User:Lufafarms

Overview
Lufa Farms is an urban multi-crop greenhouse built on the roof of a two-story office building located in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville neighborhood of Montreal. While other smaller rooftop greenhouse facilities exist for research or demonstration purposes (e.g. McGill University, Concordia University )or for private commercial use (e.g. York Hotel in Toronto and Eli Zabar's E.A.T. Restaurant and the Vinegar Factor in New York City, the Lufa Farms greenhouse is the first such commercial-scale greenhouse in the world and is operated as for-profit business.

The farm grows more than 25 varieties of vegetables including eggplant, peppers, lettuces, herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers, bok choy, chards, and specialized salad greens. At full capacity, the farm is expected to produce more than 40 tons of fresh produce each year. It's produce is sold to local consumers and restaurants using the community-supported agriculture model.

The 31,000 square foot facility is a prototype for larger farms expected to be constructed by the firm over the next several years in Canada and parts of the U.S.

Lufa Farms' Urban Farming Model
The prototype farm was based on a fundamental belief that as the distance between the food producer and the the food consumer grows, so also does the problems or risks of the food increase. At the same time, the quality of the food, both in taste and nutrition declines. Moreover, the Lufa Farms team and founder Hage were adamant that the first farm must be economically sustainable (profit-making), selling produce to a consumer, in order to distinguish the farm from the various interesting but un-viable urban farming projects. In a sense, the Lufa Farms objective was to become the "most local" source of fresh food and by doing so, address consumer issues on food quality, food traceability, freshness, and food safety.

The farm represents four key tenets in its agricultural and business model. These are as follows:


 * 1) Highly productive controlled-environment agriculture featuring the use of various "hydroponic" methods and farming of a diverse set of crops.
 * 2) Use of energy-saving and sustainability technologies or practices to minimize impact of the farm on the environment and city infrastructure.
 * 3) Engagement of the consumer through a provider-based consumer-supported agriculture model(CSA) to ensure minimum time from harvest to consumer, and
 * 4) Use of "responsible" agriculture - i.e. a complete prohibition on the use of unnatural or synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides and the employment of so-called "bio-controls" (e.g. beneficial insects or bacteria to control non-beneficial insects).

Controlled Environment
Lufa Farms uses controlled environment agriculture as a means of optimizing the productivity per square foot of its roof space. While this is essentially a greenhouse, the Lufa Farm greenhouse is divided into several "crop zones" to optimize temperature, nutrient mix/frequency, sunlight, cooling, and humidity to support different plant varieties. Their first greenhouse is also heated by natural gas and provides artificial lighting because the farm operates 12 months a year.

Sustainability Characteristics
The Lufa Farms greenhouse provides a number of sustainability features both independently and on combination with the building underneath it. Among the sustainability features utilized are rainwater harvesting, composting of plant matter, water recirculation, use of insulating curtains to increase the R value of the greenhouse at nighttime and other techniques.

Community Supported Agriculture
Rooftop greenhouses are expensive when compared to their on-ground equivalents. To compensate for this, Lufa Farms provides its produce to consumers using a provider community supported agriculture model. This means that Lufa Farms sells its produce directly to consumers who have "subscribed" to a produce purchase program. The principal benefit of this type of distribution is that Lufa Farms can keep a larger share of the consumer price rather than lose it to the conventional food distribution channel.

Responsible Agriculture
Lufa Farms uses various hydroponic methods of agriculture to grow its crops. These methods is not considered “organic” yet they yield high quality, highly nutritious plants with minimum water and nutrients and do not use pesticides, herbicides or fungicides as part of its growing regimen.

History
The concept of Lufa Farms was advanced by Mohamed Hage, a young entrepreneur in Montreal. In 2007, Hage assembled a team of agriculture, business, and architectural professionals to help him create and design the farm. This team included:


 * Kurt D. Lynn - A Toronto-based business & product marketing consultant and serial entrepreneur. He was a co-founder of ListenUp! Canada, and held senior management positions at NEBS, Visicorp Personal Software, and Digital Equipment Corporation.


 * Howard Resh - An internationally known horticulturist and pioneering hydroponics researcher, author and practitioner. He is also thedirector of the hydroponic farm and organic garden at Cuisinart Resorts and Spas in the British West Indies. Previously, he held senior science and management positions with Hoppmann Corporation and California Watercress Inc.


 * Alex Turkewitsch - Professional Engineer specializing in commercial, institutional and research greenhouses. He is particularly known for his design of several non-commercial rooftop greenhouses, including the facilities at McGill University in downtown Montreal.


 * Dr. Danielle Donnelly - Associate Professor of Plant Sciene at McGill and counsels Lufa Farms on plant science and plant culture. She is on the faculty of McGill’s Plant Science Department, and is a widely published specialist in tissue culture and the anatomy and physiology of cultured plants.


 * Dr. Stanley Kubow- Associate Professor at the School of Dietetics & Human Nutrition and advises Lufa on food values and nutrients in cultivated plants. He is a specialist in the nutrient and anti-oxidant properties of plant foods as directed to human health. He is broadly published in Nutrition and Food Science journals, and is a member of the Canadian Society of Nutritional Sciences.


 * GKC Architects - Montreal-based architects.

By mid-2008, the group had developed a concept and business model for an urban rooftop farm based on greenhouse controlled-environment agriculture. In 2009, the group had identified a number of candidate buildings on which to build its first prototype farm. By the summer of 2010, construction of the farm had begun on top of a Montreal office building located at 1400 Antonia Barbeau near the city's Marche Central market. The project was completed in the late Winter of 2011 and the first full harvest of its crops took place in April of 2011.

Referenes

 * 1) http://tva.canoe.ca/emissions/salutbonjour/chroniques/sb/environnement/118531/les-fermes-lufa-premieres-serres-commerciales-sur-un-toit-au-monde
 * 2) http://www.voir.ca/publishing/article.aspx?zone=1&amp;section=25&amp;article=76659
 * 3) http://www.cyberpresse.ca/vivre/vivre-vert/201104/25/01-4393116-fermes-lufa-au-royaume-de-lultra-local.php
 * 4) http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Commercial+rooftop+garden+world+first/3737649/story.html
 * 5) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703778304575590670832655834.html?KEYWORDS=Lufa+Farms
 * 6) http://www.ledevoir.com/environnement/actualites-sur-l-environnement/310328/une-ferme-sur-le-toit-sans-pesticides-ni-ogm
 * 7) http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/MacDonald+rooftop/3807844/story.html
 * 8) http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2010/11/11/vision-commercial-scale-rooftop-farm-nears-completion?page=full
 * 9) http://www.dcnonl.com/cgibin/dcnhome.pl?rm=print_story&amp;story_id=41453&amp;source=article
 * 10) http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/food/news/farming-from-rooftop-to-tabletop-15129"
 * 11) http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/11/18/high-rise-horticulture
 * 12) http://www.realestatechannel.com/international-markets/commercial-real-estate/real-estate-news-btb-real-estate-investment-trust-michel-leonard-mohamed-hage-kurt-d-lynn-lufa-farms-3593.php
 * 13) http://www.radio-canada.ca/emissions/cest_bien_meilleur_le_matin/2010-2011/chronique.asp?idChronique=130856
 * 14) http://www.lesaffaires.com/vision-durable/innovations/premiere-serre-commerciale-sur-un-toit-a-montreal/528723