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Jordan Powers: 0:00

Welcome to Cultivating Curiosity where we get down and dirty with the experts on all the ways science and agriculture touch our lives, from what we eat to how we live. I'm Jordan Powers.

Emily Cabrera: 0:12

And I'm Emily Cabrera. We're from the University of Georgia's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

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Emily Cabrera: 0:20

Today we're in the studio with Rhuanito Ferrarezi, an associate professor in the CAES Department of Horticulture, and Ruchika Kashyap, also known as "Dr. R" to the growers she works with, an assistant professor in the CAES Department of Plant Pathology and an Extension Specialist. Both are part of a team of researchers working in controlled environment agriculture, who lovingly call themselves the "Fab Five of CEA." Thank you both for joining us.

Ruchika Kashyap: 0:46

Thank you, Emily.

Rhuanito Ferrarezi: 0:47

Thank you for having us.

Jordan Powers: 0:48

For those who may be unfamiliar, what exactly is Controlled Environment Agriculture, also known as CEA?

Ruchika Kashyap: 0:54

For me, Controlled Environment Agriculture is a very broad term. Think of it like anything that is controlled, anything different that you're doing from, like outside production that happens in field, and you're kind of modifying it, to modify the environmental conditions, to grow the crops that is controlled- environment.

Rhuanito Ferrarezi: 1:16

What we've been trying to do, is really creating a definition of CEA. And one of the definitions that we are trying to come up with is dividing Controlled Environment Agriculture in low-tech, medium-tech and high-tech facilities. So hoop houses being, for example, low-tech facilities, because there are just a few aspects being controlled, such as rain or hail. And then we also have some sort of high-tech facilities, such as the vertical farms, totally automated, temperature controlled, moisture controlled, artificial lighting, everything contained sensors, robotics involved. So just to guide us when we are defining these production facilities. But everything that we change the environment in control some aspects can be rainfall, can be temperature, can be lighting. So we call them Controlled Environment Ag.

Jordan Powers: 2:13

Okay, so a very broad term and but it's fascinating. So people who have a greenhouse in their yard are participating in Controlled Environment Agriculture?

Rhuanito Ferrarezi: 2:20

Absolutely, they are.

Emily Cabrera: 2:21

Agriculture is Georgia's number one industry, and I think most people think of field crops, or big farms, row crops, and you just touched on this a little bit but how does CEA differ from traditional farming?

Rhuanito Ferrarezi: 2:34

So I think agriculture is a mix of art, science and passion. So the main difference of CEA is the fact that we have control over the environment, which in the open field, we often do not have that capability. If you can control temperature, lighting, if you can control moisture and consequently vapor pressure, that regulates how much plants are transpiring and consequently growing. And if, instead of having long or short periods of rainfall, we have the ability to provide water at the time plants need it the most with the nutrients that they need at the stage they need. So that defines the difference between open field and CEA, then our ability to actually control the input that our farmers had been manipulating over the decades, the centuries, that they've been practicing agriculture on a way that they can shorten crop cycles, that they can predict how much they are yielding. That is the major element that CEA brings to standard farming.

Ruchika Kashyap: 3:40

It's also the density of the crops, right? I feel like controlled environments are more dense in terms of production and year round production, because, you know, you're controlling everything, but we cannot do that in the field, and we have to maintain the spacing. Those are the main differences. But the basic concepts, as Dr. Ferrarezi mentioned, like you're growing a plant, right? That is the same.

Jordan Powers: 4:02

At the end of day, the consumer is going to have that leafy green on their plate.

Ruchika Kashyap: 4:07

Exactly!

Jordan Powers: 4:08

They're going to have the tomato on their plate. It just may have grown in a field or grown in a vertical farm setting. Which is fascinating, I had a chance to come out and see the vertical farms. Gosh, that was, I think, a couple years ago now, and it's just incredible to see that technology at work, and that leads perfectly in what was going to be my next question is, why is CEA becoming more important in today's agricultural landscape, especially in places like Georgia?

Rhuanito Ferrarezi: 4:28

I love that question because our state is at the core of the expansion of the CEA industry because of the geographical location. So food is traditionally produced in the West Coast and then shipped across the country. So with Georgia being centrally located to many southern states, so we have been receiving a lot of investments from companies that wanted to move produce in the neighboring states that we have. That is reducing the food mileage that we often have with the majority of the fresh produce.

