This past week I received some excellent questions regarding the 2015 International Congress on Controlled Environment Agriculture, which for social media purposes we will also be using #ICCEA2015. First question – What is the purpose for ICCEA2015? This conference was designed to tackle and openly discuss the science as well as the understanding of the current technologies behind growing crops in a controlled environment. As most of us know, there is no shortage of ideas or inspiration needed to find an answer to the often posed question: “How do we feed 9 billion people by 2050?” And, we would probably…
Author: urbanagnews
This past week I had the opportunity to attend the 8th North American Strawberry Symposium in Ventura, California (hosted by the North American Strawberry Growers Association.) This event is a “meeting point” for researchers, growers and industry professionals from around the world. (I personally had a coffee or beer with people from the US, Mexico, Canada, Japan, Holland and Belgium.) Historically this was a traditional strawberry production event, focusing on field production issues. BUT, this seems to be changing. This year there were three specific talks that focused on the soilless production of strawberries. These discussions were: The latest Dutch/European…
The 2015 Spring Crop Production & Engineering Design Short Course, from March 22–27, will include two new demonstrations this year as a part of the CEAC workshop day on Thursday March 26th. A Vegetable Grafting demonstration will be given by Dr. Chieri Kubota, which will highlight strategies and information to successfully graft plants. There will also be a fertigation demonstration that will be given by HortiMax, which will highlight a state of the art fertigation system. This presentation will include operations and benefits about the system, and show attendees how to work such a system. The full short course from March 23-26, features 3 full days of lecture on all things CEA, followed by…
Did you already catch our full story on Greener Roots in Nashville, TN in Issue 8? Well, we thought we’d give you even more to the story.
Based in Nashville, TN Greener Roots Farm is pushing to have a major impact on the local food market through an innovative and sustainable approach to producing leafy greens and culinary herbs in a vertical farm with a custom hydroponic growing system. Greener Roots Farm worked with industry professionals like Hort Americas to bring their ideas to life. Read the whole article about Greener Roots Farm in Issue 8!
Issue 8 | January 2015 Click here to download the issue. Job layoff kick starts vertical farming venture After six years of college and landing a position with a large architecture and engineering firm in Nashville, Tenn., Jeffrey Orkin thought his career as a landscape architect was ready to take off. Then the recession hit. In 2009, after only 1½ years of employment, Orkin found himself jobless with limited prospects in his field. Orkin partnered with his similarly unemployed friend Cliff Jones to start their own company called Landscape Solutions (http://www.landscapetn.com). The company is focused on design-build for residential and commercial…
The University of the Virgin Islands is offering a 3-day course that will provide in-depth knowledge of the principles and practical application of the aquaponic system that has been developed at the University of the Virgin Islands. Participants will be introduced to the system design that maintains water quality by hydroponic plant culture (aquaponics), Fish production instruction will be conducted using both the Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) and red tilapia. Hydroponic plant production will focus on vegetables, culinary herbs and ornamental flowers. For more information, go to http://aquaponics.uvi.edu. Workshop Dates Maximum Participants February 4 – 6 , 2015 25 March 18…
The University of Arizona Controlled Environment Agriculture Center (CEAC) will be hosting the 14th annual Greenhouse Crop Production & Engineering Design Short Course from March 22 – 27, 2015 at the Westward Look Resort in Tucson, AZ. The short course will consist of three full days of lectures on the many aspects of controlled environment agriculture (CEA) and one full day of hands-on workshops on the campus of the CEAC. The course will feature 23 different lectures by over a dozen experts with over 250+ combined years of experience in hydroponic growing and CEA and 9 different hands-on workshops to…
The Hydroponic Greenhouse Tomato Production Intensive Course will be conducted Jan. 4-9, 2015, at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Hosted by the university’s Controlled Environment Agriculture Center, the course will focus primarily on hydroponic greenhouse tomato production. The course will be taught by hydroponic specialist and professor of plant sciences Pat Rorabaugh. Course participants will be provided a combination of classroom lecture and discussion and hands-on learning in a hydroponic greenhouse. Classroom topics include: greenhouse basics, production costs and supply sources, plant propagation, crop layout and scheduling, crop maintenance, plant nutrition, plant protection and food safety. Teaching greenhouse discussions…
Issue 7 | October 2014 Click here to download the issue. Includes: Fresh With Edge: Bringing locally-grown to new heights Horticulture Industry Optimistic About Potential of LEDs Maximize Your Plants’ Growth with Supplemental CO2 The Ohio State University Tomato Production Survey International Conf. of Controlled Environment Agriculture
Urban Ag News Issue 6 | July 2014 Click here to download the issue. Includes: Bringing Locally Grown Food and Produce to Chicago Japan’s Plant Factories Providing Safe, Reliable Food It Takes Commitment to Grow Organically Is the Moon the Key to Sustainability on Earth? International Conference of Controlled Environment Agriculture
Download PDFs of the Urban Ag News magazine issues here Urban Ag News Issue 16 – January 2017 Urban Ag News Issue 15 – October 2016 Urban Ag News Issue 14 – July 2016 Urban Ag News Issue 13 – April 2016 Urban Ag News Issue 12 – January 2016 Urban Ag News Issue 11 – October 2015 Urban Ag News Issue 10 – July 2015 Urban Ag News Issue 9 – April 2015 Urban Ag News Issue 8 – January 2015 Urban Ag News Issue 7 – October 2014 Urban Ag News Issue 6 – July 2014 Urban Ag…
Urban Ag News Issue 5 | April 2014 Click here to download the issue. Includes: Vertical Farming Competes with Conventional Ag More Research Focusing on Greenhouse Food Crops The Nuances of Crop Fertilization
Urban Ag News Issue 4 | December 2013 Includes: Getting Serious about Hydroponic Vegetable Production Making IPDM Work Is Water Treatment in Your Future? Urban Farming in Tokyo