In 2022, FFAR continued to outperform, raising over $82 million in matching funds and bringing FFAR’s total awards to $605 million. A comprehensive list of all FFAR grant awards can be found on the FFAR website.

Visit the 2022 Impact Report to see how FFAR is maximizing investment in agricultural research.

Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research

The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) builds public-private partnerships to fund bold research addressing big food and agriculture challenges. FFAR was established in the 2014 Farm Bill to increase public agriculture research investments, fill knowledge gaps and complement USDA’s research agenda. FFAR’s model matches federal funding from Congress with private funding, delivering a powerful return on taxpayer investment. Through collaboration and partnerships, FFAR advances actionable science benefiting farmers, consumers and the environment.

Connect: @FoundationFAR

“We are always looking to improve and expand the crop insurance resources we offer to agricultural producers, and the new Controlled Environment program will greatly benefit urban, specialty crop, organic and other producers who grow in controlled environments,” said RMA Administrator Marcia Bunger. “Controlled environment agriculture is a quickly growing sector in the Nation’s food production, and this new option is part of USDA’s broader effort to support urban agriculture and new and better markets for American producers.”

The Controlled Environment program is a dollar plan of insurance, which bases the insured’s guarantee on inventory values reported by the producer, and provides coverage against plant diseases when the plants must be destroyed under a federal or state destruction order.

The Controlled Environment program adds to two other federal insurance products available to nursery and innovative agricultural producers by providing benefits that are not available under the other programs, such as:

• Offer coverage for all Controlled Environment plants, including cuttings, seedlings, and tissue culture.
• Offer crop insurance coverage through a streamlined application and policy renewal process.
• Offer new crop insurance coverage specific to the disease risk to plants in Controlled Environment operations.
• Offer insurance for producer-selected plant categories for Controlled Environment that are not in other nursery insurance program.
•  Allow Controlled Environment operations to have single peril Controlled Environment insurance to be purchased as a standalone policy or in conjunction with other nursery insurance.

The first sales closing date is Dec. 1, 2023.

The Controlled Environment program will be available in select counties in Alabama, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

More Information

 RMA is holding virtual and in-person informational sessions this month. Learn more.

 Crop insurance is sold and delivered solely through private crop insurance agents. A list of crop insurance agents is available at all USDA Service Centers and online at the RMA Agent Locator. Learn more about crop insurance and the modern farm safety net at rma.usda.gov or by contacting your RMA Regional Office.

AmplifiedAg, an agtech company built on the principles and architecture of enterprise-grade multi-tenant SaaS agricultural technology, has broken the segmented application mold and announces the release of the Enterprise Farm Health (EFH) function for operators running on its AmpEDGE farm software platform. The EFH provides users with a single all-encompassing view of an entire farming enterprise and the inbound and outbound supply chain. 

Instead of only being able to access data farm by farm, the Enterprise Farm Health function assembles and organizes details from every farm in a user’s network – across all site locations, facilities, and farm environments including container farms, vertical farms, and greenhouses.

This visibility provides the user with the real-time health of an entire organization and its key functions to easily access consolidated environmental, operational, financial and risk reporting. 

From the enterprise viewpoint, the user can narrow in on a farm facility, to a site location, all the way down to an individual farm unit, and be able to navigate and control all of the associated functions and data analytics including environmental controls systems, harvest yields, food safety metrics, inventory, client orders, finance, and more. 

“The AmpEDGE Enterprise Farm Health function is a critical component to an indoor farm operation, especially one that is scaling,” says Don Taylor, CEO and founder of AmplifiedAg. “Indoor farming has a complex set of requirements and operations, and the EFH enables the farmer to track and report on the global breadth of an organization for complete agricultural and agribusiness management.” 

The EFH and the AmpEDGE platform at large is positioned to assist the evolving needs of modern agriculture with its multi-farm multi-site management capabilities, especially as the need to move food production closer to the end consumer increases. 

“We’re seeing more and more farmers that are diversifying their operations by blending their existing greenhouse production, and even field production, with vertical farming to add meaningful capacity to their business,” adds Taylor. “This is where AmpEDGE and the EFH function truly shine with the versatile ability to track and manage a farmer’s fully integrated operations and supply chain network.” 

AmpEDGE is a farm and supply chain management platform that correlates and streamlines the inner and outer workings of a farm including environmental control systems, business operations, and financial integrations all in one application. AmplifiedAg provides AmpEDGE software and control systems to independent vertical farms, greenhouses and other controlled agriculture environments. The software and controls are also fully integrated into AmplifiedAg’s container farming systems that are in operation by third parties across the country. 

Learn more about AmpEDGE and AmplifiedAg farms and technologies at www.amplifiedaginc.com. 

About AmplifiedAg 

AmplifiedAg^®is an innovator and leader in the CEA and indoor agriculture sector. The company’s technologists, horticulturalists, and farmers bring together the power and potential of the most comprehensive CEA technology platform and indoor farming practices to enable the next generation of scalable and sustainable food supply. AmplifiedAg engineers and implements fully enabled enterprise-scale container farms and an integrated software and hardware technology platform to support the evolving needs of the agriculture industry, retailers, government entities, NGOs, and others

seeking to develop modern food supply solutions. The company also operates its market-leading brand Vertical Roots^®. 

Our mission is to modernize and localize agriculture with indoor farming technology for farmers and communities across the globe. 

Learn more about AmplifiedAg 

www.amplifiedaginc.com | LinkedIn: @amplifiedag | Instagram: @amplifiedaginc

This article is first because I firmly believe labor is the biggest challenge we face today, as well as for the next 10 years in controlled environment agriculture (CEA), and in commercial horticulture and general production agriculture.

