Why Montréal is a world leader of urban agriculture
We’re playing our part in the locavore movement.
Montréal is known for having an innovative — and downright delicious — culinary scene. But our relationship to food is much deeper than feed-worthy bistros and fine glasses of local wine. The city was officially deemed a world capital of urban agriculture by the AU/LAB (the Laboratoire de l’agriculture urbaine) a couple of years ago, and since then, our numbers have only grown.
Why a world leader?
The AU/LAB study placed Montréal ahead of international cities including Brussels, London, Paris New York, Toronto and Vancouver on the urban agriculture front, based on the dynamism of their industry, their geographic distribution and how often they’re mentioned in media as exemplars of urban agriculture excellence.
The fact is that the province of Québec is a food industry giant, known for its abundance of high-quality raw materials and its exports to the Americas, Europe and Asia. The local agri-food industry isn’t just a powerful driving force for the local economy, it stands out globally for its innovation.
Montréal’s massive agri-food workforce
Today the urban agriculture scene in Greater Montréal boasts 80 urban farms, up from 57 when the report was published in 2023. It supports an estimated 1,900 direct jobs, and generating $25.5 million in direct revenue. It dovetails perfectly into a wider agri-food industry that’s thriving: Québec boasts a vast labour pool covering the full range of agricultural production and food processing occupations.
Beyond producing food, Montréal is helping explore its future, with researchers and food scientists working across food science, FoodTech, nutrition and food safety. Montréal International cites more than 14,000 students in food-processing-related programs, while its latest sector profile counts nearly 20,000 university students in such programs across Québec.
Multinational businesses choose Québec because it’s affordable. We’re known for advantageous tax measures that can cut research and development expenses by a significant amount. That’s also just one of the reasons why there are several renowned research centres located in Montréal. And, with an advantageous corporate tax rate, competitive labour costs, and some of the lowest hydroelectric rates in the world, Québec compares extremely well to other industrialized countries in terms of operating costs.
An urban agriculture scene with deep roots
While trendy for many cities around the world, urban agriculture is nothing new for Montréal. It has been part of the city’s reality for the past century. In 1936, the first community garden initiative was launched. Today, the practice of growing food within the city takes many forms: individual and community gardens, green roofs, edible insects, honey production, and cultivation of fruits and vegetables on vertical structures. In short, we love to innovate ways to produce food.
Montréal’s convention centre, the Palais des congrès de Montréal — a carbon-neutral building — features several ecological initiatives specifically related to food and food production. Their urban agriculture projects include extensive green roofs featuring container gardening, pollinating beehives (home to several thousand bees) and Canada’s first urban rooftop vineyard.
Also worth noting is local agricultural innovators Lufa Farms. They built the world’s first commercial rooftop greenhouse on an industrial building in Montréal, with the objective to prove high-yield, year-round farming that is a smarter, more sustainable, and commercially viable way to feed cities. Today, Lufa operates six urban farms with more than 500,000 square feet of growing space. Their 163,800-square-foot Ville Saint-Laurent greenhouse is the world’s largest rooftop greenhouse.
What’s in it for you?
Coming to Montréal for your food-related event is not only about having the cultural backdrop and the facilities that make your event shine, but also about having access to a pool of experts who are targeting global challenges, the type of issues that are relevant to your attendees.
Plus, you get the support you need from our team:
- We facilitate access to a vast network of partners, sponsors, local speakers, experts, and more
- We guide ways to ensure that your event has significant and lasting positive impacts on Montréal’s communities
- We introduce you to partners that will help you analyse the impact(s) of your event
Want more information? Here’s how to reach out!