Canada’s climate is changing. Higher temperatures, shifting rainfall patterns, extreme weather events and rising sea levels are just some of the changes already affecting many aspects of our lives.
Changes in climate will persist and, in many cases, will intensify over the coming decades. That will have significant impacts on Canadian communities through our economy, social well-being and environment.
We must understand these impacts and the options available to us if we want to build resilience through adaptation, reduce the associated risks and costs of climate change’s impacts, and support sound decision-making.
Germination put out the call for seed industry players who are making a difference in helping mitigate the effects of climate change. The qualifications? That the company have an active effect on mitigating the effects of climate change on Canada’s seed sector. Here’s the sixth of who we selected for 2022.
Sustainable crop growth can be hindered by seasonal and climate changes, water and nutrients, which also affects food production that results in growing only during certain times of the year. A simple indoor growing system can solve this problem to increase crop growth and food production.
Harvest Today has designed the harvest wall, and it has the ability to change the world by allowing people to grow produce easily in their communities while reserving valuable acres for field crops.
Photography by: Marie Griffin Dennis/Marie Griffin Photography
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Harvest Today’s grow walls start with a tile that has six grow ports. A modular design allows for scaling to 720 plants on 16 square feet of floor space. The walls are standalone units or can be linked together for a commercial application. They use only a 24-volt pump that pumps the water up to the top and then the water simply cascades down the back, watering the plants that are in peat cups on the way down and then recollects in the basin.
The nesting features for shipping allow for 80 full-sized harvest walls to fit in a 40-foot shipping container. With the ability to form controlled environment agriculture hubs in small communities anywhere in the world, it will drastically change the landscape of how people are able to source their food, says William Aitken, director of Harvest Today’s Canadian operations.
“Leafy greens and other plants can be grown in a controlled environment setting, even better than outside, using our product. That’s because we still use a grow medium that allows the plants to establish the proper microbiomes they need to be a healthy plant. The grow mediums we incorporate into the use of the wall make it so the water uses less power and evaporates less than other traditional indoor growing methods,” he says.
“This allows us to have a definite advantage when it comes to changing the world with a real solution.”
For more climate smart companies visit:
Ellis Seeds Shows How to Create a Climate-Smart Business Model
Sarah Foster and 20/20 Seed Labs are Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Seed Testing
This Tech Company is Helping Plant Researchers Breed for Drought Tolerance
This Nova Scotia Company is Helping Ensure Sustainable Harvests
We Have a lot More to Learn About how Agriculture Contributes to Climate Change
