Tag: regenerative agriculture

  • Cultivating sustainability

    Cultivating sustainability

    Cultivating sustainability

    A look into the future of farming

    The work Elijah Goerzen does as a farmer conjures times past. His Deep Roots Farm, set in Maple Ridge, BC, is small by modern Canadian farming standards. The eight-acre parcel near Vancouver is worked by hand rather than machine, resulting in healthy, nutrient-rich soil that’s fertile ground for vegetables to grow and for beneficial organisms, such as earthworms, to thrive.

    Goerzen doesn’t spray his heritage lettuce, microgreens, and vegetable crops with toxic pesticides or infuse them with chemical fertilizers either. Instead, he chooses to nurture biodiversity by planting flowers between his kale to attract hungry ladybugs that keep any aphid infestations in check or to serve as beacons to pepper-propagating pollinators.

    The future of farming?

    Really, though, the regenerative agriculture methods he uses to tease crops from his soil every growing season are considered by some to be the future of farming.

    It works out well for the planet, too. Unlike conventional agriculture, regenerative farming is rooted in harnessing the power of natural processes to produce food rather than dominating them with human-made inputs and interventions.

    The sky’s the limit

    Vision Greens, a vertical farm in Welland, Ontario, is proving him right. Set in a southern Ontario rust belt city abutting Niagara’s shrinking tender fruit belt, Vision Greens is putting stock in growing up rather than out to help meet a demand for food that the UN projects will increase by 60 percent by 2050.

    It’s disrupting the imported lettuce market with its controlled environment agriculture that marries continuous food production with sustainability.

    Vision Greens’ headquarters in an industrial park is filled with towers of hydroponic trays loaded with organic seeds grown by a computer-controlled system that regulates LED lighting, organic nutrients, reverse osmosis water filtration, air flow, and carbon dioxide levels to meet crop needs. The result: perfect, nutrient-dense lettuce harvested every 26 days, winter, spring, summer, or fall.

    Those crops are perfect because they aren’t exposed to insects, disease, or weather fluctuations, eliminating the need to spray.

    Harvests are delivered to a warehouse, often on the day they’re picked, 76 km away. Meanwhile, most conventional and organic romaine sold here must travel more than 4,300 km from California’s Salinas Valley, where growing and shipping conditions vary and make produce vulnerable to dangerous bacterial contamination.

    The very nature of their production and transport methods means Vision Greens lettuce will never have to be pulled off store shelves in the name of safety. And with plans to build one-acre vertical farms elsewhere in Canada that have 60 times the growing density and 135 times greater crop yield than field lettuce, the company is poised to play as significant a role in building secure local food systems as Deep Roots Farm.

    By Tiffany Mayer

    Article Courtesy of Alive Magazine

  • Three Sisters Stew

    Three Sisters Stew

    Three Sisters Stew

    This three sisters stew is named after the indigenous agricultural practice of planting beans, corn, and squash together. Not only do these ingredients taste great together, but they also actually help one another grow! Corn stalks form a trellis that the beans can climb. Squash leaves help shade the soil and reduce evaporation, so the plants need less water. The beans deposit nitrogen back into the soil that the corn needs. It’s a wonderful system where each piece plays an important part to benefit the whole. This Three Sisters Stew is a warm bowl of simple veggie stew that is sure to keep you satisfied.

    Three Sisters Stew

    This Three Sisters stew is named after the indigenous agricultural practice of planting beans, corn, and squash together. Not only do these ingredients taste great together, they actually help one another grow! 
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    Servings: 5
    Ingredients Method

    Ingredients
      

    • 3 tablespoons sunflower oil
    • 1 medium yellow onion chopped
    • 2 large garlic cloves minced
    • 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
    • 1 ½ pounds winter squash cubed
    • 3 sprigs fresh savory or 1 teaspoon dried savory
    • ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
    • 1 pound russet potatoes peeled and cubed
    • ⅓ pound green beans cut into ½" pieces
    • 30 ounces hominy corn kernels drained
    • ¾ cup crushed tomatoes
    • 1 ½ teaspoons sea salt
    • 3 tablespoons minced parsley optional

    Method
     

    1. Heat oil in a 6-quart stockpot over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until translucent then add garlic and cook for a minute. 
    2. Add stock, winter squash, savory, and black pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes.
    3. Add potatoes, green beans, hominy, tomato, and salt. Return soup to a simmer and cook until potatoes are tender.
    4. Remove savory sprigs if using and stir in parsley. Adjust seasoning to taste and serve.
    5. Enjoy!

    Recipe Provided by INFRA