The Canadian Space Agency has awarded a $745,000 contract to Inuit-owned Arctic Fresh and modular farm company The Growcer Inc. to design indoor, year‑round fruit and vegetable farms suited to Nunavut’s communities.
Design phase aims to reflect local priorities
The contract, announced July 24, covers the design stage only. Construction would depend on a separate, second-phase award from the federal agency. Project partners say the design work will be centred on input from Nunavummiut on what to grow and how to build a system that fits local realities.
“
Nunavummiut communities are going to help us design it, and they’re going to help us decide what we want to grow in it,”said Merlyn Recinos, co‑CEO of Arctic Fresh.
Consultations will take place over the next year in four communities: Iglulik, Coral Harbour, Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord. Partners emphasised those visits are intended to identify community preferences — including whether residents want to cultivate traditional northern plants alongside more common greenhouse produce.
Context: high food costs, energy and scale challenges
Nunavut faces the highest level of household food insecurity in Canada, with more than half of households affected according to Food Banks Canada. That reality has driven a search for local and lower‑cost food options that can reduce dependence on flown‑in groceries and long supply lines.
The Growcer Inc. has experience installing modular indoor farms in remote communities across Canada and the United States, and says some installations can produce leafy greens at roughly half the retail cost. The company’s co‑founder, Corey Ellis, noted the need to determine which crops communities most want to grow.
Previous work in Nunavut has exposed pitfalls to avoid. A 2017 project in Kugluktuk, jointly undertaken by Arctic Fresh and The Growcer for the Canadian Space Agency, was discontinued in 2020 after feedback that the system was too large, used excessive lighting and electricity, and produced more than the community needed. Ellis said the new design phase aims to “right‑size” systems so they are financially viable for individual communities.
Technical limits and local constraints
The Growcer’s modular farms can grow many fruits and vegetables but are generally not suited for root crops. The company says a typical deployment can be built within about four months under suitable conditions.
Almost all of Nunavut’s electricity is generated from diesel, a factor that has shaped past projects because energy costs and greenhouse electricity demands affect operating costs. Those realities will be central in community consultations and in design decisions around lighting, insulation and crop selection.
What communities can expect and practical considerations
- Design consultations are scheduled in Iglulik, Coral Harbour, Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord over the coming year.
- If a construction phase is approved, individual communities would need to decide whether to host a farm and how to operate it locally.
- Systems under consideration typically grow leafy greens and other non‑root crops and are modular to fit community scale.
Arctic Fresh has stressed community control in determining what is grown and how produce is distributed. Recinos has said they would like to see construction take place in one of the consulted communities if a follow‑on contract is secured.
Early questions for residents and leaders
Residents and local leaders will be asked about a range of practical issues: preferred crops and quantities; where to site a facility; electricity availability and costs; training needs for operators; integration with local food programs and hunters’ networks; and governance or ownership models.
| Community | Planned activity |
|---|---|
| Iglulik | Community consultation (design input) |
| Coral Harbour | Community consultation (design input) |
| Resolute Bay | Community consultation (design input) |
| Grise Fiord | Community consultation (design input) |
Those conversations will be decisive in shaping the eventual build plan, project partners say. If systems can be tailored to local needs and energy realities, proponents argue they could reduce grocery bills and increase access to fresh produce in communities that now rely heavily on shipments from southern Canada.
From space research to community food
The Canadian Space Agency’s involvement reflects a long‑standing link between space research and remote operations on Earth. Indoor agricultural systems developed for extreme or isolated environments are often tested for off‑world use; in this case the technology is being adapted to meet urgent needs at home.
For residents in the High Arctic, the promise of more consistent, affordable fresh food must be balanced with questions about scale, energy use and long‑term costs. The design phase funded by the CSA will aim to answer many of those questions with direct input from the people who will live and work with any new farms.
As consultations begin, community members, hamlet councils and Inuit organisations will have opportunities to shape not only what grows in these modular greenhouses, but how the projects are managed, shared and sustained.
