Indoor AgTech: Planting the Seeds of a Better Food Supply

event link: https://vlab.org/events/indoor-agtech/
Thursday, May 27, 2021 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm (Pacific time)
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Moderator:
Gene Giacomelli, Professor, Biosystems Engineering Department, University of Arizona
Panelists:
Sam Bertram, CEO, OnePointOne
Sam Schatz, Managing Director & Global Head of Farm Development, AeroFarms
Marta Baptista, Global Director of Strategic Research and Technology Adoption, Driscoll’s Berries
Michael Rose, Partner, Better Food Ventures
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Event Team:
Sandor Schoichet, Event Chair
Brian Lanes, Event Co-Chair
Bao Tran • Romy Ilano • Nate Card
Dan Sharoni • Jon Copeland • David Fudenberg
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Description:
The indoor AgTech market is poised to revolutionize the food supply system, disrupting conventional “open field” and greenhouse growers. As population growth, urbanization, and climate change reshape the farming landscape — both figuratively and literally — traditional farming is facing new and increasing challenges. Extended droughts, record-breaking cold, floods, and wildfires have resulted in tens of billions of dollars in crop losses across the country and around the globe. An estimated 90% of crop losses in the United States are caused by extreme weather (source: U.S. Department of Agriculture).

Moreover, the distance over which crops must be transported typically exacerbates farming’s carbon footprint, and there is growing demand for easy and affordable access to fresh and nutritious produce in regions and neighborhoods that historically have been underserved.

Taking farming indoors may provide a solution for these and myriad other issues. Recent advances have created a confluence of technologies that extend indoor farming far beyond conventional greenhouses. From environmental controls, energy-efficient lighting systems, and robotics to genetics, AI-based crop management, and automated harvesting, both small startups and large agribusiness enterprises are exploring ways to maximize indoor crop yields, enhance product quality, and promote hyper-local production and distribution.

In our upcoming VLAB panel discussion, industry experts and entrepreneurs will discuss the opportunities and the challenges associated with controlled environment farming — and help “separate the wheat from the chaff.”

To what extent will current greenhouse and field growers be disrupted?
Which technologies and business models have the greatest potential to make an impact?
Are we ready to bet the farm on indoor AgTech?

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