Our Vision

“Is this new BIG and NICE building in front of me the ENVIRO Mushroom Farm? It surely can not be Enviro mushroom farm I am looking for. But I am standing at the corner of east of Appleby line and Britannia Rd. which is the direction ‘Ben’ gave me. Then, where is the Enviro Mushroom Farm ? “

This is what Diana Campbell, Export marketing officer of the Ministry of Agriculture, in Ontario Government, was whispering to herself with awe and joyous surprise when she visited this new Enviro Mushroom Farm in September, 2004, just before the completion of the building. Diana has watched Enviro from its infancy in 2001. She has seen the hardship and frustration it has gone through in setting up the very first Enoki and King Oyster mushroom farm in Eastern Canada. To Diana, looking at the completely new shape and stage of Enviro was a most refreshing and pleasant shock.

Enviro mushroom farm, which is now located at 5200 Britannia Rd. W. was originally established on February 22nd , 2000 in Hamilton, Ontario. Four new Korean immigrants in their mid 40’s led by Yun Joon Park (Ben, the president), who emigrated to Canada in that same year, have started this project by studying the very basics of mushroom growing, because their educational and occupational backgrounds had absolutely no relationship to mushrooms or mushroom farming.

Due to the limited funding, we had to lease an abandoned chicken processing factory building and refurbished the leased area completely in December, 2000, to grow mushrooms with Korean bottle cultivation technology. Canadian environment, water, air and temperature, were very different to all Enviro staff. In this strange land, even finding where to buy necessary sawdust and simple tools such as nails and screws became a laborious task. On top of these, we have faced continuous unexpected trials. After finishing the renovation of the old building, before Enviro even started its operation, the roof of the building collapsed due to heavy snowfall. With only 50% of the leased building, Enviro started its operation. But for some unknown reason, mushrooms were not growing at all and the production was delayed by six months. After one year’s production, mushrooms started to have unknown diseases and were thrown away.

These unexpected problems caused an operating fund shortage and severe financial difficulties. However, we did not give up.

We strongly believed that we could overcome these hardships, so we devoted more time and efforts in analyzing the causes of the failure and developed new strategies to reach success. From January 2002, we began to produce profit from our operation, and at last, we started to bring up the “Sincere Dream of OUR OWN FARM”.

The source of Courage and Energy to overcome the hardships came from the trust and mutual confidence of Enviro Team members, believing that “WE CAN DO IT”.

It is the great Blessing to Enviro to have these devoted and courageous special people who took their assigned duties seriously and devoted their time and efforts. Their sincere attitude toward their responsibilities gave comfort to each other and became the stimulus and energy between them. The core of their achievement is here in this Enviro Mushroom Farm in Burlington. Truly, they are the heroes of our Company: they are, Anna Sung, Youn Hwa Park, Hae Shin Lee, Sung Il Shin, Hee Song Park, Yong Jae Im, Suk Hyun Lee, Seok Yun Hong, Sung Jin In, and Yeon Ock Park.

There have been many supporters of Enviro who gave important assistance whenever it had difficulties and whenever help was needed. We send the heartfelt gratitude to Helen Leung, (Senior Account Manager of Business Banking) and Curt Cooper of Royal Bank of Canada, who recognized the potential of Enviro and trusted the capability of Enviro staff and gave us financial support and assistance without hesitation. Their honest and professional advice on the business has been the foundation of our belief in Enviro project.

Among other people who helped us by providing necessary information and data, we want to express our special thanks to Diana Campbell, Export Marketing Officer of the Ministry of Agriculture, who has been most helpful in getting much information from various sources and building a network to find necessary help whenever needed.

And last but not least, we owe our deepest appreciation to Sam and Mary Chien, who became our last shareholder and is the owner of a large vegetable and fruit wholesale business in New York City. It was our Biggest Fortune to have met this wonderful couple. They shared their business wisdom with us and gave us financial support whenever we needed it. This beautiful couple taught us the meaning of a special word “恩典” (Appreciation or Grace) as the beacon of our life.