Publication Date: Tuesday, May 26, 2009

There is a saying, ‘It’s not easy being green ‘. Today at Village Farms as one of North America’s largest greenhouse growers, who own, operate, market, and distribute hydroponic greenhouse grown produce we take this statement to task. We find what’s good for the earth is also good for business, so naturally it’s easy being green. Yet we do not take this statement lightly, because we know it didn’t come easy, achieved through invaluable expertise gained from twenty years in the business. Village Farms is a leader in agricultural research and foremost in North America for developing improvements in greenhouse production technology. Our applied research division continues to invest tremendous resources in the areas of Climate Engineering, Plant Biology & Pathology, Entomology, and Ecology. And for almost twenty years, Village Farms has been at the forefront of technological greenhouse innovation by developing creative solutions in challenging climatic environments, not to mention, has achieved and documented the world record for highest yield.

Village Farms' "crowning glory" in applied research is the Greenhouse Advanced Technology Expert System (GATES). GATES system was created to perfect vegetable and fruit greenhouse production in high-sun and low-humidity areas. Adjacent to our facilities in Marfa, Texas this revolutionary greenhouse is a combination of unique and valuable intellectual property. The entire project is a multi-million dollar investment developed using new concepts in greenhouse design technology, climate control, and crop management. Utilizing new combinations of hardware, software, sensors, and control systems, GATES technology has defined industry standards in advanced food safety principles, production levels, and environmental stewardship values for greenhouse production. Below is a list of GATES capabilities.

GATES CAPABILITIES

• GATES 365 day production of high quality fruit providing 100% fulfillment of customer requirements.
  
  
• GATES contained environment excludes all outside pests while inside pests are controlled with IPM (Integrated Pest Management), making GATES production 100% insecticide free.
  
  
• GATES production levels are 60% higher than average greenhouse production.
  
  
• GATES yield 20-30 times more product per acre than conventional field production
  
  
• GATES technology achieves lowest price per pound in the industry today.
  
  
• GATES uses 100% of water with no waste and recycles 100% of irrigation drainage to conserve water and fertilizer.
  
  
• GATES is designed to use waste heat to warm the greenhouses.
  
  
• GATES is designed to recover CO2 from boiler and power plant exhaust to utilize plant for increasing crop growth.
  
  
• GATES uses 3 types of evaporation to cool and humidify the greenhouse.
  
  
• GATES water efficient growing system for tomatoes requires 1/7th of water usage, compared to field grown tomatoes, further translating into an 86% savings in water usage.
  
  
• GATES has the most sophisticated plant monitoring available, including cameras, plant temperatures, water uptake, and growth rates. These measurements are all minute by minute in real time.
  
  
• GATES uses the plant measurements and software models to fine tune the greenhouse conditions
  
  
• GATES technology can be transferred to high density population centers, therefore, reducing ‘food miles’ and thus, the overall carbon footprint.
  
  
• GATES can harvest solar power from excess sun radiation and convert to electricity.