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Things are looking up for Katherine Festeryga, and not just because she’s won the City of Toronto’s Women4ClimateTO pitch competition.
“When I’m out in the city, I’m always looking at rooftops,” says the Toronto entrepreneur.
But instead of eyeing gleaming spires and cloud-wreathed skyscrapers, Festeryga focuses on plain-Jane flat industrial roofs. Got a robust warehouse with good access? “That could be soo perfect,” she enthuses.
Festeryga is the driving force (and force of nature) behind Edie Farming, a project to top Toronto’s existing industrial structures with commercial greenhouses. The concept earned the $20,000 top prize for best climate-related initiative from the Women4Climate Toronto mentorship program in June. Now the transplanted farm girl from southwestern Ontario hopes to shrink cross-continental supply chains by producing what she calls “climate-friendly, climate-proof” fruits and veggies, grown right over the heads of potential consumers.
Step one is a proposed 2,000-square-foot greenhouse atop a commercial/residential low-rise in East York. Powered with solar energy, the structure will nurture leafy greens and herbs through a closed-loop hydroponic system, with sales to chefs, restaurants, and “other food and beverage companies to do limited-edition items,” she says. The longer-term goal is a 60,000 square-foot greenhouse in the Toronto area, with the potential for wholesale or even direct-to-consumer sales.
While a greenhouse isn’t exactly ground-breaking technology, “as soon as you put it on a rooftop, it’s different,” Festeryga says. The structure adds weight, changes snow loads, and alters the force of the wind striking the building. The technical challenges make complying with building codes and getting permit approvals “our biggest obstacle,” she says.
The hydroponic system is tricky too. “Cleaning the water and reusing it efficiently and at lowest possible cost is our current pain point,” Festeryga says, adding she’s looking for R&D partners to tackle some of the technical problems.
The good news is similar challenges have been overcome in Montreal, where rooftop farming pioneer Lufa Farms grows more than 500,000 square feet of veggies on four farms, atop both pre-existing and new roofs. When it comes to city approvals for greenhouses, “Montreal has been a little more dynamic in how they read the building code and the by-laws,” says Mark Lefsrud, a Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) researcher at the city’s McGill University. Growers in la belle province also benefit from cheaper electricity, lower real estate costs, and slightly lower labour rates than Toronto, as well as universities that are hotbeds of agricultural research. But Lefrud says the city administration seems generally more receptive to agriculture. “Montreal also has an approval process designed specifically for urban agriculture projects,” he adds.
Rooftop greenhouses provide a bunch of perks: greater food security, better public awareness of how food is grown, and climate benefits. They capture waste heat normally lost through roofs in the winter, cool and insulate the roof during the summer, take advantage of rainwater to top up the hydroponic system, and make more efficient use of space.
While a greenhouse isn’t exactly ground-breaking technology, “as soon as you put it on a rooftop, it’s different,” Festeryga says.
“From a carbon or land-use perspective, the footprint is certainly low,” says Lefsrud, who’s studied everything from vegetable production on the International Space Station to heating greenhouses with wood pellets. “An additional bonus is transportation costs are quite low, because you’re not shipping food from California or Mexico.”
Assuming Edie Farming wins its permits, “we’re hoping a six-month window will get us on the roof,” Festeryga says. After that, she’ll gather production data, marketing, and operational experience during a year-long pilot project. “If we can make it happen in Toronto – one of the most expensive cities in North America, we can make it happen anywhere,” she adds.
Given extreme weather and climate challenges in Canada’s traditional sources of winter produce, “our current supply chain just won’t be feasible.” Looking up to see where your salad comes from “is something that’s inevitable,” she adds. “It’s going to be a feature in our cities in the future.”
Read about another innovative farming technique, the Agrotunnel, in London, Ontario.
