Progress 02/15/19 to 02/14/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience were adiverse group of stakeholders from industry, academia, and government sectors with interest in controlled environment agriculture food production systems (CEA) as practiced in greenhouse, growth rooms and vertical farms. Changes/Problems:This project was provided a no-cost extension from February 15, 2020 to February 14, 2021, with the expectation of future opportunities to disseminate the information of the conference. These opportunities have yet to materialize. However, it remains our goal to distribute information of the final report to the communities of interest via USDA regional research groups (NCERA-101, NE-1835), professional societies (ASABE, ASHS), and industry newsletters (Inside Grower, iGrow News, HortAmericas). The complete SUMMARY REPORT document as well as the FINAL CONFERENCE REPORT document can be found at the University of Arizona Controlled Environment Agriculture Center (CEAC) website https://ceac.arizona.edu/ under 'Resources' then 'Publications' What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training activities were provided to the students who attended the conference and supported the Breakout Sessions by leading the small discussion groups and/or acting as recordersof the group discussions. Professional development activities resulted in increased knowledge for all in attendance to the conference. That was its purpose, namely,to allow people from the CEA space the opportunity to not only share their knowledge-base and experiences, but also to learn from others. In addition, there were two professional tour/visit opportunities during the conference, which included a CEA commercial production facility (Bayer Crop Sciences Marana Greenhouse) and to research facilities (UA-CEAC). How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?See previous annual report whereby itwas explained that the opportunity to disseminate the information from the project was halted by the virus pandemic. Opportunities to present the information within the Annual Report documents will be provided at the next annual meeting of professional colleagues. It is further our intention to provide copies of the final report to those who actively participated in the conference as well as to the CEADS group, and other groups with interests related to the challenges of implementing CEA systems. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
There were major outcomes from this conference: (1) The AzCEA Conference was organized and completed at Biosphere 2, University of Arizona September 9 - 11, 2019. A detailed description of conference activities is described in the previous annual report. (2) Conference organizers prepared a FINAL CONFERENCE REPORT as well as a SUMMARY REPORT synthesizing outcomes from presentations and discussions at the conference for the CEA indoor food production industry inNorth America. The report is an integrated, cross-disciplinary, systems-based approach that integrates stakeholder needs and feedback to address challenges and to identify opportunities to grow the CEA Indoor food production industry sustainably and expand the U.S. agricultural economy. The complete SUMMARY REPORT document as well as the FINAL CONFERENCE REPORT document can be found at the University of Arizona Controlled Environment Agriculture Center (CEAC) website https://ceac.arizona.edu/ under 'Resources' then 'Publications' Seven topic areas, each with 'Challenges' and 'Opportunities' were the focus of Conference study. They represent the fundamental concepts for successful CEA operations, and are documented in the Final and in the Summary Reports. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The University of Arizona hosted a two-day Arizona CEA Conference sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that took place at the Biosphere 2 in Tucson, Arizona on September 9-11, 2019. A diverse group of stakeholders from industry, academia, government sectors gathered to engage with the critical issues, both current and future, facing vertical and indoor food production systems. Discussions revolved around seven major thematic areas, established from the preceding workshop "Research and Development Potentials in Indoor Agriculture and Sustainable Urban Ecosystems": Economics, Production Systems, Engineering, Plant Breeding, Food Nutrition and Safety, Industrial Ecology in Closed Systems, and Pest Disease and Management. Developing sustainable and strategic plans to feed the future in the face of growing global challenges will require interdisciplinary vision and innovation on a grand scale. Addressing these grand challenges to feed the future will require innovative, integrative and interdisciplinary solutions that draw on both historical and current approaches such as traditional plant breeding and modern gene editing technologies, or developing strategies to reduce global food waste, as well as forward thinking and out-of-the-box innovation. Controlled environment agriculture (CEA) implemented as indoor agricultural food production systems may offer innovative technological solutions to solve such problems. CEA systems range from basic high tunnel systems, and advanced hydroponic greenhouses using sunlight, to fully insulated in- door operations that produce crops on multiple levels (i.e. vertical farming, VF) solely using electrical lighting. Indoor agriculture, such as VF, is a nascent and rapidly growing CEA system with the potential to help mitigate many of the environmental and social challenges at the food-energy-water nexus. CEA operations are advertised as solutions to many environmental issues in food production because they are protected from the vagaries of the outside environment, and can be constructed in even the most extreme environments. Despite these advantages, CEA greenhouse indoor and vertical farming systems are technology intensive, require large capital investment and energy inputs, and they demand higher level worker skill and knowledge for effective operation. Although CEA systems can manage light, water, temperature, nutrient elements and CO2, these conditions, especially with new cultivars, different species and innovative production systems now in development, have not been optimized. Furthermore, there are unknowns about business economics, long-term sustainability, and consumer trends, adding more challenges to overcome within the complex CEA production systems. The promise of CEA indoor and vertical food production depends on optimizing these unknowns. Thus, these unknowns deserve an integrated, cross-disciplinary, systems-based approach that integrates stakeholder needs and feedback to address challenges and identify opportunities to grow this industry sustainably and contribute to the U.S. agricultural economy. The discussions and ideas exchanged at the Arizona CEA Conference had several important outcomes: • A final conference report • A coordinated agricultural project (CAP) grant proposal • A working group focused on the development of a comprehensive frame- work for best practices in design and operation for CEA enterprises • Seven topic areas, each with 'Challenges' and 'Opportunities', were the focus of the Conference study (3) A coordinated agricultural project (CAP) grant proposal addressing the thematic areas discussed in the CEA conference (not funded) was also prepared. This proposal was authored by conference organizers in collaboration with conference participants, with preparations for the submission begun during the final day of the conference. (4) A working group focused on the development of a comprehensive framework for best practices in design and operation for CEA enterprises was formed by conference participants: the Controlled Environment Agriculture Design Standards (CEADS). The CEADS project has since matured, officially incorporating in February 2021 and distributing the debut CEADS publication for external review in February 2021. The organization anticipates public release of CEADS v1.0 in later spring of 2021. More details on the CEADS project can be found in Appendix A-4 of the Final Report.
