Mohamed Hage is not your typical urban farmer. The Lebanese-born entrepreneur, now living in Montreal, got into food as a technological challenge: He wanted to come up with a better way for family back in Lebanon to grow crops. But to say he has a green thumb would be a bit of a stretch; instead, he relies on a knack for high-tech gizmos and marketing. In 2011, his business, Lufa Farms, opened the world’s first commercial greenhouse on a roof in Montreal. Today, the company has two rooftop farms and a staff of about 30, including “more programmers than farmers,” he says. Next year, Lufa expands to Boston, with plans for world conquest from there.
I caught up with Hage at the SXSW Eco conference happening this week in Austin. Here’s what he had to say:
