As the world is pursuing the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, the Japan Plant Factory Association will highlight the importance of looking beyond the SDGs in its coming online event.
The nonprofit organization will hold the “Japan Plant Factory Association 10th Anniversary Fest–10 Years of Progress, and Achieving the SDGs and Beyond” on Sept. 15-17.
The member-only fest commemorates the 10th anniversary of the JPFA and a plant factory hub it oversees on the Chiba University Kashiwanoha campus in Kashiwa, northeast of Tokyo.
When the plant factory hub was completed, “the JPFA already envisioned what the SDGs address,” JPFA President Toshitaka Yamaguchi says.
Truly, plant factories, or vertical farms, are seen to play an important role in responding to global challenges, such as poverty, climate change ad environmental degradation, addressed by the SDGs.
“We would like to offer members an opportunity to chart a course for a sustainable future together” by sharing 10 years of progress and activities with them, says Eri Hayashi, vice president of the JPFA.
The online JPFA fest will invite as keynote speakers Chieri Kubota, a professor at the Ohio State University, Hiroki Koga, co-founder and chief executive officer of Oishii Farm, Leo Marcelis, a professor and head of Chair Group Horticulture and Product Physiology at Wageningen University, and Seishi Ninomiya, a project professor at the University of Tokyo.
Toyoki Kozai, JPFA honorary president and former president of Chiba University, and Toru Maruo, JPFA vice president, will also give keynote speeches.
Participants in the fest, to be held on the Swapcard event app, can make contact, chat and have video meetings with other participants and disseminate information. Interested organizational members can have virtual exhibitions.
DAISEN Co., Ltd., an established greenhouse builder, and LeafLab Co., Ltd., a startup developing and supplying tailor-made seeds, have already signed up to exhibit. Also joining as exhibitors are Shinnippou Ltd., which operates the 808 Factory, and Yanmar Green System Co., Ltd., which is known for the Natural Supply Ponics (NSP) system that allows proper irrigation when plants need.
The JPFA fest will also allow participants to join panel discussions and roundtables, share research and project results and learn about activities of member companies and researchers.
One panel discussion is to address challenges and countermeasures in scaling up greenhouses, with the topic brought up by JPFA Director Tetsuo Sekiyama. Another is to center on plant factories with artificial lighting and be joined by representatives from Shinnippou, Kidaya Shoten Co., Ltd., which operates the greenLand plant factories, and ESPEC MIC Corp., which makes plant factories and relevant equipment.
Participants in the fest can also view presentations by companies including &ever GmbH of Germany and Own Greens BV of the Netherlands.
Check the special website for the JPFA 10th Anniversary Fest (https://npoplantfactory.org/10thanniversary_en/) for details.
Although the fest is planned for only members, who can join it free of charge, applying for JPFA membership now ensures your participation. Click here (https://select-type.com/e/?id=EqoC-uNZAeY#page_mail) to be a JPFA member.
For more information:
Japan Plant Factory Association
E-mail: jpfa.anniversary@npoplantfactory.org
https://npoplantfactory.org/en/
https://npoplantfactory.org/10thanniversary_en/
About Japan Plant Factory Association (JPFA)
The Japan Plant Factory Association, a nonprofit organization with over 200 members in Japan and abroad, is devoted to advancing the plant factory industry and controlled-environment agriculture in and outside Japan through academia-industry collaborations.