By 2050, the U.S. population is estimated to grow to 400 million, and the world population to 9.1 billion, requiring a 70 percent increase in global food production.
UC Merced is one of four campuses across the country uniting to meet that challenge by harnessing the power of innovation and technology to develop precision agriculture for a sustainable future.
Led by the University of Pennsylvania, UC Merced, Purdue University and the University of Florida received a new, $26 million, five-year National Science Foundation Engineering Research Centers (ERC) grant to form the NSF Engineering Research Center for the Internet of Things for Precision Agriculture (IoT4Ag). ERC are NSF’s flagship engineering programs for convergent research to address large-scale societal challenges.
The overall mission of IoT4Ag is to ensure food, energy and water security by developing technology to increase crop production while minimizing the use of energy and water resources and lessening the impact of agricultural practices on the environment. Collectively, the IoT4Ag Center will also create a diverse talent pipeline consisting of K–12 and university students, engineers, agriculture professionals and other members of farming communities through audience-specific lessons and hands-on classroom, laboratory and field activities. Bringing together academic, government and industry partners with the farming community, the Center will create an innovation ecosystem that ensures the rapid translation of IoT4Ag practices and technologies into commercial products, and will also ensure that such a transformation is built with sustainable positive economic and social impact in mind.
“We aim to engineer cost-effective systems that farmers will adopt,” said UC Merced professor Catherine Keske, the campus lead for the new initiative. “We’ll be building upon the momentum UC Merced already has developed in precision agriculture.”
The inaugural team at UC Merced’s branch of IoT4Ag features the agriculture economics Keske researches, as well as professor Stefano Carpin’srobotics and machine learning, professor Erin Hestir’s remote sensing and spatial analysis; and professor Reza Ehsani’sprecision ag inventions, though Keske said the work of other faculty members and students from across the campus will be integral to IoT4Ag’s success.
The ERC are highly competitive and this is the School of Engineering’s first participation in one. Engineering Dean Mark Matsumoto emphasized that the multidisciplinary nature of the center brings UC Merced researchers nearly limitless opportunities to collaborate with established research universities that are all prestigious members of the Association of American Universities.
“The research and related efforts that will be conducted through this grant are important to the well-being of our region by seeking to develop technologies that will improve and sustain agricultural practices,” Matsumoto said. “I am very pleased that we are a part of this important endeavor — one that points to the emerging recognition of the school and the campus.”
Part of the ERC mandate is to converge a wide range of academic disciplines in tackling challenges; another is to develop a diverse and inclusive workforce from across the United States. By partnering with industry and a broad community of students, faculty and professionals, the IoT4Ag Center will create an innovation ecosystem to continue these efforts into the coming decades.
The West, Midwest and East Coast are all represented in IoT4Ag, with collaboration nodes and education and research sites across the country, providing limitless opportunities for students, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders.
The IoT4Ag Center is divided into three integrated thrusts, with teams of researchers working on sensing, communication and response technologies.
IoT4Ag is housed in the School of Engineering, but the UC Merced branch, in the communication thrust, will include many others: the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), UC Water, drone and energy researchers, management of complex systems experts, socio-economists and big-data analysts, as well as the community, region and state.
“We want to include everyone who has a perspective on engineering ag, from farmers, farm workers and the children of farm workers among our student body to government and industry partners,” Keske said. Like the rest of the team members, Keske will wear several hats as the initiative gets underway.
She’s responsible for diversity and inclusion, and said she’s looking to hold focus groups, ask farmers and commodity groups to be on the advisory board for IoT4Ag at UC Merced and visit field sites to survey farm workers, as well.
“We want everyone to have a voice in this,” Keske said.
Penn has also allocated a considerable part the ERC budget for travel and programs to train students, Keske said. The IoT4Ag plan calls for involving pre-college, community college and university students through audience-specific lessons and hands-on classroom, lab and field work; advising and mentoring; and a variety of social and professional activities to prepare a diverse workforce of the future to address the societal grand challenges of food, energy and water security.
The world’s finite land, water and energy resources demand new technologies and innovations to improve the efficiency and sustainability of all types of food production.
