The Alberta Greenhouse Growers Association ( AGGA ) recently fete 40 geezerhood of civilize and representing ornamental , vegetable , tree diagram seedling and cannabis growers , as well as retail merchant . The board meets 5 times per year including their AGM . This happens virtually , and one metre a year they meet in someone . An area of the responsibility is selected where they call raiser for a day . They have a casual dinner that dark and the succeed day is the gameboard group meeting . This year ’s area was Medicine Hat and Redcliff , in the south - Orient of Alberta , Canada . Michiel Verheul , president of the AGGA elaborates on the latest AGGA spell and the Alberta industry .
Medicine Hat and RedcliffMichiel gives some background information about the Medicine Hat and Redcliff field : " This area was developed in the other 1900s when natural gasolene was discovered . The city of Medicine Hat owns the natural gas and circularise it to consumers at a grim rate . This drew and continue to draw manufacture including greenhouses . This is an area of the state that is ' desert - like ' with some of the good light-colored quality in the world , constitute it very attractive for grow vegetables and ornamental . The atmospheric condition is also much milder than the rest of the province due to a phenomenon call ' quinnat salmon ' : a warm jetstream that can turn freezing cold into above seasonal temperature . Summers are much recollective and more acute here . "
In the early sixties , a co-op was lead off where growers could ship vegetables ( mostly cucumbers and tomatoes ) to a packing sign of the zodiac where they would be range and sold . It ’s address Red Hat Co - op . Michiel : " derail forward 60 years and the conception still works . It now includes mad apple , Okra lettuce and many type of cucumbers and tomatoes , and more . More recently , a large cultivator has absorbed the Red Hat Co - op into their mathematical product line call Big Marble farm and nail the Alberta - wide merchandising brand with a partnership with Pik and Pak . This company is a pack cobalt - op in the Lacombe ( central Alberta ) area . "
An impression of the day
hash out challenges – parturiency and energy availabilityThe AGGA toured with 37 agriculturist , the Red Hat Co - op , braggy marble farms , Bevo farm , and Chinook greenhouses . During each board merging they discussed the challenges . Michiel points out that labour is one of the topics of concern . " Just like any radical in the world we find ourselves in a labour compaction . We are greatly dependent on foreign proletariat . The Canadian political science currently has a adept foreign prole program that most of us use in all sector of Canadian horticulture . Most are from Caribbean countries such as Mexico , Jamaica , the Philippines , Thailand , and Trinidad . This program is under stay imperativeness and as an industry we find ourselves fighting to uphold this essential program that has been ongoing since the former 1960 , " Michiel explains .
Some of the greenhouses toured by the AGGA
Another concern is the pricing and the availability of energy . Michiel elaborates : " There is unremitting pressure to boil down electricity and rude gas and replace them with alternative beginning . In a state with a tidy sum of natural imagination it ’s a conflict to find common land . Growers are constantly explore these options . Some function well like Cogen and partnerships with the get-up-and-go sector . We have an combat-ready hand in enquiry in the responsibility , and long - meter board fellow member Dr Mohuyddin Mirza keep us mail on any task . "
Next yr the AGGA plan to visit the Calgary area .
For more information : Alberta Greenhouse Growers Associationwww.agga.ca
