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Four Storeys Up, A Commercial Vegetable Garden Thrives In A Converted Sears Warehouse
Growing food on roofs represents the future of farming, especially in these pandemic times, says Mohamed Hage, Lufa’s chief executive officer, who co-founded the company with his wife, Lauren Rathmell
DAVID ISRAELS
SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL
SEPTEMBER 1, 2020
The Lufa greenhouse sits atop a former Sears warehouse in Montreal's St-Laurent neighbourhood.
CHRISTINNE MUSCHI/THE GLOBE AND MAIL
In the industrial part of Montreal’s St-Laurent area, it can be hard to distinguish the bulky buildings from one another, except for one – the roof sticks out like a green thumb.
It’s a great glass greenhouse roof atop a former Sears warehouse – a giant vegetable garden, said by its creators to be the world’s biggest commercial rooftop greenhouse.
The 163,000-square-foot garden, which opened last week, is the equivalent of nearly three football fields worth of food. To date, it is the fourth and biggest commercial facility for Montreal-based Lufa Farms.
Lufa is already well known among local “Lufavores” – foodies, restaurants, and alterna-living people in the Montreal area, who value its fresh tomatoes, eggplants, and vegetables, as well as the produce it gathers from local farmers.
Growing food on roofs represents the future of farming, especially in these pandemic times, says Mohamed Hage, Lufa’s chief executive officer, who co-founded the company with his wife, Lauren Rathmell.“
When we looked at how to grow where people live, we realized that there was only one option – rooftops. It’s not sustainable to always be trucking food in from across the continent or shipping from all over the world,” Mr. Hage says.
The new building was planned and construction began well before COVID-19 hit the world, but it offers a strong response to the pandemic, he explains.“
In March 2020, we saw a doubling of demand for our food. Growing food locally on rooftops and sourcing from local farming families allows us to swiftly adjust and respond to this demand,” he says.
An employee works inside the Lufa greenhouse. | HANDOUT
Co-founder Ms. Rathmell, who is also Lufa’s greenhouse director, says it took three months to build the St-Laurent facility and grow the site.“That would normally have taken years,” she says.
“In response to COVID-19, we enacted stringent safety protocols early on, launched seven-day service, tripled our home-delivery capacity, and launched new software tools,” she says. The company also brought in more than 200 new team members, 35 new local farmers and food makers, and 30,000 new Lufavores customers.
Lufa’s new staff includes two full-time nurses to take workers’ temperatures as well as “social-distancing police” to walk around and make sure workers aren’t too close to one another, Mr. Hage says. The company has also boosted the frequency of its air exchange in all of its facilities, including the new one.
Designing and building a rooftop greenhouse is challenging, Mr. Hage says. Although some of the preparation required is not much different than getting any equipment onto a roof, some of the prep work up there is more complicated, he says.“
We have to meet national building codes, and of course, everything for the greenhouse needs to be hauled up to the roof on a crane,” he says. “Yet once it’s there, you have to do a lot of stuff manually rather than mechanically. All of this is harder than it would be to do on the ground.”
It’s also expensive. “This greenhouse costs two times as much as a ground-based greenhouse,” he says. Lufa declines to give out the cost of this latest project but says the first of its four facilities, built 10 years ago, cost $2.2-million.
Using buildings for farming is catching on, says Mike Zelkind, co-founder of 80 Acres Farms in Cincinnati, Ohio, which also operates building-based facilities in Arkansas, North Carolina, and New York.
“A field can be the least efficient place to grow food,” he says. “An indoor farm can produce more than 300 times more food, with 100-per-cent renewable energy and 97 percent less water. That’s the beauty of growing in buildings.
Montreal-area foodies value Lufa's fresh tomatoes, eggplants and various other vegetables. HANDOUT
”Similarly, in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., up the Hudson River from New York City, restaurateur, food-truck owner, and chef John Lekic pivoted as the COVID-19 lockdowns spread to launch an indoor farming business called Farmers & Chefs.“
“We use technology from an Israeli company called Vertical Field that was being showcased at the Culinary Institute of America, which is nearby,” he says. The Israeli company supplies all the materials to grow some 200 different crops on roofs and in parking lots with minimal experience required.“
We planted and installed a container in March and our first harvest was in April, Mr. Lekic says. “We’re learning fast, but it’s an easy way to grow herbs and produce.”
”Mr. Hage agrees, adding that “rooftops are superior places for an urban farm.”
“When we started [in 2009], we considered leasing parking lots for growing, but no one wanted to give them up,” he recalls. “But for most commercial building owners, rooftops are unloved – they leak, they have to be maintained and, in a cold climate like ours, you have to clean off the snow. A commercial rooftop greenhouse is a solution.”
