We're standing in a 400-square foot modular farm.
We use hydroponic vertical growing technology
to grow year-round.
Our farm is basically an oversized walk-in cooler
that's set on a steel frame.
Ten-feet high, ten-feet wide
by 40-feet long
and it lets us grow a little under 4,000 plants.
JEYAN JEGANATHAN: Stephan Lanteigne operates
Smart Greens Sudbury
and he's taking a different approach to farming
in Northern Ontario.
He's growing vertically.
Had a terrible farming season this summer.
Tons of rain, no sunlight
and so for us, the advantage is that I'm growing year-round.
It doesn't matter what the weather is like outside.
I know this farm is going to stay
at a nice 19-20-degrees Celsius.
In Northern Ontario, that's huge.
With only about 100 days of frost-free weather,
you're kind of hard-pressed to have a go at it.
He and his family have been growing kale and sprouts
in Chelmsford, Ontario.
About 20 km northwest of Sudbury since April
and it's been a big hit at the local farmer's market.
Our kale is unique.
Hydroponic kale has the taste unlike outdoor kale,
it's got a sweetness to it and our customers--
we didn't really start wanting to just farm kale,
but for now, the response has been so good
that we're growing it, we're selling it out every week.
The beauty of the peat moss is that it retains
a lot of water, eh?
All of our seeds are non-GMO organic certified seeds.
They stay in our seedling station
which is kind of--
most people would know our little seeding trays.
We start them off as babies for about three weeks
and after they're about two or three inches tall,
we'll transfer them to our main irrigation system
with the big lights.
We'll plant it and it'll stay in the towers
for about three or four months.
We harvest on a week to week cycle.
Our light only emit blue and reds for the most part.
We don't have any green spectrum,
because plants don't use green spectrums,
so hydroponics is all about efficiency.
Delivering nutrients to the root system
more efficiently,
so our lights are designed for growing leafy greens
and they do that very well.
His farm has a few downsides with hydro being to biggest.
He runs his lights 18 hours a day
and racks up about $800 a month
in electricity bills
and the start-up cost for a modular farm
are north of $100,000.
We're just at the beginning of what I think
is going to be an agricultural revolution.
There's going to be leaps and bounds
and improvements in the technology.
I think traditional agriculture is going to be around forever,
but you can't ignore that we're quickly depleting
all of our good soil,
we're quickly going to be depleting
all of our freshwater.
Even in Canada, that's going to be an issue in the near future.
Modular farms was created in 2015
and the systems were designed
for regions like northern Canada
where food security continues to plague communities,
but it also applies to Northern Ontario
where only a small fraction of food is locally grown.
96% of their food sources was imported,
so Sudbury is only producing about 4% of their food locally.
Sudbury, if you go and drive around
in our agricultural land,
a lot of it is potato,
so there is very little fresh greens being grown.
Thanks to this modular farm,
Stephan and his family can grow about 110 pounds of kale
every week.
JEYAN JEGANATHAN:
uses a fraction of the water a traditional farmer does
to grow their crop.
He can also manager the temperature,
humidity, CO2 levels, and watering schedule
from this control system.
I control everything on my phone
and it really allows me to dial in the farm.
Stephan and his family already have
plans of expanding.
They're in talks of getting a second modular farm
on their property.
My business model is on a week to week cycle,
my harvesting schedule is on a week to week cycle,
my life is on a week to week cycle.
We're happy to report that they haven't just continued
to produce all that produce, they're thriving.
Here to update us on their operations
from Chelmsford, Ontario,
Stephan Lanteigne, farmer and co-owner
of Truly Northern.
Welcome to the show.
Hi, Jeyan, how are you?
Good! Now, the last time we checked in.
Business looks obviously a little bit different.
We were talking in a 400-square foot,
quote-unquote, walking cooler.
Tell me how things have changed since.
Not too long after actually we did that interview,
we got approached by someone
who had a large building
in a small town about five hours north of Sudbury
in Opasatika
and so for the last year we've been launching
a new type of hydroponic system in there
and really boosting production.
Now, we have a photo of that new facility.
Let's see. There you are on your ladder.
Tell us how different this looks.
You look really happy.
Tell us how much different is
this facility to the old one?
STEPHAN: Well, when we launched in Opasatika,
I had a very specific idea of what I wanted in a farm
and how I wanted to be farming,
so we did some changes to how we are doing things.
We're still growing indoors, we're still doing vertical,
but we're doing stacked horizontal,
so multiple layers but more
traditionally positioned.
And in terms of sheer space,
we're talking 400-square feet to--
if I'm right, 23,000
and you haven't even filled it up yet.
So, the building is huge.
We're not going to be using 23,000-square feet,
but that's definitely how big the building is.
It's massive.
We've got about 8,000-square feet of grow space,
we're not at 50%
and hope to be doubling our production
within the next six months to a year.
Now, when we were chatting, of course,
you were focusing exclusively on kale.
Is that the same strategy here?
Have you guys started to experiment with other vegetables
and crops?
Yeah, with that much space on our hands,
we definitely are playing a little bit more.
We've now introduced lettuce mix
very consistently.
We've got basil,
we're playing with other fresh herbs,
but kale brings us back.
Our new launch that we just did this week.
We're doing pretty much exclusively kale.
The product just--
the customer base we have for it loves it,
so we're growing, we're expanding,
but we're sticking to our roots.
Now, I just want to be clear,
you still have your facility in Chelmsford
and you kind of have a busy schedule going back and forth,
correct?
