DRYDEN -- New company AgriTech North is opening a year-round greenhouse in Dryden. The aim of the greenhouse is to provide food production stability to northern Ontario by providing a sustainable food production company.
Long time Dryden resident Ben Faegin and his fiancé Fabian Velez have been working for the last year to build a vertical growing food production greenhouse. Their aim is to provide freshly grown food to not just the city of Dryden, but to the surrounding areas as well. They hope to expand their corporation to be able to provide their services on a national scale as well.
“We are not a technology company, we are a service company; we are looking to provide this service nationally,” says Faegin.
Faegin previously worked at the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Lab as a Research Scientist. There he worked at inventing new research apparatuses to aid in scientific investigations with more specialized equipment.
Velez is a master grower who has been in the business of growing food since he was seven years old. He has worked previously in landscaping and developing grow strategies for a start-up farm operation.
The other full-time employee is Samantha Allan, who works as AgriTech’s Farm manager. She has a background working with tree seedlings.
Last January, Faegin and Velez began research with the city of Dryden to learn about the food production needs of the community. They spoke with Tyler Peacock who explained about the need for food security and local food production.
This information launched six months of market research into the food security issues around Dryden. The research showed that these issues hit especially hard within the Indigenous community, with northern communities being especially underserved. Faegin himself is of Metis ancestry, and wanted to create an enterprise that served not just Dryden and the surrounding areas, but Northern Indigenous communities as well.
Currently, they have been building a small facility in Dryden. The facility is built using new type of material, and is the first of its kind in all of Canada. Right now, they grow leafy greens, herbs, and some small fruiting plants. They grow everything with organic materials, and are a pesticide free facility. They have plans to build a full-scale greenhouse at the Dryden airport in the future that will be able to grow larger scale fruits, vegetables and other large plants.
AgriTech is a B Corporation; which means that they are a sustainable environmental service. As a B Corp, they are held to four pillars service, which are: Food Accessibility, Education, Sustainability, and Diversity Equity & Inclusion.
With this in mind AgriTech North has partnered up with 3 Points in Space Media, which specializes in the operation, testing, training and advanced innovation of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems. This way they will be able to deliver the fresh produce that they produce to Northern communities by drone, as a way to meet the food accessibility component.
AgriTech is a Center of Excellence for Food Security, which means that they strive to provide education and training about food production, sustainability and the technology used in its process. They are in the process of creating a food sustainability curriculum and educational programming that will run from grade school all the way into college. There will also be other programming for places such as the Kenora Jailhouse to be available to incarcerated individuals to aid in employment and personal development areas upon release.
For the sustainability component, AgriTech is working to partner with OK Compost to create packaging that is compostable. This will reduce the environmental impact of the products they deliver.
“It is an especially important aspect of the company as we serve Northern Communities that may not have the resources to process other disposable plastic packaging,” says Faegin.
As well, they are applying for funding and planning to reuse capital to enact a Solar Tri-Generation power system. This system will use solar power to produce heating, cooling and energy for the greenhouse. This is important as the system will reduce their operational costs by 20 per cent, thereby allowing them to offer their produce at more competitive prices.
For the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion component, AgriTech has been able to employ mostly diversity candidates, with a focus on employing indigenous persons. They currently have three full-time staff members as well as three interns.
AgriTech is currently wrapping up construction and plans to be in business around Easter of this year. They will not be open to the public as that could expose the greenhouse to pests or contamination, but have plans to potentially lead a tour when they are able to have their soft opening.