“We can create the tech and infrastructure that will help farmers manage their crops down to the finest details of water and soil nutrients,” Keske said. “Digital technologies have the potential to improve efficiency, equity, safety, nutrition, health and sustainability across the world’s food systems.”
More than half of farmers who seeded their cash crop into a growing cover crop last year — a practice known as “planting green” — said it helped them plant earlier than than they could in fields that didn’t have cover crops, according to an annual survey.
“Despite the crippling spring rains of 2019, 54.3% of respondents said they were able to plant cash crops sooner in their green-planted fields than in fields where cover crops were either terminated early or were not present,” said the Conservation Technology Information Center’s annual survey report.
About 10% said the practice delayed planting, while 36% said they planted fields at about the same time, whether or not a cover crop was present.
The numbers reflect those who planted green, about 52% of the nearly 1,200 respondents in the survey of 2019 cover crop practices.
Seven in 10 of those farmers also said planting green improved their weed control, and about the same percentage said it helped with soil moisture management,
The survey “indicated that some of the concerns that many growers have had about the effects of cover crops on planting dates in a wet year turned out not to be true,” said CTIC’s Mike Smith, who ran the survey. “In fact, in many cases, cover crops helped farmers plant earlier in the very wet spring of 2019.”
The report also found significant percentages of farmers who said cover crops increased yields, resulted in better weed management, and helped them save on herbicides and fertilizer.
Cover crops are increasingly being touted as a way to save money and improve the environment, by reducing runoff from fields, cutting chemical use, and sequestering carbon in the soil.
Rob Myers, regional director of extension programs for North Central Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, said in a news release that “many farmers are finding that cover crops improve the resiliency of their soil, and the longer they use cover crops, the greater the yield increases and cost savings that are reported by producers.”
Farmers who plant cover crops continue to seed more acres. “The average acreage planted to cover crops by participants … has steadily increased over the past five growing seasons,” from an average of 337 acres in 2015 to 465 acres last year, an increase of about 38%, the report said.
That’s in line with findings from USDA’s Census of Agriculture, which found a 50% increase in cover crop acreage between 2012 and 2017.
Yield increases in 2019 were more modest than in past years, the report said. In 2019, soybean yields improved 5% and corn yields increased 2% and spring wheat yields were 2.6% higher following cover crops. The largest yield increases were recorded in the drought year of 2012.
The report said, “While farmers appreciate the yield benefits of cover crops, additional questions in the survey clearly indicate that they are also motivated by cover crops’ abilities to deliver other benefits, like weed control, soil health, erosion control, livestock grazing and so many others,” the report said.
“Not surprisingly for a group with a strong interest in a powerful soil health building practice such as cover crops, no-till was the dominant residue management practice among respondents,” the report said. “The most popular answer to ‘what tillage practice do you use most on your farm?’ was continuous no-till, practiced by 48% (466 of 981) of the respondents, while rotational no-till was employed by another 14% (138), for a total of 600 farmers (62%) practicing some sort of no-till.”
About 19% of the respondents were horticulture producers, defined as growers of vegetables, fruits and nuts. Asked to check any of five answers to the question – “What are your primary reasons for using cover crops?” – 94% cited improvement in soil structure or soil health; 81% said improving weed management; 71% said reducing soil erosion; and 64% said improving water infiltration.
Of the horticulture producers, 28.6% said use of cover crops had allowed them to significantly decrease their tillage, with about an equal percentage saying it had slightly decreased their tillage.
“More than half of the horticulture crop producers attributed an increase in profitability to their cover crops,” the report said. “Of 184 farmers who answered the question, 34.8% (64) reported a moderate increase in net profit — defined in the question as an increase of 5% or more — and 23.4% (43) reported a minor increase of 2 to 4% in net profit.”
The survey was conducted with with financial support from Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education and the American Seed Trade Association.
“We are pleased to see farmers appreciate the expertise of cover crop seed companies, with 46% saying they buy from them and another 42% buying from retailers,” said Jane DeMarchi, ASTA’s vice president of government and regulatory affairs.
