FFAR Releases 2022 Impact Report

The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) released the 2022 Impact Report today, Leveraging Bold Science: FFAR 2022 Impact Report. This report highlights FFAR’s impact on food and agriculture research. 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 […]

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USDA Offers New Crop Insurance Program for Producers Using Controlled Environments

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2, 2023 – Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is announcing a new crop insurance program designed for agricultural producers who use controlled environments in their operations. The new Controlled Environment program from USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) is specifically for plants grown in fully enclosed controlled environments and provides coverage against plant diseases […]

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AmplifiedAg Releases Enterprise Farm Health (EFH) Function in AmpEDGE Farm Management Software

CHARLESTON, SC: As vertical farming continues to expand, there are more and more instances of multi-location farms managed by individual operators. While it is typical for operators to have access to significant amounts of data from and about their farm environment, most controlled environment agriculture (CEA) software platforms are built around monitoring and analytics of […]

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The Biggest Challenge for CEA, LABOR

In July 2023, I posted the article The 2023 Controlled Environment Agriculture Market – How Are We Evolving? After fielding several questions and comments from industry professionals who I really respect, I feel the need for one (maybe two) follow-up articles.  This article is first because I firmly believe labor is the biggest challenge we […]

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Lightstar Renewables Commences Development of First-of-its-Kind Agrivoltaics Solar Farm Project in New York

Located in Wappingers Falls, the Old Myers project is a 2MW community solar project that will give residents and businesses access to electricity bill savings through discounted community solar subscriptions September 06, 2023: Traditional territories of the Mohican and Wappinger people / Wappingers Falls, New York – Today, Lightstar Renewables is about to break ground […]

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Sakata Seed de México Celebrates Thirty Years, Mauricio Pineda Comments

Morgan Hill, CA; September 2023 – In August of this year, Sakata Seed de México celebrated its 30thanniversary. “We are celebrating the 30th anniversary of Sakata Seed de México and we are very proud of ourtrajectory”, said Dave Armstrong, President and CEO of Sakata Seed America. “We are currently leadersin several crops in Mexico, like […]

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IUNU Brings Autonomous Growing to Stichting Wageningen Research, research institute Wageningen Plant Research (WPR)

Seattle, WA – It was announced today that Stichting Wageningen Research, research instituteWageningen Plant Research (WPR) and IUNU have entered into an agreement to work onclosed-loop autonomous growing for the most common commercially grown lettuce varietals. This is the world’s first closed-loop, comprehensive autonomous growing solution developed forthe greenhouse industry. Other solutions focus on smoothing […]

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Where can you get accurate information about indoor farm production?

One of the major objectives of OptimIA project researchers was to establish an outreach program to engage with stakeholders in the indoor vertical farming community. Photo courtesy of Chris Higgins, Hort Americas OptimIA project members are sharing their indoor farm research findings with the controlled environment agriculture industry and the public through a variety of […]

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GLASE Summit 2023 “Greenhouse Energy Resilience” Coming up on October 25 in Canada

GLASE’s annual in-person summit will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 25, in Leamington, Ontario, Canada, at the Aleksander Estate Winery. The theme of this year’s summit is Greenhouse Energy Resilience: greenhouse efficiency and profitability in a world of increasing energy prices. The summit will consist of presentations by researchers, academics, and industry professionals, and will […]

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JPFA International Symposium on Plant Factory in Chiba, Japan on Sept. 4-5

The “JPFA International Symposium on Plant Factory” will be held on September 4 and September 5, 2023, at the Kashiwa-no-ha Conference Center and online, organized by the Japan Plant Factory Association (JPFA). There will be keynote speeches on the latest technology and interdisciplinary research on PFALs and open discussions on business trends, needs for technology […]

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Resource Innovation Institute Releases Water Circularity Best Practices Guide to help CEA Operations Better Manage Water Resources

Free, downloadable report provides information and guidelines to help support the adoption of efficient practices in indoor farms and greenhouses. 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 […]

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Village Farms’ Far West Texas Farming Phenomenon and a Woman’s Perspective on Ag

Village Farms has been farming in the Chihuahuan Desert, also known as the “Big Bend Region”, just north of the USA and Mexico border, for almost three decades. Here the company is rolling out a whopping 112 million pounds of fresh produce a year, all from their greenhouses located just outside the towns of Marfa […]

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Indoor Ag-Con Announces New Controlled Environment Agriculture Food Safety 2024 Pre-Event Workshop

Leading Vertical Farming | CEA Trade Show Partners With Ceres University To Host ‘Internal Review’ Class The Day Before Indoor Ag-Con 2024 Opens In Las Vegas (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 […]

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How can modeling help to grow a better indoor farm lettuce crop?

Research conducted in the University of Arizona UAg vertical farm using modeling and computer simulations showed vertical air flow compared to horizontal air flow was more effective at preventing lettuce tipburn. Photo courtesy of Murat Kacira, Univ. of Ariz. OptimIA researchers are using crop modeling to identify the most favorable environmental parameters for growth and […]

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