and in the future we believe that we can make even further advances in sustainable strawberry production and that other fruit crops could take to the system in a similar way.”
Tesco fruit technical manager Sabina Wyant said: “Vertical crop production is a giant step for fresh produce growers in helping reduce their carbon footprint and use less water, at the same time boosting their yields.
“For shoppers there is also a clear benefit, with consistent quality fruit and availability for up to nine months of the year, regardless of the weather conditions.
“By example, right now during Wimbledon fortnight, the UK sees the highest demand of the year for strawberries but sometimes adverse weather conditions can challenge production at this time, leaving retailers with a shortfall.
“Vertical farming will put an end to that uncertainty and ensure perfect growing conditions during an extended nine-month season.”
Lead Photo: The strawberries are produced in vertically stacked beds under fully controlled conditions, with plants watered using a hydroponic feed instead of in the soil.
How Much Are You Willing To Pay For The Perfect Strawberry?
One of Japan's most coveted strawberry varietals is now being grown in a high-tech farm in Newark. And you can get a taste for a cool $50
One of Japan's most coveted strawberry varietals is now being grown in a high-tech farm in Newark. And you can get a taste for a cool $50.
BY LEENA KIM
JULY 2, 2021
MICHAEL STILLWELL
Of the reasons for which Newark is famous—namely its reputation as a former murder capital of America—there is a high likelihood that it will soon be known for something a little more savory: as the epicenter of the agricultural revolution, 2.0.
Over the past few years, New Jersey's gritty port city has become ground zero for a burgeoning vertical farm movement. First, what is a vertical farm? It's basically an indoor farm that uses aeroponics (or hydroponics) systems, artificial intelligence, robots, LED lights, and other forms of technology to grow produce in a controlled environment sans sun, soil, and pesticides. Newark is currently home to the world's largest vertical farm, the 70,000-square-foot AeroFarms, which has 8 others in this city alone (plus facilities in Virginia and Abu Dhabi) and is slated to IPO this month at a $1.2 billion valuation.
Nearly all of the vertical farms that have sprung up around the country specialize in leafy greens (kale, watercress, spinach, arugula, etc.). Why? It's the easiest crop to grow—and the cheapest ticket into the business. But Hiroki Koga, co-founder and CEO of Oishii, a 4-year-old vertical farm near Newark, had far grander ambitions. He didn't want to open yet another outfit for lettuce and spinach that, to be honest, can't taste so radically different from lettuce and spinach shipped in from California. He was going to go straight for Goliath on the first try: the strawberry.
Most vertical farms specialize in leafy greens because they are the easiest to grow. Not Oishii, which went straight for the holy grail in vertical farming: strawberries. OISHII
"They are one of the most sophisticated crops with an extremely complicated plant physiology, and one of hardest to grow in a vertical farm," says Koga, whose former life in Tokyo as a consultant to large corporations making headway in this agricultural category provided an early education in the business. (Not surprisingly, Japan has been way ahead of the curve on this trend, mastering the tech long before the term even entered the modern lexicon—today, many vertical farms use machines made by Japanese corporations like Sony and Panasonic.) "So while other companies started with something easy, we decided to invest all of the money we raised into something that was harder and might take longer to succeed, but that once we cracked the code to it, it would let us unlock other crops, like tomatoes, melons, and grapes, much more easily."
Hiroki Koga, co-founder and CEO of Oishii.
OISHII
Another key reason that deters vertical farms from graduating beyond leafy produce: the bees. Or rather, the lack of them. Greens don't need pollination but fruits do. The problem is, though, bees are sensitive. Put them in an artificial environment and they'll soon realize it's a setup and stop functioning properly. Koga has cracked this, too. "We were the first in the world to figure out how to trick the bees into believing they are in Mother Nature," he says.
Mind you, Koga certainly hasn't gone through this much trouble for just any kind of strawberries. His are a replica of Japan's Omakase berries, a unique, highly prized, and rare varietal grown in greenhouses in the foothills of the Japanese Alps only during wintertime (from January to March). They are characterized by an intensely fragrant, almost floral, bouquet, and a flavor profile that is juicy and creamy, soft and buttery, and, above all, super sweet. In other words, like nothing that is found in America. Oishii's Omakase berries tick all of these boxes, plus one more: they are perfect every time. Because even Japan's most meticulous strawberry growers can't control sun and temperature. "In our vertical farm, we can control for temperature, humidity, even levels of carbon dioxide, to optimize for this specific variety to thrive every single day," Koga says.
