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Traditional Chinese greenhouse technique helps to grow fresh veggies in winter without needing a single watt of electricity. Canadian Farm benefits from it!

Dong Jianyi, a Chinese agronomist has helped a Canadian greenhouse-based farm save tons of money by using a traditional Chinese farming method.  

Each year, Canadian commercial greenhouses need a massive amount of electricity to grow fresh vegetables in harsh cold conditions. Otherwise, it becomes really hard to regulate the temperature inside the greenhouses. 

Jianyi offers a simple solution — passive greenhouses!

Just like Canada, parts of China get really cold and dark in winter. The Chinese local farmers rely on passive greenhouses that mostly rely on solar energy. Despite the large upfront build cost, the farmers can save money at the end of the day by going with solar energy. 

In north China, it also gets really cold and pretty dark in winter, but people can grow year-round. Where I lived in China, there were so many passive solar greenhouses. But in Canada, I didn’t see any on the commercial scale. 


Dong Jianyi, Agronomist and Owner of Fresh Pal Farms 

To prove his theory, Jiyani has built Fresh Pal Farms which is now the biggest passive greenhouse in Canada. His 300-feet long and 30-feet wide greenhouse has an interior space of 10,000-square feet. The good news is that greenhouse has successfully maintained 82°F temperature while the outdoor temperature was 20°F. 

We can also implement the same concept and go for large-scale passive greenhouse in the U.S. 

Samira is an Electronics and Communications Engineer by profession, but deep inside, her heart is a nomad! She's a state champion debater, a public speaker, a scriptwriter, a theater actress, but most importantly — A GREEN CITIZEN! She thinks of herself as a storyteller who thrives on enjoying the life at fullest and telling everyone the tales of life.

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