“Professionally produced cover crop seed is grown for seed from the start and has been selected, harvested, cleaned and tested for performance. The study shows farmers are using a range of cover crop seed and mixes to address their individual needs, with 46% paying $15 or under per acre,” she said.
Here are some other highlights from the report:
Forty-nine percent of corn producers reported reduced fertilizer costs, as did 41% of soybean producers, 43% of wheat farmers, and 53% of cotton producers.
About 70% of the respondents who planted green said doing so improved their weed control. “The vast majority said levels of early season diseases, slugs, and voles — often feared as the potential downsides of planting green into cover crops — were about the same or better after planting green into cover crops.”
Although 78.6% of respondents said wet weather had delayed planting in their county, 78% “did not have a prevent plant claim — reflecting failure to seed a cash crop before a final planting date specified by crop insurance rules — despite the challenging growing season. Among those who did, 36% said prevent plant was more common in conventionally managed fields compared to cover cropped fields, 55% said the incidence of prevent-plant was equal regardless of whether the field was cover cropped, and just 9% felt prevent plant was less common in conventional fields.”
Nearly half of all corn producers said they saved money on fertilizer, “as did 41% of soybean producers, 43% of wheat farmers, and 53% of cotton producers.”
About 71% of cotton producers were able to cut their herbicide costs. About 39% of corn and soybean growers reported savings, and 32% of wheat producers. “Among the farmers who did not report a cut in herbicide applications or costs, a majority still reported improved weed control from cover crops.”
“Three out of four respondents covered at least a portion of their crop with some form of federally subsidized crop insurance, with 53% of the total respondent pool covering 100% of their 2019 crop acres. Revenue Protection was the choice of 64.8%, while Revenue Protection with Harvest Price Exclusion (RPHPE) was employed by another 19.6%. Understanding the insurance preferences of cover crop users can help guide the further evolution of federally subsidized crop insurance programs to better accommodate cover crop practices.”
NOTE – In an effort to celebrate and highlight the work of California’s farmers, farmworkers, and everyone whose work helps to keep the food supply chain flowing, Governor Newsom has proclaimed October as California Farmer and Farmworker Month.
This encore presentation from CDFA’s award-winning Growing California video series, “Love on the Vine,” features Ceja Vineyards, founded and operated by former farmworkers and childhood sweethearts.
A team of ten researchers looked closely at cattle grazing in California and determined that the practice has a great deal of potential in combatting catastrophic wildfires. Cattle are exceptionally efficient at reducing the amount of fine fuels that may be present that present hazards for wildfire if left unattended. The team first set out to understand how many cattle were in California and what their current consumption rate was.
“In 2017 there were 1.8 million beef cattle grazing rangelands across California. Those 1.8 million beef cattle were consuming about 11.6 billion pounds of fuel in 2017. So, it’s quite a large amount of fuel or forage that cattle are consuming across our state,” said Devii Rao, Cooperative Extension Livestock and Natural Resources Advisor serving San Benito, Monterey, and Santa Cruz counties. “I think what this research gets us to really think about is how can we use grazing as a targeted tool to improve public safety and in many situations improve our grassland habitat conservation goals.”
The research project, ‘Benefits of Cattle Grazing for Reducing Fire Fuels and Fire Hazard,’ was made possible through a grant from the California Cattle Council. The team used information from 2017 because it was the most current and comprehensive dataset available. Cattle grazing takes place in every county across the state aside from San Francisco. Cattle consume different levels of forage or fine fuels depending on the region. Rao explained that averaging for all regions across the state showed that cattle were consuming approximately 600 pounds of forage per acre. “Meaning they’re reducing almost 600 pounds per acre of fine fuels across our state on average,” Rao noted.
The research project highlights the value that cattle grazing can have for reducing fire fuels. Rao hopes that it will cause ranchers to start thinking more crucially about incorporating fuel reduction goals into grazing management plans. There is also an opportunity to increase grazing in high-fuel areas in and around the wildland-urban interface.
“I think there’s really a win-win-win opportunity here,” said Rao. “That triple win would be increasing fuel reduction and improving safety. In many situations, by grazing, we can actually achieve grassland habitat conservation goals. That third win would be increasing the financial sustainability of ranching by expanding the number of opportunities for ranchers to graze.”