The strawberries grown in Oishii’s vertical farm in New Jersey. ZI JIAN/OISHII
So, about that price tag. Oishii's Omakase berries—at first only supplied to Michelin-starred restaurants, they are now available for delivery in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Jersey City, and at select purveyors like Eli's on the Upper East Side and Carissa's in East Hampton—are $50 for a box of 11 medium-sized strawberries (or 8 large). While these are exponentially more expensive than your average Driscoll's, even traditionally grown Omakases command a similar cost back in Japan, where they are considered treasured gifts for special occasions and celebrations.
But they are hardly Japan's most expensive strawberry. That distinction is held by the Bijin-hime varietal, grown exclusively by a veteran farmer named Nichio Okuda, who spent 15 years perfecting the berry and produces only 500 a year. A single Bijin-hime strawberry retails for 50,000 yen, or $448. (It ought to be noted that the Japanese are unrivaled in the realm of status produce: in 2019, for example, two Hokkaido melons sold at auction for $5 million yen, aka $45,000.)
Of course there are far more reasonably-priced Japanese varietals as well—the country has 250 different strawberry cultivars, which account for more than half of the global supply—and Koga plans to introduce them to the U.S. market, and eventually, the rest of the world. Thanks to a recent $50 million infusion of investor capital, Oishii has begun its expansion, first with the construction of a second vertical farm the size of a football field. "We're not just a small strawberry farm in New York selling fancy strawberries. We're offering a new way to grow, experience, and access food," he says. "We hope to bring a really big paradigm shift to the agriculture industry. Vertical farming is the way forward."
LEENA KIM Associate EditorLeena Kim is an associate editor at Town & Country, where she writes about travel, weddings, arts, and culture.
Research Signify And Fragaria Innova Into Growing Strawberries With LED Bears Fruits
“Extra growth light is needed to realize sufficient yield and quality in winter”, according to plant specialist Peer Hermans, who conducts the research on behalf of Signify
June 15, 2021
· Provides better steering of the plants
· Optimizes winter growth
· Helps growers realize a stabile production pattern with high yield and good quality strawberries
Eindhoven, the Netherlands – Signify (Euronext: LIGHT), the world leader in lighting, has worked together with Fragaria Innova to develop specific light recipes for strawberries, resulting in a steady production pattern with high yield, and good quality strawberries in wintertime. The joint research over the past year helps to further optimize the winter production of the so-called ‘June bearers’, a strawberry cultivar known for relatively short peaks in production.
Within Fragaria Innova, progressive strawberry growers commit themselves, together with external partners, to innovation surrounding the themes of growing under light and plant health. For growing under light, Fragaria Innova and market leader Signify conduct a multi-year program with participating growers/propagators. At one of the production companies, a special compartment has also been equipped with separate climate control, this enables the testing of several growth- and light strategies for multiple cultivars under full LED. One of the main goals of the research is realizing a (more) stable production pattern during wintertime.
Current winter productions usually take place with June bearers with a short production period of 8 to 10 weeks, after which a new planting in another section takes over production to create a stable, flat production. Unlit cultivation dominates before- and after the winter production.
“Extra growth light is needed to realize sufficient yield and quality in winter”, according to plant specialist Peer Hermans, who conducts the research on behalf of Signify. “The trials have shown that you can influence the plant build-up somewhat with specific light recipes, for which LED is ideally suited.” By accurately tuning the light intensity and spectrum offered to the developmental stage of the plant, you can optimize the leaf surface and stretching of the flower trusses and leaf stalks. A better plant build-up can benefit the production. The idea is to raise the production quality through light optimization.
