As Canada’s dependence on American products comes to attention, an Ontario farmer has a launch: products locally cultivated throughout the year, cultivated by artificial intelligence and automation.
In an extensive two -hectare greenhouse, hidden inside a red wooden barn in King City, Ontario, an animated Jay Willmot, farmer and entrepreneur, shared his vision.
“From planting and planting, to harvest and packaging, nobody touches this harvest,” he said in front of rows and rows of lettuce outbreaks.
Instead, AI and multimillion -dollar machinery do the job; The buzz and click of the conveyor belts, the hooks and the levers fill the space that was once part of the horsepower of his family.
Willmot built his business, Haven Greens, to board the Canadian winter and a long list of obstacles facing farmers, from high labor costs to an unpredictable climate. He is not alone; Federal and provincial governments have offered incentives to encourage automation.
However, some experts urge precaution, saying that generalized adoption could have unwanted consequences.
Lettuce near home
Even without AI, a traditional greenhouse, or a vertical farm, would have addressed the issue of growth throughout the year. It is a route that many choose to take; Canadian greenhouse lettuce production has only quadruplicate in the last decade, according to Statistics Canada.
Willmot said that automation and artificial intelligence allow him to maximize the amount of lettuce that can be cultivated, while reducing labor costs, generally the highest operational expense of a greenhouse cultivator.
The company also uses solar energy, rainwater and other “energy efficiency systems” to keep costs low, he said. And he says that the AI eliminates many of the waste that comes with the conjectures.
A King City, Ontario, Greenhouse, Haven Greens, is reaping thousands of kilograms of lettuce daily, all cultivated with automation and AI. The grower expects it to be a model that will be completed, but experts say that technology is still in its opening act, and deserves a closer scrutiny.
“We have sensors that measure the temperature, light intensity, humidity levels and pressure levels. Everything within this greenhouse is automated by that central computer to achieve optimal growth conditions.” Added.
The company says that the greenhouse produces more than 4,000 kilograms of lettuce per day. It is sold through the Ontario Food Terminal and directly to several independent groceries.
For Willmot, the goal is a reliable product that does not need to travel through a continent to reach store shelves.
“I was sick and tired of old, viscous and malera lettuce,” he said. When California, where most of Ontario’s lettuce comes from, was beaten by drought and disease in 2022, lettuce prices reached a record.
“We need this throughout the country so that we can build these local food systems that have an inherent food sovereignty within them, that fight against food insecurity, which can feed our local communities,” he argued.
Even with the “tens of millions of dollars” in the start costs for personalized machinery and AI technology, Willmot calculates that he can obtain profits in this model, while maintaining the “competitive” retail price.
Less agricultural work
It is a business case that provincial and federal governments have.
Even before commercial tensions promoted Canada’s dependence on the US production in the center of attention, there was an impulse to encourage agricultural technology, so that Canada is more self -sufficient.
In Ontario, for example, the Government distributed $ 547,720 in 2021 to Great Lakes Greenhouses INC, an operation in Leamington’s heart, Ontario. – Nicknamed the North American Greenhouse capital for having the highest greenhouse density in the continent. The cash was to help the company request an artificial intelligence system that “would allow greenhouse operators to grow cucumbers and eggplant crops, reducing contact in person,” reads a provincial press release.
BC also has a technology adoption program on the farm, which offers shared cost funds for technology that saves laboratory such as autonomous weeds, harvesters and classifiers.
The country depends largely on temporary foreign workers for agricultural work. According to Statistics Canada, almost half of the people working in the Canadian agricultural sector were used seasonally in 2022. It is a void that Willmot believes that automation can fill.
But Canada’s president of Science and Society, says Kelly Bronson, the impact on migrant workers should be carefully considered.
“There are all kinds of ethical problems presented by that labor supply solution, since these workers tend to be paid very precariously, precariously employed in terms of not having legal infrastructure to support them,” said Bronson, who has conducted research by consulting migrant farmers.
“Many of them really depend on this income. We have to think about the consequences of displacing the most marginalized actors.”
Willmot, however, believes that the dependence of foreign workers in Canada is part of the problem.
“For us, we really like to support people here,” he said. “I will take local people who live in our own backyard, well -paid jobs 10 times 10 times.” The company says it has hired 35 full -time employees.
A call for a closer look
Bronson, who has specifically studied the growth and impact of agricultural technology, recognizes the emotion around food sovereignty in the midst of a “war of geopolitical tariffs.”
But she urges caution, even with the company’s solar PV, the use of rainwater, recaptured emissions and the broader promise of net-zero.
“If you think about energy costs to maintain an inner agricultural environment, they are quite huge. And even if you have a more complete vision of AI, we now know environmental costs in terms of data storage, energy costs, the impact on the weather in terms of data, storage facilities.”
Ask for a detailed and independent investigation on the use and impact of the automation model and AI on Canada’s food systems, to prove the statements made by their proponents.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have also warned about the potential risks of the rapid deployment of AI in agriculture, in an intelligence document of the 2022 natural machine, including accidental insufficiency and unwanted consequences.
“I think it’s the future,” said Rozita Dara, director of the Artificial Food Intelligence initiative at Guelph University. But she also urges the sector and governments to think who can benefit from this often expensive technology.
“We have to take into account smaller companies because we want them to operate and thrive in this situation.”
Back in King City, Willmot trusts his vision. The third generation and lawyer farmer, YoTastily aware that Canada farmers are aging, and the new generation is not anxious to occupy the mantle. By 2033, 40 percent of Canadian agricultural operators are expected to retire, and Canada’s statistics numbers find that 66 percent do not have a succession plan.
We want to “show young people that exciting things happen in agriculture. And we need more people to enter and cultivate food for Canada,” he launched.