Victor Loaiza Mejia posted the following on LinkedIn on August 10, 2023: 

“I disagree with your assessment of the lack of ‘grower or production leadership’. Traditionally the greenhouse industry has had a legacy program (like Ivy League College) that benefited growers that come from outside the NAFTA countries. The local younger generation of growers and operators need opportunities to grow into these positions. They need mentoring and support.

“My vision of protected agriculture is more regional (USA, Canada, Mexico) than only thinking about the USA. As you mentioned in the article, the growing surface has decreased in the US but has increased in Mexico for example. The oldest greenhouse companies operating in the US and Canada are now some of the largest tomato marketers in the USA, purchasing greenhouse produce in Mexico at a very large scale, without really having ‘skin in the game.’ I see this as a big entry barrier for new companies based in the USA.

“The opportunity for small greenhouse companies is to resist the push to buy the newest closed greenhouse and buy only the necessary technology and develop their local market. Creating Cooperatives style of relationships with other small growers might be beneficial.”

Well, Victor, yes. That’s really all I have to say. Yes, I agree. I should have and could have selected my words better, while also providing more details behind my statement. If I would have, you would have seen that we are saying almost the same thing.

Now that we officially agree, let’s break this conversation down into the realities that drive the factors you highlight.

Where did the head growers, production managers, and vice presidents of operations come from in the U.S. controlled environment agriculture industry?  

The U.S. greenhouse vegetable industry started in the early to mid 1980s. (The Canadian greenhouse industry started a few years prior, and the Mexican greenhouse industry began about 10 years later.) Initially, the industry was almost 100% focused on growing tomatoes. Much of the industry was built off importing not only Dutch greenhouse technology, but also Dutch growers who were equipped with the training and knowledge needed to operate this new technology.  

As years went on, the U.S. continued to attract growers from the Netherlands, as well as nearby areas such as the United Kingdom and Belgium, which also had well-established glasshouse industries. Many of these early immigrants were well experienced with some education. They were young males eager to make their mark on a new industry in a new world thought of as “the land of opportunity.”

Now these same individuals have been in our small industry for 30-40 years. They are getting close to retirement, but many still work. This is an important part of Victor’s criticism and if you compare it with the graph below, you see why they have aggressively held on to positions of power.  

The industry does not have enough companies that can pay them the money they want or to promote others into key positions, while protecting their own careers and those of their friends. (Nothing new here. This occurs in all industries. Normally, industries have more companies and the impact is not so drastic.)

What about the other skilled labor needed to profitably operate a greenhouse vegetable facility?

Greenhouses require lots of skilled labor to operate successfully, especially when the operations are anywhere from 10-200 acres. You need IPM managers, labor managers, assistant growers, junior growers, packhouse managers, logistics managers and more. The list goes on and on. 

So where did these people come from? In many or most cases, Mexico. In the 1990s, the largest vegetable greenhouses in the U.S. were in southwestern Texas and southeastern Arizona — a short drive from the U.S.-Mexico border. This attracted young, educated Mexican (again mainly) men to jobs that paid well, provided year-round employment (not always the case in agriculture) and opportunities to work in a highly technical field that showed promise for advancement.

Now fast forward 30 years. These guys are ready and prepared to take over, but there are not enough opportunities for everyone to be in charge. This also means that as new companies open, we have a lack of ongoing opportunities to attract talent and give individuals chances to grow and develop the skills needed to run smaller or more niche organizations.

A change in politics. A change in opportunities. H-2A.

Simultaneously, we have seen a shift in our ability to bring labor into the United States. U.S.-based agriculture businesses rely heavily on worker visa programs to bring in groups of individuals to work jobs not often desired by locally available workers. The H-2A program allows U.S. employers or U.S. agents who meet specific regulatory requirements to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary agricultural jobs. (The word “temporary” is key!)  But, this program and our attitude toward migrant workers has shifted significantly over the past 30 years.  

According to the USDA, “Hired farmworkers make up less than 1 percent of all U.S. wage and salary workers, but they play an essential role in U.S. agriculture. According to data from the 2017 Census of Agriculture, wages and salaries plus contract labor costs represented just 12 percent of production expenses for all farms, but 43 percent for greenhouse and nursery operations and 39 percent for fruit and tree nut operations.”

The tightening of our southern border means that we rely on the H-2A program more than ever.  According to a July 2023 article in NPR, “The number of guest worker visas issued each year has more than quadrupled over the past decade. But the program is rife with labor rights violations, and farmers who have come to depend on it don’t love it, either.”

As I stated before, U.S.-based greenhouse producers are competing directly with Canadian greenhouse growers, as well as Mexican greenhouse producers, for consumers’ wallets in produce aisles across the United States. This means, as the American portion of the greenhouse-grown industry, we need to be conscious of all costs (of which labor is a significant portion). It is safe to say that we have learned and can confirm that locally available labor is not as efficient as the labor we get through worker visa programs. 

Why is local labor not as efficient as our immigrant workforce?

I will not even attempt to answer this question. But, what I can report is that through interviews with major greenhouse tomato growing operations, it is estimated that you need 3-4 times the amount of local labor as you do immigrant, migrant or visa workers. (This number seems true regardless of pay and benefits, based on information we received from the recently announced bankrupt company AppHarvest.) 

Conversations with on-site labor managers makes me believe that one main reason this perception exists is because this talent pool is seen as an unskilled labor force. Labor managers all agree that is far from the truth. The truth is, many of these individuals are skilled based on experience gained at other farms. These skills make them eager to be employed based on “production output,” as they recognize that their production compensation will far out pace any hourly rate that they might be paid.

According to USDA statistics from October 2022, the H2A program has expanded since 2005. But has it expanded enough to keep up with the demand? Especially the demand of the controlled environment agriculture sector?  

