And their Canadian headquarters is in Vancouver.
Vancouver-based Alterrus Systems Inc. was just another penny stock outfit with an ugly bottom line. After years of losses, reorganizations, new directions and name changes, the company’s principals — including former Lululemon yoga wear executives -settled on a new line of business: Rooftop lettuce production.
Naturally, they turned to the urban farming enthusiasts at Vancouver City Hall, led by Gregor Robertson, perennial contender for World’s Greenest Mayor.
Turns out, nobody checked the price of lettuce.
h/t peterj
Another unicorn fart powered program also went under in Vancouver. It was their “bike sharing” program. The company that was going to run it went bankrupt. Who couldaknown.
Is anyone else reminded of Newfoundland-grown greenhouse cucumbers? A refresher:
http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/1170902-excerpt-premier-peckford-s-pickled-palace
brilliant, just freaking brilliant.
Oh c’mon, they MEANT well…………../sarc
I was more reminded of the Jimmy Pattison mall opening where they piles tons of dirt on the roof and parked cars , then it rained. Like a movie , the roof came in just as they were cutting the ribbon. classic.
“Vancouver has become a giant petri-dish; we’re living in a state of perpetual experiment here.”
Petri-dish is not the word I would have used for these types of experiments but it is the diplomatic one, I suppose.
Investors, employees and creditors getting burned isn’t a big deal. It’s like Vegas out there with these types of companies. It’s taxpayer money being used for these schemes that is unethical. Just like public service negotiations, when the one paying the bills is absent from the bargaining table there is no limit to the amount of stupidity that happens. The lettuce farming actually did not exploit taxpayers. Even in Sask. we’ve had bigger government failures – the NDP’s Spudco and I fear the new CO2 capture plant may be the SP’s Spudco.
I’m didn’t read all of NPs comments but I’m sure it was mentioned that one type of hydroponic crop would have yielded better returns.
http://failures.wikispaces.com/Save-On-Foods,+Station+Square,+Burnaby,+BC
so long ago
Complete, utter failure due to complete, utter ineptitude at City Hall. Really?
It seems some people have a vested interest in bankrupting Canada. Possibly the upper management of Altera, who according to the story a got paid handsomely while the company descended into bankruptcy. Four million dollars gone, makes you wonder if some of that “wasted” money rubbed off on some “inept” politicians.
The other example given is the bike lanes in Vancouver, which I’m sure nobody uses.I would not be shocked to discover that the guys in charge of pushing that damn fool project are profiting from it at some level, and profiting handsomely.
See the windmill project in Ontario for an example of politicians reaping millions from the stupidest possible thing anybody could think of.
Generally I find that people are not stupid. They don’t allow things to go down the tubes when they aren’t getting anything out of it.
Keep in mind that Robertson(Mayor Moonbeam) was supported in his elections by The Tides Foundation.
And he gets elected and reelected by low information voters. My son was one of those and took GREAT exception to me calling him Mayor Moonbeam UNTIL the city opened a homeless shelter in HIS neighborhood. Guess what, my son is now one of the MOST INFORMED voters there is actively campaigning against the mayor.What is that saying, “if you are young and a conservative you have no heart and if you are old and a liberal you have no brain”
Next business opportunity for the gay hipster crowd is Urban Bee Keeping…HAR HAR HAR!
Those guys are going to be royally screwed when Justine Turdo legalizes pot and guts the market for it…
In general, corporate farms do not work. The personal sacrifice and extended hours of work are not attractive to wage earners.
That said, a low wage culture with an available supply of Mexicans etc. with integrated farming and processing with non-union imported labour seems to work in the U.S. The unfortunate thing about industries with poverty level wages is that workers consume a multiple in government services than they pay in taxes. Cheap lettuce probably makes us all poorer.
If you are not a socialist when you are 20, you have a heart of stone; if you are a socialist at 40, you are a fool.
I think it’s a terrific idea to grow food on top of buildings. Lettuce, tomato, any of it, whatever.
