An ecosystem built for better berries: How collaboration is changing the future of indoor berry growing at Université Laval.

Indoor strawberry growers have faced high disease burden, crop loss, and ultimately revenue loss—challenging outcomes for an emerging industry trying to establish a foothold in Canada’s food production system. The VertBerry team of Université Laval is reimagining how the provision of disease-free transplants to Canada’s growers can propel and strengthen the industry. 

The team will use a vertical farming system based on aerobioponics to fully control the environment; this means growing plants without substrate while integrating beneficial microbes. The approach eliminates pests and produces young plants with consistent, reliable qualities and yields.  

Led by Dr. Martine Dorais, the team works across every aspect of production to ensure the success of their approach, testing and developing new berry cultivars adapted for indoor systems, customizing the engineering behind modular vertical farming technology, and validating the quality of transplants before they reach growers. By carefully matching cultivars to specific growing environments and extensively testing plants, the team aims to build a new level of trust for their diverse customers—outdoor, greenhouse, and vertical growers alike. Growers can rely on the pedigree, expertise, and judgement of all partners in the supply chain, ensuring consistency and confidence in every transplant. 

A cornerstone of the project is the health of the transplants and hygiene management of growing systems, led by François Gagné-Bourque of Ulysse Biotech. “Our technology is based on green chemistry and the use of microbes,” he explains. “Traditional cleaning methods don’t work for living systems like greenhouses. By actively managing the microbiome, we can prevent pests and diseases from forming and taking hold, tailoring them to each crop, and provide growers with the tools to maintain healthy, productive plants all season long.” 

Martine Dorais

Romain Schmitt, founder of Farm3, helps customize vertical farming units for growing transplants and testing new cultivars. “Everything is designed around what the plant needs to thrive,” he says. At Farm3, vertical farming serves as a precision research tool—not to replace traditional growers, but to empower them and help them achieve sustainable profitability by boosting yields and reducing uncertainty. 

Vincent Hall is the project’s partnership and integration lead and CEO of Pépinières Cultivar Inc, the partner responsible for the technology and supplying healthy, acclimated transplants to commercial producers. He describes the approach: “Success isn’t just about technology or biology, it’s about having the right people in the right roles and making sure everyone’s expertise is connected. We’re creating an ecosystem where knowledge, experience, and practical insight all come together.”  

L to R back: Erik Lima, Anne-Marie Audet, Daniel Bajol, Janne Meloche, Romain Schmitt, Charles Goulet, Yves Hurtubise, Vincent Lévesque, François Gagné-Bourque, Steeve Pepin
L to R front: Claire Letanneur, Martine Dorais, Vincent Hall, Thi Thuy An Nguyen

“Our work isn’t just about producing plants, it’s about creating a system that can adapt, innovate, and support growers over the long term,” Hall says. “If we can make these cultivars thrive indoors, we can open the door to a new way of growing food responsibly and intelligently.” 

The team works closely with growers, commercial partners, and researchers to ensure their innovations translate to real-world impact. “By integrating agronomy, engineering, and microbiology, we can build systems that are reliable, scalable, and tailored to the needs of industry,” Dorais adds. Education and professionalization are central to the project. From hygiene and microbiome protocols to acclimatization of transplants, the team equips growers with knowledge and tools to stabilize their yields, increase resilience, and focus on continuous improvement rather than daily firefighting. This professionalization will also attract a new generation of growers, drawn by predictability, profitability, and opportunity. 

Vincent Hall, Romain Schmitt

By addressing a major challenge faced by indoor strawberry growers, Université Laval’s VertBerry project is working to strengthen the Canadian greenhouse sector, increase profitability, and build a resilient, sustainable food system. 

Collaborators

  • Cultivar
  • Ulysse Biotech
  • Farm3
  • Demers
  • Gush
  • A. Massé Nursery
  • Savoura
  • Modulable
  • Lightbase
  • Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of Quebec / Ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation (MAPAQ)

Rethinking raspberries: How TMU researchers are re-engineering indoor growing through airflow and pollination solutions.

For Drs. Habiba Bougherara and Lesley Campbell of Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), innovation often starts with asking the harder question: Why not? 

Why not choose a berry that’s often considered too fragile, tall, or difficult to grow indoors? Why not reimagine pollination without bees? Why not build a system that lets growers across Canada and beyond rethink how food is produced sustainably? The team at TMU is setting out to do all of these things. 

