When Mackenzie Warford decided the military life wasn't for him, he envisioned harnessing his heritage as a fifth-generation farmer and getting into growing cannabis with a hydroponics system.
He knew someone in northern Ontario who had been using hydroponics to grow lettuce year-round and, considering he wasn't interested in just being a seasonal farmer, his plans switched to growing food.
"Going to the grocery store in the middle of the winter was just crazy," he said. "There was no (fresh) food anywhere to be seen, and the food that was there, the quality of it was unfit."
So, his family moved out of their house in Glovertown to a piece of land in Burnt Berry, near Springdale, and established Papa's Farm. They built a greenhouse in 2021 and harvested their first crop in January 2022. With a business based on addressing food stability in Newfoundland and Labrador, Warford believes the recent threat of American tariffs on Canadian exports is just another reason why operations like his should be supported and their numbers increased.
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