Experts From Leading Indoor Farms To Discuss Food Safety Challenges & Opportunities Unique to CEA Press Release — The CEA Food Safety Coalition will bring together a panel of food safety experts from Bowery Farming, Planted Detroit, Plenty, and BrightFarms to discuss “Food Safety Challenges and Opportunities Unique to CEA” on September 9, 2020 from 2-3 pm EST. The latest addition to the monthy Indoor Ag-Conversations webinar series from Indoor Ag-Con, LLC, the session is free and open to all industry members. Moderated by CEA Food Safety Coalition Executive Director Marni Karlin, the panel includes Isabel Chamberlain, Senior Manager of…
Author: urbanagnews
University of Florida Greenhouse Training Online courses Learn how to prevent and manage diseases in nurseries and greenhouses. Disease Management is the fourth course of the award-winning Greenhouse Online Training courses offered by the University of Florida IFAS Extension. This intermediate course is designed for growers with some experience and training and offers Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for many states in the United States. Topics covered include disease cycle, how to differentiate between a disease and other issues, organic and conventional disease management options, and how to safely apply and handle fungicides. The course is offered in English and Spanish.…
Indoor Vertical Farming is a fast-emerging agriculture technology which provides compelling solutions to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals: waste less food and support local farmers (Goal 2), avoid wasting water (Goal 6) and provide decent work (Goal 8). However, few early adopters are making a profit. Urban Crop Solutions has worked tirelessly to find a sensible solution to the open issues many investors and growers still face today. The initial Capex or investment cost is high and creates the need for a scalable solution. The unique freshness, taste and shelf life of the crops go to niche markets with ever-changing needs, which…
Autogrow has released a public API (Application Programming Interface) allowing connectivity between their Folium sensor network and other farm sensor data. “Growers currently feel frustrated by not having systems that speak to each other. And the truth is that, until other large industry players also provide public APIs, growers are always going to be constrained in what they can do with their data. But we’re leading the charge,” explains Chief Technology Officer Jonathan Morgan. “We know that many growers use CSV exports like Microsoft Excel, which can be slow, labour-intensive and requires a lot of manipulation to get benefit. Connecting…
Press Release – Hort Americas continues to push their industry knowledge, showing that they are not only a company interested in selling, but offering the technical service to go with it. They have had three short courses so far, but if you missed them you can request them on-demand! You can register now for the next one on Saturday, September 19, 2020 on hydroponic strawberry production. Learn all the important aspects of growing strawberries successfully. From hydroponic growing system selection, best substrate options, nutrient requirement and how to create the proper rootzone and air environment to promote growth and development in…
Helsinki, Finland – iFarm, a startup that provides innovative solutions for growing fresh greens, berries and vegetables, raised $4M in funding. The round was led by Gagarin Capital, that previously invested in the project. Other investors include Matrix Capital, Impulse VC, IMI.VC and several business angels. The company will use the funding to develop its iFarm Growtune tech platform that enables operations of multiple varieties of vertical farms and quadrupling the number of plants available to iFarm’s tech. In addition, iFarm will be optimizing its automated production lines to reduce labor costs and complete experiments with growing strawberries, cherry tomatoes,…
PRESS RELEASE – Endeavor Business Media and the HortiCann Light + Tech event team have closely monitored the developments around the COVID-19 pandemic with the highest intention of protecting the health and safety of its attendees, instructors, exhibitors, sponsors and employees. In these efforts to host a safe and productive event, the decision has been made to shift the event from an in-person event to a virtual experience. The annual conference, happening on October 20-21, 2020, will maintain its focus on sharing the latest advances, research, and case-study findings regarding lighting optimization and efficacy, energy and cost savings, operations and…
