Maximum Yield Canada July/August 2017

max facts
Feeding the North
with Vertical Aquaponics
The Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency
(CanNor) and Gray Dragon Investment Corporation (GDI)
have each contributed $75,000 to an ag tech project to
help feed the North. With the funds North Star Agriculture
Inc., a subsidiary of GDI, is developing the first indoor, vertical aquaponics
farm in the Yukon. The first of its kind north of 60, the vertical farm will annually
produce 200 tonnes of fish and over 200,000 kg of produce. Development of a
northern aquaponics farm will create local employment while decreasing reliance on
food transported from southern regions. “This project has great potential to make a real
difference in providing Northerners with access to fresh, local produce, while creating jobs and
diversifying the Yukon economy,” says Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science, and
Economic Development, and Minister responsible for the CanNor.
- newswire.ca
Olds College Receives $16M Personal Donation
Earlier this year, Olds College received a multimillion donation from David P.
Werklund and his partner, Susan Norman, to build the Werklund Agriculture
Institute (WAI), a centre that will specialize in smart agriculture. The WAI will
feature four key components: a centre that will act as a hub for companies,
entrepreneurs, investors, and students to access Olds College land and facilities
for development, scale up, and demonstration of smart agriculture; a fully
endowed industry leader to serve as a connector and advisor on smart agriculture
technology, innovation, and business; a year-long producer mentorship program
to expose students to smart agriculture practices; and a vertically integrated “gate
to plate” agriculture and food learning enterprise where students engage in
business decision making and management. The tiered donation—which begins
with $2 million in cash, followed by a matching component
where Werklund will provide one dollar for every three
raised, up to $4 million, and a final $10 million estate
gift—will have a total cumulative impact of $32 million.
- newswire.ca
FarmLead App Growing Strong
In 2014, pro hockey player-turned-entrepreneur Brennan Turner and business partner Alain Goubau created
FarmLead, an app that allows buyers and sellers of crops to directly negotiate their own deals. Earlier this
year, the Ottawa-based company received a USD$6.5 million infusion of venture capital from Monsanto
Growth Ventures, Avrio Ventures, MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund, and Serra
Ventures. Turner says much of the capital will go toward setting up and staffing a
new sales office in Chicago. “We’re already there,” he says of the lucrative American
market. “We just haven’t really been aggressively pursuing it in terms of dollars spent.”
So far, more than 4,000 farmers have joined the platform, using it to trade 1.4 million
tonnes of grain. The number of transactions has been growing by about 10 per cent a month,
though Turner says he’d like to see double over the next year. The average transaction is worth
about $70,000, and the firm is on track for six-figure revenues in 2017.
- obj.ca
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