Even if we could keep up with demand in the greenhouse (or vertical farm), these programs do not allow us to address the issue of finding talented operational managers with experience to run the facility based on the current glass ceilings that appear to be in place.

So questions around labor, management and leadership remain for the U.S.-based controlled environment agriculture industry. From finding the experienced staff needed to operate an efficient greenhouse to providing the most talented in that group the opportunity to advance and excel. 

And Victor, my response to your comment remains “yes.” Now my question back to you is, how will you and your contemporaries lead our industry in change?

Urban Ag News would love to hear from you.  Please let us know your thoughts and comments.

September 06, 2023: Traditional territories of the Mohican and Wappinger people / Wappingers Falls, New York – Today, Lightstar Renewables is about to break ground on its permitted Old Myers project, the first agrivoltaics (dual-use) project in New York. The project marks a significant milestone for the agriculture and solar industry, fostering energy independence as well as environmental and land stewardship in New York. 

Located in Wappingers Falls, Poughkeepsie, Old Myers is a 2MW dual-use community solar project that spans a 15-acre site. The project facilitates the Thompson family’s ability to keep the site in agricultural production as well as generating stable lease income over 25 years. The project will begin construction during Autumn 2023 and is expected to reach completion by Summer 2024. 

Agrivoltaics (AgPV) projects are dual-use solar installations, meaning crop production and grazing can happen in and around the solar array. Solar panels are mounted at enough height and space to allow adequate space for crops to grow and livestock to graze. The solar panels also provide protection to crops from extreme weather events, including storms, early and late frosts, and heat waves.

The Old Myers project will harvest strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, and lavender, among other produce, resulting in active market produce production for this agrivoltaics project in New York. Lightstar will be working with local institutions to study the produce grown and document the financial and agricultural case studies that will be disseminated widely. The project will enhance food security for the local community while generating solar energy to make the local grid cleaner and more reliable. Moreover, renewable energy will be used across the crop-growing cycle to achieve carbon neutrality on the farm. 

“Some of the most prime farmlands in New York lack active crop growth and that hurts a farmer’s ability to generate income. Most often, land also misses the opportunity to leverage solar as it’s seen as competition with farming. What many don’t realize is that solar and agriculture are perfect partners — their synergies are crucial to the security and resiliency of our community for green power as well as localized food sources. Lightstar’s Old Myers dual-use project is a solution to this challenge — it combines crop production and sustainable energy production, proving harmonious coexistence is possible,” said Paul Wheeler, Founder and CEO of Lightstar. 

“This comes at a time when renewable energy must increase in order to decrease the energy cost burden, but not at the cost of valuable food production. Hence, Lightstar is meeting the urgency of this moment with its first-of-a-kind solar farm in New York. This project not only solidifies Lightstar’s position as a leading agrivoltaics and community solar developer, but it also furthers our strong pipeline of assets as part of our operational portfolio,” Paul added.

The US is in the midst of one of the largest intergenerational land transfers in the history of the country, making farmland susceptible to permanent development when it changes hands. Lightstar prioritizes the preservation and protection of this rich legacy and invaluable farming heritage by taking an innovative approach towards combining solar and farming to increase the land’s potential. Additionally, farm owners Sean Thompson and Brian Thompson will retain the land’s farming use while earning long-term reliable income from the solar project.

Lightstar has been engaged with the farm owners since early 2022 to help rezone the property at no cost to the farmers. As a result, the farm encompasses a greater solar and crop use case, further improving productivity and efficiency. The company will support the full lifecycle of the project by continuously working with the farmers and community members to ensure long-term success.

Sean Thompson, Landowner and Farmer said, “This project is a fantastic opportunity for our family farm to increase our capacity to produce a variety of healthy locally grown crops and at the same time demonstrate the viability and effectiveness of the dual-use solar concept. An added bonus is that this project will increase the vitality of our farm!  The crops we produce under the array will be sold directly to consumers as well as through local channels and will fill a food niche that is otherwise only satisfied by producers outside of our region. We are excited and looking forward to sharing our experience with agrivoltaics with our community. “

Lightstar has partnered with American Farmland Trust (AFT) to drive regenerative agricultural practices, and lead projects using  AFT’s Smart Solar℠ Siting Principles as a cornerstone of its solar and farming.

Ethan Winter, National Smart Solar Director, American Farmland Trust said, “Farmers and rural communities are essential to agriculture as well as to ambitious clean energy goals in New York and across the country. We applaud Lightstar Renewables for embracing AFT’s Smart Solar℠ Siting Principles and designing a project that will pair crop production and community solar, particularly in an area where farmland is at significant risk of conversion to urban development.  AFT encourages states like New York to take additional steps to incentivize and support agrivoltaic projects that strengthen farm viability, benefit local communities, and safeguard productive agricultural lands.”

Solar Agriculture Services (SolAg) has been Lightstar’s key partner on the project, offering knowledge, oversight, consultation and advisory. Commenting on the project, Iain Ward, CEO and Founder of Solar Agriculture Services, said, “SolAg is honored to partner with Lightstar on this leading-edge project that combines the production of nutritious food and clean energy. AgPV is a fantastic solution that increases the vitality of regional food production and builds the capacity of farmers and the lands they steward. We are excited about the future of agrivoltaics in New York State.”  

Residents and businesses will have access to electricity bill savings through discounted community solar subscriptions. The project will also create tax revenue for the local municipality. 

If you are a farmer looking to earn a passive income stream through a solar farm project, while still allowing for crop rotation or grazing, visit: Lightstar Renewables.

