How a high-tech farm in Canada is winning in the trade war

Marketplace Tech

American Public Media

Technology, News

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We've been looking at how technology is changing agriculture. Last month, we visited Central California where there's new investment in everything from electric tractors and leaf sensors to upskilling farmworkers.

Today, Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams visits our neighbor to the north. Specifically, Canada's first fully-automated greenhouse. It's cost millions to set up, and it's just in time for a trade war.

Transcript

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1:19.0	High tech agriculture gets a tariff boost. From American public media, this is Marketplace Tech.
1:20.2	I'm Navasafo. We've been looking at how technology is changing agriculture.
1:33.0	Last month, we visited Central California, where there's new investment in everything
1:36.7	from electric tractors and leaf sensors to upskilling farm workers.
1:41.6	Today, Marketplace's Kimberly Adams visits our neighbor to the north,
1:45.7	specifically Canada's first fully automated greenhouse. It's cost millions to set up,
1:51.5	and it's just in time for a trade war. About an hour and a half north of Toronto, in King City,
1:57.1	Ontario, there's a greenhouse the size of four football fields.
2:05.7	We are in Haven Greens, which is a state-of-the-art, fully automated greenhouse for the cultivation of cut baby leaf greens.
2:08.0	Eric Highfield is the chief agricultural officer, and he's responsible for managing the complex
2:13.3	irrigation systems, lighting, and machinery. It slowly moves troughs full of peat moss that
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