With backgrounds in engineering and botany, respectively, Bougherara and Campbell are developing a scalable, flexible system for growing raspberries indoors—an approach that could help make Canada more self-sufficient in berry production while addressing mounting pressures on land use, pollination, and food security. 

Habiba Bougherara and Lesley Campbell

Working with the “Joan” raspberry cultivar, the team’s goal is to shorten the plant’s typical eight foot height to about four feet, creating a more compact, faster-growing crop. The shorter growth cycle could make indoor raspberry production efficient and economically viable for the first time. The pilot trials during the Shepherd Phase have already achieved remarkable results, including a 350% increase in yield compared to outdoor farms. The team is developing a pilot facility called MoFarm, a first-of-its-kind vertical farm in Quebec that will demonstrate a complete, closed-loop production system using bee-free pollination. 

At the heart of this team’s approach is Bougherara’s patented bee-free pollination system—an autonomous airflow technology they first developed during the Challenge’s Shepherd Phase. The system mimics natural pollination while maintaining a consistent microclimate for the berries, ensuring stable yields without relying on actual bee hives. An additional benefit of the unique airflow pattern is the recycling of warm air and CO2, meaning lower resource use and input costs for growers.  

This innovation couldn’t come at a more urgent time: global bee populations are under intense stress from pesticides, parasites, and climate change, and farmers are struggling to access enough healthy hives for pollination. Not to mention, greenhouses tend to have high mortality rates for bees.

“Our technology offers a safe, consistent alternative,” says Bougherara. “It means growers can still produce high-quality fruit without depending on a fragile ecosystem service that’s becoming harder to secure.”

The TMU team’s Scaling Phase project is about turning their breakthroughs into real-world solutions, and collaboration is integral to their work. Their growing network of partners includes Dunya Habitats, Montel, and Demers to prototype and test the technology in both container farms and greenhouse environments. 

L to R: Georgia Jovanovic, Habiba Bougherara, Sheaza Ahmed, Hassan Sarailoo, Parham Jafary

“This is where science meets industry,” says Campbell. “We’ve moved from proof-of-concept to asking, how do we make this usable, scalable, and commercially viable? That’s where partnerships are so critical.” 

For both researchers, the work is personal and collaborative. “It’s been a real growth process for us,” Campbell reflects. “Habiba and I come from very different disciplines. I grew up on a farm, and this project has really deepened our partnership. We’ve had to think like entrepreneurs, like engineers, and like farmers, all at once.” 

The duo’s leadership also embodies a quiet transformation within Canadian agriculture—more women are at the forefront of technology and food innovation, and mentoring the next generation of agtech leaders. Bougherara and Campbell’s long-term vision reaches beyond raspberries: the modular, bee-free system could support other high-value crops such as blueberries, strawberries, and even tomatoes, bringing flexibility and resilience to a sector navigating climate uncertainty and rising costs. 

L to R: Azizah Alawusa, Lucas Paquette, Sheaza Ahmed, Lesley Campbell

“If we can make raspberries thrive indoors,” Campbell says, “we can open the door to a whole new way of growing food sustainably, locally, and intelligently.”

For TMU’s Campbell and Bougherara, the raspberry isn’t just a crop, it’s a catalyst for change.

Collaborators

  • Demers
  • Dunya Habitats
  • Montel

An abundance of berries: How SFU’s team is building a multi-berry production system for year-round harvests.

At Simon Fraser University (SFU), a multidisciplinary team, led by a geneticist, a horticulturalist, and a business strategist, is tackling the complex challenge of simultaneously growing blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries. 

SFU professor and scientist Dr. Jim Mattsson brings deep knowledge of plant physiology and gene editing; Dr. Eric Gerbrandt of BeriTech is one of Canada’s top berry researchers and an experienced grower; and Rodrigo Santana, an entrepreneur and co-founder of BeriTech, integrates practical innovation with scalable business insights. Together, they pose a triple threat in addressing the challenge of producing fresh berries all year in Canada. Their premise is to combine blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries in one system and stagger their unique dormancy and fruiting windows to create a wave of year-round harvests. 