The new St-Laurent project gives Lufa a total of about 300,000 square feet of agricultural production, and the company plans to eventually expand into Southern Ontario and the U.S. northeast.
Mr. Hage points out that a rooftop greenhouse also makes great sense in terms of environmental sustainability and reducing energy and carbon emissions.“
“We don’t use pesticides and our greenhouses use half the energy that a greenhouse at ground level would consume because we use heating from the building that rises up to the roof,” he explains.
“The biggest challenge is not the greenhouse space – who doesn’t want to walk around in a warm sunny greenhouse when it’s 20 below outside? The challenge is maximizing the warehouse space below the greenhouse,” he says.
“We’re growing so many tomatoes that the warehouses never seem to be big enough to store them.”
Urban farming in Canada is still a niche in a nationwide food industry that is primarily export-based, and accounts for 12 percent, or $62.5-billion, of Canada’s total exports every year, says Claire Citeau, executive director of the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance (CAFTA).
But in a post-COVID-19 world, every bit of food production counts, she says. “We continue to see the adoption of science, technology, and innovative ways to feed people and create new economic opportunities at home and abroad.”
And if that’s not enough, just look at the place, Mr. Hage says. “Boy, do I like driving by – it sticks out like a crystal,” he says. “And when you go inside, it’s like being in a spa.”
TOPICS AGRICULTURE CORONAVIRUS GREENHOUSE MONTREAL ORGANIC FOOD
US (NY): Wall-To-Fork Fresh Produce Comes To Monsey
The iconic Evergreen Market is debuting a revolutionary 20-foot high geoponic (soil-based) wall farm that lets customers not only choose clean, fresh-picked produce but also see exactly where it comes from
The world of freshly harvested greens and herbs is looking up – literally – in Monsey, NY. The iconic Evergreen Market is debuting a revolutionary 20-foot high geoponic (soil-based) wall farm that lets customers not only choose clean, fresh-picked produce but also see exactly where it comes from.
The pesticide-free lettuce, kale, arugula, basil, and cilantro from Evergreen’s on-site farm are sold at competitive prices in individual pots, making the “buying local” experience more convenient than ever. Pesticide-free and grown in soil that is never exposed to bugs, all products are Star-K Kosher Certified for purity.
“We are gratified to be the first kosher supermarket in the country to introduce the Vertical farm,” said Malki Levine of Evergreen. “Our customers are very much looking forward to buying fresh produce that is grown in our own backyard rather than being transported on long hauls from farms across the country. They will also appreciate the significantly reduced level of infestation, a major concern of kosher consumers.”
Shoppers can visit the thriving vertical farm when they visit the store. The state-of-the-art system features a controlled, sterile environment with soil beds containing a proprietary mix of minerals and nutrients. Advanced sensors constantly monitor, irrigate, and fertilize the crops throughout every growth stage.
Evergreen’s wall farm is the latest installation from Vertical Field, an Israeli ag-tech company that produces innovative vertical agricultural solutions that help the environment, improve human health conditions, and make fresh, delicious produce available all year round.
Geoponic (soil-based) vertical farming yields a new crop every few days, ensuring that fresh greens and herbs will always be in season in Monsey. The sustainable and eco-friendly method produces cleaner, healthier, tastier veggies than those shipped from miles away. And, reduced soil-to-plate time means a longer shelf life and fewer hands involved – a welcome benefit in the age of Covid-19.
“We are extremely excited with the partnership with Evergreen,” said Guy Elitzur, the CEO of Vertical Field. “They are precisely the type of supermarket that has the right customer base and will successfully integrate the latest technological advances in geoponic farming.”
For more information:
Vertical Field
info@verticalfield.com
www.verticalfield.com
Publication date: Tue 18 Aug 2020
Vertical Agriculture - Fresh Greens From The Wall Straight to The Plate
There is no doubt that one of the biggest challenges of the next years will be feeding the massive growing population all over the world
There is no doubt that one of the biggest challenges of the next years will be feeding the massive growing population all over the world.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF JULY 12, 2020
(photo credit: Courtesy)
There is no doubt that one of the biggest challenges of the next years will be feeding the massive growing population all over the world. In 50 years, the world’s population is expected to grow by another 2 billion people and due to urbanization one of the problems would be a lack of arable lands.
In recent days where the world pandemic is impacting global food systems, disrupting regional agricultural value chains, and posing risks to household food security there is a heightened awareness of food safety for producers, businesses, governments, and consumers. With border closures and quarantines, supply chain and trade disruptions could restrict people’s access to sufficient and nutritious sources of food.