“COVID has disrupted a lot of things in life this year, but it doesn’t have to disrupt your important opportunity to vote. The State of California has made it easy – you just have to have a plan.” – CDFA Secretary Karen Ross
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced it has authorized $500 million for a fourth round of purchases for the USDA Farmers to Families Food Box Program. USDA is issuing solicitations for the fourth round to existing Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) holders and expects to award contracts by Oct. 30 for deliveries of food boxes from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31, 2020.
In the fourth round, as in the third round, states have been allocated boxes based on the internal need of the state. The program will continue the purchase of combination boxes to include fresh produce, dairy products, fluid milk and meat products. The program also will continue to require that proposals illustrate how coverage would be provided to areas identified as opportunity zones, detail subcontracting agreements, and address the “last mile” delivery of product into the hands of the food insecure population. Entities who meet the government’s requirements and specifications will be issued agreements and submit pricing through a competitive acquisition process.
Background: The third round of Farmers to Families Food Box program was announced July 24, 2020.
USDA announced contracts for the third round on Sept. 17, 2020, and has purchased more than $2.981 billion worth of food, to date.
In the second round of purchasing and distribution, which began July 1 and ended on Sep. 18, 2020, USDA purchased more than $1.763 billion of food through extended contracts of select vendors from the first round of the program. It also issued new contracts focused on Opportunity Zones in order to direct food to reach underserved areas, places where either no boxes have yet been delivered, or where boxes are being delivered, but where there is additional need.
The top 10 organic commodities in terms of sales value in 2016 were cow milk, strawberries, carrots, wine grapes, table grapes, sweet potatoes, almonds, raspberries, salad mix, and chicken eggs, said, said Houston Wilson, director of the new UC Organic Agriculture Institute. “This report highlights the incredible diversity and abundance of organic crops being grown across so many different geographic regions in the state, which reflects California’s leading role in this production sector,” added Wilson.
“This review is critical to understand the changes in the fast-growing organic agriculture sector in the state where more than 50% of the nation’s organic vegetables and fruits are produced,” said Joji Muramoto, UC Cooperative Extension organic production specialist at UC Santa Cruz and coauthor of the report.
In 2016, California organic sales were $3.1 billion with an average of $1 million in sales per farm, but revenue varied widely among farms. For example, San Diego County had the most organic growers (313) in 2016, but Kern County’s 47 organic farmers earned the most in total organic sales: $381 million on 49,727 acres, excluding pasture and rangeland, according to Muramoto.
From the outside, the gray and white warehouse near the corner of Oris Street and Mona Boulevard seems like a thousand other mundane Southern California buildings. But the interior, once completed, will resemble a sketch from a futurist’s daydreams. If all goes well, the 95,000-square-foot Compton facility will house rows of hydroponic towers organized into emerald walls of non-GMO, pesticide-free leafy greens. These plants won’t rely on sunlight in order to grow. Gleaming LED lamps will provide all the light the crops could ever want. Robots will transport seedlings while other machines move the towers as part of an orchestrated production process. Picture a grow room in a futuristic Martian colony and you’re probably on the right track.
The operation is run by Plenty, a San Francisco-based startup that uses vertical farming to create high-quality, nutritious plants “you’d actually want to eat” (their words). Stated another way, they grow crops, often without natural light or soil, in vertically stacked beds in enclosed and controlled environments.
Plenty wants to build at least 500 of these vertical farms around the planet, especially in densely populated cities of at least 1 million people.
The first Plenty farm, in South San Francisco, went into production in 2018, and was upgraded in the summer of 2019 to increase production. For its agricultural second act, the company chose Compton.
Plenty’s long-term goals go beyond tasty salad greens. It wants to combat food apartheid by bringing healthy, locally-grown crops to communities that lack access to nutritious produce.
“We want to invest in places where we can serve a large number of people,” says Shireen Santosham, the company’s head of strategic initiatives. “Compton can help us better serve Los Angeles while also allowing us to invest in a community with a long history of farming.”
