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LED lighting provides perfect growing conditions for Sunterra Greenhouse’s ripe-picked produce
With over 50 years of farming experience, Sunterra Farms has deep roots in Alberta. The most recent step in its agricultural journey, a glass greenhouse facility known as Sunterra Greenhouse, contains a strictly controlled microclimate that ensures plants have optimum humidity, temperature, and irrigation for peak growth, even throughout the cold Alberta winters. With these…
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Ceres Solutions turns brewery waste into gourmet mushrooms and enhanced cattle feed
From a Ziploc bag in a dorm room at Olds College to a pilot farm in Southern Alberta, Ceres Solutions has developed a way to use wasted brewery and agricultural by-products to grow gourmet mushrooms. During the process, fibers in the growing media are broken down by the mushroom and converted into protein that can…
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SYLVIS Environmental Services reclaims old mines to produce biomass feedstock
SYLVIS is utilizing an innovative approach to reclaim old mines that produces biomass for feedstock. Known as the BIOSALIX program, the $10.4 million project uses municipal biosolids and other organic residuals to add to the existing topsoil at the mine which is then used to grow highly productive, fast-growing willow trees as a biomass crop.…
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ERA invests $1.8 million in drone reforestation technology pilot project
Utilizing drone reforestation technology, Flash Forest is changing the way companies plant trees in areas that were damaged by forest fires or previously harvested. The company uses unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), hardware, aerial mapping software, automation and biological seed pod technology to reforest areas from the air. Flash Forest’s technology not only helps make tree…
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Blindman Brewing adopts carbon capture and reuse technology
Blindman Brewing, in partnership with Earthly Labs, is the first brewery in Canada to develop a carbon capture and reuse technology for its brewing process. The innovative technology captures CO₂ generated during the fermentation process and reuses it to carbonate the brewery’s beer. The project is being developed in collaboration with Old College and Alberta…
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Reducing cattle emissions up to 90 per cent through a feed additive
Direct emissions from global livestock are 5% of total greenhouse gas emissions, comprised primarily of methane and nitrous oxide. As a byproduct of their digestion, cattle belch methane, which is a short-lived but potent heat trapping gas. The Canadian beef industry has set a target to reduce primary production GHG’s by 33 per cent, part…
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Beef without the burps: lowering methane emissions from cattle with new feed ingredient
Cattle in a pasture in the foothills of Alberta Canada Between beef and dairy, there are more than 3.5 million head of cattle in Alberta—that’s over 40 per cent of Canada’s national herd. Each one burps. And, each burp releases methane, a greenhouse gas (GHG) 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide. On average, a…
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Lethbridge Biogas providing value-added opportunity for agricultural production, processing
After seven years of operation, an important rural development project has brought economic, environmental, and societal benefits to southern Alberta through waste reduction, energy generation, and advanced technology application. Since 2013, manure and food processing waste have become a value-added opportunity in Feedlot Alley near Lethbridge, Alberta. A full-scale, biogas co-generation project is being fueled…
