Crofter’s supports small, family co-operative berry farms in the best fruit growing regions around the world, like the mountainous region of southwest Serbia where families keep their traditional way of life and preserve the biosphere of the region; Crofter’s sources fair trade, organic sugar exclusively from the Green Cane Project in Brazil, a world leader in sustainable agriculture. Green harvesting, biological pest control, re-establishing biodiversity and maintaining spaces for wildlife protection means Crofter’s annual sourcing of cane sugar from the Green Cane Project helps restore 46 acres of soil to the quality of virgin rainforests. That’s more than 34 football fields; the Latka family (L-R) Gabi, Gerhard, Dan, Sebastian and Luke
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A steadfast dedication to reducing the environmental footprint of food production is evident in Crofter’s Organic’s new production facility in Parry Sound, Ont., completed in 2017. Founder Gerhard Latka says, “We knew we had the opportunity to build a facility that would produce products on a large scale without compromising sustainability and conservation.”
Food manufacturing can be water and energy intensive, he says. “We are located in a rural area without a municipal water source, so protecting our fresh water well was a priority. Our first mission was to reduce our water usage and reuse as much as possible. Innovative features in the facility have reduced our water usage by 80 per cent.”
Energy required to heat products to pasteurization temperature is powered by natural gas boilers. “We have invested heavily in recovering as much of this heat energy as possible. The heat from the hot-filled jars is picked up by cool water we shower on the jars and is used for floor heating, pre-heating our process water, and other warm water usage in the plant,” explains Gerhard.
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Before returning to collect more energy, the warm water needs to be cooled again, but instead of energy-consuming cooling equipment, Crofter’s has miles of in-ground piping loops to use the natural cooling properties of the earth to disperse the heat. In winter months, the in-ground loops even keep the driveways and truck loading docks ice-free.
To manage daily water needs upwards of 25,000 litres, Crofter’s built its own wastewater treatment plant at the facility. “Water used to keep equipment and our plant clean is continually recycled by our membrane bioreactor. A natural biological process (living organisms) breaks down organic carbohydrates, while membranes separate clean reusable water from wastewater biosolids. After additional 0.1 micron filtration, the process returns 95 per cent of the wastewater as clean, sterile water to be reused in the plant. This has reduced our wasted water to almost zero,” says Gerhard, who emphasizes that “only fresh, deep well water goes into products.”
Produced by Randall Anthony Communications. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved in its creation.