TMU and Montel Partner to Pilot Pollinator-Independent Indoor Berry Farm in Quebec

Researchers at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) are advancing controlled-environment agriculture by developing technology for indoor berry cultivation that does not require natural pollinators. This innovation aims to remove the ecological constraint of relying on bees or other insects, a factor currently limiting the scalability of vertical farms and greenhouses globally.

The technological core of this development is a proprietary airflow system engineered to autonomously manage pollen transfer, thereby ensuring fruit set without external biological agents. This research is materializing through a strategic alliance with Montel Inc., a firm specializing in controlled environment agriculture infrastructure. The collaboration will establish a pilot facility, designated MoFarm, in Montmagny, Québec, to rigorously test and validate the patented airflow mechanism under commercial-scale operational parameters.

This development is positioned to significantly alter the economics and logistics of high-density, multi-layer berry farming within controlled settings. Pollinator dependency is a major bottleneck for indoor farming expansion, particularly for high-value crops such as strawberries, which require precise pollination for optimal yield and quality. The Montel-TMU partnership directly addresses this constraint, seeking to enable consistent, year-round production irrespective of external environmental conditions or pollinator availability.

Montel Inc. brings established expertise in controlled environment agriculture, including advanced racking and environmental control systems, making them a suitable partner for deploying this novel pollination technology. The successful implementation of a fully autonomous, pollinator-free system at the MoFarm pilot site will yield crucial data on energy efficiency, yield consistency, and fruit quality compared to traditionally pollinated indoor crops. This effort signals a potential paradigm shift for integrating berry crops into future urban and large-scale indoor food production systems.