Grower Marcel Dings from Brookberries, co-initiator behind Fragaria Innova, noticed some influence on the plant build-up, but the extra assimilates that came with it, went mostly to the crop and less to the fruits. Dings: “Next season will focus on how we can further optimize the division of the assimilates in the plant, and how we can get the assimilates to the fruits”. The grower notices that there are a lot of variables at play, such as: cultivars, planting times, cultivation goals, light spectra, light intensity, and the balance between natural daylight and artificial lighting. “The benefit of this new generation of LED grow lights is that we can play with lighting efficiently and that we can finetune the recipe to our own wishes and possibilities. Within this project, together we can achieve faster and more progress. I am satisfied with the results of this first year, but there is definitely room for further optimization. Hopefully, we can keep this going in the coming years.”
Grower Dave Linssen, a participant within Fragaria Innova (cultivar: Malling Centenary), had a trial with different spectra at one company location, planted in August just like his unlit crop. “The lit plants went into production earlier in winter, as expected. When it came to kilos and plant build-up, we hardly noticed any difference between the light spectra”, he concludes. “We may need to tinker a little to get the ideal light recipe for our company. It seems obvious to me that growing under LED is a desired addition.”
Based on these encouraging results, the trial set-up for the coming season will be determined. Spectrum research and testing different cultivars will be part of this research. For more information on growing strawberries with LED grow lights, please go to www.philips.com/horti.
--- END ---
For further information, please contact:
Global Marcom Manager Horticulture at Signify
Daniela Damoiseaux
Tel: +31 6 31 65 29 69
E-mail: daniela.damoiseaux@signify.com
About Signify
Signify (Euronext: LIGHT) is the world leader in lighting for professionals and consumers and lighting for the Internet of Things. Our Philips products, Interact connected lighting systems and data-enabled services, deliver business value and transform life in homes, buildings and public spaces. With 2020 sales of EUR 6.5 billion, we have approximately 37,000 employees and are present in over 70 countries. We unlock the extraordinary potential of light for brighter lives and a better world. We achieved carbon neutrality in 2020, have been in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index since our IPO for four consecutive years and were named Industry Leader in 2017, 2018 and 2019. News from Signify is located at the Newsroom, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. Information for investors can be found on the Investor Relations page.
About Innoveins | Fragaria Innova
Innoveins is an ecosystem where organizations cooperate at the cross-over between plants and technology to develop innovations through co-creation and bring them to the market.
Within Innoveins, Fragaria Innova unites ambitious strawberry growers to jointly tackle challenges in the areas of labor, upscaling, efficiency, plant health and resilience, biodiversity, growth media, product quality, continuity, delivery reliability and smart farming.
These High-Tech Strawberries Cost $6 Apiece. Here’s What They Taste And Smell Like
The Omakase Berry, a Japanese variety grown by the New Jersey-based company called Oishii, bills itself as an entirely different strawberry experience
By Hannah Selinger
June 11, 2021
Some months ago, a curious new strawberry began appearing in my social media feeds. The berry, which comes in packages of three, six, or eight, was a uniform pale red. Each berry in each plastic carton looked almost exactly the same — heart-shaped, symmetrical, and indented on the surface where, in a store-bought strawberry, yellow seeds would appear. One more notable thing: They cost between $5 and $6.25 apiece.
The Omakase Berry, a Japanese variety grown by the New Jersey-based company called Oishii, bills itself as an entirely different strawberry experience. The website even offers advice when it comes to eating them: Allow berries to sit at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes; let the berries’ aromatics “fill the room”; inhale the “bouquet”; eat.
Oishii grows its berries indoors vertically, leveraging technology that its co-founder and CEO, Hiroki Koga, 34, explored in Japan. “I got my first start in the vertical farming industry as a consultant in Japan, where it took off before anywhere else in the world,” he said. “But the whole industry failed pretty quickly, you know, in the early 2010s in Japan, because it was too expensive to grow leafy greens in a very tech-savvy, costly environment.” The technology, he said, was there; someone just needed to find the right way to use it.
The first run of berries (the Omakase cultivar) has been geared toward the luxury market and is available only in the New York City area. But the company is in the process, Koga said, of expanding its market share. Some of the varieties the company is experimenting with can be grown in a much more cost-efficient way, he said, “which means that we should be able to place these into the market at a significantly affordable, reasonable price, compared to what it is today.”
Koga came to the United States in 2015, first to California, where, he said, the quality of produce was unexpectedly good, though not as good as in Japan. The strawberries he selected for the company’s first vertical farms in New Jersey are known as “short-day cultivars.” In Japan, “They’re grown during the winter in a greenhouse environment in a little more wet environment,” Koga said.
