Montreal has the world’s biggest urban farm
Montreal has the world’s biggest urban farm, a model that others are beginning to imitate.
(Or maybe not. See comment from Nicholas.)
-
Kate
Reply
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- H. John on Churchill Falls deal: Innu not consulted
- R T on PQ won’t hold referendum under Trump
- CE on PQ won’t hold referendum under Trump
- Kevin Butler on PQ won’t hold referendum under Trump
- Joey on PQ won’t hold referendum under Trump
- Tim S. on PQ won’t hold referendum under Trump
- Taylor C. Noakes on PQ won’t hold referendum under Trump
Pages
Other levels of gov’t
Sideblog projects
Enviro Montreal is a Bluesky feed that follows local environment news. Also available on Mastodon.
Archives
Pages rescued from montreal.com
Meta
Nicholas 11:57 on 2026-07-18 Permalink
The Ottawa Expérimental Farm is 250 times bigger than this facility, and is located about ¼ the distance from its downtown as this facility is from ours, so if anything is more urban. (And Lufa is in a former mall in the burbs; is that “urban” now?) And Montreal is so sprawly that if you go the 10 km or so out from downtown that Lufa is, in many cities you can find actual farms. Including in Montreal: there are farms on the South Shore closer than this facility. Heck, you don’t even have to go off the island: out in the same West Island that this facility is located you can find MacDonald campus, which describes itself as having agriculture “on 240 hectares of land in an urban setting”, 150 times bigger than this facility. I just can’t think of a definition they could use that doesn’t have an obvious counterexample off the top of my head, and I know very little about agriculture.
Chris 15:44 on 2026-07-18 Permalink
>a former mall in the burbs; is that “urban” now?
Kinda. Mile End used to be the burbs too, ages ago, but sprawl changes the definitions over time.
Ephraim 19:20 on 2026-07-18 Permalink
It’s on top of the old Sears Head Office, that was never a mall, under you count the Sears Liquidation Furniture place that was in the basement. The mall is still there, across the street.
Kate 20:19 on 2026-07-18 Permalink
Nicholas, you may be right in some sense, but I sense hair splitting, if only because – as far as I know – Macdonald campus doesn’t sell farm produce, but uses its facilities for teaching and research.
Also, I live in town – in the very centre of the island, geographically – but I could easily walk to two of Lufa’s facilities from my place, the newish one on Crémazie, and the older one around on Antonio‑Barbeau off l’Acadie. That doesn’t put them in the sprawl.
I also note that Lufa only claims to be the “world’s largest commercial rooftop greenhouse”. i was quoting the article’s journalist in my entry above, not Lufa themselves.
qatzelok 08:43 on 2026-07-19 Permalink
I think the word “urban” means, in this case, more than just “located in a city.”
It means “urban-style farm.” – as in “rooftop greenhouse that produces marketable veggies.”