
How Canada Became a Greenhouse Superpower - signor_bosco
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/06/16/473526920/how-canada-became-a-greenhouse-superpower
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jagger27
My family is from Leamington and my grandfather laments to this day about how
sad it is that the acres upon acres of glass and plastic have been plopped on
top of the most fertile land in Canada. The Leamington area has seriously mild
and fair weather compared to the rest of Canada and a sizeable chunk of its
farmland comes from drained marshes. Fresh water is limitless as well (Lake
Erie). That combo is killer and is the reason Leamington became the tomato
capital of North America. Leamington was so successful in this that Heinz
dropped a large factory directly in the heart of the city and bought up the
majority of the area's tomato supply. Good on the farmers for making the most
of their acreages but it's sad to see land you don't find just anywhere
trapped beneath glass.

I should also add that outdoor tomatoes are still so much tastier. You could
test the same type of plant grown inside and outside, just meters apart, and
know immediately which one is which.

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mc32
But the output per acre is multiples of regular outdoor farming, so it's the
opposite of wasting the fertile land. It's making the land area even more
productive.

W/re taste it's possibly just the variety grown rather than the cultivation
method.

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MustardTiger
Pouring concrete on top of fertile land so you can grow plants in hydroponic
systems is absolutely a waste of fertile land. They could poor that concrete
and put those greenhouses anywhere. Put them somewhere with bad soil, and
leave the good soil for growing food.

~~~
nibs
Several of our customers are Leamington tomato processors. I think part of it
has to do with where the processing infrastructure is located. I doubt there
is 1M+ square feet of tomato grading, sorting, processing and canning
equipment other places in North Eastern North America. The whole downstream
industry is built around Leamington and area (northern Michigan/southern
Ontario). I would argue that building hydroponics near all the infrastructure
makes sense then rebuilding the infrastructure somewhere more arid.

~~~
MustardTiger
I'm not saying it doesn't make sense, just that it is a waste of good farm
land. Lots of unoptimal things happen for perfectly logical reasons.

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sandworm101
Lol, I thought this would be about Canada and carbon emissions, greenhouse
gasses.

As for the greenhouses, as a canadian it also makes me laugh when to buy
tomatoes at Costco that were grown only a couple miles away, sans chemicals,
and picked the day before. You don't need to go to a farmer's market to buy
local.

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cmrdporcupine
And, well, much as I like our local industry... generally they taste nothing
like a tomato.

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falconpunch
Every tomato I've ever eaten has always tasted pretty much the same?

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adrianN
If you grow your own tomatoes you can use cultivars that are optimized for
taste, not for looking beautiful on a shelf for several days after being
transported a hundred miles. It also helps to pluck them only when they're
most ripe.

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hooch
> It also helps to pluck them only when they're most ripe.

And to eat them well before they even catch a whiff of a refrigerator.

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thinkcontext
China is also a greenhouse superpower, they've built huge numbers in the
north. They tend to be lower tech, focusing on an earth insulated design.

[http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/12/reinventing-the-
green...](http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/12/reinventing-the-
greenhouse.html)

~~~
feklar
So is Spain, almost every green/red/yellow/orange pepper sold in Canada is
from greenhouses there. [http://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/08/the-greenhouses-
of-alme...](http://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/08/the-greenhouses-of-
almeria.html) (article chosen for pictures, not content which is suspiciously
political/biased).

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IndianAstronaut
This is likely the future of food. More and more needs to be squeezed out of
every acre of land.

~~~
k-mcgrady
>> "This is likely the future of food. More and more needs to be squeezed out
of every acre of land."

Is it really necessary? I understand the population is increasing but the
population is also getting fatter. From what I understand we already grow more
than enough food for everyone on the planet. Difficulties is distributing that
to everyone, overeating, and too much choice (and wasted resources to create a
lot of it) seem to be the problem.

~~~
ihsw
One could argue that greenhouses could help decentralize the farming industry,
thereby mitigating the problem you mention, but these greenhouses would need
reliable energy and transport infrastructure. If a given country already has
reliable energy and transport then they likely have no issue with food
distribution either.

Then again, countries may be more inclined to invest in local greenhouse
infrastructure if it meant raising the expertise level of the country (which
leads to more local jobs, better education, etc).

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lintiness
greenhouse veggies are a premium product? people pay more for lots of stupid
things i guess. my wife pays triple for organic milk no matter how many
scientific studies i send her way.

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anonbanker
Nobody wants to admit it, but most of this tech has been driven by (and often
funded by) the prohibition of marijuana. Due to the extremely short
spring/summer in most of Canada, indoor grows became the norm, and much of
that technology/knowledge was transferred over to these locations almost
decades later.

When legalization occurs next spring, you'll see lots of these greenhouses
switch to the new cash crop.

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roel_v
That's nonsense. MJ plantations are amateur hour, nothing compared to the high
tech inside modern greenhouses.

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CapitalistCartr
I don't know what grow houses you've been in but here in Florida many are
absolutely sophisticated, even including CO2 management.

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roel_v
Having some climate/AQ control systems does not make a setup advanced. I'm not
claiming there is not a single illicit system that has some automated
equipment in it, the gp's claim was that current greenhouse tech was developed
in/for mj growing ops, which is preposterous.

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anonbanker
MIT's OpenAG (state-of-the-art in the industry) must be boring you to tears,
then.

