10 April 2026 TOP: FRIZIO - ADOBE STOCK PROVINCIAL FOOD NETWORK CO-OP LAUNCHED A newly registered co-op of farmers, gardeners, foragers, hunters and fishers will be reaching out to food producers across Newfoundland and Labrador. This new Community Service Co-operative has grown out of a project led by Food Producers Forum that connected 14 community food production sites that were also educational centres. That project also connected Indigenous communities, community gardens, family farms and food education centres. When members of the project met in the farming community of Cormack on the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland in October of 2024 for an intense three-day dialogue, they decided that they must continue working together, to rebuild food sovereignty in Canada’s easternmost province. Now, with the formal registration of the Co-op, that commitment has taken on something tangible with connections that people can see. The PFN Co-op will support knowledge exchange and mentorships, sharing of tools and resources, advocacy in support of local food as well as food education, all while restoring a more local food distribution system. The group’s founding AGM will be held soon. To find out more or join the Co-op, email pfncoop@gmail.com. NEW FOODWAYS FORWARD There is a strong focus on boosting food security in Newfoundland and Labrador. Supply chains of imports heavily impact food access and cost. Agriculture in the Province is growing quickly as a result with a 9.8 per cent increase in 2023 totaling $163.9 million. Top crops include potatoes, turnips, carrots, cabbage, and pumpkins. High-value livestock like 10,800 dairy and beef cattle and 2,900 sheep are also produced. Despite limited farmland, there is a lot going on in the ag and food scene in our eastern-most Province. Thank you to contributor Dan Rubin for this story. Dan is a Newfoundland resident and high achiever when it comes to the local food scene. Volunteers at the Pouch Cove Pantry – from left to right Doris Moores, George Moores, Mary Palmer, Tony Palmer, Lori Newman. A LITE LOOK AT NEWFOUNDLAND ARTICLE & PHOTOS BY DAN RUBIN Earth Sheltered Greenhouse under construction. EARTH SHELTERED GREENHOUSES IN NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR Food Producers Forum has been designing and helping build unique passive solar greenhouses adapted for northern growing since its founding in 2019. Two more sites will be added to the four greenhouses already built in Newfoundland and Labrador. The new sites for greenhouses are the towns of Chapel Arm and Glenburnie-Birchy Head-Shoal Brook. After helping them apply for funding from the Local Food Infrastructure Fund, an engineering and design team has been assembled to advise and assist with greenhouse construction and training of town staff and volunteers. What makes the Earth Sheltered Greenhouse unique is the way the structure uses the soil behind and beneath for insulation and heat storage. Built into a south-facing hillside, the building has a heat storage system of pipes that pass hot, moist air from inside the building through a gravel bed beneath the floor where heat and moisture pass into the gravel, to be stored for later use. In winter the space can be kept at 7-10 degrees Celsius for a cost of just $5 per month in electricity for fans that move the air. Potential applications for this “greenhouse with its arse in the earth” are multiple. The building can overwinter perennials, support spring seed starting, summer production of warm weather crops and growing microgreens year-round. It can also accommodate classes of students while engaged in production.
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