Swegreen inks contract with ICA Focus in Gothenburg, to become the exclusive producer of hyper locally grown vegetables via an automated cultivation system inside the store itself. The agreement is based on Swegreen’s subscription-based Farming-as-a-Service, which gives food retailers and restaurants the opportunity to offer their customers fresh crops all year round – harvested directly on site or in store. The contract between Swegreen and ICA Focus concludes that the Gothenburg-based store will be the first in Sweden to offer its customers hyper-locally produced greens grown from seed to fully-grown size inside a store itself. The cultivation facility, which is…
“Let’s talk about Autonomous Greenhouse” Date: September 10, 2020 Time: Starting at 12PM Eastern (~2.5 hrs) Place: Zoom (hosted by OSU) More info: Forum info site RSVP: Please pre-register, click here Autonomous greenhouse is an application of artificial intelligence (AI) in CEA but will become critical for our future development of CEA technologies (including applications to low tech and high tech CEA). Please sign up if you would like to join the conversation. This will be the first step to build a community to identify R&D needs through industry-academic collaborations. Speakers Ken Tran (CTO, Koidra) – Presenter Presentation title: “Behind-the-Scenes in Autonomous Greenhouse Challenge” Before…
New Session Joins Indoor Ag-Conversations Webinar Series,August 19, 2020 From 2-3 pm EST Press Release — As the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) industry grows, companies are facing greater shortages in qualified talent. How can innovation in training and education accelerate the industry to the benefit of all? Hosted by the Farm Tech Society and Indoor Ag-Con, LLC, “The Future of Farming: Educating the Next Generation To Make CEA Scalable,” will bring together a panel of top educators to explore viable answers to this pressing challenge. The latest topic to join the Indoor Ag-Conversations free webinar series, the program will be…
‘Hydroponic Seedling Propagation’ Session joins Indoor Ag-Conversations Webinar Series, August 12, 2020 at 2 pm Press Release – Indoor Ag-Con, LLC will bring together a panel of industry experts to discuss best practices, technology developments and more during the free webinar, “Hydroponic Seedling Propagation,” on Wednesday, August 12, 2020 from 2-3 pm EST. The latest addition to theIndoor Ag-Conversations webinar series, the panel will be moderated by Joe Swartz, Vice President, AmHydro;and feature John Jackson, CEO, Sustainable Indoor Growing Systems, Inc (SIGS);Dr. Vijay Rapaka, Ph.D, Corporate Research Manager, Smithers-Oasis and Nick Greens, Founder | Agriculture Specialist, Nick Greens Grow Team. “The only way to achieve…
University of Florida Greenhouse Training Online courses: Nutrient Management 2 (Advanced) Starts August 31! Train yourself and your staff to make better crop management decisions by learning in depth aspects of plant nutrition management. Nutrient Management 2 (Advanced) is the third course of the award-winning Greenhouse Online Training courses offered by the University of Florida IFAS Extension. This course is advanced level and designed for an experienced, well-trained greenhouse or nursery grower of transplants, ornamental or vegetable crops. Topics covered include fertilizer calculations, pH management, how to formulate your own fertilizer from individual salts, and diagnose nutritional problems and take…
The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) requires that every farm have a food safety qualified individual. Compliance dates for Small Business ($250,000 – $500,000/yr) was 1/29/19, and for Very Small Business ($25,000 – $250,000/yr) was 1/27/20. Basically all fruit and vegetable operations selling produce covered by the rule must now come into compliance with most FSMA provisions – businesses selling less than $25,000 are exempt from most provisions. Here is an opportunity for remote delivery of the Produce Safety Alliance Grower Training hosted by University of Florida August 25th-27th, daily from 2:30 pm – 5:30 pm EST PLEASE NOTE: This…
The first Vertical Farming World Congress will now be held online on 22-24 September, with numerous innovations to help develop an emerging community of leading producers, funders, suppliers and customers. Its theme will be ‘Shaping Food’s Future.’ “We already had top speakers confirmed from around the world including North America, the Middle East and Asia as well as Europe,” commented Richard Hall, Chairman of the food and drink experts Zenith Global and the event’s organiser. “Now, instead of one vertical farm tour, we plan to offer a selection. Beyond chance encounters, it will be possible to contact other delegates and…