Join three CEA scientists (Chieri Kubota, Erik Runkle and Cary Mitchell) who are organizing an online monthly forum series, called ‘Indoor Ag Science Café’. This online forum has been designed to discuss the science and technologies that can contribute to indoor controlled environment agriculture (AKA vertical farms). According to Chieri, “we wish to make the forum develop as a non-competitive, informal communication platform among indoor agriculture industries”.
Paul Lightfoot presented the competitive advantages of indoor and greenhouse growing and locally distributing leafy greens as oppose to more conventional outdoor production. He also introduced the new CEA Food Safety Coalition, inviting indoor and greenhouse farms to be a member. Indoor Ag Science Café is an outreach program of our project OptimIA, funded by USDA SCRI […]
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Indoor Ag Sci Café presents ‘Managing Water Quality and Biofilm for Indoor Production’ by Dr. Paul Fisher (University of Florida). This comprehensive summary is an essential information for indoor farming! February Indoor Ag Sci Café focused on water quality and biofilm for indoor production. Dr. Fisher discussed characteristics of different source water and their potential […]
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This month’s indoor ag science café covered more basics understanding of how temperature affects plants and which parameters are important to consider. Plant responses are specific to species and cultivars. Dr. Chieri Kubota, from the Ohio State University, also pointed out that scientists do not have these specific (or precise) information of optimum temperatures. As […]
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This presentation ‘Back to Basics – Plant Responses to Temperature’ was given by Dr. Chieri Kubota (the Ohio State University) during our 13th cafe forum on November 19th, 2019. Indoor Ag Science Cafe is organized by the project team funded by USDA SCRI grant program. Please Submit Your Questions!‘Indoor Ag Science Queries’ Please submit your questions (anonymously […]
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By Dr. Cary Mitchell (Purdue University) This month’s Indoor Ag Science Café was about the history and current technology status of indoor farming. The beginning seems to be in Syracuse, NY, where General Electric developed an indoor hydroponic farm funded by DoD in 1973. Then there was a large commercial indoor farm for leafy greens […]
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This month’s indoor ag science café was on HVAC – heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning for indoor farms. Dr. Nadia Sabeh at Dr. Greenhouse explained basics of HVAC and introduced key parameters for plant growth, such as temperature, humidity, VPD (vapor pressure deficit), CO2 and air movement. She also reminded us that a well-designed HVAC system is […]
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Indoor Ag Science Café in May started out with a presentation by Dr. Roberto Lopez on environmental factors affecting human-health promoting nutrients and growth of microgreens. This is an area of studies in which we expect to develop in the next few years, taking advantage of full capacities of controlled environment without being affected outdoor […]
Continue ReadingEnvironmental Uniformity and Climate Control in Plant Factory with Artificial Lighting” by Dr. Murat Kacira (University of Arizona Controlled Environment Agriculture Center). Indoor Ag Science Café in April was full of data on climate uniformity, crop productivity as well as energy use in indoor farming, presented by Dr. Murat Kacira. Murat is a professor and the […]
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Two economists at MSU Product Center Food-Ag-Bio, Michigan State University, Chris Peterson and Simone Valle de Souza were presenting “Perspectives on the business strategy and economics of vertical agriculture”. Chris started out this month’s Café presentation by giving a strategic overview of indoor agriculture industry, followed by Simone’s proposed model-based optimization approach including crop yield […]
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In this month’s Indoor Ag Science Café, Tharindu Weeraratne (Autogrow) gave a quick overview of interactions between G (genotypes) x E (environment) x M (management) and shared the company R&D on plant health sensing using machine vision technologies. Indoor Ag Science Café is a monthly based open forum for indoor growers and scientists to communicate […]
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In this month’ Indoor Ag Science Café, Chieri Kubota at the Ohio State University, reviewed two metrics that scientists and indoor growers can use to assess the crop productivity grown under electric lighting. ‘Working with numbers to assess your productivity – gram yield per kWh & gram yield per mole PAR’ was a number-intensive talk […]
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Milan Kluko, the Founder of Green Spirit Farms and Harvest Moon Farms, spoke at the Indoor Ag Science Café this month. Green Spirit Farms is one of the oldest indoor farms in the U.S. located in New Buffalo MI with several additional operations in Chicago, Detroit, and Puerto Rico. In his presentation ‘Our Stories – […]
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The second ‘Indoor Ag Science Café’ of this month had Dr. Cary Mitchell, as a speaker. Funded by NASA and USDA SCRI, Cary has a long research history focusing on energy savings while maximizing crop productivities through his in-depth understanding of plant physiology under controlled environment. In his presentation ‘Lighting Strategies for Energy Savings’ introduced […]
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This month’s ‘Indoor Ag Science Café’ featured Robert Colangelo, Founder of Green Sense Farms, as a speaker. In his presentation ‘Growing the Vertical Farming Industry – How Industry and Academia can Work Together’, Colangelo discussed the current status of indoor farming industries, gaps and cultural differences between businesses and academia, as well as possible strategies […]
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