This presentation ’Growing leafy greens with a low-pH hydroponic solution for root-rot disease management” was given by Chieri Kubota (Ohio State University) during our 49th café forum on February 7th, 2023. Indoor Ag Science Café is organized by the OptimIA project team funded by USDA SCRI grant.

• Indoor Ag Science Café is an open discussion forum, planned and organized by OptimIA project team.
• OptimIA (Optimizing Indoor Agriculture) is a project funded by USDA Specialty Crop Research Initiative and supported by many of you receiving this email (thank you!).

Café Archive

Check out our previous cafés in our Indoor Ag Science Cafe page on the OptimIA website!

Indoor Ag Science Cafe is organized by the OptimIA project team funded by USDA SCRI grants program.
Previous café recordings are available in the OptimIA project website.
Please contact for more info: kubota.10@osu.edu

Upcoming Cafes:

• March 28th (Tuesday),11 AM Eastern – Michigan State OptimIA Research Showcase by Nathan Kelly, Jiyong Shin, and Devin Brewer (Michigan State University)
• April 25th (Tuesday), 10AM Eastern – “Optimizing Productivity of Plant Made Pharmaceutical under Indoor Controlled Environment’” by Dr. Ryo Matsuda (University of Tokyo, Japan)
• May 9th (Tuesday), 11AM Eastern – “Climate-smart Credentialing of New CEA Employees by Resource Innovation Institute” by Rob Eddy (Resource Innovation Institute) 
• June 20th (Tuesday), 11AM Eastern – “Growing Culinary Herbs under Controlled Environment’” by Dr. Christopher Currey (Iowa State University) 

Interested in giving a talk to share your thoughts and experiences? Please contact us!

Upcoming Courses/Events/News:

• July 15-18, 2023: Cultivate’23 Annual Conference and Trade Show in Columbus, OH [More information]
• July 15, 2023: OptimIA at Cultivate’23 “Essentials of Hydroponics Production: A tHRIve Symposium” [More information]
• July 19, 2023: OHCEAC 2^nd Annual Conference “Advancement of Sustainable Controlled Environment Crop Production Sciences and Technologies” in Columbus, OH and online [More information]

Last year, venture capitalist companies invested $51.7 billion in Ag Tech, but what exactly is Ag Tech? Ag Tech is technology focused agriculture that is meant to increase existing efficiency processes in agriculture and sustainability, which includes everything from aquaculture to new crops/genetics, to animal health to the controlled environment agriculture industry.

With dwindling resources, increasing populations, and climate concerns, Robert Colangelo and his new ag tech company, CEA Technologies Inc., are seeking “to transform agriculture by developing sustainable indoor growing technology that can grow in any climate, free of pesticides using less, energy water and soil” with their unique modular scalable farm that has an inflatable structure, low-cost pest and thermal barrier.

In the October episode of the Indoor Ag Café, Robert Colangelo discusses their patent pending, modular scalable farm and how the company is looking to change how we all look at vertical farming’s profitability, production costs and the ideal vertical farm size. You can view Colangelo’s presentation at https://scri-optimia.org/show_cafe.php?ID=111163.

Indoor Ag Science Café is an outreach program of the OptimIA project, funded by the USDA SCRI grant program. Interested parties can join the free café forums, live or recorded (http://www.scri-optimia.org). The café forum is designed to serve as a communication platform among scientists and indoor farming professionals.

This presentation ‘Indoor Farm Automation: Lessons learned from the Autonomous Greenhouse Challenges’ was given by Dr. Ken Tran (Koidra Inc.) during our 44th café forum on September 20th, 2022. Indoor Ag Science Café is organized by the OptimIA project team funded by USDA SCRI grant

Upcoming Cafes:

• September 21st (Tuesday), 11AM Eastern – ‘Introduction to Aquaponics‘ by Dr. Paul Brown and Dr. Cary Mitchell (Purdue University)
• October 26th (Tuesday), 11AM Eastern – ‘Vertical Farming – Past, Present and Future‘ by Robert Colangelo (Green Sense Farms)
• November TBA
• December 7th (Tuesday), 11AM Eastern – ‘Plant-Made Pharmaceuticals under Controlled Environment‘ by Dr. Nobuyuki Matoba (University of Louisville)

Interested in giving a talk to share your thoughts and experiences? Please contact Chieri Kubota

Dr. Krishna Nemali, Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist at Purdue University, has developed an easy-to-use, affordable smart sensor that’s proving valuable to indoor farmers for improving farm productivity and crop quality. Using only a smart phone and a connection to Dr. Nemali’s apps, users can quickly and precisely monitor/measure a wide variety of production and growth parameters including light efficiency, germination rate, plant size (area, height, weight), color (intensity, progression), damage (nutrient deficiency, insect), biochemistry (chlorophyll, nitrogen and other micronutrients), and stress index. Dr. Nemali plans to make his smart sensor tool available in January 2022 for a nominal annual fee, which will support the development of future applications. For more information: http://scri-optimia.org/showcafe.php?ID=111113

Indoor Ag Science Café is an outreach program of the OptimIA project, funded by the USDA SCRI grant program. Interested parties can join the free café forums, live or recorded (http://www.scri-optimia.org). The café forum is designed to serve as a communication platform among scientists and indoor farming professionals. 

