Nestled in Leamington, Ontario – often called the greenhouse capital of North America – is Nature Fresh Farms' 150-acre greenhouse and headquarters. Between the company's massive Canadian operations and its U.S. locations in Ohio and Texas, Nature Fresh Farms grows produce – bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries and others – totaling 325 million pounds a year.
As one of Canada's largest independent greenhouse produce growers, Nature Fresh Farms is on a mission to grow and deliver the freshest produce to its customers year-round. But how? With the help of Intel technology, Nature Fresh Farms' precision farming methods allow its farmers to make real-time decisions – like frequency and quantity of irrigation to monitoring peak freshness and time of harvest – using sensors, cameras, computers and artificial intelligence (AI).
Keith Bradley, vice president of Informational Technology at Nature Fresh Farms, compares plant growth patterns to those of humans. "We are told to eat three meals a day to optimally fuel ourselves," says Bradley. "Plants are the same way. They like to be fed at specific times, in a specific way, to optimally grow." But since plants are unable to communicate their needs like humans can, it is critical to look for cues to know what each plant needs at any given point.
Bradley explains that one of the hardest parts of growing produce is predicting changes in climate. But with the help of more than 2,000 sensors and cameras, every plant at Nature Fresh Farms is monitored from the time it's planted until the produce leaves the facility. Everything from the plant's temperature, sun exposure, size and shape are recorded.
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