Oh, yeah, that's right.
So, Sudbury is still our home base
and we still have our two container farms there
and we've launched kind of a self-serve
shed basically
and I drive back and forth every week,
so it's been pretty busy.
What do you think has been, sort of,
the success to your model?
You guys have been, you know, thriving
particularly in Northern Ontario
when you think about farming.
What do you think are some of the key successes there?
I think our product is consistently better
than what you can find at the store.
It's also well-priced
when you're considering the freshness
and the value or the taste that you're getting.
All of our products are pesticide-free
and our customers base loves that,
so you're getting fresh,
you're getting delicious and you're getting it year-round
so it's a local northern grown product
which is great.
And you've also had a lot of interest from people
over the years about vertical farming.
You've kind of been sort of this spokesperson
for Northern Ontario.
Tell us about, kind of,
the calls that you've been receiving
from municipalities and other businesses.
We get phone calls every week.
People asking us how we're doing it,
what we're doing and we are now
in a process of really expanding on that part of our business,
so we're definitely interested in helping people
do what we're doing and we're excited.
I think there's definitely a new movement
and a new awakening to local food
and the importance of producing our food locally,
because I think it's going to become more
and more important for us.
Any advice for people who are interested
and I know when we talked upfront cost was a big thing.
You had talked about long hours,
you know, making this six-hour drive back and forth.
What advice are you giving people?
Um, indoor farming, hydroponics,
it's all farming,
so you have to enjoy what you're doing.
I think for us what we--
the big benefit is that to see the people
and to see the feedback we're getting
from our products,
so I think get into it if you really enjoy
working with your hands and using your head,
because it is still technically a little bit difficult,
but aside from that
finding a niche and kind of finding your community
that wants local food.
I think it's more important.
One of the things we talked about
and it's a conversation we talk about Northern Ontario's
food security.
Of course, we're in the midst of a pandemic.
Has COVID-19 highlighted food security in the north
and the issues there?
Absolutely.
I think food security has always been
in the forefront in Northern Ontario.
I think come around January and February,
we understand food security quite well up here.
Now, I think people are worried even more
because of the situation in the United States
and our dependence on importing a lot of our food,
so I think a lot of communities are waking up
to the idea that we do need to roll up our sleeves
and to grow our own food.
One of the things in the pandemic,
you know, normally this is the summer.
You would be out at the farmer's market.
You know, how have you adapted your business
to deal with a pandemic
and I want to bring up some photos of the shed
that you had brought up.
This was something that you have used well before the pandemic.
Tell us what we're looking at.
That's a photo from the outside
and there's some great footage inside as well.
STEPHAN: The whole idea of being,
like when we launched,
we wanted to have a retail customer base,
so selling directly from our farm
and we started out with a freezer.
It was just a little freezer that we painted green
and we had a little space heater in there
that would kick on if the weather got too cold
or the freezer itself would kick on if the weather got too hot
and that grew into now what is an ice shack
that we've converted to a self-serve stand
and for us, it's been wonderful.
We used to be tied to the farm with people,
you know, and I say "tied" with love,
but always having to be here to deal with customers.
It was great, but it's also nice to not have
to be here all the time.
So, it's been a great success.
So, how does--
I'm curious how does the system work?
Do you just go in?
Do we get to see you on the other end?
How does it work?
Basically, it's a self-serve shack.
Like, we have a money drop box
and all the prices are listed.
It mostly works on the honour system
and we have people that will honk their horn
if they have questions or if we're low on stuff
and for the most part for us,
we stock the fridge three, four, five times a day
when it's convenient for us
and we go.
Have you noticed anything, you know,
with consumer behaviour now that, you know,
we are still in a pandemic?
Have you seen an uptick in the number of calls,
you know, about what you have available for sale?
Yeah, absolutely.
I think there has been--
People are buying local.
There is a support local,
there is a buy local again,
movement or awakening which is great.
I think local businesses, small businesses
have been really impacted by COVID-19
and I think it's good that the people around you
are supporting you and see what you're doing
and seeing value there.
Have you partnered up with any local businesses
to kind of give a diverse kind of array
of crops and meats and stuff like that as well?
Yeah, we did.
So, when the pandemic first started,
we very quickly pivoted online,
but we, for us, saw the value
in teaming up with other local producers.
Specifically, meat producers
and other artisans that, you know, have great products,
share the burden of delivery.
And so, we are now delivering online
through our online portal Order Fresh
and basically, yeah, it's been great.
The demand has been wonderful,
the support has been great
and it's nice to team up with other people
and see what you can bring.
It's not just about the greens, right?
People want to eat a whole variety of other products too.
Um, you know, this was something
we talked about almost three years ago
and you had told me that you expect this to be
a big thing in Northern Ontario.
How far do you see this going not just for your business,
but vertical farming in Northern Ontario
and beyond?
I think the technology is getting cheaper.
There's quite a few of us out there
that now have been--
I use the word "grinding it out",
but grinding it out
for the lack of better word for a while now
and we're seeing ways that we can really make it work.
The cultivars that work for us--
The amount of phone calls I'm getting from schools,
from community leaders,
from community businesses, development officers
that want to get into indoor farming.
I think I was right three years ago
and I think it's only going to get bigger.
Stephan, I want to thank you so much for taking the time.
That's Stephan Lanteigne,
farmer and co-owner of Truly Northern.
Thanks again.
Thank you.