Eric Amyot, principal and founder of Modular Farms Co., told the annual meeting of Ontario Agri-Food Technologies
how his team engineered and built a container to grow crops after a shipping
container it bought from a supplier in Boston broke down.
They grow mainly green leafy salad ingredients marketed by
their Smart Greens division, but sales of their Modular Farms units have taken off
since the first one went into production little more than a year ago.
They have been sold to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and farmers in
France and Austalia. Twenty are on order to be placed on a site on the Toronto waterfront.
A related technology, ZipGrow towers, can be set up
alongside walls. One is in a classroom in Yellowknife, another in Amyot’s
living room where the family watches its salads of tomatoes, kale and spinach
growing.
A Metro Inc. supermarket in Toronto has eliminated waste of
leafy greens by ordering direct from a nearby Modular Farm. A Toronto
restaurant has served a salad 10 minutes after the greens were picked.
It brings a whole new immediacy to Grow Local, Grow Fresh.
The company also builds ZipFarms that can be set up in any
indoor space.
A Modular Farm can grow a crop with one per cent of the
water required for a field crop and the temperature, humidity and air flow can
all be controlled to maximize productivity and minimize pests and diseases.
One module is 10 by 10 by 40 feet and can equal the
production of one acre per year.
The modules can be “stacked” to use single
germination and packaging centres whereas shipping containers used by
competitors require those features for each container.