Japan is a leader in the world of indoor farming. At the heart of their success is a non-profit organization, the Japan Plant Factory Association (JPFA), and Eri Hayashi, its Vice President. Find out more about this sophisticated collaboration between academia, industry, and government. See the ways several of Japan’s indoor farm companies use technological advances, sophisticated production efficiency measures, and data-driven operations to promote high productivity and uniformity. Find out what innovations are driving what Hayashi refers to as the fourth generation of plant factories with artificial light. 

Indoor Ag Science Café is an outreach program of the OptimIA project, funded by the USDA SCRI grant program. Interested parties can join the free café forums, live or recorded (http://www.scri-optimia.org). The café forum is designed to serve as a communication platform among scientists and indoor farming professionals. 

‘Indoor Farming in Mexico: Current Status and Opportunities’ by Karla Garcia

Founder and Director of Microgreen FLN and Technical Services Specialist for Hort Americas, Karla Garcia, discusses in the February 2021 Ag Café episode what’s happening in Mexico’s controlled environment agriculture (CEA) industry, what’s impeding its growth, and what she hopes will change that in the future. As a business owner and technical consultant in CEA, Ms. Garcia has a unique and insightful perspective on the impact government policy, training, and public perception of CEA products has on the future success of CEA in Mexico.

This presentation ‘Indoor Farming in Mexico: Current Status and Opportunities’ was given by Karla Garcia (Microgreens FLN & HortAmericas) during our 27th cafe forum on February 23rd, 2021. Indoor Ag Science Cafe is organized by the OptimIA project team funded by USDA SCRI grant program.

The Café presentations are available from YouTube channel.

Upcoming Cafes:
March 30, 11am EST – ‘USDA SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) Grants Program Overview’ by Dr. Steven Thomson & Melinda Coffman (USDA NIFA)

Interested in giving a talk to share your thoughts and experiences? Contact them

This presentation given by Dr. Bridget Behe discussed marketing indoor farm produce. Dr. Behe emphasizes that marketing is the communication of the value with consumers and “Why” to sell or buy is the important focus to connect producers and consumers. Dr. Behe also shared her latest research on consumer perceptions on price vs value, and COVID-19 pandemic related ‘shopping anxiety’. Indoor Ag Science Café is an outreach program of a project OptimIA, funded by USDA SCRI grant program (http://www.scri-optimia.org). The café forums are designed to serve as precompetitive communication platform among scientists and indoor farming professionals. 

The Café presentations are available from YouTube channel.

Contact Chieri Kubota at the Ohio State University (Kubota.10@osu.edu) to be a Café member to participate. 

This presentation given by Dr. Murat Kacira and his graduate student KC Shasteen introduces the concept of using crop modeling/simulation for making indoor farming management decisions. Indoor Ag Science Café is an outreach program of a project OptimIA, funded by USDA SCRI grant program (http://www.scri-optimia.org). The café forums are designed to serve as precompetitive communication platform among scientists and indoor farming professionals. 

The Café presentations are all available on their YouTube channel   

Contact Chieri Kubota at the Ohio State University (Kubota.10@osu.edu) to be a Café member to participate.

The OptimIA (Optimizing Indoor Agriculture) project team invites indoor farmers, allied trades, and professionals to their first annual meeting to share recent research results with leafy greens and discuss future activities. OptimIA is a USDA-supported Specialty Crop Research Initiative project to advance the emerging indoor farming industry to become more profitable and sustainable through critical research and extension activities. 

View the agenda and register at http://scri-optimia.org/stakeholder2020.php. The webinar is free, but space is limited and is on a first-come, first-served basis.

OptimIA Director and PIs

• Erik Runkle, Michigan State University (Project Director)
• Murat Kacira, University of Arizona
• Chieri Kubota, The Ohio State University
• Roberto Lopez, Michigan State University
• Cary Mitchell, Purdue University
• Simone Valle de Souza, Michigan State University

OptimIA Collaborators

• Jennifer Boldt, USDA ARS
• David Hamby, OSRAM
• H. Christopher Peterson, Michigan State University
• Nadia Sabeh, Dr. Greenhouse Inc.

This month’s Indoor Ag Science Cafe was about financing indoor farm start up. Nicola Kerslake gave an overview of funding strategies and her guest presenter Dave Dinesen (CubicFarms) shared their insightful experience. Indoor Ag Science Café is an outreach program of a project OptimIA, funded by USDA SCRI grant program (http://www.scri-optimia.org). The café forums are designed to serve as precompetitive communication platform among scientists and indoor farming professionals. 

The Café presentations are available on the YouTube channel.   

Contact Chieri Kubota at the Ohio State University (Kubota.10@osu.edu) to be a Café member to participate. 

Roberto and Kellie work on lighting technologies for basil production and shared their most updated research on light intensities during young seedling stage of basil, affecting flavor profile and consumer liking in addition to yield and quality. Indoor Ag Science Café is an outreach program of our project OptimIA, funded by USDA SCRI grant program (http://www.scri-optimia.org). The café forums are designed to serve as precompetitive communication platform among scientists and indoor farming professionals. 

The Café presentations are available on their YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjwIeYlKrzH_uppaf2SwMIg4JyGb7LRXC   

Contact Chieri Kubota at the Ohio State University (Kubota.10@osu.edu) to become a Café member and be able to participate.