Fit To Eat S3E13 Scott Neary by Ivan Emke

What does a farm look like? Do you have some kind of greeting card image in mind, with a soft focus, just a bit of mist, a few happy livestock in the field, a string of workclothes on the washline, chickens of course, maybe a few strategically placed haystacks? OK. How about a seemingly-deserted non-descript industrial warehouse in the alien urban margins, on a foggy December night? That is also a farm. Maybe best called an urban indoor farm, but why split hairs. Both provide food to the public. One happens to have arrived after about 8 thousand years of human experience (and is on its way out). The other is of a rather more recent vintage.

Today on "Fit to Eat" we visit one of the futures of agriculture that is already well in place – Green Farm in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland. And we’ll meet one of the founders and operators – no, I mean, one of the farmers, Scott Neary. Usually when I visit farms, we head outside to the crops. This time, we head inside to the crops.

Scott Neary acknowledges that he didn’t grow up with agriculture as a goal. But increasingly, he became concerned about food security, and his passion for the sciences (all of them) meant that he has been experimenting with indoor food production technologies for close to a decade now. Currently, it is all coming together at Green Farm. We’re heading out on a tour of the facility. Take off your coat and roll up your sleeves. You may just be able to get one of those coveted Indoor Farmer tans…!

Season 3 of "Fit to Eat" is supported by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.