Vertical agriculture is one of the hottest trends which aim to solve these problems. "Vertical Field" an Israeli company, developed vertical urban farms and active living walls, functioning as growing solutions for smart cities. Vertical Field was established by Mr. Bar-Ness in 2006, motivated by his green thumb and ambition to bring sustainable nature-based solutions into the urban lifestyle. "We understood people’s need to surround themselves with a green, healthy environment" explains Guy Elitzur, the company's CEO.
Vertical Field has developed soil-based solutions, for green cities but mainly for vertical urban food supply. One of the main solutions that the company is focusing on is a vertical, soil-based system for urban farming in any indoor or outdoor space. Vertical Field geophonic growing method has a unique platform comprised of a container with its own sensors, irrigation, and lighting systems and in-house monitoring software which automatically manages all growth phases allowing for less human handling and a more sterile environment in order to grow fresh, healthy and free of pesticides produce all year long.
NEW YORK: Vertical Farming Takes Root in Hudson Valley
Vertical Field launched in Israel in 2006 as an agricultural supply solution for the nation’s urban markets. Miner stated the firm began as a “green wall company” that took the horizontal aspect of rooftop gardens and switched it on its side
By Phil Hall
June 20, 2020
Among the more disturbing aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic involved food costs and supplies. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported a 2.6% increase in food prices nationwide from March to April, marking the largest monthly increase in 46 years. These increases have been fueled by disruptions in the supply chain due to worker illnesses in processing plants.
For restaurants and food retailers, not being able to access materials or being charged higher-than-normal exacerbates an already acute problem of trying to maintain revenue streams during the pandemic.
However, a pair of regional businesses have begun using agricultural technology from the Israeli company Vertical Field that takes the farm-to-table concept and turns it into a container-to-table approach.
“The way it works is that we take a container, just the standard shipping container,” explained Sam Miner, Vertical Field’s U.S. launch manager.
“And the main thing that we do is we put these modules on the wall that have irrigation lines behind it. We simply fill those modules with soil and we put in the right lighting equipment. And once you put plants in there, they just grow fairly simple.”
John Lekic, chef and owner of Poughkeepsie’s Farmers & Chefs restaurant, poses in front of his Vertical Field container used for growing greens and herbs. Photo courtesy Vertical Field.
Vertical Field launched in Israel in 2006 as an agricultural supply solution for the nation’s urban markets. Miner stated the firm began as a “green wall company” that took the horizontal aspect of rooftop gardens and switched it on its side.
The company now has 400 projects around the world, including a massive installation in Vietnam that Miner described as being “tremendous, like a football field.”
This spring, Vertical Field made its way into the U.S. market through a pair of Hudson Valley installations. John Lekic, chef and owner of Poughkeepsie’s Farmers & Chefs restaurant, learned about the technology at a Culinary Institute of America symposium in late 2019 and was intrigued about operating his own food source.
“We were planning to bring in the container in March and we actually brought in a container days after the emergency thing was declared in New York,” he said. “It was a perfect timing. Ten days later, we planted our first crop, mostly salad greens, and in the middle of May we already had to harvest. We are going to have a third one this week.”
Lekic praised the technology for allowing several harvests per week, noting the ability to “harvest them the day of serving.” He also praised the user-friendly aspect of the 20-foot containers.
“It’s super easy to maintain,” he said. “Once the container is set up and the mechanism is in place, you have an app that does the irrigation and controls the temperature and the humidity. It’s not really complicated — after you do it once or twice, the planting and everything else becomes really easy to maintain. It does not require a lot of time.”
Lekic is now growing herbs and leafy vegetables in the containers, adding “it’s still a playground for us.”
Another Hudson Valley business that has Vertical Field’s technology in place is the Evergreen Kosher supermarket in Monsey, which installed its containers at the end of May. Menachem Lubinsky, president of Brooklyn-based Lubicom Business Consulting and marketing director for Evergreen, praised the product for creating a speedy supply of produce.
“If something takes normally three months to grow, the technology can accelerate that to three weeks,” he said. “A restaurant or a supermarket can be in control of their supply.”
Lubinsky said he reached out to Vertical Field following news reports during the pandemic of truckers not being able to deliver goods and farms destroying crops because they suddenly had no outlets for selling. Besides selling the harvested crops, Evergreen is planning to make the containers a visitors’ attraction.
“The customer will be able to see the process of how it grows because one of the walls of the container is glass,” he said. “It’s kind of like an educational experience just for a family to go over to see how this whole process grows. And there’s a very large kosher constituency there who are concerned about consuming insects. This eliminates that concern because of the way it grows — it is insect-free.”
Lubinsky said that Vertical Field is planning to build on its technology to accommodate the growing of a wider variety of items, including strawberries and vegetables.