CEO of aGRO Systems Victoria Ross loads bins of spent grain onto a truck. (Photo: Victoria Ross/aGRO Systems)

By Drew Stremick

From waste to taste. How one Calgary company helps two industries become more sustainable

Sep 21, 2022 | 2:13 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – One company’s waste by-product is another company’s way to reduce costs. Calgary-based aGRO Systems is working to make the food and beverage production sector more sustainable.

The company provides spent grain from breweries and distilleries in Calgary to nearby livestock producers, who can use the grain as a nutritional additive to feed.

Victoria Ross, the CEO and founder of aGRO Systems, says it’s beneficial for livestock producers.

“The farmers really like the spent grain. It’s not like something you should probably feed on its own to livestock, but it’s a really good addition to the ration and it helps stretch poor feed,” Ross said. “It’s an alternative that’s really high [in] nutrition. It’s really high in protein and it allows you to mix it with unconventional feeds [like straw].”

Spent grain from breweries and distilleries can supplement livestock feed. (Photo: Victoria Ross/aGRO Systems)

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Ross says by creating a relationship between the farmers, breweries, and distilleries, everyone wins.

“It allows the farmer to take two really cheap things like grain and straw and mix it together to make a really high nutritional diet, but also something that’s super affordable for them to use as an input,” said Ross. “Then, on the brewery and the distilleries side of things, what they like the most about us is the flexibility [we offer]. It’s a very community-focused thing. We can’t survive without the farmers, and we can’t survive without the brewers. We’re in it together.”

A farmer shovels spent grain into a wheelbarrow. (Photo: Victoria Ross/aGRO Systems)

Over the past three years, aGRO Systems has prevented 15 million pounds of spent grain from ending up in landfills in Calgary alone. Ross didn’t have this year’s figures available, but she says month over month in 2022, they have had a 30% increase in bin counts.

Ross says the inspiration to start her company was her dad.

“The whole reason why I wanted to do this was because when I was growing up, my dad’s a farmer and he had to have a second job on top of farming,” Ross explained. “He’s not like the only person [who does that]. When I was starting this, nearly 50% of Canadian farmers needed that second off-farm job just to keep the farm operating and the bills paid.”

Moving forward, Ross hopes to continue to expand the reach of aGRO Systems in order to help more brewers and farmers across Alberta.

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