Ruchika Kashyap: 5:03

And interest in CEA, a general curiosity in CEA is also helping it boom. When I go out and do my Extension activities and I go out to grower fields, it's actually much more prevalent. You can find CEA structures, literally in home yards as well, you can find CEA structures in community gardens. The curiosity in itself is connecting different diverse audiences, no matter they are doing it for commercial purposes or just to feed the local community and help volunteers learn about CEA. So it is expanding at a much larger scale.

Emily Cabrera: 5:39

I love that, it's not an all or nothing method, that you could have row crops and field crops and also have a controlled-environment structure and possibly even diversify your business strategy.

Rhuanito Ferrarezi: 5:50

And that's why we are seeing this exponentially growing in our state, because our weather is favorable in comparison to other states, uh, mild winters. So that means that we have to heat the greenhouse for shorter periods of time. Then the cost of lighting is relatively lower in comparison to northern states, and that allows, then the mix of well established greenhouse operators, but also field growers that wanted to diversify produce, higher quality produce, and why not ornamental plants? Then they can add value to their farms, diversifying not only the crops, but also diversifying the production methods. So then it's a win-win situation for the consumers, for the shippers, and for the growers.

Emily Cabrera: 6:35

I think that leads into this next question really well. Where do you see CEA heading in the next five to 10 years and what could it mean for food security?

Rhuanito Ferrarezi: 6:44

I think we are seeing more and more CEA produced products in the supermarket. Pretty much all the leafy greens that we consume, they are already cleaned and they are produced in greenhouses. So I think that will expand. We also have very large tomato growers in the state of Georgia, we also have cucumber growers. We have mushroom being produced in shipping containers as well, just because growers are looking for crops that have high value to guarantee that they have the return of their investment. And I think in the next five or 10 years, we will see more crops coming out of farms, particularly, making this affordable for everybody, guaranteeing that then we have access to fresh produce, amazing ornamental plants. And we also have, for example, the ability to grow plants to extract certain compounds that can be used in the pharmaceutical world. So that's a little bit of what we do in my lab. But then there's more than just producing a head of lettuce or tomatoes, and I think in the next 10 years, so we will see a larger diversity of crops that will be produced and will be available for us to consume.

Ruchika Kashyap: 7:57

And I feel like more growers being involved as well, ranging from young growers and traditional growers trying to adopt.

Rhuanito Ferrarezi: 8:06

I see plant production, particularly for the young generation, as something distant from their reality. The beauty of Controlled Environment Ag, is the flexibility we have in terms of production facilities. You can grow plants in your kitchen, in your garage. So if you have lights, if you have water, nutrients, and the right temperature, and CO2 and Oxygen available. So these techniques makes plant production closer to the consumer. So I think that is one of the reasons, so there are several others, you know economics and the environmental ones. But once you start growing plants at your home, and then you cook the food with the plants that you produce, agriculture becomes closer to you. So then developing the community, developing a business that is related to improving the livelihood of people around you becomes more relevant. We have from the consumer to the urban ag growers to large growers participating in this space. So that's why we are creating a very strong industry, and I think that is something that we will certainly capitalize in the next couple of years.

Jordan Powers: 9:19

Whether you're growing in a row crop in a field, whether you're growing in CEA, or doing a combination of both. It goes back to that science and the art that you talked about earlier, right?

Rhuanito Ferrarezi: 9:27

Exactly.

Jordan Powers: 9:27

It's combining those things and making it more accessible. You know, I loved hearing you say for especially children, but everyone to really be able to have that access to the science and the art of the food that we grow, which is really fascinating. Well, we want to thank you both for coming in and taking the time today. And we can't omit saying that you are two members of this Fab Five of CEA, so you all are covering everything, every aspect of Controlled Environment Ag, in this expanding part of the industry, thank you all so much for taking the time to come in today.

Rhuanito Ferrarezi: 9:56

Absolutely. Yeah, so it was fun to talk about what we do and why we do it.

Ruchika Kashyap: 9:59

Thank you so much. It was pleasure being here, and thank you for inviting us.

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Jordan Powers: 10:04

Thanks for listening to Cultivating Curiosity, a podcast produced by the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. A special thanks to Mason McClintock for our music and sound effects. Find more episodes wherever you get your podcasts.