Consumer eating habits and demands for local food continues to evolve alongside advancements in technology and greater intensity on sustainability.
In the context of the produce department, the globalization of food production and massive transportation infrastructures, seasonality has significantly less bearing on consumer expectations. Year-round availability of fresh, staple fruits and vegetables is the expectation. This evolution has created concentrated agricultural centers in multiple hemispheres to meet a global consumer demand.
In direct contrast with this trend is the value today's consumer places on "local." While some crops require specific, regional climatic conditions, the greenhouse industry has aligned technology, with crops that thrive in a greenhouse environment. By growing in this environment, the season is lengthened and in those instances where supplemental lighting is utilized, continuous production is harvested throughout the year.
Nestled along the shores of Boundary Bay in South Delta, Houweling's Tomatoes grows local tomatoes 365 days a year. Growing year round is achievable thanks to investment in innovative technology that takes an energy intense requirement of running lights and heating a greenhouse, and delivers an efficient, sustainable solution. European cogeneration technology creates an incredible opportunity for year-round local production. Using highly efficient natural gas engines, a farm can generate electricity for on-farm demand and export excess power to the grid, while capturing and utilizing the heat and CO2 waste products of combustion for use inside the greenhouse. Both heat and CO2 are critical to plant growth, and would generally require less efficient boilers for thermal energy production and supplemental supply of liquid CO2 before cogeneration was utilized.
Turning waste energy into fresh, local tomatoes, drives further value along the supply chain, as compared to lower cost imports.
Consumers find product that is fresher and picked riper as it faces a drastically reduced transportation footprint and time in the supply chain. This translates into better tasting products at the family dinner table.
Innovative power generation technologies such as cogeneration and other heat and CO2 recovery systems are being joined by advancements in glass greenhouse technology. Configured together, yearround harvest can become a reality in climates that would have previously never been suitable.
Today, Houweling's utilizes such a set-up to grow and harvest year-round in Delta where cold winters sometimes fall below zero.
