Canada, a nation often perceived as a land of agricultural bounty, faces a critical vulnerability: its heavy reliance on imported fresh produce. With as much as 80 per cent of its produce sourced internationally, Canada’s short growing season leaves the country exposed to global supply chain disruptions, climate change and geopolitical instability.

In 2022, the Weston Family Foundation recognized the need to strengthen domestic food security.

In response, the Foundation launched the $33-million Homegrown Innovation Challenge to bring together Canadian farmers, growers, academics and entrepreneurs to collaborate on novel solutions for year-round food production in a sustainable and cost-effective way.

As climate change and trade tensions continue to put a strain on our food systems, a University of Guelph researcher says greenhouses and other forms of controlled environment agriculture (CEA) provide a solution by growing food close to where most Canadians live.

Dr. Youbin Zheng is a professor in the School of Environmental Sciences who studies plant production in controlled environments. He says because many greenhouses and indoor food farms use soilless production systems, food can be grown even in urban areas, near the people who will consume it. 

Habiba Bougherara and Lesley Campbell aim to transform sustainable farming in Canada with their self-pollinating raspberry system.

A team led by Simon Fraser University plant genomics researcher Jim Mattsson is taking its research on greenhouse grown berries to the next level with a $5 million grant from the Weston Family Foundation.

The grant will support the scaling up of a production system fine-tuned during a previous phase of the Homegrown Innovation Challenge, a $33 million program the foundation launched in 2022 to spur agritech innovation and reduce Canada’s reliance on imports.

After more than three years of researching and developing Canada’s first self-pollinated vertical stacking farm, two professors from Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) are among just four teams across Canada to successfully advance to the Scaling Phase of the Weston Family Foundation’s Homegrown Innovation Challenge.

With an additional $5-million in funding over three years, their innovative berry-growing system aims to revolutionize sustainable farming in Canada and address key challenges in modern agriculture while minimizing environmental impacts.

TMU’s team, made up of mechanical engineer Habiba Bourgherara from the Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science (FEAS), and plant scientist Lesley Campbell from the Faculty of Science (FOS), is developing the “MoFarm,” a modular, vertical farming system designed for year-round raspberry production. Developed in collaboration with Yves Bélanger and Pascal Gagnon of industrial partner Montel Inc. (Montmagny, Quebec),the system’s multi-layered design can pollinate and grow multiple types of crops at various stages, maximizing yield and efficiency.

Beneath the curved panes of glass and steel on a University of Guelph research farm, rows of strawberry plants stretch toward LED lights that glow with a soft hue – lighting that knows exactly when to shine, for how long, and at what intensity. The roots of these plants sit not in soil, but in a smart, autonomously managed substrate. Around them, sensors quietly hum, collecting a symphony of data points on humidity, light levels, and carbon dioxide concentrations. The brain behind it all? Artificial intelligence.

Podcast recorded at Greentech. Moderator Romy Stuik with Eric Gerbrandt of BeriTech Inc. & Lukasz Aleksandrowicz of The Weston Family Foundation.

In 2022, the Weston Family Foundation recognized the need to strengthen domestic food security.

In response, the Foundation launched the $33-million Homegrown Innovation Challenge to bring together Canadian farmers, growers, academics and entrepreneurs to collaborate on novel solutions for year-round food production in a sustainable and cost-effective way.

A University of Guelph research team has made it to the third and final Scaling Phase of the Weston Family Foundation’s $33-million Homegrown Innovation Challenge. 

Dr. Youbin Zheng, professor in the School of Environmental Sciences, Ontario Agricultural College, and his team are receiving nearly $5 million to scale a hybrid greenhouse-vertical farming system powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and smart sensor technology that can grow strawberries year-round.  

Launched in 2022, the $33 million Homegrown Innovation Challenge has become a catalyst for Canadian ingenuity, championing sustainable agricultural innovations that reduce our reliance on imports and strengthen sustainable domestic production. With a focus on extending the growing season for berries, the Challenge is advancing systems that not only are built in Canada but also look to the country’s future.

This Challenge is entering its third and most ambitious phase—the Scaling Phase—that vision is closer than ever to becoming a reality.

Launched in 2022, the $33 million Homegrown Innovation Challenge has become a catalyst for Canadian ingenuity, championing sustainable agricultural innovations that reduce our reliance on imports and strengthen sustainable domestic production. With a focus on extending the growing season for berries, the Challenge is advancing systems that not only are built in Canada but also look to the country’s future.

This Challenge is entering its third and most ambitious phase—the Scaling Phase—that vision is closer than ever to becoming a reality.

Four teams (Scaling Phase grantees) from across Canada, chosen from an exceptional cohort of eleven teams from the previous round (Shepherd Phase grantees), will each receive up to $5 million in total over three years to bring their ideas to life. These teams are taking their solutions from concept to implementation by using the Scaling Phase as an opportunity to demonstrate and refine their growing systems under real-world conditions at farm scale.