Are you 18 years or older with an involved interest in the field of agriculture, particularly indoor ag? Well, we need you! The Purdue University Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department is conducting a survey on stakeholder experience in urban agriculture, specifically with CEA and vertical farming, as part of a PhD research project. The project consists of two surveys to be completed, and all responses will be anonymous. If you have a moment to offer your insight and help a graduate student in the process, click the link to get started! 

It was recently announced that the Committee on Controlled Environment Technology and Use within the North Central Extension & Research Activity-101, more commonly known as NCERA-101, has been honored with the 2024 Excellence in Multistate Research Award by the North Central Regional Association (NCRA) of State Agricultural Experiment Station Directors.

Presented annually, this award highlights outstanding research efforts that “enhance the visibility of multistate programs.” The first time NCERA-101 has received the award, Celina Gómez, Purdue associate professor of CEA and representative for NCERA-101, was highlighted for her instrumental role in constructing the award nomination packed. The NCERA-101 program now contains 176 members representing 142 institutions within 35 states, and I highly recommend anyone interested to investigate getting involved with this incredible initiative. 

Plenty Unlimited, Inc. announced recently that they will be opening the doors on their Richmond, Virginia, facility, marking the opening of the “world’s first farm to grow indoor, vertically farmed berries at scale.”

The farm is designed to produce an excess of 4 million pounds of strawberries for Driscoll’s annually as they use less than 40,000 sq. ft. This is accomplished by growing vertically on 30 ft. tall towers hung from the ceiling, as opposed to the stacked, horizontal bed system favored by other companies.

Touting the farm’s use of novel technologies from AI-controlled grow rooms to patent-pending pollination methods for “more efficient and effective pollination than using bees,” I’m excited to see what’s to come as the company promises the first berries will be available in early 2025.

For more on the facility, the full press release is available here.

• Energy Management Working Group: addressing challenges and opportunities related to energy management in CEA, including strategic energy management, demand response and distributed generation.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Advanced Robotics Working Group: will collaboratively formulate industry best practices for the effective adoption of these technologies in CEA.
• Industry Working Group on High-Tech Greenhouse Knowledge Transfer: dedicated to facilitating the exchange of expertise, best practices and innovative strategies between the United States and established markets in the Netherlands and Canada.

The College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) at The Ohio State University recently announced four new research projects that will be funded as part of their AgTech Innovation Hub, a collaboration between CFAES, Nationwide and the Ohio Farm Bureau.

Tasked with generating solutions to the evolving challenges facing agriculture and climate risk management, one project in particular will be examining the use of drones as an early detection method of possible issues in CEA operations before catastrophic losses to property or worker safety occur. More information about the AgTech Innovation Hub and the projects being funded can be found in the OSU press release. 

The American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) recently announced the recipient of their Outstanding International Horticulturist Award as Guo-Qing Song, Professor and Associate Director of Michigan State University’s Plant Biotechnology Resource and Outreach Center.

Over the course of his career, Dr. Song has had multiple noteworthy achievements to the field of horticulture through his expertise in multiple areas of plant genetics and propagation, including having trained 180 international horticulturalists from 30 global institutions over the past 15 years. He also served extensively through professional societies, working groups and conferences as he organized workshops and served on the editorial boards of three journals.

More information about Dr. Song and his incredible contributions can be found in the MSU press release. 

It’s been a busy couple of weeks as I traveled first to Dallas two weeks ago and then Danville, Virginia, last week, for work trips. In Dallas I had the pleasure of touring Eden Green Technology in Cleburne, Texas, a unique hybrid vertical farm and greenhouse. You’ll be able to read about that visit in an upcoming Inside Grower magazine. 

The trip to Danville, Virginia, of course, was to attend the third annual CEA Summit East, a conference put on thanks to a partnership between Indoor Ag-Con, the Controlled Environment Agriculture Innovation Center, Virginia Tech and the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research.

Aside from the 30,000 feet overview, there were several presentations that got in the dirt, pun intended, on granular topics within indoor production. One of those was an interesting talk from the folks at Pure Future on the research conducted on their proprietary blend of algae as a biostimulant called Wicked Green. That research found applications of small amount of the product not only increase average fresh weight for leafy greens production but also improve the health of the plant and in tomatoes increase shelf life from 14 days to 59 (yes, 59 days) with no gamma irradiation. In fact, the product increased shelf life for leafy greens, herbs, lettuce and strawberries, too.

It's been researched by multiple public and private partners, and a short list includes University of Arizona, Arizona State University, Cal Poly, Cornell University and Miami University, among others.

And you may have the same reaction I did initially, which is why put algae in a hydroponic system? But the people at Pure Future say not only do they not see additional algae growth (since it’s a different type of algae) but they see a reduction in the ones that cause biofilm and harbor bad bacteria.