Optimizing Resource Use Efficiency In CEA System

Date: July 29, 2021
Time: 2 p.m. - 3 p.m. EDT
Presented by: Murat Kacira (The University of Arizona)

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Webinar Description

An important factor affecting the profitability of vertical farming is a grower’s ability to consistently deliver a predictable product. To achieve this, growers must create an environment that supplies all the crop’s needs over its entire growth cycle by identifying and co-optimizing environmental variables such as CO2, light, humidity, airflow, and other parameters. This presentation will focus on real-time sensing, monitoring, and climate control strategies with system designs for environmental uniformity leading to enhanced resource use efficiency in CEA system.

Dr. Murat Kacira (Professor)

Murat Kacira is director of the Controlled Environment Agriculture Center and he is a professor in the Biosystems Engineering Department at the University of Arizona. He received his B.S. degree in Agricultural Engineering in Cukurova University in Turkey and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering from The Ohio State University in USA. His research involves automation, environmental control, alternative energy integrated CEA systems and resource use optimization in controlled environment agriculture systems including greenhouses and vertical farming-based plant factories with artificial lighting. He is a member of American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE), American Society of Horticultural Sciences (ASHS), and International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS). He serves as Chair of the Division Precision Horticulture Engineering under ISHS.

Special thanks to our Industry partners

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If you have any questions or would like to know more about GLASE, please contact its executive director Erico Mattos at em796@cornell.edu

CEA Producers Join To Support Data-Driven USDA Project

Four agricultural producers have joined with nonprofit Resource Innovation Institute (RII) under the banner of its USDA Conservation Innovation Grant-funded project: Data-Driven Market Transformation for Efficient, Sustainable Controlled Environment Agriculture.

AppHarvest (Ky.) and Revol Greens (Texas) are vanguards of modern greenhouse cultivation, while Elevate Farms (N.J.) and Fifth Season (Penn.) are pioneers in vertical farming. The producers will serve as initial pilot partners in support of the USDA-funded project that aims to transform the controlled environment agriculture (CEA) market sector toward more efficient production through coordinated research on energy and water practices spearheaded by RII and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).

“We are thrilled to unite with these categories in the name of innovation and agricultural resilience,” said Derek Smith, Executive Director of RII. “Working together with these initial pilot partners and others to follow, we can unlock basic knowledge about performance metrics that will serve as beacons of efficiency and productivity for CEA producers globally.” In addition to geographic diversity, the producers represent an expanding global market growing a range of crops in indoor environments, from microgreens to tomatoes to berries. 

Resource Innovation Institute’s PowerScore resource benchmarking platform enables CEA producers to confidentially validate their innovative practices. Using standardized key performance indicators, PowerScore helps producers gain powerful insights into their operational performance while protecting strategic business interests.

“RII is trusted throughout the supply chain to provide data analysis and peer-reviewed guidance to producers, vendors, governments and utilities. Our consortium of members and partners are committed to collaboratively study the most sustainable horticultural practices across climate zones, building types, technologies and techniques to guide decision-makers on how to advance agricultural resilience,” said RII’s Smith.

To ensure the highest level of PowerScore data protection, RII has engaged Management Science Associates (MSA), global companies in data security and analytics, with expertise in HIPAA compliance and benchmarking for associations across industries. Together with producers, investors, and supply chain partners, RII continues to develop protocols that clearly define access, use, and ownership of data.

“We believe that the only way to fundamentally build an industry starts with data capture and accountability,” said Travis Kanellos, Chief Strategy Officer, Elevate Farms. “Our approach from day one has been to drive yields and profitability through metrics and KPIs. We believe RII will validate our approach." 

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For more information:
Resource Innovation Center
www.resourceinnovation.org 

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23 June 2021

CEA Food Safety Coalition Details First Indoor-Farming Standards

By AMY SOWDER June 2, 2021

(Photos courtesy CEA Food Safety Coalition)

Inspired by rising food safety concerns after the 2018 Thanksgiving romaine recalls, the CEA Food Safety Coalition is launching the first-ever food safety certification program specifically designed for indoor-grown leafy greens.

“The new standard champions CEA-grown produce as a critical component of safe and secure domestic food supply, especially in times of business disruption as experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Marni Karlin, executive director of the CEA Food Safety Coalition, said in a news release.

Controlled Environment Agriculture, or CEA, has exploded with investment and sales the last few years, as more urban, indoor farms crop up to meet demand.

Soon after organizing in 2019, the coalition educated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration about the limited risk of contamination from indoor-produced leafy greens, Karlin said.

“During the Thanksgiving 2019 romaine recall, those government agencies were transparent that CEA leafy greens were safe and did not extend the recall to them. This enabled retailers to keep CEA-produced greens on the shelves and consumers to safely buy CEA leafy greens for their families,” she said in the release.

The team had to create a standard that made sense across the board for the variety of production processes included in CEA — from greenhouses and vertical farming to aeroponic, hydroponic and aquaponic.

“Current food safety standards were written for the field, and many don't adequately address the unique attributes of controlled indoor environments,” Karlin said in the release. “Traditional food-safety risk profiles associated with conventional farming include examining the physical hazards and microbial hazards from water use, herbicide, and pesticide use, and impact from animals and animal byproducts. These do not impact CEA growers in the same way, if at all.”

As a result, a separate set of guidelines is needed.

This new certification process and the accompanying on-pack seal will spread awareness about  CEA and unify these growers while differentiating them from traditional field growers, she said.

“It will allow producers to adhere to a standard tailored to indoor production and give incoming entrepreneurs guidance on the measures they'll need to meet to align with the existing industry,” Karlin said in the release.

The certification program is available to all CEA food safety coalition members for a small fee, and an external audit to the standard must be completed on an annual basis.

Growers are assessed across four key areas:

1. Hazard analysis: All potential hazards associated with a producer’s practices, including use of water, nutrients, growing media, seeds, inputs, and site control;

2. Water: Often used by CEA producers, recirculated water requires a continuing hazard analysis throughout its life cycle and zone-based environmental monitoring based on company-specific risk assessment, she said;

3. Site control: All food contact surfaces and adjacent food contact surfaces, including plant containers, must be considered and associated with potential farm physical hazards, including lighting, robotics, sensors, equipment, and utensils; and

4. Pesticide and herbicide use: Even though CEA-produced greens generally don’t use pesticides or herbicides, this module evaluates the potential risk of pesticide contamination and addresses if residue testing is required, she said.

“Consumer interest in food labels is high and shows a genuine desire to shop smarter,” Karlin said. “For consumers to truly make informed purchasing decisions, we need to explain what the labels mean, the process of certification and which labels they can trust.”