A decade ago, Alexandre Ferrari-Roy, BSc(AgEnvSc)’15, was standing on a rooftop in Westmount, tending to the urban farm he looked after for Park, the acclaimed Asian/South American restaurant in the building below. Things were going well, but he was at a point in his life where he needed to make a decision. Should he continue farming as a part-time activity in addition to his work in the nightlife industry? Or should he turn his urban farming side hustle into a full-time business?
“I wanted to be able to create change, and I also wanted to live off of this,” he says. He chose to commit to urban farming. The result is MicroHabitat, a Montreal-based company that runs more than 400 rooftop and indoor farms across North America and Europe – some on top of landmark Montreal locations like the Sun Life Building and the Eaton Centre.
We spoke to Ferrari-Roy about how his studies led directly to the business he has been running since 2016 with co-founder Orlane Panet.
How did you become interested in farming?
It started with a book. I read Food, Inc. while travelling abroad and it redirected everything – I’d been pulled between art and science as a young person, and food systems suddenly felt like the place both belonged.
Initially, when I applied to study at [McGill’s Bieler School of Environment at Macdonald Campus], it was a mistake. I thought I had applied to the program downtown. But after a session at Mac, I fell in love with the campus and the people there. One person taught me how to brew beer. Another person taught me how to grow mushrooms. There was a lot of classroom experience, but also a lot of out-of-classroom experience.
“The industry didn’t exist when I started. There was no path to follow, which was terrifying at the time, and is the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Alexandre Ferrari-Roy, CEO of MicroHabitat
Then, towards the end of my studies at McGill, I went to Barbados for the BITS [Barbados Interdisciplinary Tropical Studies] program – a marine-biology/agriculture program. It was an eye opener. My friend Zachary Goldberg [introduced me to] The One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka, which basically is the foundation of permaculture. I was super inspired. You don’t use artificial fertilizers, you don’t use pesticides, you bring animals into your food production system and try to recreate an ecosystem.
At Bellairs [McGill’s institute in Barbados], we began farming informally on underused patches of land. That’s where the concept took root. I kept looking at all that dormant ground and thinking: cities are covered in it. Rooftops, terraces, courtyards, all of it sitting empty.
So how did that idea actually become a business?
I pitched the idea at the McGill startup competition, the Dobson Cup, and met my first client, Jeffrey Baikowitz, the co-founder of Park. Maybe a year after I got the contract with Park, that was kind of like the moment when I thought, ‘Yes, I want to do this.’
Then you founded MicroHabitat with Orlane Panet. But how did you two actually develop it as a business?
Orlane and I have known each other since high school. She brought administration [studies] at Collège André-Grasset, a business degree from [Concordia], and several years in financial services doing wealth strategy and responsible investment analysis. She believed in the dream and helped give it commercial structure.
We jumped in, worked, [and] took the risk of working full-time for a year without salary, just to see where it would take us. Then, after we managed to create our first $100,000 in sales, that was kind of like the proof of concept. We managed to get our first salary out of it. [The business] was functional. Clients were happy.
How exactly does MicroHabitat work?
We build turnkey urban farms on commercial real estate. We design, install, maintain and harvest them – the client does nothing – and the produce goes to tenants, employees, food banks and the surrounding community.
We started with a handful of Montreal rooftops. Today we’re at more than 400 installations across North America and Europe, serving over 200 clients including [commercial real estate firms] JLL, Cushman & Wakefield, Oxford Properties, CBRE and Ivanhoé Cambridge.
What’s the advantage for your clients?
The motivations depend on each client and the values of that institution. Real estate companies sell it as an amenity service that increases the happiness and satisfaction of their tenants or employees. We’ll have educational activities.
The evolution people didn’t expect is that we are becoming a data company. Every farm generates biodiversity, wellness and engagement data that buildings now need for their [sustainability] certifications – GRESB, LEED, BOMA BEST and newer frameworks like TNFD and CSRD. So, we built MyUrbanFarm.ai to turn what grows on a roof into audited reporting.
How does this compare to the career you imagined?
Honestly, I couldn’t have imagined it, because the industry didn’t exist when I started. There was no path to follow, which was terrifying at the time, and is the best thing that ever happened to me.
What satisfies me most is that I was torn between art and science and assumed I’d have to choose. This work uses both – there’s real design and storytelling involved in convincing a landlord to put a farm on his roof.
Any advice for McGill students who are looking to start their own business?
Start before you feel qualified. Those unauthorized [garden] plots taught me more than any single course. Learn to speak your customer’s language rather than your own. I sold ‘urban agriculture’ for years. The day I started selling tenant retention and ESG [environmental, social, and governance] performance, doors opened.
Get the structure right early – ownership, IP, agreements in writing – even with people you trust completely. Especially then. And choose a problem you’d still work on if nobody ever funded it. That’s the one that survives the hard years.
