A new partnership between Montreal-based Lufa Farms and Walmart Canada brings produce from Lufa Farms’ 127,000-square-foot hydroponic greenhouse above the Marché Central Walmart Supercentre to the store below.
“Our mission at Lufa is to change the current food system,” says Emily Péloquin, public relations and communications coordinator for Lufa Farms. “We’re trying to do that by making fresh, locally grown produce more accessible to people, and that includes people who live in cities. But cities don’t usually grow food, so our mission is to grow food where people live.”
Péloquin says this partnership is unique for both Lufa Farms and Walmart Canada as the construction of the Marché Central Walmart Supercentre was part of a larger shopping complex. And as the development project began to take shape, the municipality connected Lufa Farms with the developer to embark on this project.
“Walmart has been super open and enthusiastic about offering the produce grown on their rooftop,” she says. “The reason we’re on top of the Walmart is more partnership with the city, with the developers and Walmart. When we approach them to offer our produce in this store, they’re really open to it.”
Péloquin says Lufa Farms supplies the store with fresh produce harvested within an hour or so. Lufa Farms offers rotating crops of tomatoes, cucumbers and bell peppers.
“I think it’s probably the fastest retail offering that we can give,” she says.
The rooftop greenhouse is SCS Global Services certified and works with Moisson Montréal, the largest food bank in the city, to provide any surplus. Other features Péloquin says are unique are double-pane glass in the greenhouse that helps reflect light homogenously and adds to the facility’s efficiency.
The greenhouse also deploys LED lighting for efficiency, and it recycles rainwater and snow melt in its closed-loop hydroponic system. Péloquin says the greenhouse recycles about 90% of the water used, and with its proximity to the store, it reduces transportation costs.
“It’s the economies of scale,” she says. “The more we produce at a more efficient cost, the more accessible food will become for the people that live around us, around where we grow the food. And that’s really our mission. I think there’s this perception that you can’t do something good for the environment without really being a for-profit company. But we are a for-profit company, and we’ve proven that this works like that. You can marry the two. You just need to want to and have a vision. And our founder, Mo, has that drive and that vision.”
And as for the future of Lufa Farms, Péloquin says the company would love to expand its model to other North American cities to help grow that access to fresh produce year-round. But in the near future, the operation plans a few more projects within Montreal.
“We’ve proven that there’s no reason there couldn’t be a rooftop greenhouse on any commercial building,” she says. “Commercial buildings are popping up everywhere, and all shapes and sizes, but with a tiny bit of tweaking, we can make them ecosystems where food is grown and harvested to feed the people around them.”
