Vertical farming is a relatively new innovation in food production, making use of indoor vertical space along with cutting edge LED horticultural lighting technology, and aiming to produce high quality produce while shortening the distance between producers and consumers in urban city centers. These Brassica seedlings (radish shown in this photo), located in the University of Guelph Phytotron, are part of a collaborative research project between TruLeaf Sustainable Agriculture Ltd (www.truleaf.ca) and the lab of Dr. Loong-Tak Lim in the Department of Food Science. TruLeaf’s subsidiary, GoodLeaf Farms (www.goodleaffarms.com) is due to open a new state-of-the-art vertical farm in Guelph in 2018, capable of producing very large volumes of high quality micro and baby greens per year. Dr. Lim’s lab is working in collaboration to explore new strategies to extend the shelf life of products produced in these indoor facilities. The project aims at developing a preservation system based on a natural preservative by manipulating indoor growing conditions and deploying bioactive volatiles to extend the product shelf life and help reduce food waste.
