Lufa Farms : the farming reinvented

Photo Agence QMI, NADIA LEMIEUX
Saturday and Sunday, more than 1,000 people have visited the first commercial greenhouse in the world to have been fitted on a roof, in the framework of open days organised by Lufa Farms.

Nadia Lemieux

Sunday, 28 January, 2018 20:24

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Sunday, 28 January, 2018 20:24

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MONTREAL | hundreds of people have fled the winter in visiting during the weekend, in a greenhouse, the Lufa Farms, located on the roof of a building in Ahuntsic-Cartierville in Montreal, and temperatures surpass 25 degrees Celsius.

Saturday and Sunday, more than 1,000 people have visited the first commercial greenhouse in the world to have been fitted on a roof, in the framework of open days organised by Lufa Farms.

On-site, they learned more about hydroponics, this technique of horticulture in which the plants grow above-ground, in a substrate of coconut fiber supplied with water and nutrients.

To prove

The entrepreneur Mohamed Hage and the biochemist Lauren Rathmell, the founders of Lufa Farms, inaugurated in 2011, this greenhouse, making 32, 000 square feet. Times have changed since the time when they had to zieuter Montréal through Google Maps to find roofs potential to affix a greenhouse.

Seven years later, “the company has proven itself,” says the communications coordinator Simon Garneau. Owners of buildings are called directly by the Lufa Farms to offer their rooftops. They begin to understand that ” everyone wins. “

“The greenhouse benefits of any residual energy that escapes through the roof of the building, which is usually wasted and dissipates in the city,” he says. But, it works in both directions. The greenhouse acts as a protective buffer so it cut the cost of heating and cooling of the building below. “

The company opened in 2013 in a greenhouse in Laval and in the last year, another to Anjou. The company is currently working to establish a fourth greenhouse.

A growing interest

Lufa Farms deliver 10 000 baskets of fresh vegetables and other products from producers partners per week in more than 350 distribution points in Montreal and as far away as Gatineau, Sherbrooke, Québec city and Trois-Rivières. “It affects approximately 2 % of all homes in montreal and it provides ingredients for about 3 million meals a year,” said Mr. Garneau.

Consumers appreciate the freshness of the vegetables from Lufa Farms and the fact that they are free of synthetic pesticides. The company also seeks to educate Montrealers to a power that is more sustainable, where food waste is reduced and where local purchase is encouraged.

The vegetable which is found in our plate has travelled in the average 2200 miles, says Simon Garneau to groups of visitors who visit the greenhouse. “They are usually picked unripe. “

“We want our vegetables are picked the same day [in which they are sold], the walls, only when they are really ready and never refrigerated “, he says.