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    Photos: World's biggest rooftop greenhouse opens in Montreal

    Photos

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    Friday, February 3, 2023
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    Photos: World's biggest rooftop greenhouse opens in Montreal

    About 100 varieties of vegetables and herbs are grown year-round in this farm


    Published:  August 26, 2020 16:45 AFP  and  compiled by Balaram Menon, Senior Web Editor

    1 of 19
    Copy of 526396-01-02-1598445401499
    Building on a new hanging garden trend, a greenhouse atop a Montreal warehouse growing eggplants and tomatoes to meet demand for locally sourced foods has set a record as the largest in the world. Image Credit: AFP
    2 of 19
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    It's not an obvious choice of location to cultivate organic vegetables - in the heart of Canada's second-largest city - but Lufa Farms on Wednesday inaugurated the facility that spans 15,000 square meters, or about the size of three football fields. Image Credit: AFP
    3 of 19
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    "The company's mission is to grow food where people live and in a sustainable way," spokesman Thibault Sorret (above) told AFP, as he showed off its first harvest of giant eggplants. Image Credit: AFP
    4 of 19
    Copy of 526370-01-02-1598445378160
    It is the fourth rooftop greenhouse the company has erected in the city. The first, built in 2011 at a cost of more than Can$2 million (US$1.5 million), broke new ground. Image Credit: AFP
    5 of 19
    Copy of 526399-01-02-1598445407595
    Since then, competitors picked up and ran with the novel idea, including American Gotham Greens, which constructed eight greenhouses on roofs in New York, Chicago and Denver, and French Urban Nature, which is planning one in Paris in 2022. Image Credit: AFP
    6 of 19
    Copy of 526383-01-02-1598445364955
    A local Montreal supermarket has also offered since 2017 an assortment of vegetables grown on its roof, which was "greened" in order to cut greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change. Image Credit: AFP
    7 of 19
    Copy of 526393-01-02-1598445367764
    Lebanese-born Mohamed Hage and his wife Lauren Rathmell, an American from neighboring Vermont, founded Lufa Farms in 2009 with the ambition of "reinventing the food system." Image Credit: AFP
    8 of 19
    Copy of 526366-01-02-1598445372840
    At Lufa, about 100 varieties of vegetables and herbs are grown year-round in hydroponic containers lined with coconut coir and fed liquid nutrients, including lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini, bok choy, celery and sprouts. Image Credit: AFP
    9 of 19
    Copy of 526372-01-02-1598445384034
    Bumblebees pollinate the plants, while wasps and ladybugs keep aphids in check, without the need for pesticides. Image Credit: AFP
    10 of 19
    Copy of 526365-01-02-1598445413016
    Enough vegetables are harvested each week to feed 20,000 families, with baskets tailored for each at a base price of Can$30. Image Credit: AFP
    11 of 19
    Copy of 526388-01-02-1598445394080
    The company's "online market" also sells goods produced by local partner farms including "bread, pasta, rice, etcetera," Sorret said. Image Credit: AFP
    12 of 19
    Copy of 526367-01-02-1598445375412
    On the ground floor of the new greenhouse, a huge distribution center brings together nearly 2,000 grocery products for offer to "Lufavores," including restaurants. Image Credit: AFP
    13 of 19
    Copy of 526387-01-02-1598445391737
    Shopper Catherine Bonin tells AFP she loves the freshness of the produce but laments that some items are always out of stock. "I can never get peppers," she says. Image Credit: AFP
    14 of 19
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    "We are now able to feed almost two percent of Montreal with our greenhouses and our partner farms," said Sorret. Image Credit: AFP
    15 of 19
    Copy of 526364-01-02-1598445410181
    "The advantage of being on a roof is that you recover a lot of energy from the bottom of the building," allowing considerable savings in heating, an asset during the harsh Quebec winter, he explains. "We also put to use spaces that were until now completely unused," he said. Image Credit: AFP
    16 of 19
    Copy of 526398-01-02-1598445404297
    Fully automated, the new greenhouse also has a water system that collects and reuses rainwater, resulting in savings of "up to 90 percent" compared to a traditional farm. Image Credit: AFP
    17 of 19
    Copy of 526380-01-02-1598445389336
    Lufa "more than doubled" its sales during the new coronavirus pandemic, a jump attributable "to contactless delivery from our online site," says Sorret. Profitable since 2016, the private company now employs 500 people, around 200 more than before the pandemic, according to him. Image Credit: AFP
    18 of 19
    Copy of 526376-01-02-1598445386898
    It is currently working on the electrification of its fleet of delivery trucks and is in the process of exporting its model "to different cities around the world," starting with Canada and the United States, Sorret said. Image Credit: AFP
    19 of 19
    Copy of 526400-01-02-1598445370367
    "What's a little crazy," he recalls, is that none of the founders "had grown a tomato in their life" before opening the business. Image Credit: AFP

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