The team is also focused on economic viability. Rather than forcing berries to grow in systems designed for other crops, they are designing the greenhouse infrastructure and equipment specifically around the needs of the berry plants and their horticultural schedule. Their “less is more” approach in terms of technology aims to scale this method alongside outdoor fields, helping growers extend their seasons, generate year-round revenue, and maximize the use of existing labour and equipment.

L to R: Rodrigo Santana, Eric Gerbrandt, and Jim Mattsson

At the core of their work are the plants themselves. The team is trialling which market-available varieties would best serve their system, considering both productivity and how each variety interacts with its environment. “We’re focused on high-performing varieties that we know can thrive indoors,” says Santana. Mattsson’s research further enhances this work with the development of novel “super plants”—smaller, higher-yielding varieties that could revolutionize indoor berry production. 

L to R: Jim Mattsson, Mozhgan Farzami Sepehr, Risako Kazemi, and Juan Rodriguez Lopez

In parallel, Gerbrandt applies advanced horticultural methods to optimize production schedules and deliver consistent, high-quality berries, carefully timing crop cycles to maximize yield per unit of space and energy. It’s not a silver-bullet solution but rather a multidisciplinary approach that blends science, horticulture, and practical know-how. 

“Our goal has always been economic viability,” says Santana. “If we can produce these berries efficiently indoors, we’re not just innovating; we’re strengthening Canada’s food security.”

L to R back: Mostafa Mirzaei, Matthew Jude, Eric Gerbrandt, Rodrigo Santana, Jim Mattsson, Juan Rodriguez Lopez. L to R front: Mozhgan Farzami Sepehr, Risako Kazemi.

During the Scaling Phase, the team is focused on real-world validation and piloting their systems in greenhouses with two grower partners across Canada, measuring yield, fruit quality, and energy efficiency. Early results are promising: strong plant health, consistent production, and adaptability across berry types. 

In the long term, by integrating varietal fundamentals, plant physiology, horticultural methods, and appropriate technology, SFU’s research could transform how high-value fruit crops are bred, grown, and supplied in Canada.  

Collaborators

  • BeriTech Inc.
  • Fenwick Berry Farm
  • Bergen Farms Produce
  • Fall Creek Nursery
  • Northwest Plant Company
  • Signify
  • Koppert
  • Ludvig Svensson
  • Delphy
  • University of British Columbia

Growing smarter one step at a time: How AI and horticulture are coming together at University of Guelph to grow more with less.

Led by professor Youbin Zheng and collaborators at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), the team is engineering the next generation of greenhouse systems by integrating artificial intelligence, smart energy use, smart lighting, and precision horticulture alongside sustainable design. Starting with one of the biggest challenges to year-round strawberry production—high energy use for heating and lighting—the team is developing automated data-driven solutions to optimize how greenhouses use energy and maintain ideal growing conditions.

The Scaling Phase builds on their success, taking innovations from the university greenhouse at Guelph and AAFC’s state-of-the-art facility, optimizing them, and then scaling up to a commercial-level greenhouse. Each step is a testing ground, a way to refine technology, gather data, and ensure that by the time growers adopt these systems, they are reliable, scalable, and ready to deliver results.

Three innovations lie at the heart of this transformation. The first is an AI-driven fertigation system, which fine-tunes water and nutrient delivery in real time. By continually recycling and reusing resources, the system reduces waste while supporting plant health. Early trials have shown how data-driven precision can solve long-standing challenges in indoor agriculture, thereby creating a foundation that can scale to commercial operations. 

Youbin Zheng

The second innovation tackles one of the largest costs for indoor production, and the heart of the solution: lighting. AI-controlled systems will be trialled to adjust and optimize both the timing and intensity of artificial lighting to take advantage of off-peak electricity pricing. Since off-peak energy often comes from renewable sources, this approach could significantly reduce both energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions. These systems are now moving from small-scale trials to larger commercial environments, where they will demonstrate how intelligent design can make sustainable production economically viable. 

The third innovation reimagines greenhouse layouts with multi-level vertical production to maximize the use of space. By balancing natural and artificial light across every layer, the team ensures plants thrive no matter where they are situated in the system. Combined with AI, heat and water capture and reuse, and precise environmental controls, this approach maximizes yield and resource efficiency, showing how thoughtful engineering can amplify the potential of every square metre. 