About Lightstar

Lightstar is a community solar developer and long-term owner and operator with a pipeline of over 1 gigawatt (GWs) of community solar farms in the US. Founded by a seasoned team of solar developers, our mission is to build solar for the land and community. We are leading the industry in community solar development that integrates local ecology and agriculture with every project. Stewarding the land the communities we serve are key to the success of the clean energy transition.

“We are celebrating the 30th anniversary of Sakata Seed de México and we are very proud of our
trajectory”, said Dave Armstrong, President and CEO of Sakata Seed America. “We are currently leaders
in several crops in Mexico, like broccoli, and this has been thanks to many growers, packers, processors,
and dealers who have helped us achieve these results. We are developing new crops such as hot
peppers, lettuce and melons, and we hope to become leaders in these new markets very soon. Mexico
has great growth potential due to its competitive advantages, mainly its highly-skilled workforce and its
weather, which allows it to produce all year round”, says Armstrong”

“We are very satisfied. We started in 1993 in Celaya, Guanajuato, with just 3 employees and are now a
market leading company with more than 100 employees, including workers from our experiment
stations in Culiacán, Sinaloa, and Yurécuaro, Michoacán”, says Eng. Mauricio Pineda, director of Sakata
Seed of Mexico. “We now have a network of 40 dealers in Mexico and two experimental stations with
genetic improvement programs. We are leaders in several crops. We have a new generation of broccoli,
chiles and tomatoes that is very important to us, in addition to our line of cool-weather crops such as
cauliflower, cabbage, spinach, cilantro and radishes, and we are launching new tomatoes, melons, bell
peppers, lettuce and hot chilis”, Pineda said.

SAKATA
Since its beginning, Sakata has been dedicated to the research, development and trade of plants and
seeds. What started as a small business of buying and selling materials between Japan and Europe has
become one of the leading global companies in the vegetable and ornamental seeds market. This
leadership is due to our commitment to building relationships with farmers, marketers, distributors, and
other people in the industry, getting to know the needs and trends of the market through the response
and launch of innovative products.

Sakata is a public company, listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Japan, and is dedicated almost
exclusively to development of vegetables and ornamentals genetics. It has a presence throughout the
world with subsidiaries in more than 30 countries and with research and production centers, thus
managing to meet the needs of different markets, doing research at the local level with the support of a
global corporation.

During the Spring of 2023, Sakata Seed Corporation celebrated its 110th anniversary since its founding
by Mr. Takeo Sakata.

This is the world’s first closed-loop, comprehensive autonomous growing solution developed for
the greenhouse industry. Other solutions focus on smoothing climate and are typically based on
small sampling datasets. The solution developed by IUNU uses computer vision to
comprehensively monitor crop growth for every plant in the greenhouse and autonomously
executes crop strategies based on how crops are performing.

“WPR has long served as a leader in the horticulture industry and we are thrilled to work
together to bring truly autonomous growing to the greenhouse industry. Having exclusive access
to world-class research facilities and talent accelerates our ability to bring products to market and
to drive value for growers around the world,” said Allison Kopf, Chief Growth Officer at IUNU.
IUNU has installed its computer vision system at WPR facilities in Bleiswijk in both traditional
and semi-closed greenhouse compartments with both Moving Gully Systems (MGS) as well as
Deep Water Culture (DWC) pond systems.

IUNU intends to bring this solution first to commercial lettuce growers, then to high wire crops.
To learn more about autonomous growing, visit IUNU’s website at www.iunu.com.

About IUNU
Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Seattle, IUNU aims to close the loop in greenhouse
autonomy and is focused on being the world’s leading controlled environment specialist. IUNU’s
flagship platform, LUNA, combines software with a variety of high-definition cameras — both
fixed and mobile — and environmental sensors to keep track of the minutiae of plant growth and
health in indoor ag settings. LUNA’s goal is to turn commercial greenhouses into precise, predictable, demand-based manufacturers that optimize yield, labor, and product quality.
www.IUNU.com

OptimIA project members are sharing their indoor farm research findings with the controlled environment agriculture industry and the public through a variety of educational and informational outlets.

The indoor farm industry is very fluid right now with changes occurring on a weekly basis. New companies are starting, some are leaving the industry, while others continue to receive millions of investor dollars to expand their operations. While financial stability is a key factor in the sustainability of some of these businesses, the need for production- and economic-related information is crucial to profitably producing quality leafy greens crops. Those with the financial backing have been able to develop and implement their own technology to produce indoor crops. New indoor farm growers, existing operations with limited financial resources, and even large-scale farms already in operation continue to look for sound production- and economic-related information that they can apply to their businesses.

Improving the indoor farm industry

In 2015 when members of the OptimIA project team initially submitted a USDA Specialty Crop Research Initiative grant proposal for funding, the primary focus of their research was on the production of leafy greens in indoor farms, but the focal points were moderately diverse.

“We went through the proposal submission process for several years before USDA approved the grant for the OptimIA project,” said Erik Runkle, who is project director and a horticulture professor at Michigan State University. “The proposal that was finally approved was to study the aerial environment as well as economics for leafy greens grown indoors. The aerial environment refers to air circulation, humidity, carbon dioxide concentration, light and temperature.”

One of the major objectives of the OptimIA project was to focus on industry outreach.

“The outreach program objective was to engage with stakeholders in the indoor vertical farming community,” Runkle said. “Prior to submitting the proposal to USDA, the project team members worked with an industry advisory committee and stakeholders from the indoor farm community.”

OptimIA team member Chieri Kubota, who is a professor and director of Ohio Controlled Environment Agriculture Center (OHCEAC) at Ohio State University, said proposals submitted for USDA Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) grants usually require both a strong research and outreach focus.

