Mapping The Board | Joe Canavan - GRIT ED. 7 Your Next Move - Magazine - Page 22
Mapping The Board | Joe Canavan
MAPPING
THE
BOARD:
TECH
A LOOK AHEAD IN TECH
NEXT Canada’s CEO, Kyle J Winters, sat down
with NEXT Canada board member and former
CEO, Joe Canavan, an icon in the financial services
industry that brings extensive experience as an
executive, entrepreneur and venture investor, to
discuss what’s next in the tech industry.
D
espite not facilitating innovation as well as other countries
around the world, Canada continues to advance at a significant
rate within the tech sector each given year. Since many tech
companies in Canada are relatively new startups, there is potential
for substantial revenue growth within Canada’s tech industry.
A particular sector Canavan is confident will see a big area of growth
is food safety. Canada is experiencing an increasing amount of
wealth through urbanization. As you travel around Toronto, you’ll
notice countless cranes building office towers and condominiums,
more so than some of the top five cities in America. “That’s a really
big deal, and it’s a sign that not only are people immigrating to our
country, but that people are coming from rural Canada to Urban
Canada, and this is happening in many countries around the world,”
says Canavan.
A truth experts have known for years, but has only recently become
urgent, is that traditional farming will not be able to sustain our
growing global population. The past two years alone have greatly
disrupted the global food supply system contributing to the
increasing food insecurity– pandemic strains and severe weather
caused by global warming have resulted in higher prices and
ruined crops.
“You’ve got the elements that are affecting us in terms of
carbon footprint and off-gassing in agriculture - 25% of
that category, whether it is off-gassing from cattle, food
for cattle, agriculture, water usage, all those elements
combined, have a significant footprint.’
A company that is on Canavan’s radar and recently
visited is a vertical farm in Welland, Ontario called
Elevate. Inside their state-of-the-art vertical farming
facility, grows local, sustainable, zero pesticides
greens that are blockchain tracked from seed to sale in
proprietary. These ideal growing conditions provide their
plants with precisely what they need at the right time with
zero contamination. The result is predictable, and quality produce
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that consistently looks and tastes great, 365 days a year, no matter
the geographic location or outside environmental conditions.
“We have plenty of hydroponic farms in Ontario and in Canada, and
they are becoming a bigger deal in the United States. This one blew
me away. The founder, the CEO, and financial backers showed me
what they have built to date and what it will become. Soon they’re
going to have artificial intelligence robots planting these seeds and
all the way up the ranks until harvesting, which is in 10 to 14 days
depending on what they’re growing. And what I was watching was
red leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, green leaf lettuce, basil - it was just
phenomenal.”
When you think about going into your local grocery store to buy
produce, you’re looking for the produce with the look, feel and
crunch with all the nutrients. “So at the moment, what you’re getting
is lower level nutrients, but because of the way Elevate is growing
their produce, they can amp it up. They are growing nutrient-rich
arugula, but also more peppery. I went home with some and just
started taking it out and eating it, I was really surprised and shocked
at how tasty this was.”
There are companies tapping into this world because you can
imagine, as rural China is becoming urban China and moving from
primarily rice as their main form of nutrition to a broader palette,
they’re going to have a huge demand for security of various fruits
and vegetables. You can imagine the same thing in India, Asia, or
other countries worldwide as they become wealthier and more open.
“We in Toronto can become more self-sufficient, but imagine Berlin
becoming more self-sufficient, not having to rely on some of the
foods that they’re bringing in from Africa or Israel. So I think this
becomes a global thing.”
Another venture of interest to Canavan in the same sector is extending
the lifecycle of food. When food ends up in the landfill, It gets
covered by other garbage and rots in an anaerobic state - meaning it
doesn’t get any oxygen while it decomposes. This creates methane
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