Published 7:54 am Saturday, August 15, 2026 By William Koblensky Varela Local Journalism Initiative Northern News Service One day in the future, astronauts may need to grow food on the moon. Today, Nunavummiut need cheaper food from closer to home. That’s why the Canadian Space Agency awarded a $745,000 contract to Inuit-owned Arctic Fresh and modular farm company The Growcer Inc. on July 24. The entities are tasked with designing an indoor, year-round fruit and vegetable farm that meets Nunavut’s needs. “Nunavummiut communities are going to help us design it, and they’re going to help us decide what we want to grow in it,” said Merlyn Recinos, co-CEO of Arctic Fresh. Consultations will be held over the next year in Iglulik, Coral Harbour, Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord. For now, the contract with the Canadian Space Agency is strictly for the design of the farm. The federal agency would have to award a second phase of the project for construction to begin. “I would love nothing more than to build it in one of the communities,” Recinos said. The Growcer Inc. has built modular indoor farms in 750 remote communities in Canada and the U.S. over the past decade, including in many Indigenous locales. Romaine lettuce grown in the company’s Churchill, Man., farm is half as expensive as in the grocery store, according to The Growcer co-founder Corey Ellis. “What I think remains to be seen is, are there particular plant types that the community members want to grow more of? Does that include traditional northern plants that community members are used to finding on the land?” Ellis asked. It typically takes four months to build a farm, which can grow any fruit or plant except root vegetables. In 2017, The Growcer and Arctic Fresh partnered on a project in Kugluktuk for the Canadian Space Agency that was discontinued in 2020. “The feedback we got was the system was too big, with too many lights, and used too much electricity. So it’s almost like it overproduced. What we’re trying to do with this project is right-size the project so that it is financially suitable for each individual community,” Ellis said. Almost all of Nunavut’s electricity is derived from diesel power, making the operations of an indoor farm more expensive. Recinos said the project with the Hamlet of Kugluktuk focused on hydroponics for astronauts. The Growcer Inc. has a farm in Inukjuak, Nunavik (Northern Quebec), that was initially connected to diesel power before being transferred to hydroelectric after food production began. Cheaper electricity made the food grown at the Inukjuak farm cheaper as well, Ellis explained. Renewable energy projects, like the proposed Iqlauit hydroelectric project, would make growing food in the territory far less expensive, according to Ellis. “In the meantime, there’s still stuff that can be done,” he said. Arctic Fresh, which operates an online grocery store, has a partnership with the Canadian Space Agency that goes beyond food security, Recinos said. Nunavummiut already face daily challenges that astronauts will contend with on long-distance space flights, he noted. “Astronauts are not going to have a doctor there, or a cardiologist — they don’t have all of those resources. They’re going to have to do it themselves and with whatever tools are around them,” Recinos said. Bringing students from Iglulik to the Canadian Space Agency’s headquarters in Ottawa is another part of the partnership. Recinos said students meeting Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen and watching live as he took off in a shuttle helps inspire them. “What an opportunity to showcase to students that anything is possible,” he said. “Just because they live in Iglulik, Coral Harbour, Grise Fiord, doesn’t mean that they can’t achieve it. An astronaut is a human being, just like me and you.”
Growing food for astronauts in space starts with Inuit in Nunavut