“USDA SCRI-funded projects focus on problem solving to move a specific industry forward,” Kubota said. “Not only is the research important, but also implementation of research findings in the industry sector. This is basically outreach extension. The proposals cannot just focus on research alone. It is important to have strong outreach activities.”

Multiple outreach activities, educational materials

Even before the grant proposal was submitted to USDA, OptimIA team members had already begun interacting with members of the indoor farm industry.

“We had been engaging stakeholders as a sort of proposal activities,” Kubota said. “We started doing the Indoor Ag Science Café almost a year in advance of submitting the grant funding proposal. That way we were engaging our stakeholders trying to develop a community educational platform that was a main activity. Indoor farm growers and equipment manufacturers are the general target audience of the project’s research. Team members are also constantly answering questions from growers and venture capital companies regarding indoor vertical farms.”

The OptimIA website includes a variety of educational materials including Research Highlights articles , scientific research journal publications and trade magazine articles, including Urban Ag News.

The OptimIA team members have also shared information from their research at various scientific- and grower-focused industry conferences. In July several members shared their research findings at Cultivate’23 during an educational workshop on the Essentials of Hydroponics Production: A tHRIve Symposium.

Team members have also been developing online educational materials under OptimIA University, which include YouTube videos.

“We have posted several lectures with topics based on discussions among the project members,” Kubota said. “The concept of OptimIA University is free access to whoever wants to use the online materials. The grower sector is the targeted audience.

“Rather than offering courses for a fee, we decided to make the information available to everyone, including growers and other companies that want to use it to train their employees. It consists of YouTube video lectures with pdf slides and additional reading materials. The OptimIA University website is about half completed and there are other course lectures still pending.”

The OptimIA researchers also hold an annual invitation-only stakeholder meeting.

“The annual meetings are specifically for our advisory committee which gives team members an opportunity to share information about the research in progress and that has been recently completed,” Runkle said. “It’s also an opportunity for the committee members to provide feedback and guide future project activity.

“We also invite growers and company representatives who we have worked with in some capacity on research projects. This includes growers with whom we may have conducted research trials or representatives from companies that have provided us with equipment or supplies used in our research.”

Educating the public

Even though the primary focus of the OptimIA project outreach program is members of the indoor farm industry, the team members also extend their educational activities to the general public.

“OptimIA researchers at Ohio State participated in the COSI Science Festival organized by the Columbus Museum of Science and Industry,” Kubota said. “This is a community STEM educational event in which companies and scientists participate and showcase their technologies and science. It is held in May over multiple days. We participated as an OptimIA group. We showed how leafy greens can be produced using different hydroponic systems with LED lights. OptimIA team members at Michigan State University and at University of Arizona have also done similar STEM programs related to hydroponic crop production for the public.”

For more: Erik Runkle, Michigan State University, Department of Horticulture; runkleer@msu.edu; https://www.canr.msu.edu/people/dr_erik_runkle; https://www.canr.msu.edu/profiles/dr_erik_runkle/cell. Chieri Kubota, Ohio State University, Department of Horticulture and Crop Science; kubota.10@osu.edu; https://hcs.osu.edu/our-people/dr-chieri-kubota; https://ohceac.osu.edu/. OptimIA, https://www.scri-optimia.org/.

This article is property of Urban Ag News and was written by David Kuack, a freelance technical writer in Fort Worth, Texas.

There will be keynote speeches on the latest technology and interdisciplinary research on PFALs and open discussions on business trends, needs for technology development and collaboration specific to PFALs, and future possibilities for social activities with key players such as PFAL operators actively involved internationally. Poster presentations, exhibitions, and sponsored lunch sessions will also be held at the venue, providing an opportunity for interaction and high-level networking among the world’s plant factory leaders and enthusiastic community.

The symposium will feature the keywords, including “Global trends, challenges, and prospects of plant factory business, large-scale strawberry plant factory, fully automated plant factory, improving light and other resource use efficiency in plant factories, plant phenotyping, plant factories with generative AI, next-generation nutrient solution management, breeding, space farms, plant-made pharmaceuticals and functional food, urban farm, plant factories for the circular economy, plant factories in the smart city.” These topics will be covered through open discussions and international collaboration at smart city Kashiwa-no-ha, and online, with a view to achieving “staying healthy simply by living.” The symposium will offer highly interactive sessions from various perspectives with leading international researchers and the hottest business leaders of the moment. 

Speakers/Panelists

Chieri Kubota Professor, the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, The Ohio State University, U.S.

Leo Marcelis Professor and Head of Chair Group Horticulture and Product Physiology,　Wageningen University, The Netherlands

Hiroki Koga Co-founder and CEO, Oishii Farm, U.S.

Seishi Ninomiya Emeritus Professor, The University of Tokyo, Japan

Francesco Orsini Full Professor, the Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences (DISTAL), University of Bologna, Italy

Roel Janssen Chief Business Officer, Planet Farms, Italy

Eiji Goto Professor, Chiba University, Japan

Yoshiaki Kitaya Professor Emeritus and Director of R&D Center for the Plant Factory, Osaka Metropolitan University, Japan

Masayuki Hirafuji Project Professor, The University of Tokyo, Japan

Paul Gauthier Professor, Protected Cropping, The Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland, Australia

Katashi Kai General Manager, Shinnippou (808 factory), Japan

Nagateru Nozawa CEO, MIRAI CO., LTD, Japan

Eri Hayashi President, Japan Plant Factory Association

Click https://select-type.com/e/?id=DFQu2EcoBas&w_flg=1 for onsite registration
or https://select-type.com/e/?id=9USB5nqn1p4&w_flg=1 for online registration.

For more information, go to JPFA International Symposium on Plant Factory 2023, or contact the JPFA at symposium@npoplantfactory.org. 