Long-day cultivars — American summer berries — are, he said, “optimized for mass production,” at the expense of flavor. Koga says Oishii’s low yields are guided by the same principles as fine wine production: An intentionally depleted crop, achieved by such tactics as crop-thinning, forces the plant to push more of its nutrients and flavor into fewer berries, yielding a more concentrated flavor. The growing environment, according to Koga, is also optimized so that berries yield the maximum amount of nutrients and sweetness.
“We constantly were testing and tweaking to find the perfect environment for the unique Omakase berry,” Koga said. That meant, he said, finding the optimal temperature and breeze; controlling plant management, water frequency, and pruning; and leveraging artificial intelligence to help predict yields.
I wanted to know how the Omakase Berry — billed by Koga as a berry with no American equal — would stand up to other domestic fruit. I arranged my own taste comparison, using three different strawberries: Oishii’s Omakase Berry, available only in the New York City area; widely available Driscoll’s strawberries, produced by a network of more than 900 independent growers around the world, in such places as North America, Europe, China and Australia; and first-of-the-season strawberries from Balsam Farms, in Amagansett, N.Y., down the road from where I live. (Full disclosure: My yearly CSA box comes from Balsam.)
Driscoll's organic strawberries. (Jennifer Beeson Gregory/The Washington Post)
The appearance
Perhaps most striking about the Omakase Berry is its utter uniformity. Each orangy berry — I purchased a package of eight for $50 — looks exactly the same. Glance quickly and you might mistake the berries for marzipan candies, their exterior is so flawless.
The Driscoll’s berries ($3.99 for the company’s standard 16-ounce plastic clamshell) were far deeper in pigment — the company aims for “deep red,” said Scott Komar, 58, the company’s senior vice president for global research and development — and were larger, overall, than the Omakase, though there was variability in size. They were covered in tiny yellow seeds. In selecting berry plants, Komar said, Driscoll’s considers “the color of the strawberry, the shape, the size, and the mouth texture.”
My local strawberries (a quart for $9) were smaller, deeply pigmented and visually much less consistent. The traditional heart shape that is associated with the fruit became more triangular here on Long Island, where conditions are unpredictable. Balsam Farms, said Ian Calder-Piedmonte, 41, the farm’s co-owner, uses a technique called plasticulture. A barrier between plants and the ground is formed using plastic, aiding farmers with weed control, assisting with water management and keeping berries cleaner.
Plasticulture, Calder-Piedmonte said, combined with pruning runners, keeps the plants compact and the berry placement concentrated. Without the plastic, he said, berries can “try to set down roots between rows, and actually will take away from the growth of the mother plants.” Still, holding in my hand the tiny first berries of the Long Island season, it was hard not to consider how much work had gone into producing just a pint of fruit.
Strawberries for sale at the Kuhn Orchards booth at the Fairlington Farmers Market in Arlington, Va. (Jennifer Beeson Gregory/The Washington Post)
The aroma
Oishii isn’t lying when it says the aroma of its berries will fill the room. When I unearthed my plastic container from its refrigerator pack, I could already smell them. Opening the box, I was assaulted with the most strawberry-smelling fruit I’d ever encountered. Aroma, Koga said, is one of the classic characteristics of the Omakase Berry.
In this category, there was no competition. My Driscoll’s berries did not have much of a scent, but aroma may not be at the top of the list in breeding priority. “We conduct quantitative measurements on the sugars, acids, and aromatics of our berries,” said Komar of Driscoll’s berries. “Then that information helps us pick the berry varieties we will commercialize for our brand.” Driscoll’s places a high premium on flavor and color, and the variety I tried may not have been bred, specifically, for aroma.
My Long Island berries smelled very much like strawberries, although their scent was not nearly as potent as the Omakases. “I think there’s probably more variation on local strawberries, as there are with probably everything that’s locally produced,” Calder-Piedmonte said. Other berries that come from “incredibly controlled” environments “where it’s sunny every day” are more likely to be consistent in size, shape, flavor, and even aroma. On Long Island, he said, “I think there are a lot more variables.”