The goal for Plenty’s Compton outpost, once it’s running at full capacity, will be to create enough produce to make regular deliveries to hundreds of grocery stores. In early August, the company reached an agreement with Albertsons to provide 430 of its California stores with assorted leafy greens.
Company reps say the Compton site will initially focus on producing kale, arugula, fennel and bok choy before adding strawberries to its repertoire. They expect prices to be similar to organic leafy greens currently on grocery store shelves.
The company was hoping its Compton farm would be able to bring produce to market by the end of 2020 but the coronavirus pandemic altered that timeline. Plenty now hopes to start its first customer deliveries sometime in 2021.
WHY COMPTON?
Los Angeles has for centuries been a land of citrus groves, peaches, olives and even vineyards, and Compton was no exception. In the late 1860s, Reverend Griffith Dickenson Compton led roughly 30 people from Stockton to settle in and cultivate the area. Rough weather and tremendous floods nearly destroyed their dreams, but they persisted, and their agricultural efforts eventually began to thrive.
In 1888, Compton donated his land and the area was incorporated as the city of Compton under the condition that a swath of it be zoned for agriculture. That particular area — a 10-block neighborhood sandwiched between downtown Compton and what’s now the 91 Freeway — became Richland Farms, known for a variety of crops including pumpkins, sugar beets and cauliflower. By the 1940s and ’50s, Compton had become a working-class suburb. African American families, many of whom had moved to the West Coast to work in military production during World War II, settled there and were drawn to the Richland Farms neighborhood. With its large lots and agricultural zoning, residents could grow crops and raise livestock to provide for their families and their community.
Richland Farms — home of the Compton Cowboys — remains a living link to Compton’s agricultural past. Drawing on that history, Plenty began designing and developing its Compton vertical farm (located a few miles north of Richland) in the summer of 2019.
“There is just a rich tradition of farming in Compton, and to have Plenty come back in an innovative way is exciting for our community,” Compton Mayor Aja Brown says.
City officials are working with the company to connect its facility with nearby schools so kids can learn about vertical farming and the technologies associated with it.
OK, BUT WHAT EXACTLY IS A VERTICAL FARM?
Compared to traditional field agriculture, which humanity first started tinkering with approximately 12,000 years ago, vertical farming is in its infancy.
One of the first vertical farms was a hydroponic system built in Armenia sometime before the early 1950s, although there’s not much information about it.
The modern vertical farm, at least in the way we think of it, was popularized two decades ago by Dickson Despommier, an emeritus professor of public and environmental health at Columbia University.
In 1999, he wanted students in his medical ecology class to explore ways they could feed New York’s residents on crops grown entirely within the city. They started with rooftop gardens but those barely made a dent in the amount of food they needed. Then, Despommier remembered the city’s abandoned buildings. “What if you could fill up those buildings with the grow system that you’ve instituted on the rooftop and just increase food production?” he says.
The result was a multi-level, urban farm featuring layers of crops stacked on top of one another.
Until the 21st century, commercial vertical farming seemed like the stuff of utopias, a grand if impractical dream evangelized by a handful of futurists and agricultural techies. But the last few years have seen a jump in interest — and venture capital. Between 2016 and 2017, investments in vertical farming grew nearly eightfold.
In 2017, Plenty received $200 million from several high-profile investors including Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. One of its East Coast competitors, Bowery Farming, received a $90 million investment from Google Ventures.
Vertical farming is all about efficiency. The process allows growers to control and monitor light, oxygen, nutrients, temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide levels. In a vertical farm, you don’t need to wait for the right season. Growth and harvesting can occur year-round.
Plenty’s approach relies on automation, intricate sensors, machine learning and hydroponic grow towers where plants are cultivated in a nutrient-rich water solution instead of soil. With this method, the company claims it can grow 350 times as much produce, per square foot, as a conventional, outdoor farm — all while consuming a fraction of the water.
“[Vertical farms] are much more water-use efficient than field production,” Neil Mattson, associate professor of plant science at Cornell University, says.
Santosham claims Plenty’s vertical farms will use “about 1% of the land and 5% of the water” required by a comparable traditional farm.
