Moein Moosavi-Nezhad is earning his Ph.D. in strawberry propagation at North Carolina State University. | Moein Moosavi-Nezhad
For the end of the year, our sister site of CEAg World, under the Meister Media Worldwide umbrella, recently looked back at its interviews with several young professionals in the controlled environment agriculture (CEA) space to find insights for the future of education in the industry. Here‘s what they had to say:
While it’s been around for decades, CEA is often considered a new and upcoming industry. That perception may not be entirely true, but it’s not too far-fetched. The industry is constantly evolving, as new methods of production and tech are constantly being explored.
We caught up with a few young professionals in CEA to talk about the trends they’re seeing, how they plan to contribute to future innovations, and what students are currently studying.
Focusing on Urban Ag
When we spoke with Moein Moosavi-Nezhad, a graduate student at North Carolina State University earning his Ph.D. in strawberry propagation, he expected to see a heavier emphasis on urban agriculture in the future. As urban populations continue to grow, he believes they must consider climate change and resource scarcity since relying on traditional field production isn’t sustainable for urban areas and may not be an option later down the road.
“There’s so much potential with CEA in urban horticulture,” he says. “Considering urban population growth, I think in the future, smart cities should be able to feed themselves and not be reliant on food produced in open fields and transported from far away.”
Identifying Your Company Type
In CEA, there seems to be a push for companies to identify themselves as either a produce company or a tech company. When indoor agriculture first started to take off in the U.S., many growers invested in technology that didn’t fit the needs of their operation. Lessons have been learned since, and many companies have started focusing either strictly on tech or crops — not both.
“If you’re a tech company trying to grow produce, I think we’ve seen it in the industry enough times now to know it doesn’t work,” says Ekene Tharpe, Head Grower at Babylon Micro-Farms and recent graduate of Virginia Tech. “Those companies are starting to gain focus and hone in on what products they want to create.”
Tharpe went on to explain how Babylon Micro-Farms has solidified its stance as a tech company. “We know our lane, and we’re not going to start selling produce out of our micro-farms,” she says.
Merging Industry and Academia
Meg Burritt, a Research and Teaching Assistant at Michigan State University, believes it’s critical for industry professionals and academics to work together to propel the industry forward. Based on her background in economics and experience working on the business side of CEA at Planted Detroit, she finds it important for commercial companies and academia to share a common goal.
“There are very specific economic problems that make it difficult for CEA growers to contribute to today’s food system,” says Burritt. “But that doesn’t mean we should divert from it; it just needs more focus and research. It would be wonderful to have conversations around what it takes to make a company successful and how we can work across the industry to accomplish that.”
Moving on to High-Value Crops
Tomatoes, leafy greens, and strawberries are commonly known as CEA crops. However, CEA has the ability to produce higher-value crops by integrating newer growing methods with traditional production. To maximize efficiency and production across the agriculture sector, indoor and outdoor Xiaonan Shi, a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at NC State believes that growers must join forces.
“There will be the integration of CEA with traditional crop production,” says Shi. “I think for high-value crops, there is much more room for us to improve and push past the limit of the crops that are already growing in CEA because we have the ability to.”
What CEA Programs Will Focus on Moving Forward
CEAg World got mixed perspectives from these young professionals about what CEA students will focus on in the future. A few expect to see their research carried out by other students after they graduate, while others expect to see completely new concepts and crops explored.
“When I was in university a year and a half ago, I was one of two people in the whole country doing research on miniature dwarf tomatoes,” says Tharpe. “I was lucky to be one of the judges at the 2024 CEA Summit East for the poster competition for students, and like 75% of them were on miniature dwarf tomatoes. It’s cool to see something that’s novel in the beginning grow in such a short amount of time.”
However, all the young professionals we spoke with have seen increased interest in the CEA industry, which makes the future look especially promising.
“It’s exciting to see how many young people are interested in the industry,” says Chelsea Lee, a Greenhouse Climate Systems Specialist at BrightFarms. “They will bring in a lot of new knowledge, new expertise, and a fresh set of eyes, ears, and skills.”