The taste
Oishii’s Omakase Berries cost $50 for a package of eight. (Oishii)
Do you prefer a tart berry that’s firm to the tooth? Are you enamored by sweetness? What type of berry the average consumer perceives as “best” depends on such personal preference. The Omakase Berry was, without question, the sweetest that I sampled. (However, Driscoll’s grows a trademarked, premium fresh berry segment called the Sweetest Batch for strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries, which Komar said are “unique selections” from the company’s breeding program; I did not try these.)
The Driscoll’s berries were the firmest of the three, with a consistent mouthfeel and flavor. It seemed to me that the objective in their breeding was a distinct balance between sweet and tart — and that balance certainly came through on each bite. In some ways, the acid, a quality in food and drink that compels you to keep consuming, makes sense: You’re unlikely to eat only a single strawberry, but Driscoll’s berries come in large, satisfying packages. It’s okay to keep eating.
As for my local berries, there was something compelling about the unpredictability. They were not the sweetest berries I’d ever tasted, but they varied between sweet and tart. Pop a strawberry in your mouth and come alive with the surprise of how sweet it is. Get a slightly underripe berry and pucker in delight. That contrast might make you wish that berries at the farm stand were sold by more than just the quart.
And, as Ian Calder-Piedmonte pointed out, the distinct advantage of a local strawberry is that you’re eating it the day it’s picked. “They really are harvested that day or the day before,” he said. Many berries are picked and then held in refrigerators (or refrigerated trucks) for days before they reach the consumer, and flavor can diminish each day. A fresh-picked berry tastes far different from a berry that has been off the plant for a few days or, as happens in some cases, a week.
Then came the Omakase Berry. The berry, Koga said, was “specifically selected out of 250 cultivars that exist in Japan,” optimizing for “very strong aroma and high sweetness level.” “Because most of the conventional strawberries here in the U.S. have a very high acidity and very low sweetness level, we just wanted to differentiate our product,” he added. This berry, with its heightened sweetness, is the type of berry that sits heavy on the tongue. Eat one, consider it, let the sugar coat the palate. That’s more than enough. The point isn’t to keep eating. The point, in fact, is to stop. So I did.
Selinger is a writer based in East Hampton, N.Y.
Lead photo: The Omakase Berry, a Japanese varietal grown indoors by Oishii in New Jersey. (Oishii)
RSVP - Indoor Ag Science Cafe June 1st
Indoor Ag Science Cafe is an open discussion forum, planned and organized by OptimIA project team supported by USDA SCRI grants
June Indoor Ag Science Cafe
June 1st Tuesday 11:00 AM Eastern
Please sign up, thank you!
"All Season Oishii Berry:
America's first vertical strawberry farm"
by Hiroki Koga
Oishii
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The recording will not be available for this cafe.
Indoor Ag Science Cafe is an open discussion forum, planned and organized by OptimIA
project team supported by USDA SCRI grants.
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CANADA: ‘Made In Quebec’ Strawberries Offer Hope For Food Autonomy
The pandemic, with its broken supply lines and closed borders, has been a worrying reminder of Quebec’s dependence on imported food. Roughly 75% of its fresh fruits and vegetables, in fact, come from elsewhere
10-05-2021 | Msn News
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
CANADA- The pandemic, with its broken supply lines and closed borders, has been a worrying reminder of Quebec’s dependence on imported food. Roughly 75% of its fresh fruits and vegetables, in fact, come from elsewhere.
Inside a windowless metal cube in a building on the outskirts of the province’s largest city, Montreal, Yves Daoust is trying to make a dent in those numbers.
The cube houses some 3,800 strawberry plants arranged in vertical gardens, pollinated by bumble bees, and brushed by morning dew. The carefully controlled environment is tracked by sensors and attempts to mimic ideal summer conditions year-round in a city where the average outdoor temperature in January is 13.6 degrees Fahrenheit (-10.2 degrees Celsius) and the winter cold doesn’t let up until May.
When Daoust’s company, Ferme d’hiver -- the name is French for “winter farm” -- started selling batches at C$5.99 ($4.80) a pack at nearby supermarkets in December, the pesticide-free berries were snatched by customers accustomed to Mexican or U.S. produce that often costs a bit less. Now it’s signing up farmers to install the technology and make Quebec winter strawberries viable, helped by C$1.5 million in financing from the government.