Producing more food with less land is a must if we want to keep humanity fed.
By 2050, Earth will have 9.8 billion residents and two-thirds of them will probably live in a city. In places like Los Angeles or New York, where real estate doesn’t come cheap, vertical farms could be installed without taking up much space.
Produce from vertical farms would also be less likely to spoil since it would, in theory, only travel a few miles to the nearest grocery store, market or restaurant, instead of sitting on a plane or cargo ship for hundreds or thousands of miles.
Plus, vertical farms could help make our food supply chain more resilient.
Since March, the pandemic has impacted everything from beans to strawberries. When the hospitality industry shut down, some farmers had buyers for only half of their crops, so they had to let them rot or plow them back into the soil. Dairy farmers dumped millions of gallons of milk. Meat plants have had to shut down due to COVID-19 outbreaks. Plus, the workers who pick the crops, raise the cows and run the slaughterhouses have been ravaged by the virus. And all of this has been happening while hunger skyrockets. In the last six months, food banks have seen a surge in demand, in some cases by as much as 600% percent.
“I don’t think all of our food is going to come from urban production,” Mattson says. “It does add diversity to our food supply chain to have some of our produce — the nutrient-dense foods — come from close to where they’re consumed.”
With COVID-19 exposing the weaknesses in our food supply chain, Mattson believes indoor growing (which includes vertical farming and greenhouses) and more localized production might get their moment in the high-intensity LED spotlight: “We’re going to see these trends happen even quicker than if we hadn’t encountered COVID.”
A PEEK INSIDE
The Compton farm is still under construction but the company is using its existing South San Francisco facility as a template.
That facility, which started in 2015 as a container farm, features 50,000 square feet of production space and a roughly 10,000-square foot grow room. It provides produce to approximately 40 grocery stores and runs entirely on solar and wind power.
The Compton farm will feature a similar grow system. Employees, referred to as growers, will oversee the process of cultivating seeds into seedlings. Robotics will transfer the seedlings to large vertical grow towers, arranged to form what looks like a vast, green wall.
The amount of time produce spends in the grow room depends on the crop. Nate Storey, chief science officer and co-founder of Plenty, explains that one leafy green crop might go through the entire process from seedling production to harvesting in two to three weeks. That’s significantly less time than if those crops were grown via traditional agriculture.
On a large, outdoor farm in the Salinas Valley, baby kale would typically require 35 to 50 days, depending on the time of year, before it was ready for harvest, according to Richard Smith, a University of California Cooperative Extension vegetable advisor for the Central Coast.
“For something like lettuce, where you might be waiting for several weeks in the field, we’re carving a significant amount of time off that production schedule,” Storey says.
Once the plants spend some time in Plenty’s grow room, robots pick up the towers and retrieve the produce, which is moved to a processing area where it’s packaged. Through it all, human hands never touch the food.
“We’re able to create an environment that’s so favorable to plants and not pathogens or pests that we can deliver a product without ever applying pesticides, which is a big win,” says Nick Kalayjian, senior vice president of engineering at Plenty.
In fact, without bugs or human contact, he claims Plenty’s produce doesn’t need to be washed. Kalayjian also says the small adjustments in temperature, water, nutrients and light result in produce that’s at the peak of flavor.
Plenty sent me samples of their baby kale, baby arugula and Sweet Sunrise mix, a combo of fennel, beet leaves and other greens. Did visions of tree stars seize me and shatter all perception of space and time? No. But they did taste exceptionally fresh. The flavors were strong, clean and… just good. I found myself snacking on the Sunrise mix straight from the package, something I never do with greens.
WHERE DO WE GROW FROM HERE?
Vertical farms aren’t cheap to build. They also require a lot of energy to run, much more than conventional field agriculture or greenhouses. “That, to me, is one of the big sticking points,” Mattson says.
In a 2020 study, Mattson and other Cornell University researchers studied the economic and environmental impacts of bringing leaf lettuce to U.S. cities via field-based agriculture vs. CEA (controlled environmental agriculture) supply chains such as greenhouses and vertical farms.