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Awaiting Publication
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Conference organizers prepared a FINAL CONFERENCE REPORT (83 pages) as well as a SUMMARY REPORT (12 pages, shown below, abridged).
The complete SUMMARY REPORT document as well as the FINAL CONFERENCE REPORT document can be found at the University of Arizona Controlled Environment Agriculture Center (CEAC) website https://ceac.arizona.edu/ under 'Resources' then 'Publications'
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Progress 02/15/19 to 02/14/20
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience of the AzCEAC conference was CEA industry stakeholders, consultants, policy-makers, educators and researchers from across the U.S. to engage in cross-cutting and interdisciplinary discussions of the R&D challenges, opportunities, and needs involved in developing Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) indoor and vertical production of vegetable crops as a viable and sustainable industry in the U.S. The audience at the AzCEAC Planning Conference that was completed on September 9 - 12, 2019 at Biosphere 2 facilities in Oracle, Arizona reached the following groups from academic, governmental and industrial positions that included: Grower/Operator, Researcher, Business Developer, Scientist, Environmentalist, Engineer, Academician, Government programs manager, and students. Changes/Problems:The government closure of 2018 delayed the planning conference from May 2019 until September 2019. The timing of the NCERA-101 International Workshop for March 2020 allowed us to extend this grant from its original termination date of February 14, 2020 until February 14, 2021, providing the benefit of an additional group of people from academia and industry to participate in the development of the final report. The onset of the virus forced postponement of the NCERA-101 Workshop from March 2020 until March 2021, thus our plan for the additional review of the conference cannot be met. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training of graduate students was provided. There were 11 student volunteers who were invited to the conference (no registration fees) to participate in the general sessions, and then to help lead the breakout discussion sessions that followed the 2 general sessions, one for each of the 7 topics. They agreed to be scribes during the breakout session, and to report back to the daily wrap-up sessions. They later prepared a written document about their session topic to be used in the final report. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?No. The reporting documents have not been prepared. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Prepare the final report and distribute to the communities of interest via USDA regional research groups (NCERA-101, NE-1835), professional societies (ASABE, ASHS), and industry newsletters (Inside Grower, iGrow News, HortAmericas)
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The impact of the project will inform broad audiences such as users (growers) engaged with CEA technology (greenhouse, vertical farms) to be more knowledgeable in their production process of food crops. In doing so they will manage the input resources (energy, water, labor) more efficiently, and they will increase productivity (yield, quality, timing). Ultimately the 'action' and 'condition' impacts will be increased energy use efficiency, water use efficiency and labor efficiency per unit of salable greenhouse product. Additional impacts directed to environmental concerns will be the reduced use of chemical pesticides and elimination of discharge of nutrient waters into the local waters. The salable products will be premium locally grown, with high nutrition and fresh quality. From the impact statement of this grant project, the outcomes/accomplishments defined as changes in knowledge was achieved, however no changes of 'action', or 'condition' can yet be expected, as yet. The knowledge that was developed by the AZCEAC Conference needs to be prepared in a document and then distributed to the communities of interest. There were 2 days of orchestrated presentations, discussions, working groups that included each of the 7 topic Themes within the Conference: Engineering the technology and Environment Plant Breeding with the Genetic tools Production Systems efficiency, Pest/Disease control, and Food Nutrition/Safety by Management Economics, and Industrial Ecology of Systems for Sustainability The program began with a tour of a commercial research and development facility in Marana, AZ operated by Bayer Crop Sciences. The leadoff tour to an extremely modern high-tech greenhouse helped to set the stage for the interdisciplinary and complex nature of operational CEA plant production systems. All of the diverse attendees were introduced/exposed to not only their area of expertise, but also all other areas of expertise by the 2-hour tour. It also provided for a re-introduction of both former and introduction of new professional friends at the start of the conference, which led to the end-of-day welcome reception dinner and further mixing of the attendees. Then immediately at the start of the first session of the next day, everyone was comfortable, ready and willing to actively participate. The conference ended with a tour of the UA-CEAC campus research facilities and a BBQ. This ending tour offered the attendees upfront experiences of numerous types of greenhouse structures, a vertical farm research facility, and numerous plant growing systems and nutrient delivery systems for production of various types of leafy green and fruiting vegetable crops. In between, the 7 Theme topic sessions were introduced with information and thought-provoking concepts by the 7 invited keynote speakers, and then each further developed by a second speaker, and then followed by a panel of three experts providing discussion that allowed for Q&A with the audience, thereby bringing the entire group of 80 into discussions. Subsequent 2 hour-long breakout sessions of the 7 themes into smaller groups of [10 - 12] attendees offered further interaction with select audience members at more causal settings. The diverse theme sessions were only 1-hour in length allowing for the theme to be developed, but not to be over-burdening to a diverse audience, while providing for 7 major theme topics of CEA that were determined to be critical importance for understanding the challenges of CEA. Therefore, an integrated, cross-disciplinary, systems-based approach was created which combined the stakeholder needs with audience feedback to address challenges and to identify opportunities to grow this industry sustainably and contribute to the U.S. agricultural economy. A coordinated strategic plan for CEA indoor crop production is needed for the U.S. We envision that the AzCEAC conference has begun to address this strategic plan. An additional session (morning of Sept 13) was organized with 20 members of the conference to begin discussions to prepare a proposal for providing research support of this new interdisciplinary team. The effort was led by Dr. kai Ling.
Publications
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