L to R: Youbin Zheng, Dave Llewellyn, Edward Sykes, Jonah Schaller, Yun Kong, Xiuming Hao, Mojeed Oyedeji, Quade Digweed, Henry Visneskie

None of this would be possible without the team itself. Horticulturalists, computer scientists, engineers, and students work side by side, blending expertise in plant biology, AI, and commercial operations.

As Professor Zheng puts it, “The AI doesn’t understand plants, and horticulture alone can’t scale. It’s the combination—the collaboration—that makes these systems intelligent, efficient, and practical for real growers.”

Jonah Schaller, Youbin Zheng

By testing, refining, and validating each innovation in stages, the Guelph team is not just developing technology—they’re building a blueprint for a smarter, year-round, and climate-resilient food system. From research greenhouses to a commercial operation, their work will help Canadian growers produce more with less, sustainably and with confidence.

Collaborators

  • Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)
  • Biophi
  • Sollum Technologies
  • Climate Control Systems
  • Hoogendoorn America
  • Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness (OMAFA)
  • Meteor Systems – North America
  • University of Windsor

Building an Ecosystem Where Both Plants and Innovation Thrive

At Ontario Tech University, a team is developing an energy-efficient controlled-environment agriculture facility that will outperform traditional greenhouses in the production of strawberries—particularly during the winter months in Canada. They will be equipped with an Autonomous Intelligent Monitoring System to monitor health and growth, which will trigger early interventions if plants start to wane.

Brilliant Farm Project Plan

The emergence of controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) has offered a myriad of new opportunities for growers—with a few significant obstacles. Indoor facilities stretch the growing season into the darker, colder months, which increases productivity and can reduce dependence on food imports in cooler climates. However, operating controlled environments requires special skills, adding labour costs, and these systems have high energy needs, especially in northern regions.

A team anchored by Ontario Tech University is developing an energy-efficient controlled-environment agriculture facility (EE-CEAF) that can meet these challenges head-on while outperforming traditional greenhouses in the production of strawberries—at scale and while extending the season. “We’re going to provide affordable agricultural products and showcase what innovation can do,” says Osman Hamid, who brought the team together. “Once we solve the energy-efficiency problem and labour problem, everything will be from farm to table in a very short time.”

“We’re going to showcase what innovation can do.”

Founding Director of Creativity and Entrepreneurship at Ontario Tech University, Dr. Hamid runs Brilliant Catalyst, the university’s “on-campus incubator” for innovation and entrepreneurship. Its programs support startups founded by university students, alumni, and faculty, including project partners Turnkey Aquaponics and Moduleaf Technologies. These are Canadian solutions coming from Canadian founders and innovators. “I have the privilege of being able to see all these creative ideas and the entrepreneurial spirit that comes from a bigger community,” Dr. Hamid says. “The Homegrown Innovation Challenge speaks to what we wanted to do when we created this ecosystem.”

Located at Willowtree Farm in Port Perry, Ontario, the EE-CEAF facility is a thermally-enhanced greenhouse with 350 square metres of dedicated grow space. It will be tested and optimized by researchers with a broad range of expertise, from artificial intelligence to aerospace systems engineering.

According to Dr. Hamid, “Traditional farming will always have a place because farmers are the most in touch with the land. With technology, things can become more competitive. Things are more accessible at affordable costs and open doors to people who might not have seen farming as a profession.” Alex McKay, co-owner of Willowtree Farm and a second-generation farmer, agrees, noting, “The next generation doesn’t see new technology as a threat. They see it as a way to further their legacies. That is the exciting part, being able to work with new partners and grow our networks.”

“The Homegrown Innovation Challenge speaks to what we wanted to do when we created this ecosystem.”

The complementary technologies at the facility include a combined cooling, heat, and power system (CCHP), a Waste Heat Dehumidification System (WHDS), and an Autonomous Intelligent Monitoring System (AIMS). The CCHP uses organic waste to generate heat and electricity. The heat can warm the grow space or power a heat pump to cool it. The CCHP will also recycle carbon dioxide and nutrients back to the plants. The WHDS runs on captured waste heat from artificial lights providing dehumidification. Lastly, if a plant begins to wane, the AIMS that monitors its health and growth will trigger early interventions.

“Having integrated solutions really provides a competitive advantage,” Dr. Hamid says. “Perhaps the best thing about the project is being able to fail quickly, learn quickly, and fix it quickly. I know it sounds weird to be excited about failure, but I think the process is going to be more than fast. It’s going to be hypersonic.”

