A VF prepares to bring rapid-growing leafy greens to shelves

Added on 31 October 2023

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A VF prepares to bring rapid-growing leafy greens to shelves

The soon-to-be open GoodLeaf vertical farm in southeast Calgary was photographed on Friday, October 20, 2023. © Provided by Calgary Herald

Barry Murchie describes a vertical farming facility as “a box within a box.” Imagine a Costco- or Home Depot-like warehouse, the president and CEO of GoodLeaf Farms says, with floor-to-ceiling racks, where greens like baby spinach and micro broccoli rapidly grow. It’s a far cry from the rows upon rows of greens that grow in California and Arizona fields where most of Canada’s leafy greens come from.

And when GoodLeaf’s baby and micro greens hit grocery shelves in Calgary next month, it’ll mark another notch in the company’s rapid growth as a leading vertical farming company attempting to bring the new type of farming to scale.

The vertical farming company opened its first commercial farm in Guelph, Ont., in 2019 and is currently expanding into Calgary and Montreal. Facilities use LED lights to grow the greens on rapid timelines: its micro greens are harvestable within eight days and baby greens are ready in 18 days, Murchie said. Baby greens grown in an open-field format, such as arugula, spinach and romaine, take 45 to 60 days to grow, he said.

The company’s new 96,000-square-foot facility, which sits inside a warehouse in southeast Calgary, will cost an estimated $56 million, according to the province. ( Alberta chipped in $2.73 million in grant funding for the project. )