Japan Plant Factory Association

The Japan Plant Factory Association, a nonprofit organization founded in 2010, is devoted to advancing the plant factory industry and controlled-environment agriculture in and outside Japan through academia-industry collaborations.

Its mission is to develop and disseminate sustainable plant factory systems in a bid to address issues concerning food, the environment, energy, and natural resources.

Activities range from research and development in collaboration with research institutes and industrial companies, technical and business support, planning and operation of human resource development programs to educate plant factory specialists, organizing onsite tours, and international projects, including public relations activities.

Facilities: 15 Plant factories and more on the Kashiwa-no-ha campus site

R&D projects by consortium members, applied research at facilities suitable for demonstration, collaboration with academia and industry

Website: https://npoplantfactory.org/en

PORTLAND, Ore. (June 29, 2023) — Resource Innovation Institute (RII), the leading not-for-profit energy and water benchmarking organization for CEA producers, announced today the availability of its long-awaited Water Circularity Best Practices Guide for Controlled Environment Agriculture Operations. It can be downloaded from RII’s resource catalog at this link.

“This report is the result of a comprehensive, collaborative effort between equipment manufacturers, academia, regulators, utility providers and RII’s in-house experts,” said Derek Smith, Executive Director of Resource Innovation Institute. “It is the first comprehensive guide on water efficiency in CEA in North America and will prove invaluable to any operation working to implement efforts to reduce water consumption and increase efficiency.”

According to Smith, environmental sustainability is just one reason to implement water efficiency best practices. As reported in a 2016 study from Alberta, Canada, resource efficiency also makes a direct impact on a CEA facility’s bottom line. For example, the study found that recirculating irrigation water has been shown to reduce water consumption by 20-40% and fertilizer costs by 40-50%. The Water Circularity Best Practices Guide covers topics such as reducing irrigation water use in hydroponic and horticultural substrate culture, reducing the use of climate control water and process water, how to recapture water and other critical issues.

“Any size operation will be able to implement the best practices for reducing water consumption identified in this report,” Smith said. “Larger or more advanced facilities can apply the strategies for recycling and remediating multiple water streams using physical, chemical, and biological technologies, putting them on the path to become zero-discharge facilities. There really is a comprehensive focus to this guide that will be beneficial for everyone.”

Through actionable tips and tools on the operational benefits of adopting water-saving practices, the guide offers practical solutions to reduce, remediate and recycle a CEA facility’s water usage. It can be downloaded at this link from RII’s resource catalog.

About Resource Innovation Institute: We Empower Farm Resilience
Resource Innovation Institute (RII) is a not-for-profit, public-private partnership advancing climate resilience. RII provides resource efficiency education, training, and verification services, in collaboration with CEA producers, researchers, governments, utilities, and the design & construction sector. Visit our website at ResourceInnovation.org. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

“Extraordinary” would be a term that comes to mind, but even more so once you meet some of the farmers who brave this climate and manage Village Farms’ high-tech Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) greenhouses. Village Farms’ CEA indoor farming boasts higher yields using less land and significantly fewer precious natural resources compared to open field farming, such as water, because they grow hydroponically and can recirculate their irrigation water time and time again.  Village Farms is a leader in CEA, where inside the enclosed glass greenhouses towering plants are thriving, creating a beautiful indoor garden, while outside an extremely foreboding climate awaits in the desert of Far West Texas.

One such person who manages all this beauty and precision with her expertise in CEA is Abby Lange, Facility Manager for Village Farms Marfa I greenhouse.  Abby started with Village Farms as an intern over 8 years ago while pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Plant Science with a minor in Sustainable Agriculture, and a degree emphasis on Greenhouse Management from the University of Missouri-Columbia.  She now manages 20 acres of Tomatoes-on-the-Vine (TOV) destined for local markets and valued customer-partners including the renowned Texan Grocery chain HEB, for their Texas Roots program, which the company supports.

Abby’s responsibilities include keeping the greenhouse climate and irrigation ideal for the tomato crop she oversees, prioritizing maintenance activities, keeping the packhouse running as efficiently as possible, continually updating the company’s production forecast with the most accurate information available, assisting in the training of personnel, while keeping all of the above on time and under budget. She also told us, “As an intern I saw a broad range of jobs and work within the company, from Packing to biological control to Human Resources, but instead of merely studying these areas of expertise and helping with basic tasks, I now coordinate them all. It falls to me to ensure that communication is smooth among the Greenhouse, the Packhouse, Maintenance, our Integrated Pest Management (IPM) team, Human Resources, Sales, and our Safety and Compliance teams, and that the work of all these teams is optimized considering the current climate, the market, our staff, and the crop.”

On a personal level, Abby’s goal is to work cross functionally to streamline the company’s crop change processes to be better able to produce more weeks out of the year, and, as she notes, “to never become set in my ways, as there is always more we can do to improve.”  Abby also told us that she sees automation as one of the biggest growth opportunities for Village Farms in Texas. “Everyone is short on staff these days, so we can use automation to position our staff more effectively while making their jobs less physically intensive,” she mentioned. Abby thinks that data utilization is another prime opportunity and noted, “We have decades of climate, yield, and sales data at our disposal, and we are using it more and more, but I think we can implement more advanced analytical models to leverage all that data.”

The multi-dimensional aspect of Abby’s role is a big part of her day-to-day and, from what she shared with us, one of her favorite aspects of her job.  “I absolutely love telling our employees when they’re doing a great job or thanking them for what they do. Seeing the crop well cared-for, or a case of beautiful tomatoes beautifully packaged, gives me an energy like nothing else, so I make a point of reflecting that energy back to the people who make it possible to grow tomatoes in the desert day after day. I’ve heard visiting growers say that the crops and yields we achieve shouldn’t technically be possible here, so it’s something to be proud of,” Abby told us. 

