McCain opens first Farm of the Future

McCain has announced the opening of Farm of the Future in Florenceville, NB; a 500-plus-acre commercial-scale operational farm to find a more sustainable way to grow a potato.

The New Brunswick farm, which will serve as a testing ground for practices aligned with regenerative agriculture, is the first of three Farms of the Future McCain plans to open in different growing regions around the world by 2025.

“We know the path to better crop yields and more sustainable farming will depend on applying new approaches to farming and leveraging rapidly developing technology,” said Jess Newman, Senior Director of Agriculture and Sustainability, McCain. “Our Farms of the Future will be where we learn and discover how these advancements play out in different climates, continents and hemispheres in a way that is economically viable and scalable for our farmers.”

In year one on the Canadian Farm of the Future, McCain is working on incorporating precision agriculture technologies like remote sensing, experimenting with seeding practices and implementing controlled traffic, a shift in approach that limits the time a tractor and other heavy machinery spends on a field.

All of the potatoes grown on the McCain Farm of the Future will be made into French fries and other frozen potato products at McCain’s Florenceville processing facility.

“Potatoes actually have a small carbon footprint, but they do account for nearly a quarter of our carbon emissions,” said Newman. “Re-imagining a more sustainable way to grow a potato is a key element of our effort to be a global leader in combating climate change.”