Collaborators

  • Glenn Harvel, Ontario Tech University
  • Connor Loughlean, Ontario Tech University
  • Qusay Mahmoud, Ontario Tech University
  • Alexander McKay, Willowtree Farm
  • Craig Robinson, Turnkey Aquaponics Inc.
  • Jaho Seo, Ontario Tech University
  • Tony Veneziano, Turnkey Aquaponics Inc.
  • Nicholas Varas, Moduleaf Technologies
  • Michael Veneziano, Turnkey Aquaponics Inc.

Aeroponics puts a twist on conventional hydroponics.

This Quebec City-based team is developing an advanced aeroponic device incorporating CycloFields’ rotating carousels that revolves plants around fixed LED lights and water mists. The promise of this sustainable ‘VertBerry’ approach is that it will dramatically improve the efficiency of climate control and light use in the production of all manner of fruits and vegetables—and the quality, too.

VertBerry: Proof of concept of an integrated aeroponic system for indoor berry cultivation.

“The whole picture is important to us,” says Martine Dorais, professor of plant science and a researcher at the centre de recherche et d’innovation sur les végétaux at Université Laval. “We’re going to show the consumer that if indoor growing is well done, the quality will be there.”

Dr. Dorais has teamed up with long-time collaborator Steeve Pepin, professor of environmental plant physiology at Laval, and industry partner CycloFields Indoor Farming Technology, to pioneer an integrated aeroponic strawberry production system for year-round harvests. Aeroponics puts a twist on conventional hydroponics—where roots are immerged in water—by hanging plants and spraying their roots with nutrients. The team’s VertBerry system levels up this method, suspending strawberry plants on CycloFields’ rotating carousels that slide along overhead rails while sprinklers mist their dangling roots with water at regular intervals. The plants revolve around LED lights that have variable wavelength ranges and intensities with a well-designed HVAC system, which produces a more uniform microclimate, and therefore, fruits of higher quality. The growing walls can be easily moved into a central space for harvesting, cleaning, seeding, and transplanting.

The pesticide-free system has already proven effective for leafy greens. “Plants grow much faster than they do in hydroponic systems,” says chemical engineer Éric Deschambault, president of CycloFields, who co-founded the company with his son Antoine at the beginning of Covid. “You release less waste, and you can stack the plants higher.”

The Laval team, along with CycloFields’ agronomist Benido Claude Davy Belem, will study optimal growth conditions for plants, drawing upon the bioclimatology expertise of Dr. Pepin and Dr. Dorais’ decades of research into sustainable growing systems. Multiple strawberry varieties will undergo trials to perfect lighting, irrigation, biostimulants, and temperatures. Using high-performance F1 seeds—first-generation seeds after cross-pollinating two different parent plants—the team will also optimize plant traits, such as germination rates, photosynthesis, carbon partitioning, fruit yield, and nutritional quality. Root development and productivity of raspberry and blueberry plants under aeroponic conditions will also be studied.

The operation will use precision LED lights and an energy-efficient dehumidification system to minimize energy consumption. Aeroponics will ensure that a minimum of water and fertilizers are used to grow the pesticide-free berries. All those aspects, along with the use of green energy, will align the project with sustainable development. “The focus in agriculture used to be productivity and then quality,” Dr. Dorais says. “Now it’s also the environmental footprint of our system. We have to get to carbon neutrality or close to zero.”

“If we are able to do more, we can do less.”

Mr. Deschambault notes that learning how to grow strawberries sustainably indoors will develop tools that can be applied to a range of crops, many of which are less demanding. “My father always told me, if you are able to do more, you’re able to do less,” Mr. Deschambault says. “Strawberries are so complicated that if we can meet this challenge, we can do a lot of new things.”

Collaborators

  • Éric Deschambault, eng., CycloFields Indoor Farming Technology Inc.
  • Benido Claude Davy Belem, agr. MSc, CycloFields Indoor Farming Technology Inc.
  • Antoine Deschambault, CycloFields Indoor Farming Technology Inc.
  • Christian Desjardins, CycloFields Indoor Farming Technology Inc.
  • Vincent Fortin-Coderre, CycloFields Indoor Farming Technology Inc.
  • Thi Thuy An Nguyen, PhD, Université Laval

AI farming: Digitizing the relationship between the greenhouse and the plants inside it.