However, Abby also says her role does not come without worry, especially considering the climate in the region. “Sometimes it’s wind, sometimes it’s hail, sometimes it’s pathogens or pests, but in any agricultural effort, there are many factors inherently outside of our control”.  

Village Farms is fortunate to have Abby on their team, and the company is glad she found them.  Abby told us, “Village Farms came to my university during my junior year and presented information about the company’s expansive greenhouse cultivation and sustainable methods. I submitted my resume to apply for a summer internship because I was amazed at how big and productive the company was with such an intensive cultivation system. My sustainable ag classes taught us that agriculture is normally intensive or extensive, but Village Farms was doing both at the same time, so I knew I had to be there.”

Abby sees a bright future for CEA growing, and Village Farms at large. She closed the interview by telling us, “I believe that food independence is of the utmost importance. We import myriad agricultural products because it’s cheaper than producing them here, but we never stop to look at the reasons why it’s more expensive to produce them here, or what might happen if the geopolitical or energy networks we have ever fail, preventing us from importing these things. If we want to be resilient as a nation or even as a globe, these factors need attention.”  She also told us growing in the extreme climate of Texas has its benefits, “I’ve learned more about the costs of indoor or vertical farming, enough to know that it’s the free, carbon-neutral sunlight in our farming operation that is the true blessing.”  And thankfully in Far West Texas there is an abundance of clear skies and sunshine for Abby to grow fresh tomatoes that are sought after by consumers around the US.

About Village Farms

Village Farms Fresh is one of the largest growers, marketers, and distributors of premium-quality, greenhouse-grown fruits, and vegetables in North America. The food the company’s farmers grow are all harvested by hand from environmentally friendly, soil-less, glass greenhouses daily while utilizing the highest level of food safety standards available. The Village Farms® brand of fruits and vegetables are marketed and distributed primarily to local retail grocers and dedicated fresh food distributors throughout the United States and Canada. Since its inception, Village Farms has been guided by sustainability principles that enable the company to grow food 365 days a year that not only feeds the growing population but is healthier for people and the planet. Village Farms is Good for the Earth® and good for you. Good for the Earth® and Garden Fresh Flavor® are not only taglines for the company but the value proposition Village Farms Fresh lives by.  And this is why it Takes a Village® to deliver on this promise.

(JULY 17, 2023 – LAS VEGAS,NV) — Indoor Ag-Con, the largest trade show and conference for vertical farming and controlled environment agriculture (CEA), has partnered with Ceres University, a leading provider of IACET-accredited food safety training and certification, to host a CEA Food Safety Workshop ahead of the March 11-12, 2024 edition of Indoor Ag-Con at Caesars Forum, Las Vegas. Scheduled for Sunday, March 10, 2024 from 1-5 pm, the “Internal Review Class” is designed to help industry professionals build their careers and prepare to meet the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) requirement for internal auditing certification.

Internal audit certification is a mandatory requirement of the GFSI as it demonstrates an individual’s ability to conduct internal assessments of any food safety program.  By developing and maintaining a robust and effective internal audit system, operations can enhance their food safety and food quality processes through actionable improvements. This CEA Food Safety Workshop will provide valuable insights into best practices and common mistakes to avoid for successful programs, as outlined by  GFSI level professors in Food Science.
“We are thrilled to add this important CEA Food Safety Workshop to our growing line-up of educational offerings,” said Brian Sullivan, CEO of Indoor Ag-Con. “Food safety is of paramount importance in today’s rapidly evolving CEA industry, and our collaboration with Ceres University underscores our dedication to arming our attendees with the necessary skills to meet global standards.”
“Partnering with Indoor Ag-Con to host the CEA Food Safety Workshop is an exciting opportunity for Ceres University,” adds Karl Kolb, Ph.D., President, Ceres University. “Our aim is to empower professionals in the CEA industry with the knowledge and skills required to achieve and maintain the highest food safety standards. This workshop will provide attendees with proven tools and insights needed to enhance their internal audit processes and drive continuous improvement in their operations.”
The registration fee for the workshop is $575 which includes:

• Admission to 4-hour workshop and course materials
• Ability to earn up to 3 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) upon completion  
• Indoor Ag-Con Expo Hall Only Pass, which includes access to Expo Floor March 11-12, 2024; admission to all Indoor Ag-Con Expo Theater presentations; Expo Floor Welcome Happy Hour; and access to expo floor of National Grocers Association (NGA) Show running concurrently at Caesars Forum

Workshop instructors include Dr. Karl Kolb, president of Ceres University and Ceres Certifications, International (CCI) and Kellie Worrell, GlobalG.A.P. Scheme Manager, CCI. Dr. Kolb is a  microbiologist with a quality background and more than 30 years as an industry professional. In addition to her current role with CCI, Kellie Worrell has managed the Food Safety Program for multiple vegetable farms, including a wide variety of crops. CCI features GLOBALG.A.P. among its many GFSI food safety schemes.

The workshop is designed for anyone in the CEA industry dedicated to ensuring the highest standards of food safety and quality, including food safety managers, quality assurance professionals, compliance officers, and executives with a vested interest in protecting their brand’s reputation.   During the workshop attendees will learn how to organize an internal auditing program;  master risk-based approaches; educate and empower teams to become food safety advocates; effectively document findings; conduct an interview; uncover root cases, and more.

For more information and registration details for the CEA Food Safety Workshop, visit: www.indoor.ag/ceafoodsafety.

OptimIA researchers are using crop modeling to identify the most favorable environmental parameters for growth and yield of indoor farm lettuce crops and how to prevent tipburn.

