A Simply Delicious Concept--LUFA FARMS
Fevrier 25th, Montreal, Quebec Canada—Fruits and vegetables at the local grocer are marketed “fresh” via water spritzers and clean signage, but behind most produce is a stagnant and damaging story.  From pesticides and hormonal enhancements, to gas guzzling distribution that impacts the environment, the seemingly fresh product is really a hazard to life. Now, imagine a world full of neighborhood farms yielding fresh and savory produce daily to the locale, free of fungicides, pesticides, and don’t-know-what-a-cides, whilst offsetting these damaging footprints. In today’s world land may be scarce, but there’s a valuable and abundant untapped resource even New York City can afford—rooftops. The LUFA Farms™ initiative led by visionary Mohamed Hage has evolved imagination into reality since 2011. Today, the world’s first prototype rooftop farm in Montreal, Quebec is alive, running and acquiring global attention--that’s because the concept is “simply delicious” as Director of a Montreal Public Relations agency Aasit Thakkar declares it.
This past weekend, LUFA opened its doors, or roofs shall we say, for an inside peek. Visitors included culinary students, chefs, professors, biologists, and food enthusiasts. The 3 hour tour began with an informational providing rudimentary knowledge on farming, transparent practices and innovative breakthroughs via the LUFA initiative.  Highlights included employing conservatory farming techniques such as instruments to capture rainwater for irrigation, heat sourcing from the building itself, since heat rises, and a breakthrough CMS system called ARGUS that enables Mohamed and his team to control all parts of the farm merely from a iPhone™. Other information provided also included ideal temperatures for produce farming, the use of bio-controls to eliminate harmful pesticides, and an economically efficient distribution system. Briefly thereafter, visitors indulged in fresh cooking from the farm to see and taste the difference before being escorted into the very farm itself, which upon entering is breathtaking.
The LUFA initiative does not stop there. Mohamed explains how the concept is currently being rolled out across the province to provide freshness to even more people. Even more amazing, farms can be rolled out in less than 1 month. With a plausible farming practice, and impressive taste experience that matches if not beats the price of produce from local grocers, the LUFA farms initiative is worth taking a bite out of. Currently, the farm offers weekly produce baskets to subscribers that can picked up a various drop-off points in the city. Visit www.lufa.com to taste more.
