#ceac

From March 12-16, 2018 in Tucson, Arizona, this jam-packed 5-day event is a laser-cut harvest of information from experts in research, production and the bottom-line business of controlled environment agriculture. You have three full days of intensely focused sessions on all the science, technology and knowledge necessary to make your growing businesses improve.  And then, in the greenhouses of the UofA-CEAC, you’ll smell the vines that hold the tasty fruits of success with a full-day of hands-on training workshops led by globally renowned research and production specialists of the University of Arizona.

You’ll also have face-to-face time with industry experts on your special questions, as well as networking time with industry leaders, with personal follow-ups that phone and social contacts bring. “CEAC is a hub for indoor ag education, research and networking” (Seedstock) and our resources offer information and expertise that spotlights the essential information to keep your growing business relevant in an ever-evolving CEA market.  

Registration is open to become an attendee, exhibitor or sponsor.  Call us at UofA-CEAC to get best spots and make arrangements.

Putting a man on the moon was an extraordinary goal. It was a symbol so powerful, it motivated the two world superpowers of the era to heavily invest into STEM. In fact, the USA put 5% of our budget into STEM via NASA. Can you imagine what science 5% of our budget could buy in this epoch of the internet? 

Obama alluded to exactly what that kind of budget could buy; It could buy a food system that is resilient enough to beat climate change. 

Climate change is a threat that should glue us together like honey to bees. At Agritecture, we do our part conjuring honey for the hive through our urban agriculture work. Yet there are many other critical jobs to be done, jobs that require serious STEM skills. For those STEM oriented folks, we share this video of the U of Arizona Lunar Greenhouse project. 

If you are, or if you know, a STEM oriented person who loves star wars, star trek, or star gazing - this video will have you turning your attention from the galaxy, to the desert of Arizona, then back to the heavens. We hope you will share it with someone who could benefit from this both symbolic and literal moonshot.

The lungs, which equalized the air pressure in the dome, are no longer needed now that the Biosphere is no longer sealed. The west lung will be transformed into a “vertical farm” that will train LED lights on stacked racks of floating plants whose roots draw water and nutrients from circulating, fortified water.

A variety of leafy greens and herbs such as kale, arugula, lettuce and basil will be packaged and sold to customers in Tucson and Phoenix, said Paul Hardej, CEO and co-founder of Civic Farms.

He also expects to grow high-value crops, such as microgreens, Hardej said.

Hardej said the company plans to complete construction and begin growing by the end of the year.

Civic Farms’ contact with the UA allows for half the 20,000-square-foot space to be devoted to production, with areas given over to research and scientific education.

The UA will lease the space to Civic Farms for a nominal fee of $15,000 a year. In return, the company will invest more than $1 million in the facility and dedicate $250,000 over five years to hire student researchers in conjunction with the UA’s Controlled Environment Agriculture Center.

Details of branding haven’t been worked out, said UA Science Dean Joaquin Ruiz, but don’t be surprised to find Biosphere Basil turning up in your salad soon.

Hardej said the “brands” established by the UA were lures for his company.

“The UA itself has a brand recognition throughout the agricultural industry and specifically the Controlled Environment Agriculture Center. They have a lot of respect worldwide.”

“Also, the Biosphere itself is a great story,” he said.

“The original intent was to develop a self-sustaining, controlled environment where people could live, regardless of outside conditions.

“In a way, this is a fulfillment of the original purpose,” he said.

Hardej said he recognizes the irony of growing food in artificial light at the giant greenhouse. He is convinced, however, that growing plants with artificial lighting can become as economical as growing them in sunlight.

“Decades ago, greenhouses were very innovative. It felt like it allowed the farmer to control the environment. It did not control the light and also the temperature differentials.”

Hardej said indoor growing allows you to control all the variables — the water, the CO2 levels, the nutrients and the light. “Farming is much more productive and much more predictable than in a greenhouse,” he said.

HEAR PAUL HARDEJ SPEAK ON SHUTTERED VERTICAL FARMS DURING AN AGLANTA PANEL HERE

You can’t stack plants on soil, or even in a greenhouse, he said. “A vertical farm can be 20 to 100 times more productive. The overall direction globally is indoors,” he said.

Indoor agriculture is still a sliver of overall crop production, said Gene Giacomelli, director of the UA’s Controlled Environment Agriculture Center (CEAC) and most indoor operations are greenhouses.

“Vertical farms” account for a small portion of that sliver, but are a fast-growing segment for growing high-value crops with a level of control over the environment that can’t be attained elsewhere, he said.

“Theoretically, we should be able to control everything,” he said.

Murat Kacira, a UA professor of agricultural-biosystems engineering, is already working on systems to do that in a lab at the CEAC center on North Campbell Avenue, where he grows leafy greens and herbs under banks of LED lights. He can control the wavelengths of light, temperature, humidity, the mix of oxygen and carbon dioxide and the nutrients available to the plants.

Those variables can be tuned to improve the yield, quality and nutritional value of the plants being grown. He is developing sensor systems that allow the plants to signal their needs.

A lot of questions remain, said Giacomelli. Different plants require different inputs. Young plants have different needs than mature ones.

Air handling is a tricky problem, he said. Air flow differs between the bottom and top racks and at different locations of a given rack of plants.

It will take “more than a couple years” to figure it all out, said Giacomelli.

Kacira said the Civic Farms installation “is a really complementary facility to the research going on under glass.”

He expects the Biosphere to become a “test bed” for more research on the nexus of food, water and energy.

Ruiz said that “nexus” is the direction for research at the Biosphere for the coming decade.

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Contact: [email protected] or 573-4158. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter: @bealagram

SOURCE

Written by Tom Beal, Arizona Daily Star

You too can supercharge your indoor and greenhouse growing know how at the 16th Annual Greenhouse Crop Production & Engineering Design Short Course of the University of Arizona Controlled Environmental Agriculture Center [UofA-CEAC], April 3rd - 7th, 2017 in Tucson, AZ.

Plus, you can save 20% on your registration by using the DISCOUNT CODE: “BPCREF”.

More information here: ceac.arizona.edu/greenhouse-crop-production-engineering-design-short-course