Artificial intelligence is poised to transform virtually every sector, and horticulture is no different. This team is housed at the University of Guelph, an ensemble of academic wisdom and technological innovation, and has developed a Digital Twin Model, an AI-powered autonomous farming system that will revolutionize berry cultivation in controlled environments, making out-of-season production a sustainable reality.

Autonomous controlled-environment system for year-round berry production.

In an era where sustainable practices and technological innovation merge, a groundbreaking alliance between the University of Guelph, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and Koidra is setting the gold standard in sustainable berry production. Their aim is to revolutionize berry cultivation in controlled environments, making out-of-season production a sustainable reality.

This collaboration, an ensemble of academic wisdom and technological innovation, has brought to life the Digital Twin Model. More than a data-collection tool, this model captures the real-time nuances of the greenhouse environment and plants, transforming it into a dynamic AI-driven ecosystem. It fine-tunes parameters such as light, temperature, and carbon dioxide levels with unprecedented precision and speed, ensuring optimal growth conditions.

Dr. Youbin Zheng, a professor of environmental sciences at the University of Guelph, sheds light on this intricate process, “Operating a greenhouse is like orchestrating a symphony. Every component must harmonize. And with berries, the stakes are higher. But through our shared expertise, we’re crafting an intuitive and resource-efficient berry-growing environment.”

The Digital Twin Model takes the guesswork out of monitoring plant health with real-time data from sophisticated biosensors. Every five minutes, the system updates and responds to data with adjustments to variables such as temperature and carbon dioxide concentration—a frequency that’s beyond the capacity of the average human grower. It also integrates and connects hardware and software that many growers already use, centralizing information and controls for greater efficiency.

“Using AI we don’t aim to replace farmers. We seek to elevate their potential to unparalleled heights.” Dr. Ken Tran, Koidra

Their combined efforts have been nothing short of stellar. Back in 2018, Dr. Ken Tran of Koidra and Dr. Xiuming Hao from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada clinched victory in an autonomous greenhouse challenge focusing on cucumbers. This victory was doubly sweet, setting an unmatched yield record and achieving the highest sustainability scores across all key metrics: energy, water, and carbon dioxide efficiency.

By 2022, Koidra had done it again. Another challenge, this time on lettuce, resulted in another victory, surpassing expert growers in profit by a staggering 27%, all while maintaining impeccable sustainability scores.

It’s not just about accolades and academic achievements: it’s about real-world impact. In recent commercial pilots, Koidra’s technology was a game-changer, boosting yields in organic eggplants and mini cucumbers by 27% and 20% respectively. A testament to the technology’s scalability and adaptability.

“We have climate change, more extreme weather, droughts, and more people to feed on the earth,” Dr. Hao says. “We can produce much more food per unit of land area. We can farm in the desert, near the North Pole, in remote communities, as long as we continue to develop controlled environment systems. And we can improve food security and quality.”

The strides made by this collaboration are not merely steps toward sustainable berry farming; they are giant leaps for the future of agriculture.

Collaborators

  • Fadi Al-Daoud, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
  • Adam Dale, University of Guelph
  • Jason Lanoue, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
  • Kenneth Tran, Koidra Inc.
  • Ketut Putra, Koidra Inc.
  • Yun Kong, University of Guelph
  • David Llewellyn, University of Guelph

Pioneering greenhouse technology to feed communities.

AgriTech North has joined forces with Collège Boréal and the Rural Agri-Innovation Network to help create a scalable fresh-food production system that’s both economically viable and sustainable for northern growers, particularly in remote and Indigenous communities. This unique-to-Canada growing space is underpinned by a thermal-management technology and advanced thermal harvesting apparatus.

Achieving sustainable and commercially viable greenhouse strawberry production in extreme climates with integrated and innovative infrastructure, equipment, and methods.

In Dryden, Ontario—halfway between Winnipeg and Thunder Bay—a vertical farm is producing two unlikely products for a subarctic climate: off-season strawberries and heat.

The farm’s operator, AgriTech North, has joined a research team assembled by Sabine Bouchard, manager of research and innovation at Collège Boréal, to help create a unique to Canada growing space with thermal management technology. Their goal is a scalable fresh-food production system that’s both economically viable and sustainable for northern growers, particularly in remote and Indigenous communities.

