Nipissing First Nation greenhouse provides year-round fresh food in northern Ontario – The Narwhal

Dec. 4, 2024

Growing hydroponic spinach ‘bigger than my head’ is an effort to combat chronic illness and high produce prices

“Our spinach is really big spinach, sometimes the leaves are bigger than my head,” Makenzie Jones said of the greenhouse he manages in Nipissing First Nation. “The arugula as well, sometimes they’re as big as my forearm. It’s really not typical stuff you can get in a grocery store.”

Jones works at Mnogin Greenhouse, which supplies his northeastern Ontario community with reasonably priced local greens year-round. Like other northern, rural and remote communities in Canada, his nation experiences high rates of diet-related diseases like type 2 diabetes, largely because of the limited access to nutritious, fresh food. To help reduce those ailments, and provide better food security in a changing climate, the nation opened the greenhouse in 2023.

Read More: https://thenarwhal.ca/nipissing-first-nation-greenhouse/