NDSU held its first CEA Conference on Sept. 18, 2024, at the NDSU Memorial Union.
Controlled Environment Agriculture is having a significant impact on food production, which is an urgent need in a world with more than seven billion people.
NDSU held its first CEA Conference on Sept. 18, 2024, at the NDSU Memorial Union. The CEA project is starting this fall at NDSU as part of the new Foods, Energy and Water Security initiative, developed by NDSU Agricultural Affairs and the NDSU Office of Research and Creative Activity.
CEA involves using technology to allow growers to manipulate a crop’s growing environment to achieve desired conditions. Examples include greenhouses, high tunnels, indoor farming, vertical farming, aquaculture and hydroponics. There are more than a dozen CEA programs at universities across the country.
Xinhua Jia, director of the North Dakota Water Resources Research Institute and professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, is a co-principal investigator on the NDSU CEA project and was an organizer of the conference.
“We want to grow food anywhere and anytime in North Dakota by applying the correct controlled environment agricultural technology,” Jia said. “The CEA conference went exceptionally well, full of engaging and collaborative efforts, with most of the attendees actively participating.”
Frank Casey, associate director of the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station, is the principal investigator of the NDSU CEA project and gave the introduction at Wednesday’s conference.
The event included a pair of presentations from Gene Giacomelli, professor emeritus at the University of Arizona. Giacomelli is the former director of the CEA Center at the University of Arizona and stated that the vision of the center there was to “develop Controlled Environment Agriculture as an economically, environmentally and socially sustainable agricultural option.”
Giacomelli talked about the successes and challenges of beginning a CEA program and the impact those programs are having across the United States.
Nathan Eylands, assistant professor of horticultural science at the University of Minnesota, was hired specifically to run the CEA program at the university in 2023. He discussed the importance of keeping pace with change, improving food security by diversifying, appeasing stakeholders, expanding education and improving student outcomes as key elements in developing that program.
A panel moderated by Harlene Hatterman-Valenti, NDSU professor of plant sciences, focused on stakeholder shareholding. Topics covered included high tunnel greenhouse development, cut flower growing, community garden development and the growth of the Refugee Agriculture Partnership Program.
A new greenhouse at the United Tribes Technical College opened in August and attendees had the opportunity to take a closer look at the net-zero facility. The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation is building a Native Green Grow complex, which will include a 3.3-acre greenhouse that will grow crops such as lettuce, strawberries and tomatoes year-round. Attendees got to see a detailed overview of the entire project.
Kai-Shu Ling of the USDA-ARS Vegetable Laboratory in Charleston, South Carolina., spoke about the USDA’s research on CEA. The focus areas included energy efficiency, technology, social-economic impact of CEA, and genetics and breeding for CEA.
In the afternoon, there was a greenhouse tour and followed by a series of research lightning talks moderated by Sulaymon Eshkabilov, featuring presentations from faculty and students.
A total of 40 people attended the inaugural event.
