Greenhouse growing local food: ASM Innovations addressing food security in northwestern Ontario.

• Author: Kelly, Lindsay
• Position: Environment

Andreas Zailo and Slim Babay are addressing the food security issues facing residents in Northern Ontario with science and engineering. Their innovative greenhouse systems aim to help communities grow their own food, thus reducing costs, improving nutrition, and creating a sense of independence for residents.

"We basically have realized that there's a huge issue with Northern health, affordability and also job creation," said Zailo, one part of the duo that founded Thunder Bay-based ASM Innovations.

"Up north, people pay two to three times the price for food, and when I say 'up north,' I mean, you could be as close as Sioux Lookout to Thunder Bay."

ASM's first greenhouse was constructed in Thunder Bay in partnership with Roots to Harvest, a non-profit organization that trains young people how to grow their own food, offering them employment and experiential education opportunities.

The 900-square-foot greenhouse is situated on 97,000 square feet of land and functions 10 months of the year.

"The idea is you can start seedlings or plants earlier in the spring, shelter them through coldest parts of March and April, and then put them outside, and the greenhouse would keep producing more seedlings," Zailo said.

"That way you can take a small year-round greenhouse and you can turn it into a big outdoor growing program."

Starting with a shipping container, the greenhouse was built using glazed panels set at various geometric angles configured to take advantage of the shifting sunlight throughout the day. It's also designed to work with solar thermal panels and a rainwater collection system, and has LED growing lights installed so that, in the winter, when the days are shorter, the growing day can be extended by a few hours.

A complementary software system controls the greenhouse, issuing warnings if the temperature drops, if it's low on water, and more.

Initially, the partners were aiming for a model that used high-end technologies and growing systems to allow for year-round growing. But that escalated the costs of construction, and they quickly realized it wasn't economically or practically feasible for a lot of the communities they were trying to help.

It's a lot easier to teach people to grow in soil first before introducing more complicated growing methods like hydroponics, Zailo reasoned.

"We got to build a greenhouse that was great from an engineering standpoint and from an optimization and unique standpoint, and of course we would do it...