Powering the Greenhouse Revolution

The potential, however, may be limited to niche markets. Paivarinta acknowledges that microgreens, herbs, and varieties of lettuce can be grown successfully with very small hyper-local venues, but notes, “I don’t see how these operations could achieve the critical mass of a high-volume item, like tomatoes.”

Indoor, vertical, and rooftop growing also come with unique challenges, such as design issues related to weight and a lack of natural light, which limit the types of commodities that can be grown successfully. “Lettuce and herbs don’t require the infrastructure that tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers do,” observes Ray Wowryk, director of business development at Nature Fresh Farms, an Ontario-based company with a new high-tech greenhouse in Ohio.

The Quest for Quality
Even as consumers clamor for high-quality local produce, weather patterns often interfere with field-grown com-modities affecting both yields and quality. For this reason, Nate Stone, COO of Detroit wholesaler Ben B. Schwartz & Sons, sees continued strong sales for greenhouse produce from growers in Ontario and Mexico. The precision of the process assures uniform sizes and shapes, which is part of the reason the USDA has higher standards for greenhouse-grown produce. “The grade has to be better to ship; and that’s just a pleasure for the wholesaler,” Stone says.

Wowryk agrees, stating, “The ever-changing global climate right now is providing opportunities for people with protected environments. This past winter was harsh for many regions in Mexico, the southern United States, and California.” And it’s not just supply levels, but cost—like recent price spikes in cauliflower and asparagus due to weather-related factors.

And although greenhouses were not faced with the same weather challenges as traditional growers, Red Sun’s Paivarinta says cloudy conditions can slow production, but generally, there are no long-term adverse effects. “A high-tech greenhouse program gives retailers and foodservice suppliers peace of mind they can’t find anywhere else.”

The Latest Technology
In addition to skirting any inclement weather, newer high-tech greenhouses can have major advantages over older iterations, even those from just the past decade, “Energy efficiency and internal system innovations have dramatically increased yields,” Paivarinta says. Among the improvements are taller structures, to better regulate temperature and air flow. “Heights of greenhouses have been one of the biggest visual advancements in technology,” he confirms. “We’ve been able to raise our greenhouses to get heat out of the farms to protect our crops and more efficiently circulate air within the farm.”