In the contemporary agricultural landscape, interest in vertical farming is surging. This alternative to conventional methods can allow farmer's to cultivate crops in compact spaces, maximizing output without expanding horizontally by instead cultivating crops in vertically stacked layers or inclined surfaces. Increasing land use efficiency is critical as the world grapples with limited arable land, especially in urban areas.

Classified as: Mark Lefsrud
Published on: 22 Jan 2024

The impacts of climate change, rising fuel costs, geopolitical conflicts, and global supply chain snags make today's delocalized food system—and the 8 billion people who depend on it—increasingly vulnerable. 

Part of the solution to building a more sustainable and resilient agrifood system is to improve local, indoor food production. Researchers in McGill’s Biomass Production Laboratory are doing just that, increasing access to fresh produce year-round.

Classified as: Mark Lefsrud, Biomass Production Laboratory
Published on: 10 Jul 2023

A team led by two recent McGill bioengineering graduates, Alexander Becker and Cynthia Hitti, has made it through to the final phase of the Deep Space Food Challenge (DSFC) with their system for rearing crickets as a food source for long-haul space voyages.

Classified as: Mark Lefsrud, deep space food challenge
Published on: 3 May 2023

On January 17, two McGill teams, InSpira Photobioreactor and the Cricket Rearing, Collection, and Transformation System (CRCTS) competing under the McGill Advanced Bio-Regenerative Toolkit for Long Excursion Trips (MARTLET) umbrella, presented their prototypes to the NASA/CSA Deep Space Food Challenge’s jury.

Read the story in the McGill Reporter.

Classified as: NASA, deep space food challenge, Mark Lefsrud
Published on: 25 Jan 2023

Hydroponic strawberry growers and Co-founders of Vertité, Ophelia Sarakinis (FMT’19) and Phillip Rosenbaum (B.Sc.(AgEnvSc)’19, MSc.’21) and their partners have just won the first phase of the Homegrown Innovation Challenge, a “six-year, $33-million initiative from the Weston Family Foundation to future-proof food production in Canada.”

Classified as: Shangpeng Sun, Mark Lefsrud, Benjamin Goldstein, homegrown innovation challenge
Published on: 20 Oct 2022

 

Bioresource Engineering professor Mark Lefsrud and PhD candidate Débora Parrine were featured on CBC's The National on Tuesday, September 22.

Mark spoke about his work with Urban Barns, and how the new growth systems that he is developing are changing the face of agriculture.

Classified as: bioresource engineering, Mark Lefsrud, Urban Barns
Published on: 23 Sep 2015
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