Vertical farming offers some fertile ground for Canadian growers

Vision Greens is a vertical farming company that produces lettuce. Based in Welland, the company is looking to expand and provide more locally grown lettuce for the rest of Canada. ~ Submitted photos

By Luke Edwards

Lettuce is one of the quicker crops to grow, which made Lenny Louis’ 14-month wait odd, but necessary.

Louis is the CEO of Vision Greens, a vertical farm business with roots in Welland. And while his company alone isn’t the solution to Canada’s food security issues, he said it’s a step in the right direction.

“We’re not going to feed Canadians with just lettuce, but it’s a start,” he said.

That start took 14 months of product revision to get a lettuce his company could stand behind. Lengthy product development time, as well as high startup costs in general, are some of the major drawbacks to vertical farming. Combined with limited profit margins, it can make a decent return on investment a challenge.

“The consumer is not willing to pay a drastic premium in a commodity category,” Louis said.

However, Vision Greens has managed to grow, focusing on the right branding message of “peak fresh” that was simple enough for busy shoppers to internalize quickly as they did their groceries. Maintaining that peak fresh quality also requires strong relationships with grocery stores to ensure they’re storing the company’s products correctly.

Eri Hayashi, from the Japan Plant Factory Association, agreed that high initial costs remain a limitation for vertical farming. As does insufficient production management and lack of available crops.

“We need to expand crop diversification,” she said, suggesting a move from growing what they can, to discovering how to grow what they need.

However, high precision and constant measurements, along with a continuous supply are some of the benefits.

And in Japan, while some operations have failed, others have succeeded, showing there is a path to prosperity.

“You need to have good factory design,” she said.

One possible solution to high input costs has been studied by Laval University’s Steeve Pepin, who has found different light cycles could boost production and improve energy usage. He studied a variety of options and found some benefits of running four light cycles a day. It could allow growers to take advantage of times of day where energy is cheaper, he said.

The trio told their stories and presented their findings at last month’s Canadian Greenhouse Conference, held in Niagara Falls. 