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At Lufa Farms, it all started with thelove of food. Whenever MohamedHage and Kurt Lynn sat down forlunch, dinner or coffee, their discus-sion usually worked its way around

to why it was so difficult to findfresh and high-quality food inMontreal. They concludedthat the fundamental prob-lem in getting fresh food isthat produce is often grownfar away from where it’seaten. “This means that ourfood—whether grown in Que-

bec or in South Africa—is han-dled, packaged, shipped, stored,

refrigerated and reshipped perhapsdozens of times before it appears onour dinner plates,” Mohamed says.“And all along the way, it becomesless fresh, less nutritious, less tasty,and is exposed to more potentialhazards.”

Growing Year-Round Fresh

Produce in Montreal

Lufa Farms:

A Turnkey Urban

Farms ParadigmThe business and tech-savvy duo,along with a team of experiencedgreenhouse growers, set about tosolve this problem. After four years ofeffort, a new kind of farm exists rightin the city of Montreal, providingfresh, quality produce to Montrealresidents the same day it’s picked.The prototype farm is a 31,000-sq. ft.greenhouse on top of an officebuilding in Ahuntsic-Cartierville onthe north side of the city.

The ultimate goal of Lufa Farms isto develop a turnkey urban farmsparadigm that can be implementedin any North American city. “Our pro-totype greenhouse is in a cold cli-mate and on a small scale. This is theworst case scenario, so if we can doit here in Montreal, we believe wecan do it anywhere,” Kurt explainedwhile I toured the rooftop facilitywith him last spring.

Eliminating the

Distribution ChainUnlike some of the large commercialvegetable greenhouses that Canada isknown for, Lufa Farms has removed thedistribution chain and sells directly toconsumers. Similar to a community sup-ported agriculture (CSA) model, LufaFarms has about 1,000 subscribers whopre-pay for weekly baskets of premiumproduce.

An important and unique compo-nent to Lufa Farms’ operation is thatthey supplement what they grow in theirown greenhouse with third-party or-ganic produce from other Quebec farm-ers. There’s great consistency withgreenhouse-grown vegetables, but cus-tomers don’t always want consistency.“We learned that there are only so manyeggplants you can give a customer be-fore they don’t like eggplant,” Kurt saidwith a smile. The supplemental producekeeps the baskets interesting and reflec-tive of the seasons, and helps supportother small-scale local organic farmers.

Lufa Farms grows a variety of vegetables year-round in a

31,000-sq. ft. rooftop greenhouse in the city of Montreal. � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �by ANNIE WHITE

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Greenhouse in the CityLufa Farms’ rooftop greenhouseisn’t like most greenhouses. To besuitable for the urban rooftop, thegreenhouse had to be stronger,able to withstand greater snowloads and meet stringent build-ing codes. They worked with Ontario-based Westbrook Green-house Systems to adapt a solarcurved glass greenhouse to theexisting rooftop. This greenhousestructure was chosen for itsstrength and highest possiblelight levels.

The greenhouse also neededto provide multiple growing cli-mates for the diversity of vegeta-bles they cultivate. With over 25varieties of vegetables beinggrown in a relatively small area,they rely on hot zones for somevegetables, cool zones for others,and several “micro-climates”within each zone.

In an effort to minimize theenvironmental burden on thecity—both in use of water anddisposal of used water—LufaFarms captures rainwater in cis-terns and recirculates their irriga-tion water. The facility is designedto absorb as much natural heatfrom the sun and the building be-fore supplementing with high ef-ficiency boilers. “We believe thatwe’re able to grow and distributehigh-quality vegetables using halfthe energy required by tradi-tional growers and distribution,”Kurt says.

Minimizing Pests,

Maximizing FlavorLufa Farms doesn’t use any syn-thetic or unnatural pesticides,herbicides or fungicides, but be-cause they use various hydro-ponic methods of agriculture,their operation isn’t certifiable asorganic. Their management strate-gies include predator insects forbiological control, certain natu-rally-occurring bacteria, the useof weed-free growing media andrigid protocols for maintaining aclean, problem-free growing area.

The flavor quality of the veg-etable cultivars grown at LufaFarms is taken seriously. “Becauseour tomatoes aren’t packed, re-frigerated, or expected to travellong distances, we carefullychoose varieties on the basis oftaste and nutritional value,” Kurtexplained as he handed me acluster of bright red, vine-ripenedcocktail tomatoes, which I pro-ceeded to eat like candy as wewalked through the greenhouse.

Growing into the FutureThe future for Lufa Farms isbright. The company announcedlast fall that they secured $4.5million in financing to begin ex-panding to additional rooftops inQuebec as well as other potentialsites in Ontario and the U.S. Thefinancing was largely from CycleCapital Management, with addi-tional investments from the com-pany’s founding team.

Lufa already has its secondrooftop greenhouse under con-struction in Laval, a suburb ofMontreal. They anticipate begin-ning growing operations in thenew 44,000-sq. ft. facility in early2013. Lufa is also in the planningstages for an additional 120,000-sq. ft. Montreal facility and is look-ing at potentially building afacility in Toronto.

The company is also lookingat opportunities to enter the U.S.market. They are evaluating loca-tions in Boston and New York fornew greenhouses. Over the nextcouple of years, Lufa Farmshopes to have over 200,000 sq. ft.of growing space in rooftopsgreenhouses and increase theirsubscribing customers from 1,300to 5,000.

Hydroponic tomatoes and eggplants

grow side by side in the greenhouse

Two growers inspect young tomato plants being grown

hydroponically in Lufa Farm’s rooftop greenhouse.

Lufa Farms grows more than 25

varieties of vegetables and fresh

produce in their rooftop farm in

Montreal for local consumers. They

also provide root vegetables and

certain natural produce items from

other local Quebec farmers.

Subscribers choose the Lufa Farms

fresh produce basket service they’d

like to receive on a weekly basis.

Several basket services are offered,

containing different types and

quantities of fresh local produce.

Payment is made for fresh produce

baskets in 12-week intervals.

Lufa Farms delivers the food bas-

kets to group drop-off locations

around the city where subscribers

can pick them up. They can also

pick up their basket at the farm. For

seniors or the disabled, Lufa will de-

liver to their home for a small fee.

Subscribers are invited to partici-

pate in special programs at Lufa

Farms, including greenhouse tours,

crop selection discussions and sem-

inars on do-it-yourself city farming.

Lufa Farms uses a CSA-like model to provide

weekly baskets of greenhouse-grown produce to

subscribers. To keep the baskets interesting and

reflective of the seasons, they work with other

local Quebec farmers to supplement offerings.

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