One of the research objectives of the OptimIA project, which is being funded by USDA to the tune of $2.4 million, is to study the aerial environment for producing indoor leafy greens. The aerial environment refers to air circulation, humidity, carbon dioxide concentration, light intensity, and temperature. Prior to preparing the project proposal, members of the OptimIA team surveyed stakeholders of the indoor farm industry to identify the challenges and needs of the industry.

“There was a lot of feedback related to environmental parameters, especially airflow,” said Murat Kacira, an OptimIA team member who is director of Controlled Environment Agriculture Center and professor in the Biosystems Engineering Department at the University of Arizona. “The indoor farm industry had a real need for optimizing the environmental variables related to light, temperature, humidity management and control. Leafy greens growers wanted to be able to understand plant growth, quantify the plant response, yield, as well as the quality attributes under various environmental conditions.”

Crop modeling predictions, potential

Kacira explains crop modeling is simply crop growth and yield prediction.

“Given setpoints for air temperature, photosynthetic active radiation, humidity, carbon dioxide enrichment, we were able to model crop growth and predict the kilograms or grams of lettuce yield on an hourly or daily basis and also at the end of the production cycle,” he said.

Kacira’s lab used modeling to focus on plant growth and yield predictions for lettuce in indoor vertical farms considering environmental variables, including temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide level and light intensity.

“Considering the co-optimization of different environmental variables, there are many combinations of those setpoints that are possible,” he said. “It takes a lot of time and effort to study all those combinations. A model we did was focused on plant growth and yield prediction for growing lettuce in indoor vertical farms considering environmental variables. Using modeling can help to narrow down the combinations or the possibilities that can occur.

Another modeling study enabled Kacira to identify the possibility of dynamic carbon dioxide enrichment.

“We looked at whether carbon dioxide enrichment should be done for the full production cycle from transplanting to little leaf harvest or whether it should be done during different phases of production leading to savings either for electrical energy or carbon dioxide use,” he said. “Also, we considered how carbon dioxide enrichment and control would be incorporated with lighting controls. For example, can the light be dimmed while increasing the carbon dioxide level to achieve a similar yield outcome, but with a control strategy enabling electrical energy savings during production.”

Determining best airflow distribution

Kacira is also using modeling and computer simulations to study airflow and airflow uniformity to design alternative air distribution systems to improve aerial environment uniformity and to prevent tipburn in lettuce crops.

“Early on we used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) space simulation and modeling to study airflow,” he said. “We looked at some existing air distribution systems to understand what would be the environmental uniformity and aerodynamics in indoor vertical farms. Then we studied what-if scenarios. We developed design alternatives that can deliver optimal growing conditions with improved aerial environment uniformity and help prevent lettuce tipburn.

“Our CFD simulations and experimental studies confirmed that vertical airflow compared to horizontal airflow was more effective reducing aerodynamic resistance with improved airflow and transpiration, thus preventing tipburn in lettuce.”

Some of the outcomes determined by Kacira and his team have been presented to OptimIA stakeholders and CEA industry members through seminars, webinars and research and trade publications. Kacira will continue using computer simulations, modeling, and experimental studies to design and test more effective localized air-distribution methods, environmental monitoring, and control strategies for indoor vertical farms.

Production techniques for preventing tipburn

Chieri Kubota, who is a member of the OptimIA team and professor and director of the Ohio Controlled Environment Agriculture Center at Ohio State University, and graduate student John Ertle studied various techniques for reducing or preventing tipburn. These techniques have application to lettuce crops produced in indoor farms and greenhouses.

“Growers can reduce the light intensity at the end of the production cycle to mitigate the risk of tipburn,” Kubota said. “If growers want to reduce tipburn and they can tolerate reduced yields, they can lower the light intensity towards the end of the production cycle.

“For example, when the daily light integral (DLI) was reduced by 50 percent for the final 12 days of production (out of 28 days), the incidence of tipburn can be largely reduced for cultivars sensitive to tipburn-inducing conditions. However, this approach reduces the yield and likely the quality of lettuce, while reducing the loss by tipburn. Therefore, efficacy of this approach is dependent on the cultivars and their growing conditions. More research needs to be done to refine this approach.”

Another technique growers can use to prevent tipburn is to stop growing lettuce before it enters the final 1½ weeks of the six-week growing period. This is what many growers are doing because they can’t take the risk of tipburn occurring. Plants are being harvested at this young stage.

Among the techniques that Kubota and Ertle examined, they found that the most effective in preventing tipburn was using vertical airflow fans. This technique was originally discovered by a research group at University of Tokyo in the 1990s and implemented into greenhouse hydroponics at Cornell University.

“We confirmed that when vertical airflow is applied under conditions that highly favor tipburn induction, tipburn can be prevented very effectively,” Kubota said. “We created an environment based on our previous knowledge which always induces tipburn. We confirmed the use of vertical airflow fans reduces tipburn.”

For more: Murat Kacira, University of Arizona, Controlled Environment Agriculture Center; mkacira@arizona.edu; http://ceac.arizona.edu/.

Chieri Kubota, Ohio State University, Department of Horticulture and Crop Science; kubota.10@osu.edu; https://hcs.osu.edu/our-people/dr-chieri-kubota; https://ohceac.osu.edu/. OptimIA, https://www.scri-optimia.org/.

This article is property of Urban Ag News and was written by David Kuack, a freelance technical writer in Fort Worth, Texas.

OptimIA at Cultivate’23

If you are attending this year’s Cultivate’23, July 15-18 in Columbus, Ohio, you have the opportunity to hear OptimiA researchers, including Murat Kacira and Chieri Kubota, discuss some of the findings of their research. They will be speaking during the Essentials of Hydroponics Production – a tHRIve Symposium on Saturday, July 15 from 8-11 a.m.