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My family is from Leamington and my grandfather laments to this day about how sad it is that the acres upon acres of glass and plastic have been plopped on top
by jagger27 10y ago
My family is from Leamington and my grandfather laments to this day about how sad it is that the acres upon acres of glass and plastic have been plopped on top of the most fertile land in Canada. The Leamington area has seriously mild and fair weather compared to the rest of Canada and a sizeable chunk of its farmland comes from drained marshes. Fresh water is limitless as well (Lake Erie). That combo is killer and is the reason Leamington became the tomato capital of North America. Leamington was so successful in this that Heinz dropped a large factory directly in the heart of the city and bought up the majority of the area's tomato supply. Good on the farmers for making the most of their acreages but it's sad to see land you don't find just anywhere trapped beneath glass.
I should also add that outdoor tomatoes are still so much tastier. You could test the same type of plant grown inside and outside, just meters apart, and know immediately which one is which.
- dghughes 10y agoIn the summer I like to get tomatoes from my garden slice it up and put it on some rosemary ciabatta bread, toasted. Maybe a bit of mayo or instead some olive oil. It is far better than anything grown inside.
- mc32 10y agoBut the output per acre is multiples of regular outdoor farming, so it's the opposite of wasting the fertile land. It's making the land area even more productive. W/re taste it's possibly just the variety grown rather than the cultivation method.
- aidenn0 10y agoI don't know anything about lemmington, but assuming the land is highly fertile, you could greenhouse elsewhere rather than covering high-quality land with concrete.
- cbsmith 10y agoGreenhouse doesn't mean you can't use the soil. That'd be hydroponics...
- slowcurve 10y agoAll the greenhouses around Leamington do use hydroponics.
- cbsmith 10y agoInteresting. I'd be curious why they'd do that given the high quality soil available...
- aidenn0 10y agoIt's hard to google for, but it appears that hydroponics allow for more crop per acre. So the article is actually conflating greenhouses and hydroponics (outdoor hydroponics seems to be very rare, so the latter more-or-less implies the former)
- cbsmith 10y agoI can grok that, but it's not like land is at a premium in Canada, and hydroponics is generally very capital intensive.
- MustardTiger 10y agoPouring concrete on top of fertile land so you can grow plants in hydroponic systems is absolutely a waste of fertile land. They could poor that concrete and put those greenhouses anywhere. Put them somewhere with bad soil, and leave the good soil for growing food.
- hourislate 10y agoOntario is blessed with great farm land and plenty of water. If the weather was better it could feed all of North America. I have been commenting to my wife about why are all the Tomatoes down here in TX from Ontario? Now I know.
- skylan_q 10y agoI have been commenting to my wife about why are all the Tomatoes down here in TX from Ontario? We in Ontario are still left wondering why all our tomatoes are from the southern US. We're stocked with GMO products these days that aren't nearly as good as what we were used to. I guess our tomatoes sell better in Texas than they do here...
- johnnybowman 10y agoIn another plot twist, the biggest tomato grower in Texas, Village Farms, is Canadian!
- JoeAltmaier 10y agoAnd another twist: America's Got Talent is entirely judged by foreigners! Including a Canadian!
- lintiness 10y agoapparently we have talent but lack judgment.
- mabbo 10y agoWhat's interesting is that with global warming, more of that land is available. Spring is coming weeks earlier in the far north, and the father north you go the more daylight hours you have in the summer.
- jherdman 10y agoI'm originally from neighbouring Kingsville (small world!). It's been interesting to me that more development of greenhouses hasn't happened in Harrow where the land is less fertile, and vastly cheaper.