“Greenhouse envelope technologies haven’t changed in more than 50 years,” says Benjamin Feagin Jr., AgriTech North’s chief executive officer, referring to the physical components that separate the inside and outside of a building. “I was familiar with inflatable structures, like BC Place in Vancouver, and started thinking about their performance relative to their occupied space. I discovered they actually outperform existing technologies substantially.”

This revelation sparked the development of an inflatable greenhouse made of ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE), a fluorine-based plastic that resists corrosion and can withstand extreme temperatures. “ETFE also has high light transmission, which can reduce the need for artificial lighting,” says David Thompson, director of the Rural Agri-Innovation Network at the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre. “This leads to energy savings and a lower carbon footprint, too.”

Inside the greenhouse, a vertical farm designed by Truly Northern will employ water-cooled, programmable lighting and a hydroponic recirculation system that uses 95% less water and 60% less fertilizer than field production. Pests will be controlled through bee vector technology developed at Collège Boréal. “The bees live in a box hive,” Ms. Bouchard explains. “When they go out, they pass through a dispenser with soft pesticide that doesn’t affect the bees, and they take it to areas of the plants where a pesticide normally can’t reach.”

Even on frigid days, vertical farms require cooling systems to keep their indoor environments from becoming overheated. The greenhouse’s solar tri-generation system—which controls power, cooling, and heating—will reduce and recycle heat through thermal harvesting. “We’re combining a vertical farm that produces way too much heat and dumping that heat into an environment, like a greenhouse, that needs it,” Mr. Feagin explains. “That’s the power of combining multiple growing technologies.”

“This is regional food sovereignty.”

“In order to monetize the servicing of Indigenous communities that are at the far end of the distribution chain, every community in between will be served as well,” Mr. Feagin says. “That helps share the burden of distribution with many communities, so this is not just Indigenous food sovereignty, this is regional food sovereignty.”

Collaborators

  • Benjamin Feagin Jr., AgriTech North
  • Kerri Howarth, AgriTech North
  • Jean Pierre Kapongo, Collège Boréal
  • Sylvaine Beaulieu, Collège Boréal
  • Stephane Lanteigne, Smart Indoor Farming Solutions/Truly Northern
  • Daniel Leduc, Collège Boréal
  • Lauren Moran, Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre
  • David Thompson, Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre

Renewable energy for year-round Raspberries.

Scientists from Bishop’s University and Université de Sherbrooke are aiming to reduce the carbon footprint of fruit production by developing on-site renewable energy. Revolutionary solar-passive greenhouses will address growth media, energy consumption, and water management, in addition to supporting a “flower-on-command” approach.

CANberries: Year-round production of Canadian berries.

While traditional greenhouses may extend the growing season, they can also gobble electricity—energy that is often supplied by fossil fuels.

Scientists from Bishop’s University and Université de Sherbrooke are aiming to reduce the carbon footprint of fruit production by developing on-site renewable energy for local greenhouses. Led by Dr. Mirella Aoun, the team is partnering with Berger, a worldwide leader in the production of first-quality growing media, Les Productions Horticoles Demers, and family-run Quebec-owned agricultural producers Pouliot to grow raspberries all year. “In the future, we could be able to produce organic, out-of-season fruit,” Dr. Aoun says. “This is unheard of for raspberries and greenhouses.”

The team’s cutting-edge prototype will undertake multiple cycles of production during the off-season using different varieties of raspberries. “The most important breakthrough would be production in the fall,” Dr. Aoun says. “No one has done this yet because of technological challenges. Namely, the sunlight in the fall is not enough.”

“When we succeed and we have a breakthrough it means that Canadians will have access to locally produced, out-of-season fruit. They won’t have to rely on imports. Consumers will have access to nutritious local produce—grown with the most sustainable process possible.”

The solar-passive CANberries greenhouse design maximizes the use of available natural light and warmth, but what nature can’t provide is supplemented by agrivoltaic-aerogeothermal technologies. Crops are grown while an integrated photovoltaic system contributes to power the greenhouse’s artificial lighting, irrigation, and cooling systems. The panels can be opened to let in natural light or closed to supply shade. “A winter greenhouse can be used on any farm,” Dr. Aoun says. “However, we’re integrating these alternative energy technologies, so that we’re moving toward more sustainability.”

