Should you venture into a Toronto grocery store in the depths of winter and purchase a pint of strawberries, chances are the fruit was grown in California and travelled 40 hours from field to aisle.
This system is a natural result of two factors: Consumers want strawberries year-round, and Canada – with a climate subject to cold, dark winters – cannot meet this demand.
But the factors driving the need for a continent-trotting strawberry are being undermined by climate change, which is battering field production, and major advancements and investments in greenhouse technology, which make it possible to grow fruit where no fruit has grown before (at least not in the winter).
However, there is one major hitch in the journey to the next frontier of strawberry production, says Paul J. Mastronardi, a third-generation greenhouse grower and distributor in Chatham, Ont.: For more than a thousand years, the strawberry has evolved to grow outside. Most current strawberry varieties do not adapt well to greenhouses. And developing new fruit varieties can take decades.
Read more at The Globe and Mail