Food Production and Growth - business guide

Businesses that create a certain product under the Indoor food production and growth category are required to obtain a City of Calgary business licence.

Examples of businesses that do require municipal licensing:

• Aeroponics
• Aquaponics
• Aquaculture
• Hydroponics
• Modular/Freight Farms
• Vertical Farming

Food production includes fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, flowers, fiber, seeds, nuts, seedlings, herbs and fish. It includes management practices and activities such as cultivation, harvesting, storing, sorting, cleaning and packaging.

Food production does not include products regulated by the Controlled Drug and Substances Act (e.g. cannabis).

New amendment: The activity of raising insects was added to the Food Production use in the Industrial – General (I-G) and Industrial – Heavy (I-H) districts.

New - Urban Agriculture

A new Urban Agriculture land use was created under the Land Use Bylaw to accommodate businesses that grow plants outdoors for a commercial purpose. 

Urban Agriculture activities do not need a development permit where there is:

• No required landscaping being removed;
• No local food sales on-site; and
• Where there is a maximum of one ancillary building 10 square metres or less (e.g. a small shed that does not require a building permit).

If a greenhouse is larger than 10 square metres, a development permit and a building permit are required.

Local food sales

As part of Urban Agriculture, a development permit is required to sell food grown on a site. The development permit process reviews the location, hours of operation, and other applicable policies.

If the local food sales are occurring on City-owned land or City-owned facilities, a development permit may be exempt with permission by The City, but the location, hours of operation and other policies will still be determined through this permission process.

• Indoor food production does not include products regulated by the Controlled Drug and Substance Act (e.g. cannabis)
• Guide to Food Safety contains federal rules on the use of pesticides, packaging, processing and labelling
• Alberta Marketing Commission also regulates production, processing and marketing of most foods.
• Alberta Health Act and Food Regulation regulates the preparation and sale of food to the public.

Once you apply for your business licence, outstanding approvals must be completed before the business licence is issued.

A business licence will often have multiple licence types associated with it. Below is a chart of all the related licence types that fall under this business activity. If your business requires multiple licence types, approval processes are only generated once per licence. For example, only one fire inspection is required even if multiple licence types require that inspection.

Required approvals chart