cross-posted from: https://piefed.ca/c/buycanadian@lemmy.ca/p/902428/after-15-years-goodleaf-proves-theres-profit-in-vertical-farming-betakit
Guelph, Ontario-based GoodLeaf Farms has become profitable across its vertical farming operations for the first time.
The context: GoodLeaf, which was founded in 2011 in Halifax, has spent over a decade developing recipes and proprietary tech that helps the firm maximize the yield and quality of its produce by monitoring and controlling light, air, and water delivery to its plants. The company, which counts McCain Foods, Farm Credit Canada, and Power Sustainable Lios among its backers, attributes its success to “years of innovation, disciplined growth, and strategic investment.” It also comes on the back of fivefold revenue growth over the past three years, as GoodLeaf’s total sales soared from $6.4 million in 2023 to $34 million in 2025. GoodLeaf said its revenue is up another 31 percent this year, thanks to rising consumer demand and expanded retail distribution.
I get where you’re coming from. (Also, “profitable” has nothing to do with “ecologically responsible.”) I have a lot of the same concerns about bringing plants indoors and having to meet their needs using a lot of energy and material inputs when growing them outdoors with free energy and fewer resources works so well. However, one thing outside can’t do easily is multiple layers of plants. If we can find a way to bring the vertical part of vertical farming outside, I’d be more supportive of it. It’s just a tough problem to solve when it takes a lot of money to build the structures and the structures can get wiped out in one bad weather event.
Could it be a vertical wall of greens? I am imagining a glass building with lettuce behind the south-oriented windows, on each floor. Seems technically complicated but interesting as a though experiment.
I dig it