The project’s other resource-sparing methods include rainwater and evaporation collection, and solar-powered water treatment and storage at the Scaling Phase, which expand the circular design properties of the greenhouse. This circularity is a way to keep things as natural and ecological as possible.

The team’s agroeconomist will collect economic data to identify how these sustainable and environmentally-conscious growing practices can be adapted to best support producers, agricultural communities, and entrepreneurs. Success will place Canadians at the forefront of this agricultural technology, creating jobs, and shedding light on the necessity of cross-industry collaboration in the future for students and entrepreneurs. “It’s not yet possible to reach commercial productivity per square metre for raspberries,” Dr. Aoun explains. “We’re finding the best scenario for scaling up, not only at the technological level but also at the economical level.”

Collaborators

  • Leyla Amiri, Université de Sherbrooke
  • Darren Bardati, Bishop’s University
  • Andréane Gravel, Les Productions Horticoles Demers
  • Joey Boudreault, Ferme Onésime Pouliot
  • Stéphanie Forcier, Association des producteurs de fraises et framboises du Québec (APFFQ)
  • Izmir Hernandez, Réseau D’expertise en Innovation Agricole
  • Jane Morrison, Bishop’s University
  • Sylvain Nicolay, Université de Sherbrooke

Future-proofing greenhouses for the next generation.

Researchers at Kwantlen Polytechnic University are working on an advanced greenhouse system that relies on AI-driven robots to reduce both the cost of, and use of pesticides in, the production of strawberries and blackberries. State-of-the-art technology like lasers and other advanced optical sensors will also be heavily used to manage disease and treat biostimulants.

Carbon Neutral, Pesticide-Free Glasshouse Berry Production for Canada

Growers have been using greenhouses for centuries to shield plants from the extremes of climate and weather. Now, a team of academic researchers and industry partners seek to future-proof existing greenhouses with state-of-the-art technology—from a robotic pest management system to carbon-neutral energy storage. “We’re developing native resources to replace chemicals in the greenhouse,” says project leader Deborah Henderson, Director of the Institute for Sustainable Horticulture at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) and Regional Innovation Chair at Innovate BC. “But it’s expanded well beyond that. We’re working with anything that makes agriculture more sustainable.”

The team includes researchers from KPU, Simon Fraser University (SFU), as well as several agtech SMEs, and Star Produce, one of Canada’s largest fruit and vegetable producers. Their determination to produce high-quality strawberries and blackberries out of season is matched by a commitment to using cost-effective strategies with small carbon footprints. “When we designed our research greenhouse, it included geothermal heating. I said, if it’s not a geothermal greenhouse, I’m not interested,” Dr. Henderson recalls. “It’s got to be a place where we can support energy work.”

“It gives me hope.”

Majid Bahrami, professor of Mechatronic Systems Engineering at SFU, is developing a thermal energy storage and heat pumping system that runs on waste heat produced by the greenhouse. The heating and cooling it provides will be managed by a climate control system designed by Argus Control Systems that will integrate microclimate monitoring data to achieve optimal growing conditions. This is complemented by a dynamic lighting system designed by Sollum Technologies, which can operate every light fixture separately and emit any wavelength, including deep red. “You could have a sunrise at five or six in the morning,” Dr. Henderson says. “It takes into account the light coming in from the sun and won’t add more than required, so it’s very energy efficient.”

A UV light robot from Alta Stream Energy will suppress powdery mildew, while robotic technologies created by Ecoation Innovative Solutions will use cameras, visual recordings, and geolocating to detect additional threats to plant health. Powered by artificial intelligence, the system can recognize pest and disease problems several days earlier than the human eye, triggering biocontrol recommendations: microorganisms that target or out-compete pathogens and pests, or predator insects that eat spider mites.

The project will also address labour shortages in agriculture through a combination of labour-saving technology and capacity building for the next generation of growers, particularly for remote and Indigenous communities. “As farm agriculture gets more technical, it is attracting the younger people,” Dr. Henderson says. “I work at a university where I’m privileged to see the determination of young people and the innovations that walk into my office. It gives me hope.”

Collaborators

  • AltaStream Energy
  • Applied Bio-nomics
  • Argus Control Systems
  • Ecoation Innovative Solutions
  • Li Ma, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
  • Claire McCague, Simon Fraser University
  • Qiano Biosciences
  • Andres Torres, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
  • Sollum Technologies
  • Star Produce
  • Vivent Sa