AGRIBUSINESS Montréal, Home of Rooftop Farms and Vineyards

MONTRÉAL, HOME OF ROOFTOP FARMS AND VINEYARDS!

BY PIERRE THÉROUX, JOURNALIST

The harvest was particularly good last summer: just over 2.5 tons of tomatoes, eggplant, sweet peppers, chili peppers, runner beans, zucchini, lettuce, bok choy, kholrabi cabbage, radishes, cucumbers, peas, carrots and fennel… all of it grown downtown on the roof of the Palais des congrès!

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he vegetables, grown in less than 660 m2 of soil (roughly 6,500 sq. ft.), are an indication that urban agriculture is clearly on the rise in Montréal. While the city has a long tradition of community gardens, urban agriculture is not a leisure activity but decidedly a commercial endeavour.

It is also increasingly important, for as the pandemic and its containment have demonstrated, it is "a key element in bringing the places of production and consumption closer together, thus ensuring greater local food security," notes Jean-Philippe Vermette, co-founder and the director of intervention and public policy at the Urban Agriculture Laboratory that supervises the operations of the experimental farm at Palais des congrès. Most of the harvest is delivered to the Carrefour alimentaire Centre-Sud food bank, an organization that supports "the development of a local, ecological and solidarity-based food system" according to its website, and much of it is then sold at the Marché solidaire Frontenac.

FRESH FOOD STRAIGHT FROM… THE ROOF

Montréal is a city where urban agriculture is very popular, thanks in no small part to Lufa Farms, an urban agriculture company that over the past 10 years has shown that this is a viable form of agriculture, and actively encourages its expansion and development. world’s first commercial rooftop greenhouse farm. The 2880 m2 (31,000 sq. ft. ) greenhouse is located in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough. Since then, the firm has built three more even bigger greenhouses. The one in Ville St. Laurent was inaugurated in summer 2020 and measures some 15,236 m2 (164,000 sq. ft.), the equivalent of three football fields.

URBAN AGRICULTURE LABORATORY

The neighbourhood is also home to the largest organic supermarket rooftop garden in the country. An IGA grocery store that opened in 2017 sells Ecocert certified vegetables grown on its 2323 m2 (25 000 sq. ft.) green roof.

On a smaller scale, some Montréal restaurant owners also grow their own vegetables. Toqué, for example, has a vegetable garden on the roof of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec building. "More and more building owners and managers are creating rooftop vegetable gardens," said Jean-Philippe Vermette. He is of the opinion that many buildings in industrial parks scattered throughout Montréal offer the greatest potential for developing commercial rooftop gardens.

GREENHOUSE COMPLEX

The Urban Agriculture Laboratory will soon be conducting a study, in conjunction with the IRBV plant biology research centre, for the eventual establishment of a greenhouse complex in the Rivière des Prairies/Pointeaux-Trembles borough in accordance with its urban agriculture policy.

The project will not only contribute to the revitalization of Montréal’s eastern districts, but will also increase food security for the Greater Montréal region. In response to the impacts of the pandemic, the City has decided that urban agriculture will play a key strategic role in its efforts to revive the economy.

There are about 40 urban agriculture firms in Montréal, with a dozen of them in the Centrale Agricole urban farming co-op, located in an industrial building in the garment district near the central market in AhuntsicCartierville. Co-op members cultivate products ranging from mushrooms to edible insects to herbs and vegetables.

Last summer on the roof of the Centrale Agricole, Montréal’s most recent urban farming venture took root – the world’s biggest rooftop vineyard! Its 200 vines add to the 345 vines already cultivated on the roofs of the Palais des congrès (2017), the Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec (2018), Ubisoft Montréal (2019) and the vineyard in the basement of the Société des Alcools Campus (2018) in the Mercier-Hochelaga Maisonneuve borough. These urban vineyards have so far produced a hundred bottles, and that is just the beginning.

GREEN CORRIDORS

The greening of Montréal is not limited to the development of urban agriculture. Last December, Hydro-Québec and the City of Montréal announced the creation of a 27-km long green corridor that, over the next 10 years, will link the Bois de Saraguay Nature Park and Angrignon Park. Part of the new greenway will incorporate the Hydro-Québec corridor of power lines connecting several city boroughs. Other green corridors will be developed

ROOF OF THE CENTRALE AGRICOLE

in the years to come in collaboration with partners such as Canadian National Railway and Lafarge Cement, each committed to planting thousands of trees along its right-of-way.

These green corridors "will help revitalize neighbourhoods while providing protection from noise, dust and odours," said Malin Anagrius, executive director of the Société de verdissement du Montréal métropolitain (Soverdi), an organization dedicated to greening the city chiefly by planting trees.

SOVERDI

EVE LORTIE-FOURNIER

Assistant director REQ

REQ

PIERRE DAGENAIS

Co-founder and CEO Aménagement Côté Jardin

AMÉNAGEMENT CÔTÉ JARDIN

Soverdi’s current project is to plant 300,000 trees on the Island of Montréal between 2015 and 2025, including 180,000 on corporate and institutional grounds. Soverdi and Regroupement des éco-quartiers (REQ) are also asking citizens to contribute, encouraging them each spring to plant trees on their properties. The Un arbre pour mon quartier program allows them to obtain trees at very low cost. Montrealers have planted more than 17,000 trees since 2013, including 4400 planted last year alone. "There is increasing interest every year, and we will most likely surpass that number this year," said Eve Lortie-Fournier, assistant director of REQ.

GREEN ALLEYWAYS

The city’s many alleys and back lanes, so characteristic of certain neighbourhoods, are another example of the increased greening of Montréal. There are now some 450 "green" back lanes, transformed often at the initiative of local residents, with some of the makeovers receiving financial support from REQ.

Montréal’s urban landscape has changed in recent years, with more emphasis on greener neighbourhoods and buildings, noted Pierre Dagenais, co-founder and CEO of Aménagement Côté Jardin. "There is growing interest and effort on the part of municipal authorities and property developers to create living environments better integrated with nature," he said.

His firm specializes in landscaping and has put its stamp on several major projects in recent years, such as the Frédéric Back Park in the former Miron Quarry in the St. Michel borough, which later became a garbage and landfill dumpsite.

The firm is also involved in the rejuvenation of Viger Square and recently transformed Cabot Square, a century-old park next to the old Montréal Forum, into a small urban forest. These and other projects favour the "emergence of new living environments for local citizens," said Mr. Dagenais.