Students rig up cost saving hydroponic system for Rigolet

Students at Memorial University in St. John's have a plan to bring fresh produce to coastal Labrador using recycled materials.

According to Emily Bland, president of the student-run group Enactus Memorial, the materials will be used to create low cost hydroponic growing systems in Rigolet. 

"It's nothing new, but for some reason it has never really caught on in Atlantic Canada," Bland said in an interview with CBC Radio's Labrador Morning.

Enactus, she said, wanted to do something related to food charity after learning that food production has to increase by 70 per cent by the year 2050 — a statistic that comes from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 

"Whether you're in Northern Labrador or St. John's or somewhere halfway around the world [we were looking for] something that could benefit everyone," Bland said.

Hydroponic systems, she said, use simple technology and have been around since the Second World War. 

"Things like plastic bags, old pipes that have been left over ... shipping crates that have had the top of the containers cracked off or broken or holes in them," she described. 

"It's less than $100 for the material and the pump and everything you need to operate [the system], and you can grow about 20 to 40 produce depending on what it is you want to grow." 

'We need to be innovative'

Bland, who grew up on a farm in Grand Falls-Windsor, said more needs to be done to support agriculture in Newfoundland and Labrador. 

"There's not going to be one big solution. There's not going to be some big mega-farm that's going to pop up and just feed everyone," she said. 

"We need to be innovative, we need to be Newfoundlanders and roll up our sleeves, use a bit of duct tape and make it happen."

Using a cooperative model, the group decided to approach five to seven members of a small community and persuade them to grow produce using the hydroponic system.

Once grown, the individuals would sell the produce back to local corner stores.

Five people from Rigolet have agreed to take on the project, and the group's now negotiating a contract with a local store to buy all produce grown in the hydroponic systems. 

"Right now these corner stores are paying obscene prices because they have to ship in produce from more mainland Canada," Bland said. 

"Our goal is to be able to produce it for a lot cheaper — which will happen — and then allow the produce to not only be a more affordable price, but also to be a higher quality."

Bland said Enactus has heard from about 100 people across the province who want to purchase the materials needed to build a system of their own. 

"We've had people from Las Vegas messaging us ... from Norway, Southern Africa ... we're just mind blown."

The team said it plans to go to Rigolet in early January to set up the systems and meet with store owners.