It’s a monumentally bad idea to have the government (or “home owners associations”) telling people they can’t grow what they want, where they want, on private property.
This was government property, and did anyone expect a different result than bankruptcy from the government being involved in food production?
Sadly, even with such incompetence staring at them in the face from City Hall, I suspect that not even 25% of voters will turn out for the next municipal election. Clearly they don’t care that where their tax dollars go. 🙁
Yes, BC could grow enough medical marijuana to satisfy all 35 million users. And we could grow it in an Okanagan Summer without a grow-op.
One of the dumbest moves ever had to be the Federal Government’s program to grow med-MJ in a mine in Flin-Flon Manitoba.
“Last week, just as Alterrus the greenery supplier went under, Vancouver’s putative bike-share infrastructure provider, PublicBike System Inc., filed for bankruptcy protection.”
The names and games change, but the result is ALWAYS the same with any green/communist program: bankruptcy,after wasting millions or billions of taxpayers dollars.
Rooftop farming is a monumentally bad idea. Flat roofs are covered in a membrane, currently the most economical of which is called a ‘Two Ply Mod Bit’. They come in three foot wide rolls and are torched on with seams overlapping by about 2″. You start at the low point (the drain) and work your way up. If you pay extra you can get a 10 year manufacturers warrantee on the roof if the manufacturer approves the installers work. It can be punctured on a hot day by stepping on a nail or screw.
If you cover the roof with 6 inches of dirt there isn’t a roofer or manufacturer in the world who will give you a warrantee of any sort. Water will no longer flow to the low point, when it freezes you will have expansion due to ice crystals forming, which will damage the membrane and cause leaks. It might even push the parapets out. Good luck finding the leak in the winter as you smash through 6″ of frozen soil but doing so without damaging the membrane. It’s tough enough finding leaks on a regular roof just covered with icy snow where you have to allow for hoisting and burning five to ten 400 lb tanks of propane. Good luck finding an insurance company to cover your liability should the leak damage something on the floor below.
All municipalities require that post development storm water run-off equal pre-development storm water run-off. If you opt to put greenhouses on the roofs you must control (store) the rain water pouring off the sloped glass structure, to prevent the City storm sewers from surcharging and flooding the streets. Older cities don’t have separate storm and sanitary sewers, like Toronto or Kingston for instance, so you end up surcharging the combined sewer; it’s not pretty when that happens. A lot of peoples basements get wet.
Storage is currently done on the roof by putting a little flow restriction plate around the drains so that it takes about 10 hours for the roof to drain. Not sure how they would work in 6″ of mud.
The new Algonquin College building in Ottawa has grass on it’s roof. Next time your in town be sure to drive down Woodroffe Ave. and check out all the dead brown sod.
All proponents of Roof Top Farming have two things in common; they know nothing about roofs and nothing about farming.
It’s as though some unknown natural resonance phenomenon disrupts executive function on the west coast.
“…unknown natural resonance phenomenon…”
Otherwise known as the “kickback phenomenon”. Whenever anything seems utterly stupid, follow the money. There will be a kickback somewhere.
Another Moonbeam Legacy! Right up there with the bankrupt bike sharing scheme. He seemed to run a pretty successful hippy-dippy juice company before he got into politics. Why doesn’t he start the urban gardening thing on his own dime?
next up, turkey farming on the balcony:-))))
Great comment by Roofus. I paid my way through part of university by working on a tar-and-gravel roofing crew and AFAIK everything he says checks out. Seattle had several of these “green roofs” and at least a couple of them have been removed because of chronic problems. One quibble though … I don’t think Toronto has combination sewers any more. But I could be wrong.
Anyone who would put dirt on a roofing membrane and fill the roof from parapet to parapet has a head full of dirt for brains. Container gardens and greenhouses with raised beds would work OK if the structural loading checks out. They would be no different from rooftop patios and bars as long as the roofing membrane was protected. Typical cold climate flat roofs have foam insulation panels with a thin concrete topping over the roof membrane. This insulates the roof and protects the membrane from damage.