Back in April 2012, a Canadian company began farming what it called ‘the most carbon-neutral peppers in North America’, by using a clever CO² capture system. The company, SunSelect, is still a successful grower of produce, but after three years of low carbon impact growing, should we be surprised that this idea has not taken off?

The technology behind the method is clever.

At the beginning of the process, waste wood and sawdust from a nearby sawmill are burnt to heat the 40-Acre greenhouse where the peppers are grown. However, the gases released from the burning are cooled in a flue, so that the carbon dioxide can be stripped off via a water-based organic solvent.  The CO² is then stored in a buffer tank ready to be applied directly to the plants.

As Victor Krahn, co-founder of ProSelect Gas Treating Inc. that developed the technology said in a press release at the time, “Carbon-free excess vapor is harmlessly emitted into the atmosphere. Meanwhile, the resulting pure carbon dioxide-laden solvent is boiled off to release food-grade CO² gas at the demand of the greenhouse, cooled and administered directly to the plants in a seamless, computer-controlled and monitored process.”

Whilst the grower (SunSelect) remains keen to promote their sustainable initiative, it is both interesting and a little disappointing that consumers are not more eager to buy carbon-neutral food. Aaron Quon, one of the directors at parent company Oppenheimer, believes that the process “can serve as a powerful point of differentiation” from other growers. Meanwhile the SunSelect website proudly promotes the system, by stating that, “This process only releases the same amount of CO² into the air that would have been released when the plant decomposed naturally.”

But the question remains, why haven’t more growers adopted such an advantageous system?