Trina Semenchuk, founder of The Little Greenhouse That Could, standing in front of Government House at the Manitoba Legislative Grounds.

Vertical farming champion looks to stack Manitoba’s future

Vertical farming has garnered significant interest as a food security solution in remote areas

Trina Semenchuk wants to make Manitoba the vertical farming capital of the world. “It’s a very bold vision, but yeah, it’s my vision,” she said. “Why not? We have a short growing season and we have so much talent here. We have quite a lot of resources already available in Winnipeg.” Why it matters: Vertical farming, which stacks crops

Andrea Borodenko and Antoine Casimir have acquired Quebec’s Production Lareault.(CNW Group/Production Lareault)

Major strawberry plant producer changes hands

New owners get funding to buy Lareault business

The Quebec company billed as Canada’s largest producer of strawberry plants has picked up new ownership after nearly 70 years. Production Lareault, based on just over 450 acres at Lavaltrie, Que. — about 40 km northeast of Montreal, in the province’s Lanaudiere region — has been acquired by investors Antoine Casimir and Andrea Borodenko for


File photo of a desk in Canada’s Senate. (Dougall_Photography/iStock/Getty Images)

Internal dispute over privilege, bullying allegations ties up C-234

New amendment to farm fuel bill now under debate

A proposed amendment, and a dispute over senatorial behaviour, further geared down progress Tuesday of a federal private member’s bill to carve out a carbon tax exemption for grain drying and heating of barns and greenhouses. Bill C-234, which passed the House of Commons in late March, remained on the Senate’s order paper for debate

The exterior and interior of the new Vermillion Growers greenhouse near Dauphin.

Enormous Dauphin greenhouse opens for tomato production 

In its initial phase, Vermillion Growers will supply 10 million pounds of tomatoes to the Prairie market

Within weeks, 10 acres of tomatoes will be growing in a Dauphin greenhouse, destined for distribution all over the Prairies. “It’s a little bit surreal, because we’ve been at it for such a long time, but at the same time, we’re all so ready,” said Maria Deschauer, managing director of Vermillion Growers. Why it matters:

(Fentino/E+/Getty Images)

Carbon price exemption for farm gas clears Commons

Bill C-234 next headed to Senate

Legislative amendments that would exempt farmers’ eligible purchases of natural gas and propane from federal carbon pricing are now en route to Canada’s Senate. Bill C-234, a private member’s bill sponsored by Ben Lobb, the Conservative MP for the southern Ontario riding of Huron-Bruce, passed third reading for adoption in the House of Commons on


File photo of steam rising from the top of a grain dryer. (Diane Kuhl/iStock/Getty Images)

New farm fuel carbon tax rule to return to Commons

Further carbon pricing exemptions clear ag committee, with sunset clause added

A bill that would exempt more farm fuels from Canada’s federal carbon pricing scheme has cleared the Commons’ ag committee and returned to the House of Commons to seek a third and final vote. C-234, a private member’s bill sponsored by southwestern Ontario Conservative MP Ben Lobb, appeared before the Commons’ standing committee on agriculture

Interior view of the Aurora Sky cannabis production facility near Edmonton. (Aurora Cannabis video screengrab)

Aurora buys control of major B.C. hothouse veg firm

Bevo Farms to take over Aurora Sky cannabis production site

A major player in B.C.’s greenhouse vegetable sector is about to expand its operations into an Alberta cannabis grow facility — backed by a major investment from the plant’s owner. Aurora Cannabis on Aug. 25 announced a subsidiary is buying a 50.1 per cent stake in Bevo Agtech, the parent of vegetable and ornamental plant

A worker pushes a cart of marijuana plants at the Canopy Growth facility at Smiths Falls, Ont. on Jan. 4, 2018. (File photo: Reuters/Chris Wattie)

Canopy Growth to shut two B.C. greenhouses, cut 500 jobs

Niagara greenhouse plans also shelved

Reuters — Pot producer Canopy Growth Corp. said on Wednesday it plans to close two of its greenhouses in Aldergrove and Delta, B.C., cutting about 500 positions. The company also said it no longer plans to open a third greenhouse in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. Canopy had said last month it aims to focus on reducing costs,


The emerging sector, farm groups say, is posing a new challenge for traditional greenhouse growers.  Photo: iStock/Getty Images

Canadian greenhouse labor shortages worsened by growing cannabis producers

Ottawa | Reuters – Canada’s labor-strapped greenhouse vegetable and flower growers are ramping up efforts to keep and recruit more workers in the face of pressure from the country’s budding cannabis industry, farm groups say. “Many of the cannabis producers are very cash rich. They’ve got the resources to pay a very good wage,” said

Travis Walker waters vegetable bedding plants in his greenhouse
east of Rivers.

Dream of a greenhouse business takes off

Busy couple has greenhouse in Rivers and also near Holland, Manitoba

When Travis and Kendra Walker purchased an acreage east of Rivers in 2016, it just happened to include four large greenhouse structures that the previous owner had built on his farm. “I was always interested in the greenhouse business so when the acreage we purchased came with greenhouses it seemed like a good time to