GOODNESS GREENS ALIVE 

A major problem in getting fresh green vegetables to market is often the distance from producer to customer. Another is the weather that often makes some products ridiculously cheap during harvesting season and then makes some products ridiculously cheap during harvesting season and then prohibitedly expensive the rest of the year. A new development may help eradicate those problems, at least from lettuce, spinach and watercress.

Now available: Farm-in-a-box. A complete packaged greenhouse in two 40 foot containers that when opened and erected provides a hot house, as long as a football field with about half the width. Also inside the box is a packaged computer irrigation system and everything necessary to get the operation up and farming. One needs no soil, fuel, chemicals or experience.

A big plus for thenew system: greatly reduced heating costs and a labor-when-needed production strategy. Sounds too good to be true right? Not according to greens alive, Toronto lawyer Stephen Mackneson (who has created an enviable reputation by franchising such networks as the breadman bunsmaster, cottmann transmissions and Ziebart (rustproofing). His partner and system disigner is Helmut Julinot.

Designed to be run by no more than three permanent staff the system produces 7 000 head of Boston Lettuce a week. Ten to 12 parttimers are required two days a week to harvest the fast-growing leafy crop.

One big economic feature is the fact that this system has been able to reduce the heating costs for a hot house from 30 to 40 percent of gross revenues to just two percent. By not using chemicals a further cost saving is made while appealing to many consumers who are increasingly concerned over crops grown with chemicals.

Operated like a Japanese car factory production plant, the seed is planted at one end of the 300 foot-long greenhouse and is harvested from a moving production line at the other end of the building. Growing in sterilized nutrient-packed water, the thousands of plants only use 500 gallons of water a day -- about the same as a home with a family of four. A built-in continuous-freshness element offers other advantages: popped out of its growing container the lettuce is bagged with its roots still attached, thereby adding a "PluckedWhile-Alive" freshness for about ten days in the consumer's home. More Information: Heather McKneson, Greens Alive INTL., R.R. #2, Osgoode, Ontario K0A 2W0.

Phone: (613) 826-3443. Fax: (613) 826-3175.

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