Modular Farms was founded in 2015 and is a Canadian designer and manufacturer of modular, turnkey containerized farming systems. The farm modules, which retail from $16,000 to $165,000 CDN, are currently being manufactured in Brampton, Ontario and begin shipping to customers nationwide in February. The Primary farming module will also make its first cross-border trip in May, where it will be formally debuted to the world at the 5th annual Indoor Ag-Con in Las Vegas.
The Modular Farm itself is a turnkey indoor farming system that utilizes a combination of industry leading hydroponic growing technologies, courtesy of ZipGrow, and high efficiency LED lighting, courtesy of Intravision Light Systems. The farms are portable, highly insulated, and custom built from the ground up to allow farmers to grow produce year round, in any climate.
The system can also scale without redundancy by utilizing a variety of different modules. The modularity allows farmers to easily adapt to their market and expand their growing capacity without sacrificing extra costs. The Vestibule module – designed to act as a climate barrier and to connect modules together – and the Macro Farm module – increases growing capacity using the same footprint as the Primary Farm module – will be the first line of secondary modules debuted in 2017. Other sustainability-focused modules, like the Micro Grid and Water Capture modules, are currently in the development stage and, once finished, will give every farmer around the globe a chance to grow food year-round, regardless of their environment’s water and/or electricity limitations.
“We specifically designed the farm system to work in the north of Canada. The food security problems there are problems we think we can help solve,” said Amyot, who has been on two trips to Canada’s north to try and help solve the food issues there. “By doing so, we’ve created a product that can work virtually anywhere in the world.”
“We want our farmers to know that they are capable of growing their business and adding modules in the future,” said Eric Bergeron, the company’s other co-founder and lead farmer. “The modules, which will be released in 2017, are specifically designed to allow farmers the flexibility to scale their business as needed.”
2017 will be another year of expansion for Modular Farms on the international scale. After successfully forging partnerships in Singapore and China in 2016, the company is ready to grow its presence even further in Australia. If you happen to live in the Pacific Rim, you can rest assured knowing that fresh, sustainable local produce will be available in your community, year-round, for years to come.
“Indoor agriculture is becoming a very important trend in the food market and Modular Farms is poised to be a leader in this field moving forward,” said Eric Amyot, the company’s co-founder and CEO. “We’ve designed a scalable, modular, portable and self-contained indoor farming system that literally gets delivered on a truck and plugged in to start growing, with yields twice as high as most other farming system we’ve seen to date.”