Quebec’s history -- it harbors a strong nationalist movement -- has long reinforced a preference for homegrown businesses, but after the pandemic disrupted labor migration and prompted some countries to restrict exports, local sourcing became an urgent matter for the government.
“The pandemic made Quebeckers a lot more sensitive to the importance of supporting local companies,” Agriculture Minister Andre Lamontagne said in an interview. “Every time we increase consumption of Quebec food products by a notch, it has considerable effects on the Quebec economy.”
The government earmarked C$157 million in November to boost food autonomy. In addition, its investment arm, Investissement Quebec, supports individual projects like Ferme d’hiver’s. Two recent projects it financed were greenhouse expansions that together received C$60 million.
The initiative aligns with themes dear to Premier Francois Legault, who was elected in 2018 on a nationalist platform. Quebec, a majority French-speaking province, is protective of its culture and businesses and considers any goods that come from outside Quebec, even from other Canadian provinces, to be “imported.”
Fruits and vegetables aren’t the only problem. Only about half of the all wholesale food purchased by grocers and hospitality companies is grown or transformed locally. To improve that ratio, Quebec is banking on greenhouse production, which it wants to double over five years with C$112 million in aid programs.
Another weapon is state-owned Hydro-Quebec’s cheap and abundant electricity, a key incentive for an industry that requires large amounts of artificial lighting during dark winter days.
© Bloomberg A Strawberry Harvest At Ferme D'Hiver Vertical Farm. The grow room at the Ferme d’hiver.
Photographer: Christinne Muschi/Bloomberg it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
In Compton, a town two hours east of Montreal, organic vegetable farmer Frederic Jobin-Lawler is modernizing his 36,000 square feet of greenhouse space with a geothermal heating system, a dehumidifying unit and artificial lighting. After subsidies and other aid, he’ll pay only about 40% of the upgrade costs.
Success or failure of the food autonomy effort will depend on whether small farms like Jobin-Lawler’s can overcome grocers’ general preference for large suppliers or whether they can get institutions like hospitals to buy their produce, he said.
“If we produce more in winter, will our local markets be able to take it in?” he said. “We don’t want to do this to export, we want to do this to sell locally.”
In theory, the province produces enough to supply two-thirds of its fresh and transformed greens, but consumption and production don’t match up perfectly. Quebec grows enough cabbage to cover twice over what it eats, so it exports some. But it meets only 17% of its population’s demand for spinach and 44% for strawberries.
Climate and seasonality have a lot to do with it. As a country, Canada imports the most vegetables and fruits between March and June, followed by the December to February months.
Daoust, the founder of Ferme d’hiver, said he offers a tastier substitute. “It’s not that imported products aren’t good originally, but they are treated to be transported for days,” said Daoust, an engineer by training who grew up on a farm but spent most of his career in the tech industry.
Imported Workers
Not everyone in Quebec is persuaded by the government’s push. Patrick Mundler, a professor at Laval University in Quebec City, says a rush to produce more fruits and vegetables risks increasing demand for other imports, chiefly farm labor.
“The massive production model is totally dependent on labor,” said Mundler, who published a paper on food autonomy last year. “Workers come from Mexico, Guatemala -- I have a hard time accepting we use our electricity to produce cucumbers in heated tunnels rather than buy them from Mexico or Guatemala directly, where they grew in the sun.”
If small farmers manage to get their goods onto grocery shelves where a few giant producers dominate, a big question remains whether consumers will get into the habit of buying local.
“The consumer has the last word,” said Catherine Brodeur, a vice president of economic studies at Groupe Ageco, a consultancy in Quebec City. “The share of consumers who want to buy locally and are ready to pay more grows over time. But a lot of consumers buy the product that’s 5 cents cheaper.”
Photo © Bloomberg A Strawberry Harvest At Ferme D'Hiver Vertical Farm
Strawberries are harvested at the Ferme d’hiver.
Photographer: Christinne Muschi/Bloomberg
Polygreens Podcast Episode 21 - Dan Ovadya
Dan Ovadya stumbled into his career passion growing super sweet Chandler strawberries in low-tech greenhouses on the Israel-Jordan border in 1991