“We had almost the same carbon footprint of growing in a greenhouse in New York City as compared to field growing and shipping 3,000 miles. The vertical farm had about twice the carbon footprint of either of those,” Mattson says.
In Plenty’s case, making sure their farms operate on sustainable, renewable power is a priority. The South San Francisco facility has a power purchase agreement in place with a renewable provider to supply the farm with sustainable energy. Plenty wants its Compton farm to run entirely on clean energy but that won’t happen until some undetermined point in the future. Company reps couldn’t offer a more precise timeline on when that might happen.
Warehouse-sized vertical farms may someday be common sights in major cities but it’ll take time to scale up to that level. No one, except maybe the most optimistic futurists, thinks vertical farming is going to overtake field agriculture anytime soon.
“We’re an additive technology, not a replacement technology. We simplify the supply chain and allow domestic production in places that don’t currently have it,” Kalayjian says.
Although vertical farming is still in its earliest stages, Despommier urges us to imagine how it might work in 50 years. “We’re looking at a sort of Stanley Steamer [car], not even a Ford Model T,” he says, “We’re looking at the early trials and tribulations of an industry that wants to supply all of your food. Look how fast it took America to go from no cars to two cars per person.”
Maybe by the time humanity has figured out how to colonize other planets and build Star Trek-style replicators, the urban dwellers of earth will rely on skyscraper-style vertical farms. Maybe thousand-acre fields of fruit and vegetables will someday look as obsolete as rotary phones. Until then, we’ll be playing in the dirt, just as we’ve done for thousands of years.
The schedule will feature 25 activities from Monday, Oct. 19 to Nov. 20 that will showcase the Jordan College’s seven academic departments, three research centers, student organizations, University Agricultural Laboratory and industry partners.
Jordan College Dean Dennis Nef kicked off the month of activities with a virtual event on Monday, Oct. 19 featuring student-produced items available at the Gibson Farm Market. The series will conclude with a virtual “Wine Down” wine-tasting event on Nov. 19 that will spotlight award-winning wines and specials from the Fresno State Winery.
Most of the Food, Family and Farm Month activities are virtual and free to the public. Topics include seminars on grape and wine topics, irrigation and water management technologies, weed management and the grape and wine industry.
The Institute for Food and Agriculture will host its 39th annual Agribusiness Management Conference on seven Wednesday and Thursday sessions between Oct28 and Nov. 19. Topics will target agricultural trends related to economics, sustainability, food security, wine marketing, food service, artificial intelligence and big data, and a national student agricultural accreditation program being developed by Fresno State faculty, staff and students.
The Center for Irrigation Technology will host two webinars on Oct 22 and Nov. 18 on irrigation performance systems and irrigation system remote monitoring to save energy and water. The Water, Energy and Technology Center will feature industry leaders presenting on topics on Oct. 23 and Nov. 20 related to California agriculture and the irrigation industry.
The Viticulture and Research Center is hosting two crowdfunding campaigns, and the Department of Viticulture and Enology is hosting several events, including its free weekly webinar series featuring industry experts.
The Ag One Foundation will feature several events tying together alumni and industry members in support of campus agricultural programs, including the 49th Annual Turf Day Golf Classic and Fantasy Vacation Giveaway, as well as participation in the annual University-wide Day of Giving.
The three research centers fall under the auspices of the California Agricultural Technology Institute within the Jordan College. Together they serve the agricultural industry by engaging with the industry; performing applied research and testing on a wide range of disciplines and topics; and disseminating results through conferences, workshops and meetings. Students may also enhance their educational careers by working under the direction of research faculty and staff while pursuing degrees.
For a full schedule of events, times and registration details on Food, Family and Farm Month activities, visit https://bit.ly/FS20-f3-month-events.
NOTE – In an effort to celebrate and highlight the work of California’s farmers, farmworkers, and everyone whose work helps to keep the food supply chain flowing, Governor Newsom has proclaimed October as California Farmer and Farmworker Month.
This encore presentation from CDFA’s award-winning Growing California video series shows The Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association of Salinas (ALBA) providing educational and business opportunities for farmworkers and aspiring farmers to grow and sell crops.
