Canadian organizations and entrepreneurs, many of them located here in the Prairies, are recognized as world leaders in digital agriculture and are poised to play a major role in increasing the productivity and sustainability of our agricultural food systems. Supporting early stage organizations is an important way to increase the speed of innovation, accelerate technology adoption, create new jobs, and foster sustainability.
This month, EMILI is featuring a Manitoban company that is giving new life to the nutrients used in agriculture along Manitoba’s waterways.
Typha Co. is a social enterprise that is working to find a natural solution to conserve critical minerals and non-renewable resources, and ensure climate-resilient communities and agriculture. The company is finding growth with the help of Manitoba’s Small Business Venture Capital Tax Credit (SBVCTC).
Typha, more commonly known as cattails, are plants that naturally filter nutrient runoff before those nutrients make their way downstream to freshwater lakes and cause algae blooms. Typha Co. harvests this quickly-regenerating plant and transforms it into a peat moss substitute to be used in horticulture.
Alec Massé, CEO and co-founder of Typha Co., says that the company’s work closes the nutrient loop and turns waste in the form of agriculture runoff into a regenerative resource.
“We harvest cattails that have absorbed excess nutrients from agriculture runoff, preventing water pollution, and then process them into renewable, high-performance horticulture substrates that replace carbon intensive peat moss,” Massé explained, adding that the byproduct of the horticultural additive is the seed of the cattail, which Typha Co. is marketing as a high-value replacement for down or synthetic insulation commonly seen in apparel. He said the seed fiber has better insulation value than synthetic down, and is naturally waterproof.
“It’s the horticulture and textile industry incentivizing ecological restoration, and in return supporting agriculture’s climate change resiliency,” Massé said.
The SBVCTC stands to help Typha Co. and other small businesses in Manitoba grow by providing a tax credit of up to 45% to individuals and corporations who acquire equity capital in eligible Manitoba enterprises. Typha Co. is currently fundraising, and trying to bring more exposure to this tax credit that investors can capitalize on.
“We have a case study harvest site really close to EMILI’s Innovation Farms,” said Massé, “This will be our third year harvesting there, and every time in the spring in the area that we harvest, it’s so much more green and way more vibrant and beautiful. That’s definitely at the heart of what we’re trying to do, to scale the concept and to see it actualize in the real world and see the benefits of it.”
Massé said that the work Typha Co. is doing will have a ripple effect that has many benefits.
“The work that we’re wanting to do is to bring back wetlands in the prairie landscapes, and I think that would be a really meaningful change, to see these wetlands come back and slow the flow of water so that we can actually conserve water on fields more effectively,” said Massé.
“So, providing water to farmers during periods of drought, for instance, or providing some sort of security against wildfires, protecting against spring floods and ultimately improving downstream water quality and biodiversity habitat.”