CAN (NS): Crowdfunding for greenhouse in remote Inuit village
Adam Malcolm is asking his home province to pitch in to help pay for a greenhouse so people can grow fresh produce in his remote Inuit community, a tiny spot in the high Arctic across the Davis Strait from Greenland.
Malcolm, 36, is the lone high school teacher at Inuksuit School in Qikiqtarjuaq, Nunavut, population 500, where the cost of food eats up more than half of a family’s monthly budget, and where “on a good day, eight students will show up” for Malcolm’s class.
“I want to provide my students with the opportunity to gain the skills needed to grow their own fruit and vegetables. There are some natural green thumbs here that want to give a greenhouse a try, and there’s a real chance it could be sustainable a few years down the road,” he said Monday in a telephone interview from his classroom.
In such a cold environment as Canada’s north, there are many challenges to greenhouse food production, Malcolm said. He feels it might be best to keep the northern greenhouse technology simple, using soil made from compost. He has ordered seeds that will produce a quick crop in 60-70 days, such as tomatoes, onions, peas, lettuce, beans, melons.
With advances in technologies and an increasing number of greenhouse projects in northern communities, “the medium-term goal that I have in mind, contingent on community support, is to help Qikiqtarjuaq secure federal and territorial funding for a larger community greenhouse that might supply fresh produce for just the cost of greenhouse upkeep,” Malcolm said.
Read more at The Chronicle Herald
