Press release for GardeNET (Factory Farm)

1. GardeNET (Factory Farm)
90 Glory Road, R.R. 2 Bancroft
Bancroft, ON K0L1C0
Phone: 613-332-2562
Email: mergememe@gmail.com
Website: http://www.indiegogo.com/gardeNET
Press Release
For Immediate Release
October 24, 2012
For More Information
Tim Pozza, Executive Producer 613-332-2562
Entrepreneur espousing factory farming wants headliner media
exposure to promote his cause and raise $200,000
An Ontario, Canada entrepreneur says he wants factory farming to go worldwide by attracting
crowdsource investors to raise $200,000 and build an advanced social network supporting the practice.
“Think Elance, PadMapper, this Google Maps plus Craigslist, Kijjiji, etc. listing mashup, and
SETI@Home meet distributed full-cycle seed-to-plate coordinated farm patch networking, what I'm
calling an aide to local food quality, choice, jobs and security,” he said.
“But, wait a minute, don't get me wrong, I don't mean 'factory farming' in the way that would get me a
black eye and a proper amount of hate mail,” he said. “I'm after the love, and I'd probably deserve it if I
did. My wife, who still eats meat, will never touch veal because of the farming practice. And today, I'm
as close to vegetarian as I've been able to come by restricting my meat eating to eggs and the
occasional hamburger on some nights when we go out to eat.”
After wiping a good deal of sweat from his brow, Mr. Pozza continued, saying, “What I mean to say is
urban agriculture. The plan is to turn underutilized urban factory spaces into 3 and 4 season grow ops
that can stand on their own, create jobs featuring household supporting wages and longevity, while also
providing a buffer against any climate scarcity or overabundance of inputs like water, sun, even soil
10/24/12 Page 1 of 3

2. microbe changes or nutrient depletion.”
Tim Pozza is a native of Rexdale in Etobicoke, Ontario, He claims also to be a “...former blueberry
picker, grape pruner, technical support supervisor, data center console jockey, content and eLearning
developer, and all around great guy...” according to information in his packet. He said he has turned to
developing environmental solutions because of what he learned from over 25 years in the workplace,
especially working on Oil and Gas and nuclear power projects.
“Things were hyper organized. I was hyper organized -- with every 't' dotted and every 'i' crossed,” he
said. “I'm not really kidding. There are more environmentalists in these businesses than anywhere else
I've been. You can't not be. You're supporting some of the safest workplaces in the world, and life is a
precious thing that you don't trifle with playing with spilling poison. So it isn't. Spilled, you know.
Change has been in the works for a long time, but big things take a long time to spin within their very
tiny spaces. It's like a giant Pink Elephant trying to navigate the Eiffel Tower on a ball bearing designed
for miniature slot-cars. Things are delicate and nobody wants to lose money as investors and
governments hold them accountable for energy security, especially Oil and Gas. And imagine going
home to your spouse empty handed?”
Mr. Pozza is quick to point out he is more analyst than farmer and expects the widespread availability
of sensing equipment such as network connected moisture meters, simple pH testing strips, weather
prognostication and historical data on temperature, precipitation and wind, resources commonly
available along with a few other tricks, will be put to use in a professional mashup providing business
intelligence for distributed garden networks. He's also relying on affordable micro-scale drip irrigation
systems, he says.
Accordingly, some of the downside trade offs are expected to be outweighed by the benefits. Mr. Pozza
says he sees money changing hands as essential to success, and that the network portal will facilitate
this being done in ways that haven't been possible for small growers without social networking to keep
things well oiled and relevant to the moment. Heritage seed use may go up, he said, adding that one of
the downsides possible is small scale outdoor growers will need to be focused on larger than usual
same-plant patches in their gardens cutting into diversity as that same diversity hiccups on quality for a
season while it's played out over a larger area of distributed gardens, and as event based and hands on
mentoring takes hold through GardeNET to aid in quality, market-ready output.
“That's kind of why we're placing the focus on distributed involvement at the very grassroots level first
– to provide advocacy on urban food production come what may – but expecting as time goes on and
the network matures that the novelty will wear off in favor of more intensive, controlled efforts that
have robust scale and employment potential – still at the local level. The network will be ready for
however either of these scenarios blend out depending on local conditions, capabilities and desires,” he
said. “One of the biggest problems may be the cost of and availability of plate glass and/or trombe wall
installations. We're looking into that now.”
The thing Mr. Pozza says he's most reluctant to talk about is the secret to how through GardeNET
ordinary people will be able to break into monolithic chain stores and score essential shelf space close
to where their produce is grown. Admitting it's an age old problem Mr. Pozza said one of the
10/24/12 Page 2 of 3

3. approaches is to favor the network over the supermarket, and that in doing so a robust proven network
with reputable data collection and quality metrics could succeed where others have failed.
Urban agriculture is an old model which has traditionally supported monocultural agriculture on a
relatively large scale in greenhouse fashion with heat provided by district energy installations.
Cogeneration plants such as Northland Power's Kirkland Lake pellet operation supply waste heat to
industrial or agricultural operations in designated parks. The renaissance of district energy projects seen
on the very near horizon is buoyed by low cost liquified natural gas production activity from domestic
sources. “I just hope we don't see LNG used to power fuel cell cars, I'm hoping they'll go all-electric
and I can fill up at my gas station with a copper wire. Then district power projects will be able to dove
tail into urban factory farming expansion and we'll get a greater degree of local dependency rather than
what's been well placed faith in one geographic area to do it all – up until now, basically. That
dependency and more is one of the reasons we support our local farmers, processors and open markets.
Doing that has more sense than a squirrel out collecting nuts who's caged all the cats out of sight of its
hiding places.”
Waste heat was used by Bruce Power to grow cucumbers. At present Bruce Power is ramping up to full
power over the next while and committing to producing ¼ of Ontario's demand for electricity.
With many localities shifting to a focus on water efficiency as energy efficiency has engendered the
automation building systems market, and distributed energy generating couples with waste water
treatment options for energy production, the time to plan local food security seems about right. “A lot
of people think there might be an opportunity that shouldn't be wasted,” said Mr. Pozza.
You can find GardeNET, the Indiegogo-hosted crowdsource campaign at http://bit.ly/gardeNET.
- 30 -
10/24/12 Page 3 of 3