There have been some interesting developments around climate controlled ag, specifically vertical farming, and their promise of import replacement. I’ve personally seen and heard of a number of new projects in this area.
Here is one based out of Welland ON, but I thought the stats on import replacement were especially compelling. As a local food advocate, it’s always been my goal to put more money in the hands of CDN suppliers with CDN grown product. For fresh lettuce in January, this has been a bit challenging! I’d be curious on all your thoughts, especially anyone in the food distribution or food service space, about vertically farmed produce.
“Each year, Canada imports 559 million pounds or about $2.2 billion worth of lettuce from thousands of miles away. This funding is already helping us deliver on our mission to help fix Canada’s broken food system and replace imported produce with clean food that’s better tasting. Now we can meet increased demand from leading grocers and are on track to capture double digit market share over the next few years,” said Lenny Louis, CEO, Vision Greens, former Tesla Country Director and Microsoft veteran.
https://retail-insider.com/retail-insider/2022/06/vertical-farming-company-looks-to-replace-imported-produce-at-canadian-grocers-with-homegrown-varieties-interview/
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My local Sobeys has a green house wall where they grow the herbs and lettuces they sell in store. It’s pretty cool looking and the herbs are really flavourful and colourful.
On a similar topic, I’m also really inspired by the fact that using cutting edge food science that we may be able to make our own ingredients such as vanilla, chocolate, etc.