Press release via Reuters
43,000-square-foot greenhouse represents scalable approach for feeding cities
MONTREAL, QUEBEC–(Marketwired – Sept. 23, 2013) – Lufa Farms, which built the world’s first commercial rooftop greenhouse in early 2011, today unveiled its second greenhouse atop a newly constructed office building in the Montreal metropolitan area.
The greenhouse, located in Laval, will provide fresh produce to more than 6,000 people year round – about two times the yield of Lufa Farms’ first greenhouse in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough of Montreal. The company’s greenhouse system is scalable and can be replicated on new rooftops in any city.
“This greenhouse puts high-yield, rooftop agriculture within the reach of any new building development, in any city, on spaces public or private, anyplace in the world,” said Mohamed Hage, founder and president of Lufa Farms. “After almost five years of focus on the main issues of urban rooftop agriculture, we have solved how to cost-effectively grow food, distribute it, integrate it with local farming efforts, and do it all in an environmentally conscious, sustainable way. This doesn’t just change how food is grown, it changes how cities eat.”
Construction of the 43,000 square-foot greenhouse, visible from the 440 highway atop a new mixed-use commercial building, was the result of a collaboration between Lufa Farms, Le Groupe Montoni Division Construction, Inc. of Laval, and the Dutch company KUBO, a world-renowned greenhouse designer and manufacturer. The structure uses an innovative venting system to control pests and temperature and to optimize vital sunlight. The greenhouse also has a recirculating irrigation system for water and surface condensation.
